LEGAL TRANSFER AND THE LEGITIMATION OF LAW: IMPLICATIONS OF FARM FAMILY PROPERTY PROVISIONS IN ALBANIAN LEGISLATION

This paper discusses the relationship between transfer of laws from one country to another and legitimation of the law associated with the transfer. Drawing lessons from the legal transfer experience of Latin America in the 1960s, the paper attempts to ascertain what relevance, if any, legal transfer has in the context of the emerging market economies and democratic societies of the former communist countries of East Europe and the Soviet Union. It is argued that attempts at exporting laws have failed when little or no attempt is made to understand the processes of how law is legitimized within a specific country. The cultural orientation of a particular country or section of society at a particular point in time will determine how legal culture is formed and sustained and will thus affect the degree to which law is legitimized. Drawing on the theoretical discussions of section one, a short case study of law related to rural property rights in Albania is presented in section two.Legitimacy of governments, Law reform, Law reform -- Albania, Right of property -- Albania, Technical assistance -- Europe, Eastern, Technical assistance -- Albania, Land Economics/Use, Political Economy,

GENDER, ETHNICITY, AND LANDED PROPERTY IN ALBANIA

Methods used to privatize state property attest to Albania's commitment to a democratic and egalitarian society: farmland was distributed to the households working on the ex-collectives and state farms, and housing was sold at a nominal price to the families occupying it. There are social issues, however, that influence not only the potential role of property ownership in the development of a democratic society, but also the true workability of some persons' political and economic opportunities. This paper examines two of these social issues: gender and ethnicity. Assuming that property ownership is a necessary condition for establishing a democratic market economy, the potential denial to exercise those rights for a significant proportion of the population on the basis of gender or ethnicity could undermine Albania's attempts to establish a democratic society and dynamic market economy based on equal opportunity.Right of property -- Social aspects -- Albania, Customary law -- Albania, Land tenure -- Social aspects -- Albania, Women -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Albania, Ethnic groups -- Albania, Women farmers -- Albania, Albania -- Social conditions, Labor and Human Capital, Land Economics/Use,

Review of Gunlög Fur's A Nation of Women: Gender and Colonial Encounters among the Delaware Indians

Gunlög Fur's A Nation of Women is an ambitious book. It is essentially an overview of Delaware history and cultural change in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from a gender studies perspective. During this time, the Delaware were commonly referred to as women in diplomatic contexts, and Fur's book attempts to unpack the meanings behind this designation, first by examining the "roles and responsibilities of women" among the Delaware, and the "historical conditions that made such a gendered designation possible." She examines gender both as an "organizing principle for subsistence activities, division of labor and exchange, and dispersion of power" as well as "a process of thought and belief" that "finds sanction in the spiritual realm.

Review of Adam Jortner's, The Gods of Prophetstown: The Battle of Tippecanoe and the Holy War for the American Frontier

I wanted to like this book. I really did. But Jortner lost me pretty early on. The premise appeared promising. He would show how two religious cultures—Indian nativism and Anglo-American deism—clashed and led to the dramatic battle at Tippecanoe, where the nativist Shawnee Prophet (Tenskwatawa) and his brother Tecumseh faced off against deist William Henry Harrison, who later became our nation's oldest (until Reagan) and shortest-serving president. My initial misgivings—prompted by the "holy war" in the title—soon grew into more serious reservations

Women and Christian practice in a Mahican village

This article explores the development of native Christianity in the mid-eighteenth century at the site of a Moravian mission in the Mahican village of Shekomeko. Two native women, baptized Sarah and Rachel, appear prominently in the vast mission records, providing a unique opportunity to study the gendered meanings of Christian ritual for native women. Combining the techniques and insights of ethnohistory and recent scholarship on "lived religion," this article examines the implications of a century of colonial encounter on Mahican culture and the meanings infused in Christian ritual by native practitioners within this context of dramatic culture change. Focusing on the lives of these two women, this article examines the development of native interpretations of Christianity by exploring the overlap and the divergences between Moravian and Mahican understandings of Christian ritual. It was in the performance of these rituals that many Shekomekoans engaged in the process of forming a new identity that they hoped might carry them through the severe trials of colonization. By exploring the meanings of these rituals for both Moravian and Mahican, this article attempts to enrich and complicate our understanding of the process of cultural and religious negotiation and adaptation undertaken in mission communities. Further, this study offers a ground level perspective on Indian encounters with Christianity that has rarely been possible for this time period. Finally, the often intensely personal and affecting nature of those sources representing Mahican sentiments allows for a more complex and personalized understanding of Indian responses to Christianity