Albanian immigration to Italy

From the New York Times:

In the Italian popular imagination, Albanian immigrants are more often depicted as scofflaws than as upstanding members of society. Anti-immigrant sentiment runs high, and many Italians blame foreigners for what they say is a rise in crime. In recent months, there have been several highly publicized cases of violence against other immigrant groups.

But amid the turmoil, families like the Murrizis are quietly integrating into middle-class life in ways that Italy is only beginning to acknowledge. Like new shoots grafted onto an old vine, they are fast becoming an essential part of the country’s most valued traditions, including winemaking.

The Murrizis work full time for the Salcheto winery, based in nearby Montepulciano, planting in spring, pruning in summer, picking in fall and preparing the vines in winter.

They are the new face of Italy, and Italy is slowly recognizing them.

“At first we didn’t realize they have different needs,” said Salcheto’s owner, Michele Manelli, 33, who has gone out of his way to help the Murrizis navigate the Italian bureaucracy. “When we’d have dinner at the end of the harvest, we’d have a normal menu. But little by little we understood: no pig, no wild boar.”

More on the Albanian Kanun

Intriguing NYT article this morning about Albanian men and boys forced to live as recluses because of blood feuds. According to the Kanun, the ancient Albanian code of conduct that i discussed in this post, if a member of family A kills a member of family B, family B has the right and is even honor-bound to avenge the death by killing any male member of family A. As a result, many men and boys are stuck indoors because they are likely to be killed if they venture outdoors, and must rely on their female relatives and on charity for subsistence. Being second-class citizens, women are exempt from blood feuds.
"Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" - how radical the Judeo-Christian idea of turning the other cheek, and forgiving your enemies seems right now.

Albania's sworn virgins

Fascinating article in the New York Times today about the Albanian "sworn virgin" tradition. According to Albanian custom, if the "patriarch" of a family dies without leaving a male heir, an unmarried (ie virginal) daughter or other relative can make an oath to remain a virgin for life and assume a male identity (though usually without changing her first name) and become the "man of the house," protecting and providing for the rest of the family. They live as men and are regarded as male by the rest of society, including other men.

The tradition of the sworn virgin can be traced to the Kanun of Leke Dukagjini, a code of conduct passed on orally among the clans of northern Albania for more than 500 years. Under the Kanun, the role of a woman is severely circumscribed: take care of children and maintain the home. While a woman’s life is worth half that of a man, a virgin’s value is the same: 12 oxen.

This is interesting on a number of levels. first, it implies (or so it seems to me) that women aren't inherently less capable than men since persons who are born women can fulfill male roles within society. Moreover, a woman doesn't lose her value until she becomes sexually active and a potential mother. This is different from other patriarchal models where virginity is valued because a woman becomes "ruined" by sex, and unfit for marriage to a different man, or where extramarital sex brings shame or dishonor onto her male relatives. This 2007 Washington Post article explains,

The idea that a woman would need to forsake love and live as a man to control her own fate seems primitive to modern eyes. But perhaps, in the context of a once-upon-a-time culture, a culture before feminism, it can be seen as progressive. The existence of sworn virgins reveals a cultural belief, however inchoate, that a biological woman can do all the work of a man.

Under this paradigm, biology may not be destiny but society is built around two completely separate gender roles. A person's gender role may usually be determined by biological sex, but that can be overridden by social imperatives.