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Arvanites (;
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Lexico.com, v. "Arvanite" Arvanitika: Αρbε̱ρεσ̈ε̰, or Αρbε̰ρορε̱, ; Greek language: Αρβανίτες, ) are a population group in Greece of Albanians origin.
Albanians were first recorded as settlers who came to what is today southern Greece in the late 13th and early 14th century, with the last old migratory wave occurring in the second half of the 18th century. They were the dominant population element in parts of the Peloponnese, Attica and Boeotia until the 19th century.Trudgill (2000: 255). After settling in Greece, throughout the centuries some groups of people from those Albanian communities migrated to Italy, forming some of the Arbëreshë communities. Regarding themselves and being regarded as ethnically distinct from the Greeks until the 19th cenutry, their participation to the Greek War of Independence and the Greek Civil War has led the Arvanites to increasing assimilation and today almost all of them self-identify as Greeks,Botsi (2003: 90); Lawrence (2007: 22; 156).GHM (1995). and do not consider themselves Albanian.Trudgill/Tzavaras (1977). Today, they are bilingual,D Tsitsipis, L., 2004. A phenomenological view of language shift. Collegium antropologicum, 28(1), pp. 55–62. traditionally speaking Arvanitika, an Albanian language variety, along with Greek language. Arvanitika is today in a state of attrition due to language shift towards Greek language and large-scale internal migration to the cities and subsequent intermingling of the population during the 20th century.
There is some uncertainty to what extent the term Arvanites also includes the small remaining Christian Albanophone population groups in Epirus and West Macedonia. Unlike the southern Arvanites, these speakers are reported to use the name Shqiptarë both for themselves and for Albanian nationals,Banfi (1996). although these communities also espouse a Greek national identity nowadays. The word Shqiptár is also used in a few villages of Thrace, where Arvanites migrated from the mountains of Pindus during the 19th century.Moraitis (2002). However they also use the name Arvanitis speaking in Greek. In Epirus the designation Cham Albanians is today rejected by Albanian speakers. The report by GHM (1995) subsumes the Epirote Albanophones under the term Arvanites, although it notes the different linguistic self-designation,Botsi (2003: 21). on the other hand, applies the term Arvanites only to the populations of the compact Arvanitic settlement areas in southern Greece, in keeping with the self-identification of those groups. Linguistically, the Ethnologue Ethnologue (2005). "Albanian, Tosk: A language of Albania". identifies the present-day Albanian/Arvanitic dialects of Northwestern Greece (in Epirus and Lechovo) with those of the Chams, and therefore classifies them together with standard Tosk Albanian, as opposed to "Arvanitika Albanian proper" (i.e. southern Greek-Arvanitika). Nevertheless, it reports that in Greek the Epirus varieties are also often subsumed under "Arvanitika" in a wider sense. It puts the estimated number of Epirus Albanophones at 10,000. Arvanitika proper Ethnologue (2005). "Albanian, Arvanitika: A language of Greece". is said to include the outlying dialects spoken in Thrace.
Groups of Albanians moved into Thessaly as early as 1268, as mercenaries of Michael Doukas. (1992). 9781349220502, Springer. ISBN 9781349220502 The Albanians tribes of Bua, Malakasioi and Mazaraki were described as "unruly" nomads living in the mountains of Thessaly in the early 14th century in Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos' 'History'. They numbered approximately 12,000. Kantakouzenos describes a pact they made to serve the Byzantine Emperor and pay tribute to him ca. 1332 in exchange for using the lowland areas of Thessaly in the summer months. Albanian groups were given military holdings Fanari in the 1330s and by the end of the 14th century and the Ottoman takeover of the region, they were an integral part of the military structures of Thessaly. Two of their military leaders known in Byzantine sources as Peter and John Sebastopoulos controlled the small towns of Pharsala and Domokos. (2025). 9781136289163, Routledge. ISBN 9781136289163 Ottoman control began in the late 14th century with the capture of Larissa in 1392-93 and consolidated in the early 15th century. Nevertheless, Ottoman control was threatened throughout this era by groups of Greeks, Albanians and Vlachs who based themselves in the mountainous areas of Thessaly.
