The Ghegs (also spelled as Gegs ; Albanian : Gegët ) are one of two major ethnic subgroups of Albanians (the other being the Tosks ).
111-615: They are differentiated by minor cultural , dialectal , social and religious characteristics. The Ghegs live in Albania (north of the Shkumbin river), Kosovo , North Macedonia , Serbia and Montenegro . The Ghegs speak Gheg Albanian , one of the two main dialects of Albanian language . The social organization of the Ghegs was traditionally tribal , with several distinct tribal groups of Ghegs. The Ottoman Empire annexed and ruled
222-452: A monoculture in a social group can bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change, for lack of functional responses to the change. Thus in military culture, valor is counted a typical behavior for an individual and duty, honor, and loyalty to the social group are counted as virtues or functional responses in the continuum of conflict . In the practice of religion, analogous attributes can be identified in
333-665: A brief moment of an autonomous administration where local tax was collected into Albanian coffers. Calls for an autonomous united Albania made sultan Abdul Hamid II suppress the League of Prizren movement, especially after Gheg Albanians revolted in 1881 and posed a military challenge to Ottoman authority. Large parts of Gegënia posed a security problem for the Ottoman Empire, due to the tribalism of Gheg society and limited state control. Gheg freedoms were tolerated by Abdul Hamid II and he enlisted them in his palace guard, integrated
444-406: A culture with an abacus are trained with distinctive reasoning style. Cultural lenses may also make people view the same outcome of events differently. Westerners are more motivated by their successes than their failures, while East Asians are better motivated by the avoidance of failure. Culture is important for psychologists to consider when understanding the human mental operation. The notion of
555-437: A distinct worldview that is incommensurable with the worldviews of other groups. Although more inclusive than earlier views, this approach to culture still allowed for distinctions between "civilized" and "primitive" or "tribal" cultures. In 1860, Adolf Bastian (1826–1905) argued for "the psychic unity of mankind." He proposed that a scientific comparison of all human societies would reveal that distinct worldviews consisted of
666-474: A full picture, but it does not provide an ultimate explanation ." There are a number of international agreements and national laws relating to the protection of cultural heritage and cultural diversity . UNESCO and its partner organizations such as Blue Shield International coordinate international protection and local implementation. The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in
777-574: A group of people and expressed in their behavior but which does not exist as a physical object. Humanity is in a global "accelerating culture change period," driven by the expansion of international commerce, the mass media, and above all, the human population explosion, among other factors. Culture repositioning means the reconstruction of the cultural concept of a society. Cultures are internally affected by both forces encouraging change and forces resisting change. These forces are related to both social structures and natural events, and are involved in
888-476: A historical event should not be thought of as culture unless referring to the medium of television itself, which may have been selected culturally; however, schoolchildren watching television after school with their friends to "fit in" certainly qualifies since there is no grounded reason for one's participation in this practice. In the context of cultural studies, a text includes not only written language , but also films , photographs , fashion , or hairstyles :
999-438: A larger brain. The word is used in a general sense as the evolved ability to categorize and represent experiences with symbols and to act imaginatively and creatively. This ability arose with the evolution of behavioral modernity in humans around 50,000 years ago and is often thought to be unique to humans . However, some other species have demonstrated similar, though much less complicated, abilities for social learning. It
1110-847: A limited concentration scoped on the intricacies of consumerism, which belongs to a wider culture sometimes referred to as Western civilization or globalism . From the 1970s onward, Stuart Hall's pioneering work, along with that of his colleagues Paul Willis , Dick Hebdige , Tony Jefferson, and Angela McRobbie , created an international intellectual movement. As the field developed, it began to combine political economy , communication , sociology , social theory , literary theory , media theory , film/video studies , cultural anthropology , philosophy , museum studies , and art history to study cultural phenomena or cultural texts. In this field researchers often concentrate on how particular phenomena relate to matters of ideology , nationality , ethnicity , social class , and/or gender . Cultural studies
1221-406: A member of society." Alternatively, in a contemporary variant, "Culture is defined as a social domain that emphasizes the practices, discourses and material expressions, which, over time, express the continuities and discontinuities of social meaning of a life held in common. The Cambridge English Dictionary states that culture is "the way of life, especially the general customs and beliefs, of
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#17327753650621332-468: A modern context, meaning something similar, but no longer assuming that philosophy was man's natural perfection. His use, and that of many writers after him, " refers to all the ways in which human beings overcome their original barbarism , and through artifice, become fully human." In 1986, philosopher Edward S. Casey wrote, "The very word culture meant 'place tilled' in Middle English, and
1443-522: A new approach to culture was suggested by Rein Raud , who defines culture as the sum of resources available to human beings for making sense of their world and proposes a two-tiered approach, combining the study of texts (all reified meanings in circulation) and cultural practices (all repeatable actions that involve the production, dissemination or transmission of purposes), thus making it possible to re-link anthropological and sociological study of culture with
