Mythology and destiny

In Albanian tradition, the essential attributes of the mythological figures of destiny seem to be symbolic interchangeable representations of birth itself. In addition, their mythical combat is but the symbolic representation of the cyclic return in the watery and chthonian world of death, leading, like the vegetation, to the cosmic revival of a new birth. Both protective and destructive positions of the attributes of birth, symbolized by the amniotic membranes, the caul and other singular markers, or by the means of the symbolism of maternal water, would be only two antinomic oppositions, two complementary and interchangeable terms of the mythopoeic opposition of the immanence of universal regeneration. One could bring closer to the Albanian figures certain mythological representations in Scandinavian and Slavic traditions. At any case, the ambivalent representations of soul and destiny are not isolated in Albanian tradition. There are especially those which have also a function of assistance to childbirth, close to Greek representations of the destiny, personified there by the Moires, in Scandinavian and Germanic traditions by Nornes and in the Albanian tradition by other local figures

Dreaming of fecundity in rural society

In Albanian village society, the main characteristic of the social status of women, and their only function that meets social approval, is their aptitude for procreation and motherhood. And the Albanian child is first and foremost a son, who will succeed his father, inherit from him, guarantee the everlastingness of his lineage and honour his ancestors. If the daughter is a future wife and a potential mother, polyvalent images make the boy child the symbol of radical transformation, renewal and regeneration. The beliefs, rites, practices, the multiple symbolic forms and collective representations surrounding birth and socialisation, in addition to their magic, divinatory or propitiatory roles, are also used to confer a symbolic value of recognition on the processes of construction and socialisation of the individual who has just been born

The imaginary of the name

In wide areas, including Albania, names were fixed as patronymics and family surnames, showing that their context fluctuation is related to a relative transmissible fixity which must make possible an instrumental politics in naming practice as well as the assertiveness of a kind of individual agency, especially by means of nicknames. Such an emphasis on naming practice and politics thus must lead us to understand the interplay between identity and power

Creative misreading and bricolage writing: a structural appraisal of a poststructuralist debate

International audienceIn a now much read critique, Derrida claimed to show the weakness and the supposed contradictions of Lévi-Strauss's interpretation of writing and his characterization of modern industrial society by the pathology of written communication. Lévi-Strauss is tweaked, however, for everything at odds with what is normally understood as Lévi-Straussian analysis. It has been my contention to argue that, by misconstruing Lévi-Strauss's actual theoretical and epistemological contribution to general knowledge, Derrida's attack seems to be what exactly 'lit-crit' deconstructionism is all about, which in the last analysis turns into an arrogant scholastics that only ignorance or deliberate misinformation could allow. Often serious scholars who are determined to understand the right meaning of a text, for instance, may give their benevolent approval to readers to engage in creative misreading and intellectual bricolage, but they also firmly launch a determined diatribe against the skeptical attitude of Derrida's tricks and gimmicks.Dans une critique déjà trop lu, Derrida a prétendu montrer la faiblesse et les contradictions supposées de l'interprétation de l'écriture par Lévi-Strauss et de sa caractérisation de la société moderne industrielle en fonction de la pathologie de la communication écrite. Lévi-Strauss est cependant tordu pour paraître en désaccord avec tout ce qui est normalement entendu comme analyse lévi-straussienne. En mal interprétant la contribution théorique et épistémologique réelle de Lévi-Strauss à la connaissance générale, l'attaque de Derrida semble être exactement ce que le déconstructionisme 'crit-lit' est en effet, c'est-à-dire, en dernière analyse, une scholastique arrogante que seule l'ignorance ou la désinformation délibérée pourrait permettre. Souvent les spécialistes sérieux et déterminés à comprendre la bonne signification d'un texte, par exemple, peuvent donner leur approbation bienveillante aux lecteurs qui s'engagent dans une interprétation erronée créatrice et le bricolage intellectuel, mais en revanche ils lancent aussi un diatribe ferme et déterminé contre l'attitude sceptique des mauvais tours et trucs tristement célèbres de Derrida

The advent of heroic anthropology in the history of ideas

In this article the advent of Lévi-Strauss’s structural anthropology is described as a reaction against the predominantly phenomenological bias of French philosophy in the post-war years as well as against the old humanism of existentialism which seemed parochial both in its confinement to a specific tradition of western philosophy and in its lack of interest in scientific approach. Nevertheless, the paradigm of structural anthropology cannot be equated with the field of structuralism, which became a very contestable form of intellectual fashion. The reception of Lévi-Strauss’s theory in the English-speaking world carried on both the same enthusiasm and the same distortions and simplifications, to the extent that in the course of anti-structural criticism, the main thrust of the epistemological approach of Lévi-Strauss seems to have been lost, to the collective detriment of social sciences and anthropology