The main waves of migration into southern Greece started from 1350, reached a peak some time during the 14th century, and ended around 1600. Albanians first reached Thessaly, then Attica, and finally the Peloponnese.Biris gives an estimated figure of 18,200 Arvanites who were settled in southern Greece between 1350 and 1418. One of the larger groups of Albanian settlers, amounting to 10,000, settled the Peloponnese during the reign of Theodore I Palaiologos, first in Arcadia and subsequently in the more southern regions around Messenia, Argolis, Elis and Achaea. Around 1418, a second large group arrived, possibly fleeing Aetolia, Acarnania and Arta, where Albanian political power had been defeated. After the Ottoman incursion in 1417, other groups from Albania crossed western Greece and may have infiltrated into Achaea. The settled Albanians practiced a nomadic lifestyle based on pastoralism, and spread out into small villages.
In 1453, the Albanians rose in revolt against Thomas and Demetrios Palaiologos, due to the chronic insecurity and tribute payment to the Turks; they were also joined by the local Greeks, who by then had a common leader in Manuel Kantakouzenos. Following the Ottoman conquest, many Albanians fled to Italy and settled primarily in the Arbëreshë villages of Calabria and Sicily. On the other hand, in an effort to control the remaining Albanians, during the second half of the 15th century, the Ottomans adopted favorable tax policies towards them, likely in continuation of similar Byzantine practices. This policy had been discontinued by the early 16th century. Albanians often took part in wars on the side of the Republic of Venice against the Ottomans, between 1463 and 1715.
During the Greek War of Independence, many Arvanites played an important role on fighting on the Greek side against the Ottomans, often as national Greek heroes. With the formation of modern nations and nation-states in the Balkans, Arvanites have come to be regarded as an integral part of the Greek nation. In 1899, leading representatives of the Arvanites in Greece, including descendants of the independence heroes, published a manifesto calling their fellow Albanians outside Greece to join in the creation of a common Albanian-Greek state.First published in Ελληνισμός, Athens 1899, 195–202. Quoted in Gkikas 1978:7–9.
After the Greek War of Independence, Arvanites contributed greatly to the fulfilment of irredentist concept of Megali Idea which aimed to see all Greek populations in the Ottoman Empire freed and came to a halt with the end of the Greco-Turkish war in 1922. Up to the early 20th century, Albanian, in the form of the Arvanitika dialect, was the main language of the Greek naval fleet, because a high proportion of its sailors came from Albanian-speaking islands of Greece. For example, in Hydra men spoke both Albanian and Greek, with the former used to speak with each other and sing songs in the sea. Many women though spoke only Albanian.
In the small 19th-century Kingdom of Greece, and specifically in , it is estimated that around 16–25% of the population was Albanian (Arvanite); in , after the incorporation of the Ionian Islands, it is estimated that it was about 11.3% of the population. That population spoke Albanian as its mother language, even in the absence of Albanian schools and alphabet, as the state discouraged any expression of Albanian national identity and nationalism. Although the Albanian speakers were considered Greeks, which they were not, there was a glimpse of Albanianism as expressed by some intellectuals such as Tasos Neroutsos, Anastas Kullurioti, Anastas Byku and Panayotis Koupitoris.
During the 20th century, after the creation of the Albanian nation-state, Arvanites in Greece have come to dissociate themselves much more strongly from the Albanians, stressing instead their national self-identification as Greeks. At the same time, it has been suggested that many Arvanites in earlier decades maintained an assimilatory stance,Tsitsipis (1981), Botsi (2003). leading to a progressive loss of their traditional language and a shifting of the younger generation towards Greek. At some times, particularly under the nationalist 4th of August Regime under Ioannis Metaxas of 1936–1941, Greek state institutions followed a policy of actively discouraging and repressing the use of Arvanitika.GHM (1995), Trudgill/Tzavaras (1977). See also Tsitsipis (1981), Botsi (2003). The Arvanitika-speaking communities in the Athens area came under greater pressure, as their presence was seen as damaging the purity of the ethnic heritage. The Arvanites were persecuted by the state in different ways. During World War II their position improved to some degree after members of the community helped other Greeks serving in the Albanian front. In the decades following World War II and the Greek Civil War, many Arvanites came under pressure to abandon Arvanitika in favour of monolingualism in the national language, and especially the archaizing Katharevousa which remained the official variant of Greek until 1976. This trend was prevalent especially during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974.Gefou-Madianou, pp. 420–421. "Those speakers of Arvanitika who were living in or near the capital came under greater criticism since their presence allegedly embodied the infection that contaminated the purity of the ethnic heritage. Thus, some decades later, during the dictatorship of August 4, 1936, the communities of Arvanites suffered various forms of persecution at the hands of the authorities, though during the 1940s their position improved somewhat as their members helped other Greek soldiers and officers serving in the Albanian front. Later, during the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, especially during the years of the military junta (1967–74), their lot was undermined once more as the Greek language, and especially katharevousa during the junta, was actively and forcibly imposed by the government as the language of Greek nationality and identity."