1554-428: A particular group of people at a particular time." Terror management theory posits that culture is a series of activities and worldviews that provide humans with the basis for perceiving themselves as "person[s] of worth within the world of meaning"—raising themselves above the merely physical aspects of existence, in order to deny the animal insignificance and death that Homo sapiens became aware of when they acquired
1665-407: A particular level of sophistication in the arts , sciences, education , or manners. The level of cultural sophistication has also sometimes been used to distinguish civilizations from less complex societies. Such hierarchical perspectives on culture are also found in class-based distinctions between a high culture of the social elite and a low culture , popular culture , or folk culture of
1776-432: A person to make sense of the culture they inhabit, "can blind us to things outsiders pick up immediately." The sociology of culture concerns culture as manifested in society . For sociologist Georg Simmel (1858–1918), culture referred to "the cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history." As such, culture in the sociological field can be defined as
1887-431: A result, there has been a recent influx of quantitative sociologists to the field. Thus, there is now a growing group of sociologists of culture who are, confusingly, not cultural sociologists. These scholars reject the abstracted postmodern aspects of cultural sociology, and instead, look for a theoretical backing in the more scientific vein of social psychology and cognitive science . The sociology of culture grew from
1998-521: A slightly different dialect of the language, and are often taller and thinner than Tosks, but these traditional differences (often exaggerated in vulgar anthropology) have been much diminished by population movement in the post-communist period." There was a distinction between Ghegs and Tosks before the Ottomans appeared in Albania at the end of the 14th century. The Ghegs remained out of the reach of
2109-428: A social group. Cultural change , or repositioning, is the reconstruction of a cultural concept of a society. Cultures are internally affected by both forces encouraging change and forces resisting change. Cultures are externally affected via contact between societies. Organizations like UNESCO attempt to preserve culture and cultural heritage. Culture is considered a central concept in anthropology , encompassing
2220-413: A specific region or location. Humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization , which is shown by the diversity of cultures across societies. A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group. Accepting only
2331-583: Is comparative cultural studies , based on the disciplines of comparative literature and cultural studies. Scholars in the United Kingdom and the United States developed somewhat different versions of cultural studies after the late 1970s. The British version of cultural studies had originated in the 1950s and 1960s, mainly under the influence of Richard Hoggart, E.P. Thompson , and Raymond Williams , and later that of Stuart Hall and others at
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#17327753650622442-413: Is absent in more than 100 cultures around the world, suggesting that such mayhem is not biologically inevitable. Second, the brain itself changes in response to experiences, raising the question of whether adolescent brain characteristics are the cause of teen tumult or rather the result of lifestyle and experiences." David Moshman has also stated in regards to adolescence that brain research "is crucial for
2553-745: Is also used to denote the complex networks of practices and accumulated knowledge and ideas that are transmitted through social interaction and exist in specific human groups, or cultures, using the plural form. Raimon Panikkar identified 29 ways in which cultural change can be brought about, including growth, development, evolution, involution , renovation, reconception , reform, innovation , revivalism, revolution , mutation , progress , diffusion , osmosis , borrowing, eclecticism , syncretism , modernization, indigenization , and transformation. In this context, modernization could be viewed as adoption of Enlightenment era beliefs and practices, such as science, rationalism, industry, commerce, democracy, and
2664-459: Is as important as human rationality. Moreover, Herder proposed a collective form of Bildung : "For Herder, Bildung was the totality of experiences that provide a coherent identity, and sense of common destiny, to a people." In 1795, the Prussian linguist and philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) called for an anthropology that would synthesize Kant's and Herder's interests. During
2775-422: Is concerned with the meaning and practices of everyday life. These practices comprise the ways people do particular things (such as watching television or eating out) in a given culture. It also studies the meanings and uses people attribute to various objects and practices. Specifically, culture involves those meanings and practices held independently of reason. Watching television to view a public perspective on
2886-469: Is necessarily situated within the value system of a given culture. The modern term "culture" is based on a term used by the ancient Roman orator Cicero in his Tusculanae Disputationes , where he wrote of a cultivation of the soul or "cultura animi", using an agricultural metaphor for the development of a philosophical soul, understood teleologically as the highest possible ideal for human development. Samuel Pufendorf took over this metaphor in
2997-520: Is organized into four fields, each of which plays an important role in research on culture: biological anthropology , linguistic anthropology , cultural anthropology , and in the United States and Canada, archaeology . The term Kulturbrille , or "culture glasses," coined by German American anthropologist Franz Boas , refers to the "lenses" through which a person sees their own culture. Martin Lindstrom asserts that Kulturbrille , which allow
