TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
It was almost 40 years ago, in the summer of 1960, when I first met the central figure in this book, Prof. Carleton S. Coon. The place was Boston, and the occasion was the week-long Seminar on Albanian Studies, of the Pan-Albanian Federation of America, known for short as Vatra (The Hearth), which I organized in my capacity as secretary of the organization. The seminar was held in the Hilton Hotel in downtown Boston. I had invited Prof. Coon to take part in the seminar as one of the speakers, along with Bishop Fan S. Noli; Prof. Thomas Nassi, foremost Albanian-American musical figure; and Arshi Pipa, writer and literary critic of Albanian background. He accepted without hesitation or conditions, and on the second evening of the seminar delighted the audience with personal anecdotes about his encounters with Albanians, especially of course during his 1929 expedition in Albania.
Naturally, I was gratified by his participation at the seminar, and the enthusiastic reception of his talk. Therefore, when years later, in the Seventies, he asked me if I’d be willing to translate Stavre Frashëri’s book Përmes Mirditës në Dimër, into English, I said “Yes.” I accepted, first of all, to discharge what I felt was an obligation on my part to Prof. Coon in connection with the 1960 Seminar. Secondly, I reasoned that this was an opportunity to make known to English readers the research expedition in my native country of a distinguished Harvard scholar, who had made a worthy contribution to knowledge of the Albanian people in the area of anthropology and related fields.
Several things need to be noted with regard to the translation of Frashëri’s book.
Seeing that the author is often overly concise in his style, I took it upon myself to amplify or complete his thought, whenever that seemed advisable, while taking care to remain faithful to the substance of the text.
The name Mirditë, like all Albanian names, has a definite form spelled “Mirdita” (pronounced Meer-DEE-tah, with the accent on the second syllable), and an indefinite one “Mirditë” (pronounced Meer-DEE-tuh). In this work, the indefinite form “Mirditë” has been used throughout, not only to be consistent, but also because this form is used more widely than the other.
Scattered through the book are a number of Albanian words and phrases, taken from the original text. All of them are accompanied by English translations or, additionally, by footnotes whenever necessary. The rationale for this was to give the reader the flavor, as it were, of the Mirdita idiom. The Glossary of Albanian words and phrases in back of the book is intended as an aid to the pronunciation of such terms. In closing, I shall take the liberty to indulge in a personal reminiscence of Prof. Coon. After I agreed to do the translation, he invited me and Prof. Richard Bartlett (see page on Acknowledgements) to visit him at his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Although he was advanced in years at the time (1977), he retained his gift as a raconteur and his sense of humor, and we spent a delightful evening in his company. He took special pleasure in showing us prized souvenirs he had brought back from Mirdita, among them a sturdy hand-carved wooden chair, beautifully designed.
I completed the translation in 1979. Soon after a plan was drawn to publish the manuscript. The plan was not realized, however, in part because Prof. Coon died in 1981 (at the age of 77). He would be delighted, were he alive, to see it published twenty years later.
Peter R. Prifti
San Diego, California
February, 2001
INTRODUCTION
When, in the Fall, Winter and Spring of 1929-1930, Professor Carlton S. Coon, accompanied by his wife, visited Albania it was with the stated intention of doing research and writing “a main outline of [Gheg] culture as a whole and only in those details that bear specifically on our problem: who are the Ghegs and how did they acquire their present anatomical characteristics?” It was not until 1950, however, that his book The Mountains of Giants: A Racial and Cultural Study of the North Albanian Mountain Ghegs was published. During that expedition Stavre Frasheri acted as the Coons’ guide and interpreter. He also kept his own detailed notes of their trip. Frasheri’s account, Through Mirdite in Winter, was published in Albania in 1930, shortly after the conclusion of the expedition. His goal, he claimed, was to describe the Highlands of Albania as seen by an Albanian, so as to juxtapose his account to what “comes from travel accounts written by foreign visitors to our country.” And although the two books cover some of the same ethnographic territory, the Albanian account is a unique case, for when added to that of Coon, it provides us with two perspectives on the “same” events–that of an outsider, a trained anthropologist, and that of an educated insider exploring this remote and “exotic” part of his country for the first time.