Historian Thomas Gordon who traveled in the Kingdom of Greece in the 1830s and earlier in the 1820s described its Albanian-speaking areas: "Attica, Argolis, Boeotia, Phocis, and the isles of Hydra, Spetses, Salamis, and Andros" as well as "several villages in Arcadia, Achaia, and Messenia".: "Thomas Gordon describes as follows the Albanian-speaking regions of Greece: 'Attica, Argolis, Boeotia, Phocis, and the isles of Hydra, Spezzia, Salamis, and Andros, are inhabited by Albanians. They likewise possess several villages in Arcadia, Achaia, and Messenia Among themselves those people always converse in their own language; many of them do not understand Greek, and they pronounce it with a strong accent'" In the mid-19th century, Johann Georg von Hahn estimated the number of Albanians (Arvanites) throughout Greece to be 173,000,; cited in while historian George Finlay, estimated they numbered about 200,000 out of approximately 1.1 million inhabitants in total based on the 1861 census. A demographic census by Alfred Philippson, based on fieldwork between 1887 and 1889, found that out of the approximately 730,000 inhabitants of the Peloponnese, and the three neighboring islands of Poros, Hydra and Spetses, Arvanites numbered 90,253, or 12.3% of the total population. According to the , Albanian-speakers numbered 50,975 out of 2,631,952 population in total. The results of that census are unreliable, and were questioned by those responsible for it. With few exceptions, the official census data that have been published since 1907 were manipulated by the Greek state, misrepresenting the reality or avoiding to deal with ethno-linguistic diversity.
There are no official figures about the number of Arvanites in Greece today (no official data exist for ethnicity in Greece). The last official census figures available come from 1951. Since then, estimates of the numbers of Arvanites has ranged from 25,000 to 200,000. The following is a summary of the widely diverging estimates (Botsi 2003: 97):
Today, regions with a strong traditional presence of Arvanites are found mainly in a compact area in southeastern mainland Greece, namely across Attica (especially in Eastern Attica), southern Boeotia, the north-east of the Peloponnese, the south of the island of Euboea, the north of the island of Andros, and several islands of the Saronic Gulf including Salamis Island, Hydra, Poros, Agistri and Spetses. In parts of this area they formed a solid majority until about 1900. Within Attica, parts of the capital Athens and its suburbs were Arvanitic until the late 19th century.Travellers in the 19th century were unanimous in identifying Plaka as a heavily "Albanian" quarter of Athens. John Cam Hobhouse, writing in 1810, quoted in John Freely, Strolling through Athens, p. 247: "The number of houses in Athens is supposed to be between twelve and thirteen hundred; of which about four hundred are inhabited by the Turks, the remainder by the Greeks and Albanians, the latter of whom occupy above three hundred houses." Eyre Evans Crowe, The Greek and the Turk; or, Powers and prospects in the Levant, 1853: "The cultivators of the plain live at the foot of the Acropolis, occupying what is called the Albanian quarter..." (p. 99); Edmond About, Greece and the Greeks of the Present Day, Edinburgh, 1855 (translation of La Grèce contemporaine, 1854): "Athens, twenty-five years ago, was only an Albanian village. The Albanians formed, and still form, almost the whole of the population of Attica; and within three leagues of the capital, villages are to be found where Greek is hardly understood." (p. 32); "The Albanians form about one-fourth of the population of the country; they are in majority in Attica, in Arcadia, and in Hydra...." (p. 50); "The Turkish village which formerly clustered round the base of the Acropolis has not disappeared: it forms a whole quarter of the town.... An immense majority of the population of this quarter is composed of Albanians." (p. 160) There are also settlements in some other parts of the Peloponnese, and in Phthiotis. Albanians also settled on the islands of Kea, Psara, Aegina, Kythnos, Skopelos, Ios and Samos. They would thereafter assimilate into the Greek population.Jochalas, Titos P. (1971): Über die Einwanderung der Albaner in Griechenland: Eine zusammenfassene Betrachtung "On. München: Trofenik. pg. 89–106.