3108-772: Is sometimes considered illogical because the self-ethnonym Shqiptare seems to have been developed by Ghegs. According to the Austrian-Czech linguist Julius Pokorny , it derived from ( Attic ) Greek "γίγας" (giant). From the Homeric mythology the giants of the Acroceraunian mountains and probably denoting originally warlike invading tribes descending from Epirus . Cognate to Arbëresh ë (dialectal and archaic) "glatë" (tall, long) (Standard Albanian "gjatë", Gheg "gat"); Albanian "gatë" (heron) and Latin "gigas" (giant). In Albania, Ghegs predominantly live north of
3219-527: Is the physical evidence of a culture in the objects and architecture they make or have made. The term tends to be relevant only in archeological and anthropological studies, but it specifically means all material evidence which can be attributed to culture, past or present. Cultural sociology first emerged in Weimar Germany (1918–1933), where sociologists such as Alfred Weber used the term Kultursoziologie ('cultural sociology'). Cultural sociology
3330-411: The fis (clan) was headed by the oldest male and formed the basic unit of tribal society. A political and territorial equivalent consisting of several clans was the bajrak (standard). The leader of a bajrak, whose position was hereditary, was referred to as bajraktar (standard bearer). Several bajraks composed a tribe, which was led by a man from a notable family, while major issues were decided by
3441-545: The Malësia region of southeastern Montenegro , in both of which they form of a majority of population, while they have a thinner distribution in central Albania and northeastern Albania and Kosovo. There are also Ghegs who practice Orthodox Christianity, mainly living in the southwest of the Gheg-speaking region, especially Durrës (where they formed 36% of the population in 1918) and Elbasan (where they formed 17% of
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3552-602: The Native Americans who were being conquered by Europeans from the 16th centuries on were living in a state of nature; this opposition was expressed through the contrast between "civilized" and "uncivilized." According to this way of thinking, one could classify some countries and nations as more civilized than others and some people as more cultured than others. This contrast led to Herbert Spencer 's theory of Social Darwinism and Lewis Henry Morgan 's theory of cultural evolution . Just as some critics have argued that
3663-787: The Romantic movement was an interest in folklore , which led to identifying a "culture" among non-elites. This distinction is often characterized as that between high culture , namely that of the ruling social group , and low culture . In other words, the idea of "culture" that developed in Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries reflected inequalities within European societies. Matthew Arnold contrasted "culture" with anarchy ; other Europeans, following philosophers Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques Rousseau , contrasted "culture" with "the state of nature." According to Hobbes and Rousseau,
3774-547: The Romantic era , scholars in Germany , especially those concerned with nationalist movements—such as the nationalist struggle to create a "Germany" out of diverse principalities, and the nationalist struggles by ethnic minorities against the Austro-Hungarian Empire —developed a more inclusive notion of culture as " worldview " ( Weltanschauung ). According to this school of thought, each ethnic group has
3885-446: The Shkumbin river along its right bank and extends up to modern border between Mat and Mirdita , where Leknia begins. Leknia itself is bordered to the north by Malësia . None of these regions overlap with one another and each has its own self-identification. This is reflected in the fact that only the people of proper Gegnia call themselves Gegë , while moving northwards it is not a form of regional self-identification. For example,
3996-422: The Shkumbin river and in areas of the mountainous north. This region is widely referred to by Albanians as Gegënia or Gegnia and as Gegëria. The Ottoman Turkish term, used during the times when Albania and the wider area was included in the empire, was Gegalık, meaning land of the Ghegs. During the late Ottoman period apart from the term Arnavudluk (Albania) being used for Albanian regions, the designation Gegalık
4107-498: The northern Albanian tribes because they were more useful to them as a stable source of mercenaries. The Ottomans implemented the bayraktar system within northern Albanian tribes, and granted some privileges to the bayraktars (banner chiefs) in exchange for their obligation to mobilize local fighters to support military actions of the Ottoman forces . During the late Ottoman period Ghegs often lacked education and integration within
4218-450: The northern Albanian tribes of Ghegs because they were more useful to them as a stable source of mercenaries. Instead, they implemented the bayraktar system, and granted some privileges to the bayraktars (banner chiefs) in exchange for their obligation to mobilize local fighters to support military actions of the Ottoman forces . Proper Gegnia (the land of the Gegë ) is located north of
4329-596: The patriarchate of Constantinople . In 1054 after the schism, the north became identified with the Roman Catholic Church . Since that time all churches north of the Shkumbin river were Catholic and under the jurisdiction of the Pope. Various reasons have been put forward for the spread of Catholicism among northern Albanians. Traditional affiliation with the Latin rite and Catholic missions in central Albania in
4440-607: The 12th century fortified the Catholic Church against Orthodoxy, while local leaders found an ally in Catholicism against Slavic Orthodox states. During the Ottoman period in the history of Albania (1385–1912), the majority of Albanians converted to Islam. Today, the majority of Ghegs are Sunni Muslims , with a large minority being Catholic. Catholic Albanians are most heavily concentrated in northwestern Albania and
4551-431: The 20th century. Some schools of philosophy, such as Marxism and critical theory , have argued that culture is often used politically as a tool of the elites to manipulate the proletariat and create a false consciousness . Such perspectives are common in the discipline of cultural studies . In the wider social sciences , the theoretical perspective of cultural materialism holds that human symbolic culture arises from
