Open AccessBRYLLUPPET I KRANI: Noter om rites de passage på Balkan
Author(s) -
Jonathan Schwartz
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
antropologi
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2596-5425
pISSN - 0906-3021
DOI - 10.7146/ta.v0i35-36.115283
Subject(s) - macedonian , communism , ethnology , ceremony , ethnic group , population , ancient history , history , rite of passage , gender studies , geography , anthropology , political science , sociology , law , demography , archaeology , politics
Jonathan Schwartz: Wedding in Krani:
Notes on Balkan Rites of Passage
This retrospective essay, inspired by the
Biblical wedding in Kana, looks as well
towards the future. Its topics are drawn from
twenty years of periodic visits to and field
work in the Prespa Lake region of
Macedonia, bordering on Albania, Greece,
and the Republic of Macedonia. Studies of
labor migration (pechalba) are orchestrated
by weddings, in which villagers are married
away to spouses in the metropoles. This is a
Virtual rite de passage, especially for the
bride. Since the collapse of communism, the
breakup of Yugoslavia, and the violence of
ethnic cleansing, new imperatives for
anthropology have appeared. If once we
could direct our interest to the dramatic rites
de passage, we now must pay attention to
guarding the everyday rights of passage,
especially in regions with several ethnic,
religious, and linguistic communities. The
Prespa Lake village of Krani, half Albanian
and half Macedonian, with half its population
abroad in diasporas, is an exemplary
site for this sort of anthropology.