Customer Reviews

High Albania (Eastern Europe Collection Series)

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Durham's book is well written, frequently funny and acutely observes the clan and household organisation, the blood feuds, the politics and social customs of early 20th century Albania, a time when so many men were killed in blood feuds that the custom had grown up of awarding some lucky women the status of men, allowing them to dress in mens' clothes, work as men and inherit property in return for renouncing marriage. A high attrition rate for men also meant keeping up the clans' numbers was all important. Christians and Muslims alike took their brothers', cousins' or uncles' widows as concubines so that they might have more sons, in a manner recommended in the Old Testament but despaired of by the local priests. Indeed, the Albanians' grasp of religion was often hazy. One man assured Durham that he didn't have to worry about what happened to his soul because he would be dead. Yet Durham also tells us that Christians and Muslims lived in close proximity and had done so for many years. Intermarriage was common. So was changing faith; some tribes of mixed descent eventually ended up calling themselves either Serb or Albanian depending on which religion they ended up adopting. Blood feuds actually helped this intermingling as so many men had to go into exile and live in households outside their own region. Furthermore, Albanians might shoot each other in disputes over family honour (frequently caused by the wickedness of women who just would not marry the men they were sold to), but not over the concept of an ethnically pure nation state, which Albanians of the period mostly didn't understand. High Albania is worth reading for its own sake, but also as a much needed reminder that the history of Albania and Kosevo is complicated and a tradition of clan feuding should not be misused as an excuse to write off the people of the region today as primitives in the grip of some kind of blood lust that makes recent atrocities inevitable. The blood feuds that Durham describes were highly ritualised affairs in which everybody knew the rules and abided by them. In cases where a man could not be killed while in company with others, he could meet his enemies on the road in safety provided he took his brother with him. A code of honour that demanded a life as revenge for an insult to a family was barbaric. What it was not was a justification for violence based on more recently developed concepts of ethnicity and nationality.

Edith Durham is the undisputed "Queen of the Northern Albanian Alps". She takes you along her tour in Victorian/British-English fashion through the Northern Albanian Alps just after the turn of the century and you feel as if you were just whisked away to ford the streams and climb the mountains with her.

Remarkable as it was to have traversed this landscape in 1909, it was nothing short of a miracle for a woman to have done it. She gained the respect of those she met, showing respect for the great traditional law of the Gheg Albanians--the Kanun of Leke Dukagjini. She was offered "bread and salt" at every table and never doubted the Albanian people's ability to show mikpritje (hospitality) towards an outsider as herself.

Furthermore, I loved the stories she relates about her visits to the specific tribes. She peppers them occasionally with Albanian parables that she was told along the way. For me, this book was amazing and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

A good book is capable of opening your eyes to a whole new reality, Ms. Durham does that here. An Italian historian once wrote that the Albanian territories were across the Adriatic Sea yet less known than darkest Africa, this is a valiant effort to remedy that. Ms. Durham ventures, illegaly, into northern "High" Albania with an intrepid curiosity and through Western eyes proceeds to open up the vast horizons of Albanian culture. Imagine a society so isolated by the Alps and suspiscion of outsiders that they still have a ready grasp on pre-Christian traditions and myth. Read this and learn of the highland clans, the "besa", the rights of blood and honour that decimated entire generations of males and oh so much more.

Ms. Durham managed to earn the love and respect of those that trusted no one and had been maltreated by all. She lobbied tirelessly, if vainly, for her adopted people for her entire life and in the end was embraced as the "Queen of the Mountain People." This truly is an exceptional book. Read it.

The totally engaging travel diary of a woman who explored High Albania in the years before the constitution. It is illustrated, though sparsely, with her own charming sketches.

The book explains the complex tribal system of social relationship where strict rules on intermarriage inevitably spark off tribal blood feuds. It is another view of this worlds love affair with the gun. You will be intrigued by the tradition of the "Albanian virgin".

I came to understand better, through reading this book,the civilizing power of government. The author also deals with the development of the concept of individuation and personal responsibility. This is often accompanied by the original folk stories that Ms Durham recorded.

