CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Basler, Derek David |
|---|---|
| Title | An Endless Funeral Feast: The Reemergence of Customary Law And the Practice of Blood Feuding As Alternative Pathways to Justice In Post-Communist Albania |
| Summary | After approximately four decades of repressive efforts by the totalitarian regime of the communist party, the Kanun, a framework of customary law, reemerged in the national discourse of Albania in the turbulent beginnings of democratic rule throughout the 1990s. While there were various areas in which the Kanun's precepts proved salient, notably in the case of land inheritance, perhaps the most sensational example was the return of the practice of blood feuding, known as gjakmarrja. Estimates on the number of victims of this practice vary, but it arose to such an extent that several organizations were founded to ameliorate the situation. Though some research has been devoted to both the Kanun and the practice of blood feuding, from ethnographers at the turn of the 20th century to contemporary times, many have treated the Kanun as an example of “legal primitivism” (Bardhoshi 2017), an archaic vestige of traditional customs as opposed to an alternative legal pathway to attain satisfactory justice within a juridical system widely considered corrupt and ineffective. The purpose of this research is to understand how the invocation of the Kanun, particularly in the practice of blood feuding, obtained symbolic value and strategic importance used by individuals to obtain satisfactory process of justice in in contrast to dissatisfactions with the state-sanctioned legal system. If “self-isolation [and] nothing else” (Cedoca 2017) connects the current practice of blood feuding to the codified tenets of the Kanun, what significance does this precept hold? Why, despite the efforts of the communist regime, has it reemerged in the transformation into democratic rule? What are the logics that determine seeking reconciliation through the outlets available, be they organizations or individual mediation? |
| Supervisor | Dafinger, Andreas; Kowalski, Alexandra |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/basler_derek.pdf |
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