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4662-588: The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham . This included overtly political, left-wing views, and criticisms of popular culture as "capitalist" mass culture ; it absorbed some of the ideas of the Frankfurt School critique of the " culture industry " (i.e. mass culture). This emerges in the writings of early British cultural-studies scholars and their influences: see
4773-664: The Event of Armed Conflict and the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions deal with the protection of culture. Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights deals with cultural heritage in two ways: it gives people the right to participate in cultural life on the one hand and the right to the protection of their contributions to cultural life on
4884-705: The Ghegs blossomed at the beginning of 20th century. Gjergj Fishta and the Scutarine Catholic School of Letters led by Fishta significantly contributed to this blossoming. The Ghegs are known for their epic poetry . The revival of Catholicism among Albanians gave a new and important impulse to the rise of Gheg culture. The Ghegs have been described as an immensely tall people, with an average male height ranging from 183 to 187 cm, with round, hyper- brachycephalic heads , long faces, broad chests, robust builds, convex-shaped noses, and flat skulls. According to Pettifer & Vickers in 2007, "Ghegs speak
4995-510: The Ghegs. Although Albanian writers in former Yugoslavia were almost all Ghegs, they chose to write in Tosk for political reasons. This change of literary language has significant political and cultural consequences because the language is the main criterion for Albanian self-identification. The social organization of the Ghegs was traditionally tribal . The Ghegs of Northern Albania are one of only two tribal societies which survived in Europe until
5106-665: The Ottoman government: the rights of Albanian ethnicity and rights for the highlander population during the Albanian revolt of 1912 . The Ghegs were dominant in the political life of Albania in the pre-communist period. During World War II Nazi Germany recruited Ghegs from the northern territory of the Albanian Kingdom into the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) . This recruitment
5217-421: The Ottoman system, while they had autonomy and military capabilities. Those factors gave the area of Gegënia an importance within the empire that differed from Toskëria. Still many Ottoman officers thought that Ghegs, in particular the highlanders were often a liability instead of an asset for the state being commonly referred to as "wild" ( Turkish : vahşi ). In areas of Albania were Malësors (highlanders) lived,
5328-607: The Tosk-inhabited south at the beginning of the 15th century, while the territory populated by Ghegs remained out of the reach of the regular Ottoman civil administration until the beginning of the 20th century. As a consequence, the Ghegs evolved isolated from the Tosks. Similarly, the Islamization of the Ghegs was incomplete, with a large area of northwestern Albania remaining Catholic. The Ottomans never completely subdued
5439-813: The U.S. feminist movement involved new practices that produced a shift in gender relations, altering both gender and economic structures. Environmental conditions may also enter as factors. For example, after tropical forests returned at the end of the last ice age , plants suitable for domestication were available, leading to the invention of agriculture , which in turn brought about many cultural innovations and shifts in social dynamics. Cultures are externally affected via contact between societies, which may also produce—or inhibit—social shifts and changes in cultural practices. War or competition over resources may impact technological development or social dynamics. Additionally, cultural ideas may transfer from one society to another, through diffusion or acculturation. In diffusion ,
5550-482: The United States. In the 19th century, humanists such as English poet and essayist Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) used the word "culture" to refer to an ideal of individual human refinement, of "the best that has been thought and said in the world." This concept of culture is also comparable to the German concept of bildung : "...culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all
5661-581: The anxious, unstable, and rebellious adolescent has been criticized by experts, such as Robert Epstein , who state that an undeveloped brain is not the main cause of teenagers' turmoils. Some have criticized this understanding of adolescence, classifying it as a relatively recent phenomenon in human history created by modern society, and have been highly critical of what they view as the infantilization of young adults in American society. According to Robert Epstein and Jennifer, "American-style teen turmoil
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#17327753650625772-412: The communist takeover was accompanied by the transfer of political power from the Ghegs to the Tosks. The Ghegs were consistently persecuted by the predominantly Tosk regime, which saw them as traditionalist and less developed. After Enver Hoxha died in 1985, he was succeeded by Ramiz Alia , who was one of the few Ghegs among the leaders of the country. He took cautious steps towards changing direction on
5883-490: The concept of bildung : "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity." He argued that this immaturity comes not from a lack of understanding, but from a lack of courage to think independently. Against this intellectual cowardice, Kant urged: " Sapere Aude " ("Dare to be wise!"). In reaction to Kant, German scholars such as Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) argued that human creativity, which necessarily takes unpredictable and highly diverse forms,
5994-533: The contention between Tosks and Ghegs. In 1998 Berisha exploited the traditional Gheg—Tosk rivalry when he encouraged armed anti-Government protesters in Shkodër in actions that forced the resignation of prime minister Fatos Nano . During the Kosovo War , rivalry between Ghegs and Tosks faded, and a huge number of refugees from Kosovo were catered for with no internal conflict, despite unavoidable grumbles about
6105-425: The disruption of the community and theft. Culture Culture ( / ˈ k ʌ l tʃ ər / KUL -chər ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior , institutions , and norms found in human societies , as well as the knowledge , beliefs , arts , laws , customs , capabilities, attitude , and habits of the individuals in these groups. Culture is often originated from or attributed to