By the 1930s some Albanians had already crossed the Atlantic and others had established communities in Western Europe and as far east as the Black Sea and yet the land north of Shkumbin river within Albania was a mystery. The Highlands were thought of as a land of “primitive” culture, poverty and outlawry. While accompanying Coon, Frasheri used the opportunity to observe and write his own account of the Mirdite social organization, family life, gender roles, cultural values, blood feuds, weddings, death rituals etc. Both Frasheri and Coon were impressed by the preservation of an old cultural and social system in which “family and kin are the main social units.”
Frasheri was attracted to the people of the Mirdite region of the Highlands as they appeared to be the most isolated, most primitive and most distinctive of Highlanders. He noted the names of villages and the routes to them with the same diligence that he described the interiors of residences in which they spent the night. He recorded the names of their hosts and conversation that took place around the table. After treating of the social organization, including the roles of men and women and their occupations, he described the kulla, the typical square tower built for defensive purposes. He relied on folk legends to explain how the Mirdite people came to be what they are. In attempting a “portrait” of the Mirdite people, he did not avoid the painful aspects of their lives due to scarcities, nor glimpses of joy. The material and economic scarcity and poverty of life, however, contrasted sharply with an abundance of spiritual and human values. Their lives revolved around granting and receiving honor, hospitality, respect for one’s social status and rank, and a fanatical veneration for clergy.
Frasheri, nevertheless, was critical of the low status and condition of women in that society, of the clergy’s general indifference and passivity to misery and ignorance, and of the ever-present tragedies resulting from blood-feuds. In the face of these conditions, his objectivity was truly strained. He wished to see life for the Mirdite people improved and ventured his own ideas for their advancement. In his records, among other observations, he noted some significant changes in1930, in particular the involuntary turning of the gunmen into farmers.
Some of the most pleasant passages to read are moments of watching Professor Coon at work. From Frasheri’s narrative it appears that their host would ask the men in a locality to go and be measured, or would give an order to the elders roundabout. “Be measured? But why? …For army recruitment? Taxes? Labor?… It was with misgivings that they came to be measured, and some even consulted with one another before going through with it.” But once the measuring started it attracted a curios crowd and bystanders always ready and quick to crack jokes about the men to be measured.
Coon was the first American physical anthropologist to set foot in Albania with the intention of actually writing a study on the typology of the Albanian Highlander. Undoubtedly he benefited from, as well as added to the literature of other British and American travelers who had trekked to those mountains before him. Even though his theory of typology might be controversial and bypassed or superseded today, Mountains of Giants can serve as a reference book to young Albanian anthropologists. Coon’s contribution lies in the cultural interpretation of the social and economic implications of Gheg houses, the economics of the production of men’s clothing and equipment, the social aspect of smoking etc. His approach was academic, “…smoking …forms a ready means of polite interaction, for men give each other cigarettes…” While Frasheri recorded the actual events: “Our host took out his tobacco box, and rolled a cigarette for each of us to light up…”
The chapter on Greetings and Oaths arouses particular interest. Any greeting however trivial, entails more than a handshake and a quick polite exchange. As Frasheri explains, it involves a solemn touch on both temples, and a lengthy inquiry after one’s health, all done with a certain formality. One has to take time when greeting, as a matter that cannot be rushed, nor taken lightly without risking to antagonize the party being greeted. There is a “ritualistic stalling” quality to it, as if to show absence of ill-intentions on both sides. Exchanging health-related questions about family members and offering the right salutation for each answer, assures time for holding at bay rushed decisions and dispelling any suspicions.
Reading Frasheri’s travel notes now at the beginning of the 21st century, one finds fascinating details, from the mundane to the portentous that resonate in the present. Their recycling system involved “an opening [near the hearth] for pouring down the dirty water. The waste water makes its way to the barn nearby…” Regarding Mirdite hospitality, Frasheri states: “Whether it is because of their primitive social organization, or the absence of inns and hotels, or the low mobility of the population owing to bad roads, the fact remains that the guest will find an open door everywhere in this region, where he is greeted with the words:
“Welcome, oh friend! God has brought you here, oh friend!”