Edith Durham became for a time unofficial "Queen" in recognition of her contributions to social welfare. The daughter of an English surgeon, she never married, but fell in love on a holiday trip and gave her life to a people. I would like to read more by, or about this woman.

Edith Durham was a remarkable British woman which after an illness that caused her depression. Her doctor recommended that she changes the place where she lives and she did. She sailed to Balkans and it was then when her lifelong involvement with the people of Balkans began.

"As I knew there was no case on record of a stranger being "held"
in North Albania, and moreover, The Albanian is an old friend of mine" - she writes and there she was in Albania even though they were under occupation by Turks at the time.

Even though it is more like a armchair travel book, Edith gave us a lot of historical facts about Albanians. She writes a lot about Illyrians and Skenderbeg. She talks about times when Slavs with an enormous number came to Balkans for the first time.
But what makes this book so pleasant is when she writes about her time spent with various Albanian tribes. There are so many "tales" such as those with Witches. There is a "tale" about an Albanian woman who killed her husband who sold her brother's life to the turks for a bag of gold.
There is a lot of everything and this book is just wonderful by all means. Even though I am an Albanian there were lots of things I learned that I didn't know before.

So if you really need to learn more about Albanians, their traditions and their history - one must chose Edith Durham's book
"High Albania"

Highly Recommended

This is a fascinating first-hand exploration of one of the least travelled lands in the Balkan regions. Ironically, it was actually more accessible to travellers in 1909 than for most of the 20th century. Full of amazing tidbits: Albanians counted kinship through their male line to the remote past, but the sister of one's mother was "some sort of relation." Ms. Durham (who must have had the soul of David Livingstone) stayed with Albanians who refused to believe that nights in summer were shorter than in winter. Albanian men were constantly "in blood" with other tribes because they had killed to "cleanse their honor" to a degree that the Hatfield/McCoy feud seems like a happy band of brothers in comparison. Top-notch first-hand vintage travel: Recommended.

Edith Durham in her book has managed to capture the very essence of the Ghegh Albanian people of the early 1900's. Although, I was born and raised in Shkodra-Scutari which she mentions extensively in the book, I had never heard of some of the customs and the traditions that she describes in great detail. What I found most fascinating were the customs and traditions of tribes that lived in the deep,steep mountainous Alps of Northern Albania.

The vast cultural and socio-economic gap amongst the city dwellers and the village dwellers
is shown very vividly, and truth be told, that gap is still very much alive even in
today's Albanian society. Also, Northern Albania is still very underdeveloped compared to Southern Albania. The isolation from the Western world, the blood feuds, the utmost importance of "besa", the hospitable, honest yet primitive nature of the Albanians she befriended are all ingredients that make this book utterly fascinating.

In my opinion, only an educated, and astute outsider such as Durham could have portrayed the most neutral, realistic and honest view of the Albanian people. Some of the traditions that she describes could be viewed as peculiar, primitive and unacceptable by today's standards, the reader might feel inclined at first to dislike the Albanian Ghegh culture,but once you give it a chance you'll see that many of these people also display high standards of integrity and honor. With honor being probably the highest valued attribute in the Albanian culture.

The fact that the Albanians as descendants of Illyrians have settled Southeastern Europe since the Bronze Ages,after many wars, injustices committed against them, still managed to maintain their national identity and language intact is very impressive. The strength and courage of the Albanian people is truly inspiring. Although, i live outside of Albania
I am very proud of my roots, and this book did awaken somewhat of a dormant national pride that I don't typically display. As a side note, I was very pleased to see a brief description of the village where my mother was born in this book.

Overall, I highly recommend this book, it's a fascinating and interesting read!

Although this reflects the writer's travels in the early part of this century she passes on to us a very clear view of the way of life, the structure of the society and the terrifying honour code which underlies the adopted faith of the population. The primitive nature of their society is clearly described and the book demonstrates how, in spite of the veneer of their differing religions the population are very much ruled by the older, more primitive blood feud mind set.

Anyone needing to get an insite into the way they think must read this book.