6216-434: The distinction between high and low cultures is an expression of the conflict between European elites and non-elites, other critics have argued that the distinction between civilized and uncivilized people is an expression of the conflict between European colonial powers and their colonial subjects. Other 19th-century critics, following Rousseau, have accepted this differentiation between higher and lower culture, but have seen
6327-515: The early 20th century. Marriage was basically an economic and political deal arranged among the members of the tribe, while those who got married had no say in the matter. Sworn virginity was occasionally practised among the Ghegs. Child betrothal was also practised by the Ghegs, sometimes even before birth. Christianity in Albania was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome until the eighth century. Then, dioceses in Albania were transferred to
6438-480: The economic basis (such as tourism) of a state, region or municipality. Tourism is having an increasing impact on the various forms of culture. On the one hand, this can be physical impact on individual objects or the destruction caused by increasing environmental pollution and, on the other hand, socio-cultural effects on society. Manastir Vilayet The Vilayet of Manastir ( Ottoman Turkish : ولايت مناستر , romanized : Vilâyet-i Manastır )
6549-564: The empire only posted Ottoman officers who had prior experience of service in other tribal regions of the state like Kurdistan or Yemen that could bridge cultural divides with Gheg tribesmen. The Great Eastern Crisis resulted in Albanian resistance to partition by neighbouring powers with the formation of the Prizren League (1878) which issued a Kararname (memorandum) that declared both Ghegs and Tosks had made an oath to defend
6660-411: The event of war and armed conflict. According to Karl von Habsburg , President of Blue Shield International, the destruction of cultural assets is also part of psychological warfare. The target of the attack is the identity of the opponent, which is why symbolic cultural assets become a main target. It is also intended to affect the particularly sensitive cultural memory, the growing cultural diversity and
6771-433: The fall of the communist regime, religion was again the major factor which determined social identity, and rivalry between Ghegs and Tosks re-emerged. The new political leaders of post-communist Albania appointed by Gheg Sali Berisha were almost all Ghegs from northern Albania. The administration of Sali Berisha was identified as northern nationalist Gheg in opposition to southern Socialist Tosk, which additionally increased
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#17327753650626882-541: The field, distance themselves from this view. They criticize the Marxist assumption of a single, dominant meaning, shared by all, for any cultural product. The non-Marxist approaches suggest that different ways of consuming cultural artifacts affect the meaning of the product. This view comes through in the book Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman (by Paul du Gay et al. ), which seeks to challenge
6993-491: The following sanjaks: After administrative reforms in 1867 and 1877 some parts of the Manastir Vilayet were ceded to newly established Scutari Vilayet (1867) and Kosovo Vilayet (1877). Administrative divisions of Manastir Vilayet until 1912: According to Russian consul in the Manastir Vilayet, A. Rostkovski, finishing the statistical article in 1897, the total population was 803,340, with Rostkovski grouping
7104-488: The form of something (though not necessarily its meaning) moves from one culture to another. For example, Western restaurant chains and culinary brands sparked curiosity and fascination to the Chinese as China opened its economy to international trade in the late 20th-century. "Stimulus diffusion" (the sharing of ideas) refers to an element of one culture leading to an invention or propagation in another. "Direct borrowing", on
7215-415: The globe during the process of colonization . Related processes on an individual level include assimilation (adoption of a different culture by an individual) and transculturation . The transnational flow of culture has played a major role in merging different cultures and sharing thoughts, ideas, and beliefs. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) formulated an individualist definition of "enlightenment" similar to
7326-566: The highlanders of the Dibra region known as the "Tigers of Dibra". Western Kosovo during the late Ottoman period was dominated by the Albanian tribal system, while parts of Albanian society within wider Kosovo were also part of the urban-professional and landowning classes of major towns. The Ghegs, particularly those who lived in the north-eastern area, were the most faithful supporters of the set of traditional laws ( Kanun ), traditional hospitality , and blood feud . Among Gheg Malësors (highlanders)
7437-487: The highly stratified capitalist systems of the West . In 1870 the anthropologist Edward Tylor (1832–1917) applied these ideas of higher versus lower culture to propose a theory of the evolution of religion . According to this theory, religion evolves from more polytheistic to more monotheistic forms. In the process, he redefined culture as a diverse set of activities characteristic of all human societies. This view paved
7548-424: The immaterial aspects of culture such as principles of social organization (including practices of political organization and social institutions ), mythology , philosophy , literature (both written and oral ), and science comprise the intangible cultural heritage of a society. In the humanities , one sense of culture as an attribute of the individual has been the degree to which they have cultivated
7659-414: The intersection between sociology (as shaped by early theorists like Marx , Durkheim , and Weber ) with the growing discipline of anthropology , wherein researchers pioneered ethnographic strategies for describing and analyzing a variety of cultures around the world. Part of the legacy of the early development of the field lingers in the methods (much of cultural, sociological research is qualitative), in