Frasheri wrote a chapter titled “Bravery” to illustrate the high regard for fighters and respect for death among the highlanders. He notes that “the gun has been their inseparable companion,” and to prove the historic companionship, he provides an impressive vocabulary of the military hardware of the Highlands. Yet in the same chapter he includes some powerful lyrics of old folk songs, selected with taste and love for the folklore.
In conclusion, Frasheri tried to capture that “special character” about Mirdite, the deep-seated human qualities, both positive and negative, which once again can be of much interest to travelers and scientists, Albanians and non-Albanians alike.
Following the path of German, Austrian, French, Czech, Danish, English scholars such as Hahn, Reinhold, Dozon, Jarnik, Pedersen, G. Mayer, Nopsca, Edith Durham, few American authors have written essays or travelers notes of their journeys in Albania. A prominent one in her class was Rose Wilder Lane “The peaks of Shala,” followed by George Fred Williams “The Albanians.” While Dr. Coon’s book is worthy of special credit, since as a well-defined scientific work, enriched the anthropometrics studies in Albania.
Rafaela Kondi – M.A. in Cultural Anthropology
New York, NY
March 2001
AUTHOR’S PREFACE
“Do you know where you are going? You will die of cold there. You will be devoured by wolves and other beasts in those high mountains. You will be mired in six-foot-deep snow. Food is lacking and malaria is rampant.”
That’s what my friends and relatives would say to me, whenever I mentioned that I was going to the Highlands, along with an American lady and gentleman who where going there to do studies on anthropology.
For many years I had the desire to visit the land of valor in Albania, about which many foreigners had written.
My chance came, and disregarding the dangers that my friends pointed out to me, I gladly agreed to accompany Dr. Carleton Coon and his wife; all the more so when I learned that this delicate woman, though unfamiliar with the terrain, was ready to go to the land of the big snow, wolves and to endure great discomfort.
Few are the Albanians, unfortunately, who take the trouble to visit other parts of Albania. As a result, whatever knowledge they have about the country, comes from travel accounts written by foreign visitors to our country.
We are Albanians, yet we do not know Albania well.
The data given by a foreigner may have the advantage of being impartial. But on the other hand, they may be inaccurate, because of the author’s lack of familiarity with our language, as well as our sentiments. Exaggerations, whether in favor or against a country, always detract from the value of a study. For example, what are we to think when a foreigner says that there are men with tails in Albania, or that Albanians live in huts?
In the course of this journey we visited Mirditë, Pukë, Zadrimë, the Highlands, Mat, Selitë, Lurë, Dibër, Lumë, Has, the Highland of Gjakovë, and Dukagjin. We had four beasts of burden–at times only three–to carry our belongings. We made practically the entire journey on foot. Indeed, at one time we were forced to carry our belongings on our back. This happened during a heavy snowfall in Dukagjin, when our beasts of burden got stuck in the snow, and were unable to take even a single step forward.
Of all the regions we visited, I shall try to describe at some length only Mirditë, which from many viewpoints attracted me above all others. We spent more time in Mirditë than in other places, and as a result I had more time for study there. Moreover, Mirditë is much more distinct than the other regions, it has a special character, plus a social system that is still primitive.
I hope this study will be of interest to those who know nothing about our Highlands, especially southern Albanians and Albanians who live abroad.
When I was in the nation’s capital Tiranë, I read a large portion of my manuscript to certain friends of mine from Mirditë. When I finished reading, they said to me: “By God, that’s just how it is!”
The Americans were amazed at the great freedom they found in our country, for although they were carrying revolvers in their belts, nobody bothered them about gun permits or other matters. Wherever we went, the people accommodated us, above all the police who helped us in every way.
In conclusion, I wish to express my thanks to the Women’s Society of Korçë and the Korçë city administration which contributed much to the publication of this work.
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