Développement corporel et transition sociale chez les Albanais / Corporal development and social transition among the Albanians

L'objet de cet article est de fournir une description détaillée des étapes variées des processus de socialisation de l'enfant dans la culture albanaise, observées différents contextes, socialement et régionalement définis, à travers le point de vue des rites de passage qui marquent symboliquement le cycle de vie. L'article est centré sur les rituels nombreux qui permettent la 'transition sociale' et la 'construction de la personne' de l'enfant suivant son `développement corporel' . Dans la première partie, je discute les rituels entourant le sevrage et la dentition et leur relation aux autres étapes d'agrégation dans le `monde socialisé' comme l'acquisition du langage et de la stature verticale . Toutes ces étapes sont symboliquement reliées les unes aux autres et dépendent du développement du corps et du respect des stades organisés et ritualisés de la croissance corporelle . Dans une seconde partie, l'analyse procède avec la coupe de cheveux et la circoncision . rituels fondamentaux pour les Albanais chrétiens et musulmans respectivement . Malgré leur importance, les deux rituels ne signifient pourtant pas le passage au christianisme ou à l'islam . L'intention d'une réflexion méthodologique spéciale, avant de m'engager à nouveau avec les descriptions ethnographiques détaillées, est ici l'occasion de justifier l'étude interdisciplinaire (anthropologique et psychologique) et parallèle des deux rituels en relation l'un avec l'autre aussi bien que sa pertinence plutôt pour le groupe et l'enfant que pour chacune des disciplines spécifiques . Les deux rituels jouent un rôle crucial dans la transition d'un statut socio-sexuel à un autre . Les deux annoncent le commencement et l'aboutissement d'un long processus d'intégration dans le monde adulte. Dans la dernière partie, insistant sur la fonction conservatrice et la dimension collective de ces rituels qui produisent le lien entre l'enfant et le groupe, je m'engage dans une revue critique des écrits psychanalytiques sur les rituels de séparation . J'élargis l'argument en privilégiant la centralité de la société d'un point de vue anthropologique contre l'individualisme psychologique . Si les psychanalystes se représentent les choses sacrées du fait qu'elles sont secrètes et tabous, les anthropologues sociaux soutiennent que les objets sacrés sont tabous parce qu'ils sont sacrés et ils donnent plus d'importance à la situation sacrée qu'aux objets en soi (cheveu ou prépuce) . Bien que positions anthropologiques et psychanalytiques puissent avoir dépassé ces débats, je soutiens que c'est la situation rituelle qui transforme les symboles en représentations collectives de Dieu et de la société

Ethnicité, construction nationale et nationalisme dans l’aire albanaise: approche anthropologique du conflit et des relations interethniques / Ethnicity, nation-building and nationalism in the Albanian lands: an anthropological approach to the conflict and to interethnic relations

The dramatic events which have shaken Europe during the ten years following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, particularly the last episode which has pitted the Serbs and the Albanians against each other on who owns the Kosovo, have implicated the entire international community in the defense of a certain model of society and interethnic relations. Public opinion, muffled by the noise of the media and the intellectuals, has not always understood the significance and the reasons for the conflict which everybody hopes to see finished once and for all with this last and final bloody episode. Following an introduction into the characteristics of the region, defined as a culture area, and on the development of Serbian and Albanian nationalism which never failed to exacerbate the situation at any moment, the article attempts to integrate an anthropological approach into historical and geopolitical considerations on the Albanian region and culture. It also raises a question which appears to be essential for the understanding of current events: to find out if the historical heritage and the cultural identities can reasonably justify, or at least explain the ethnic conflicts and the nationalism, or if they, on the contrary, simply serve to determine and at best rationalise the interethnic relations between social groups

Morphologie traditionnelle de la société albanaise

Two categories of reference constitute the social organisation of Albanese society. The notion of fisi (‘lineage’) represents the first, which is typifying, segmentary and holistic, while the second, classifying, linear and individualising is represented in the notion of lisi i gjakut (‘tree of blood’). These categories do not oppose each other as both pertain to a common logic of patrilineal filiation. Unlike the segmentary regime, the linear one does not allow to account for the previous generations. Thus, when a large number of collateral parents acknowledge themselves as being part of a common ‘tree of blood’, they still have to qualify this through a second symbolic and hereditary marker which, from a vertical axis, will complete the lack of memory and/or of ramification. A fixation of the patronymic name in the broad sense - the transmissible family name - becomes then necessary. This ordered complementarity between the segmentary and the linear reveals itself as a sociological operator the hierarchical nature of which allows the transactional opening in strategic relations oriented towards the other