7770-431: The liberatory aspects of fandom . The distinction between American and British strands, however, has faded. Some researchers, especially in early British cultural studies, apply a Marxist model to the field. This strain of thinking has some influence from the Frankfurt School , but especially from the structuralist Marxism of Louis Althusser and others. The main focus of an orthodox Marxist approach concentrates on
7881-405: The lower classes, distinguished by the stratified access to cultural capital . In common parlance, culture is often used to refer specifically to the symbolic markers used by ethnic groups to distinguish themselves visibly from each other such as body modification , clothing or jewelry . Mass culture refers to the mass-produced and mass mediated forms of consumer culture that emerged in
7992-416: The material conditions of human life, as humans create the conditions for physical survival, and that the basis of culture is found in evolved biological dispositions. When used as a count noun , a "culture" is the set of customs, traditions , and values of a society or community, such as an ethnic group or nation. Culture is the set of knowledge acquired over time. In this sense, multiculturalism values
8103-407: The matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world." In practice, culture referred to an elite ideal and was associated with such activities as art , classical music , and haute cuisine . As these forms were associated with urban life, "culture" was identified with "civilization" (from Latin: civitas , lit. 'city'). Another facet of
8214-610: The middle of the 20th century (the other being the Montenegrin highlanders in Montenegro and southern Serbia ). The tribal organization was based on the clan system of loyalties, and the dispersed settlement pattern of separate, scattered, mostly fortified homesteads. There are several distinct tribal groups of Ghegs which include Mirëdita , Kelmendi , Palabardhi , Kuqi , Vasajt , Hoti , Kastrati , Berisha , Krasniqi and Shala . Other important tribal groupings include
8325-420: The national identity issue by gradually assuming the cause of the Ghegs from Kosovo . This change was accompanied by a long-lasting fear that the introduction of "too-liberal" Albanians from Kosovo might disturb the fragile balance between the Tosk and Gheg sub-ethnic groups. Absorbing Yugoslav Ghegs, who were almost as numerous as all Albanians from Albania, could have ruined the predominantly Tosk regime. After
8436-573: The new Young Turk government resulted in four years of local revolts by Ghegs who fought to keep tribal privileges and the defense system of kulas (tower houses). Ghegs from the Shkodër region supported the Greçë Memorandum that called for Albanian sociopolitical rights within the Ottoman Empire during the Albanian revolt of 1911 . On the eve of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) Gheg and Tosk Albanians managed to secure two concessions from
8547-422: The notion of progress. Rein Raud , building on the work of Umberto Eco , Pierre Bourdieu and Jeffrey C. Alexander , has proposed a model of cultural change based on claims and bids, which are judged by their cognitive adequacy and endorsed or not endorsed by the symbolic authority of the cultural community in question. Cultural invention has come to mean any innovation that is new and found to be useful to
8658-538: The notion that those who produce commodities control the meanings that people attribute to them. Feminist cultural analyst, theorist, and art historian Griselda Pollock contributed to cultural studies from viewpoints of art history and psychoanalysis . The writer Julia Kristeva is among influential voices at the turn of the century, contributing to cultural studies from the field of art and psychoanalytical French feminism . Petrakis and Kostis (2013) divide cultural background variables into two main groups: In 2016,
8769-549: The organization of production. In the United Kingdom, cultural studies focuses largely on the study of popular culture ; that is, on the social meanings of mass-produced consumer and leisure goods. Richard Hoggart coined the term in 1964 when he founded the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies or CCCS. It has since become strongly associated with Stuart Hall , who succeeded Hoggart as Director. Cultural studies in this sense, then, can be viewed as
8880-539: The other hand, tends to refer to technological or tangible diffusion from one culture to another. Diffusion of innovations theory presents a research-based model of why and when individuals and cultures adopt new ideas, practices, and products. Acculturation has different meanings. Still, in this context, it refers to the replacement of traits of one culture with another, such as what happened to certain Native American tribes and many indigenous peoples across
8991-405: The other. In the 21st century, the protection of culture has been the focus of increasing activity by national and international organizations. The UN and UNESCO promote cultural preservation and cultural diversity through declarations and legally-binding conventions or treaties. The aim is not to protect a person's property, but rather to preserve the cultural heritage of humanity, especially in
9102-439: The peaceful coexistence and mutual respect between different cultures inhabiting the same planet. Sometimes "culture" is also used to describe specific practices within a subgroup of a society, a subculture (e.g. " bro culture "), or a counterculture . Within cultural anthropology , the ideology and analytical stance of cultural relativism hold that cultures cannot easily be objectively ranked or evaluated because any evaluation
9213-535: The people of the Dukagjin highlands when asked about their regional appellation would reply na nuk jemi gegë, gegët janë përtej maleve (we are not Gheghs, the Ghegs live beyond the mountains). The popular perception in non-Albanian literature of all northern Albanians as Ghegs is a product of identifying major dialect groups with all corresponding regional groupings. Likewise, only the people of certain regions in southern Albania identify as Tosks. The etymology of
9324-422: The perpetuation of cultural ideas and practices within current structures , which themselves are subject to change. Social conflict and the development of technologies can produce changes within a society by altering social dynamics and promoting new cultural models , and spurring or enabling generative action. These social shifts may accompany ideological shifts and other types of cultural change. For example,
