The Tribes of Albania

Northern Albania and Montenegro are the only regions in Europe to have retained a true tribal society up to the mid-twentieth century and traces still remain today. This unique society and culture thrived until the early years of the twentieth century and was still largely intact when the communist regime seized power in Albania in 1944. Although many of the structures of this traditional society were weakened or indeed eradicated in the half century of totalitarian rule in Albania from 1944 to 1990, the north of the country still remains a very different place from more advanced south of Albania, and from the rest of the world. This book provides the first scholarly investigation of this tribal society, a pioneer work that offers a detailed survey of all the major Albanian-speaking tribes in Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo.

Robert Elsie provides comprehensive material on the 69 different tribes, including data on their locations, religious affiliations, tribal structures and inter-tribal relations, population statistics, tribal folklore, legends, customs and history. Also included are excerpts from the works of prominent nineteenth and early-twentieth century travel writers, such as Edith Durham, Baron Franz Nopcsa, Johann Georg von Hahn and Karl Steinmetz, who all travelled through the tribal regions in question, as well as short biographies on prominent figures linked to the tribes.

As the first book of its kind, The Tribes of Albania will be of interest to scholars and students of the Balkans, of southeastern European anthropology, ethnography and history.