Shfaqja e antropologjisë heroike në historinë e ideve

Në këtë artikull shtjellohet kontributi i Claude Lévi-Strauss-it në antropologji. Lévi-Strauss-i e shndërroi antropologjinë në një projekt shkencor me një vlerë shumë më të sofi stikuar intelektuale për të kuptuar njerëzimin sesa ç’mendohet apo sesa ka arritur më parë kjo fushë. Kontributi i tij përfaqëson rithithjen e kësaj fushe në qendrën e ideve perëndimore, përderisa ai e riformuloi antropologjinë si një projekt intelektual, një profesion të intelektualëve të kohës, në vend të një profi li të specializuar me gjuhën, të dhënat, metodat, teknikat, dhe teoritë e tij të ralla. Sipas Ciff ord Geertz-it, asnjë antropolog nuk ka qenë më insistues sesa Lévi-Strauss-i në faktin se “praktika e profesionit të tij përbëhet nga një kërkim personal i drejtuar, nga një vizion personal dhe që synon shëlbimin personal.”3 Në formën e mitit standard profetik të një kërkimi heroik me antropologun si hero, sipas Richard Shweder-it, Lévi-Strauss-i e shndërroi ekspeditën e tij në brendësinë e virgjër të Amazonës në një kërkim vizioni dhe e shndërroi antropologjinë në një mision shpirtëror për të mbrojtur njerëzimin kundër vetvetes. / Abstract in English: This article develops Claude Lévi-Strauss’s contribution to anthropology. Lévi-Strauss transformed anthropology into a scientific project far more sophisticated than it had been deemed possible and than what the discipline had achieved before. His contribution represents the re-inclusion of this field into the core of western ideas since he managed, through his language, data, methods, techniques and rare theories, to reformulate anthropology as an intellectual project, as a profession of the intellectuals of the time, instead of simply being a specialized profile. According to Clifford Geertz, no anthropologist has insisted more than Lévi-Strauss that “the practise of his profession consists of a personal quest, directed by a personal vision that aims personal salvation.” In the form of standard prophetic myth of a heroic research with the anthropologist as its hero, according to Richard Shweder, Lévi-Strauss transformed his expedition in the virgin interior of the Amazon River into a search for a vision and turned anthropology into a spiritual mission to defend humankind against itself. Lévi-Strauss's structural anthropology came as a reaction against the predominantly phenomenological bias of French philosophy in the post-war years as well as against the old humanism of existentialism which seemed parochial both in its confinement to a specific tradition of western philosophy and in its lack of interest in scientific approach. Nevertheless, the paradigm of structural anthropology cannot be equated with the field of structuralism, which became a very contestable form of intellectual fashion. The reception of Lévi-Strauss's theory in the English-speaking world carried on both the same enthusiasm and the same distortions and simplifications, to the extent that in the course of anti-structural criticism, the main thrust of the epistemological approach of Lévi-Strauss seems to have been lost, to the collective detriment of social sciences and anthropology

Amitié, alliance, parenté: idéologie et pratique dans la société traditionnelle albanaise

Dans la société traditionnelle l’ouverture et la nécessité de s’ouvrir aux “autres” sont sévèrement contrôlées et hautement codifiées. C’est notamment à travers une construction idéo–logique du système d’amitié qu’on s’ouvre à l’étranger en même temps que l’étranger gravite vers “nous”. Dans la perspective de la conception traditionnelle il faut comprendre l’amitié non pas comme un sentiment affectif de la personnalité individuelle mais comme une relation fonctionnelle de la structure sociale. Cet interstice relationnel entre “nous” et les “autres” se réalise culturellement tout au long des événements sociaux et rencontres codifiées marquant la vie collective et les relations interpersonnelles des cycles de vie. Nous verrons dans cet article que l’amitié entretient une relation parallèle privilégiée avec l’alliance et le mariage et du même coup nous allons découvrir que les valeurs sociales de cette construction idéo-loqique sont placées sous le signe de l’ambivalence. Alliance et vengeance, amitié et hostilité ne sont que différentes expressions de la même relation structurelle