9435-567: The population in 1918). Orthodox Ghegs were traditionally also heavily concentrated in the region of Upper Reka (Reka e Epërme) in North Macedonia. There are also some groups of Ghegs who practice Bektashism , living in areas such as Kruja and Bulqiza . Additionally, as is the case with all Albanians as a legacy of the Enver Hoxha regime, many people don't identify with any faith, and a large number of people do not usually attend
9546-399: The population into the following groups: According to the 1906/07 Ottoman census the vilayet had a total population of 824,828 people, ethnically consisting as: According to Ottoman census data, the ethnoreligious composition in 1911 was the following (Serbs and Orthodox Albanians were included as either Greeks or Bulgarians): According to an estimation published in a Belgian magazine,
9657-439: The production of meaning . This model assumes a mass production of culture and identifies power as residing with those producing cultural artifacts . In a Marxist view, the mode and relations of production form the economic base of society, which constantly interacts and influences superstructures , such as culture. Other approaches to cultural studies, such as feminist cultural studies and later American developments of
9768-434: The range of phenomena that are transmitted through social learning in human societies . Cultural universals are found in all human societies. These include expressive forms like art , music , dance , ritual , religion , and technologies like tool usage , cooking , shelter , and clothing . The concept of material culture covers the physical expressions of culture, such as technology, architecture and art, whereas
9879-495: The refinement and sophistication of high culture as corrupting and unnatural developments that obscure and distort people's essential nature. These critics considered folk music (as produced by "the folk," i.e., rural, illiterate, peasants) to honestly express a natural way of life, while classical music seemed superficial and decadent. Equally, this view often portrayed indigenous peoples as " noble savages " living authentic and unblemished lives, uncomplicated and uncorrupted by
9990-479: The regular Ottoman civil administration until the end of Ottoman rule. In areas where Ghegs were still tribesmen they followed their own laws and lived an autonomous existence. The fact that the tribes of northern Albania were not completely subdued by the Ottomans is raised to the level of orthodoxy among the members of the tribes. A possible explanation is that the Ottomans did not have any real interest in subduing
10101-418: The same basic elements. According to Bastian, all human societies share a set of "elementary ideas" ( Elementargedanken ); different cultures, or different "folk ideas" ( Völkergedanken ), are local modifications of the elementary ideas. This view paved the way for the modern understanding of culture. Franz Boas (1858–1942) was trained in this tradition, and he brought it with him when he left Germany for
10212-449: The same word goes back to Latin colere , 'to inhabit, care for, till, worship' and cultus , 'A cult, especially a religious one.' To be cultural, to have a culture, is to inhabit a place sufficiently intensely to cultivate it—to be responsible for it, to respond to it, to attend to it caringly." Culture described by Richard Velkley : ... originally meant the cultivation of the soul or mind, acquires most of its later modern meaning in
10323-614: The sanjak of Debre (Debar) in Monastir vilayet. Little more than half of ethnic Albanians from Albania are Ghegs. Except for a Tosk population in north-western Greece and around lake Prespa as well as southern North Macedonia, the ethnic Albanians in the Balkans who live in Kosovo, North Macedonia (mostly) and Montenegro are Ghegs. The Ghegs speak Gheg Albanian, one of the two main Albanian dialects. The Albanian communist regime based
10434-471: The services of any religion. After the Tanzimat reforms in the second half of the 19th century, aiming to gain influence over Catholic Albanians, Austria-Hungary , with Ottoman approval, opened and financed many schools in the Albanian language, and Franciscan seminaries and hospitals, and trained native clergy, which all resulted in the development of literature in the Albanian language . The culture of
10545-602: The sons of local notables from urban areas into the bureaucracy and co-opted leaders like Isa Boletini into the Ottoman system. During the Young Turk Revolution (1908) some Ghegs were one group in Albanian society that gave its support for the restoration of the Ottoman constitution of 1876 to end the Hamidian regime. Subsequent centralising policies and militarism toward the Albanian Question by
10656-432: The standard Albanian language mostly on Tosk Albanian . This practice has been criticized, notably by Arshi Pipa , who claimed that this decision deprived the Albanian language of its richness at the expense of the Ghegs, and referred to the literary Albanian language as a "monstrosity" produced by the Tosk communist leadership which conquered anti-Communist north Albania militarily, and imposed their Tosk Albanian dialect on
10767-475: The state and homeland in the name of Islam. During the crisis Ghegs and Tosks made besas (pledges of honor) to arm themselves and shed blood to defend their rights. Better armed than its southern Tosk counterpart, Gheg society was in a more effective position to resist the redrawing of borders in the region. Ottoman officials initially assisted Gheg Albanians in their efforts to resist incorporation of their lands into Serbia, Montenegro or Bulgaria. Ghegs experienced
10878-426: The term Gheg is not completely clear. According to the writer Arshi Pipa , the term Gegë was initially used for confessional denotation, being used in pre-Ottoman Albania by its Orthodox population when referring to their Catholic neighbors. Some theories say that the term Gegë is derived from the onomatopoeic word for "babbling", in contrast to Shqiptare which is the Albanian word for those who speak clearly. This
10989-435: The texts of cultural studies comprise all the meaningful artifacts of culture. Similarly, the discipline widens the concept of culture. Culture, for a cultural-studies researcher, not only includes traditional high culture (the culture of ruling social groups ) and popular culture , but also everyday meanings and practices. The last two, in fact, have become the main focus of cultural studies. A further and recent approach
11100-771: The theories (a variety of critical approaches to sociology are central to current research communities), and in the substantive focus of the field. For instance, relationships between popular culture , political control, and social class were early and lasting concerns in the field. In the United Kingdom, sociologists and other scholars influenced by Marxism such as Stuart Hall (1932–2014) and Raymond Williams (1921–1988) developed cultural studies . Following nineteenth-century Romantics, they identified culture with consumption goods and leisure activities (such as art, music, film, food , sports, and clothing). They saw patterns of consumption and leisure as determined by relations of production , which led them to focus on class relations and
11211-560: The tradition of textual theory. Starting in the 1990s, psychological research on culture influence began to grow and challenge the universality assumed in general psychology. Culture psychologists began to try to explore the relationship between emotions and culture , and answer whether the human mind is independent from culture. For example, people from collectivistic cultures, such as the Japanese, suppress their positive emotions more than their American counterparts. Culture may affect
11322-644: The tribe assembly whose members were male members of the tribe. The organization of once predominantly herder Gheg tribes was traditionally based on patrilineality (a system in which an individual belongs to his or her father's lineage), and on exogamy (a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside of a social group). The land belongs to the clan, and families are traditionally extended, consisting of smaller families of many brothers who all live in one extended ménage ( Albanian : shtëpi . Gheg Albanian: shpi). Girls were married without their consent, while bride stealing still existed to some extent until
11433-435: The way for the modern understanding of religion. Although anthropologists worldwide refer to Tylor's definition of culture, in the 20th century "culture" emerged as the central and unifying concept of American anthropology , where it most commonly refers to the universal human capacity to classify and encode human experiences symbolically , and to communicate symbolically encoded experiences socially. American anthropology
11544-572: The way that people experience and express emotions. On the other hand, some researchers try to look for differences between people's personalities across cultures . As different cultures dictate distinctive norms , culture shock is also studied to understand how people react when they are confronted with other cultures. LGBT culture is displayed with significantly different levels of tolerance within different cultures and nations. Cognitive tools may not be accessible or they may function differently cross culture. For example, people who are raised in
11655-412: The ways of thinking, the ways of acting, and the material objects that together shape a people's way of life. Culture can be either of two types, non-material culture or material culture . Non-material culture refers to the non-physical ideas that individuals have about their culture, including values, belief systems, rules, norms, morals, language, organizations, and institutions, while material culture
11766-465: The work of (for example) Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Paul Willis, and Paul Gilroy . In the United States, Lindlof and Taylor write, "cultural studies [were] grounded in a pragmatic, liberal-pluralist tradition." The American version of cultural studies initially concerned itself more with understanding the subjective and appropriative side of audience reactions to, and uses of, mass culture ; for example, American cultural-studies advocates wrote about
11877-471: The writings of the 18th-century German thinkers, who were on various levels developing Rousseau 's criticism of " modern liberalism and Enlightenment ." Thus a contrast between "culture" and " civilization " is usually implied in these authors, even when not expressed as such. In the words of anthropologist E.B. Tylor , it is "that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as
11988-587: Was a first-level administrative division ( vilayet ) of the Ottoman Empire , created in 1874, dissolved in 1877 and re-established in 1879. The vilayet was occupied during the First Balkan War in 1912 and divided between the Kingdom of Greece and the Kingdom of Serbia , with some parts later becoming part of the newly established Principality of Albania . Initially the Manastir Vilayet had
12099-550: Was also supported by some anthropological research which considered Ghegs an Aryan race . At the end of World War II , communist forces predominantly composed of Tosks captured Albania after the retreat of the Wehrmacht . That was perceived by many Ghegs as the Tosk takeover of Gheg lands. Most members of the post-war communist regime and three quarters of the Communist Party of Albania members were Tosks. Therefore,
12210-532: Was also used in documents by Ottomans. Gegëni or Gegalık encompassed the İșkodra , Kosovo , and a small area of the Monastir vilayets. In the 1880s, Albanians defined the wider region of Gegalık (Ghegland) as encompassing the Ottoman administrative units of İșkodra (Shkodër) and Duraç (Durrës) sanjaks that composed İșkodra vilayet (province), the sanjaks of Yenipazar (Novi Pazar), İpek (Pejë), Priștine (Prishtinë), Prizren , Üsküp (Skopje) of Kosovo vilayet and
12321-683: Was then reinvented in the English-speaking world as a product of the cultural turn of the 1960s, which ushered in structuralist and postmodern approaches to social science. This type of cultural sociology may be loosely regarded as an approach incorporating cultural analysis and critical theory . Cultural sociologists tend to reject scientific methods, instead hermeneutically focusing on words, artifacts and symbols. Culture has since become an important concept across many branches of sociology, including resolutely scientific fields like social stratification and social network analysis . As
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