In the 1990s, the European Commission's Euromosaic Project documenting minority languages recorded the geographic distribution and language status of Arvanites and Arvanitika in Greece.
| + Distribution of Arvanites in southern Greece (Euromosaic)
! Administrative divisions !!Geographic location and language status (late 20th century) |
| In the early 20th century, apart from Megara and another smaller village, all villages in Attica and some neighbourhoods of Athens were Arvanite. The modern large population concentrated in Attica has altered the demographics of the area. Majority of villages have remained Arvanite. |
| Excluding the towns of Aliveri and Karistos, all villages of the Karistos sub–prefecture below the Achladeri–Prinia line consisting of a large area in the southernmost part of the island. |
| Over 10 villages located in the northern part of Andros island. |
| 70 villages, mostly in the eastern part of the prefecture. |
| 30–35 villages, most located east of Argos and in the Ermioni sub–prefecture. |
| Under 20 villages, all located in the west, except one. Arvanitika no longer spoken in Mount Panachaiko area. |
| 20 villages in the sub–prefecture of Trifylia. |
| 1 village. |
| Arvanitika ceased to be spoken by the 1940s. |
| A few speakers remained among the elderly. |
| All villages in the sub–prefecture of Troezen, the islands of Salamis Island, Agistri, Hydra, and Spetses. |
| Over 60 villages, most located in the sub–prefecture of Thebes. |
| 6–7 villages in the southeastern part of the prefecture. |
While Arvanitika was commonly called Albanian in Greece until the 20th century, the wish of Arvanites to express their ethnic identification as Greeks has led to a stance of rejecting the identification of the language with Albanian as well. In recent times, Arvanites had only very imprecise notions about how related or unrelated their language was to Albanian.Breu (1985: 424) and Tsitsipis (1983). Since Arvanitika is almost exclusively a spoken language, Arvanites also have no practical affiliation with the Standard Albanian language used in Albania, as they do not use this form in writing or in media. The question of linguistic closeness or distance between Arvanitika and Albanian has come to the forefront especially since the early 1990s, when a large number of Albanian immigrants began to enter Greece and came into contact with local Arvanitic communities.Botsi (2003), Athanassopoulou (2005).
Since the 1980s, there have been some organized efforts to preserve the cultural and linguistic heritage of Arvanites. The largest organisation promoting Arvanitika is the "Arvanitic League of Greece" (Αρβανίτικος Σύλλογος Ελλάδος).
Arvanitika is currently considered in danger of extinction due to it having no legal status in Greece. The language is also not available at any level of the educational system in Greece. Social changes, government policies, and public indifference have also contributed to the decline of the language.
With participation in the Greek War of Independence and the Greek Civil War, this has led to increasing assimilation amongst the Arvanites. The common Christian Orthodox religion they shared with the rest of the local population was one of the main reasons that led to their assimilation. Although sociological studies of Arvanite communities still used to note an identifiable sense of a special "ethnic" identity among Arvanites, the authors did not identify a sense of 'belonging to Albania or to the Albanian nation'. Many Arvanites find the designation "Albanians" offensive as they identify nationally and ethnically as Greeks and not Albanians. Jacques Lévy describes the Arvanites as "Albanian speakers who were integrated into Greek national identity as early as the first half of the nineteenth century and who in no way consider themselves as an ethnic minority".
Relations between Arvanites and other Albanian speaking populations have varied over time. During the onset of the Greek war of Independence, Arvanites fought alongside Greek revolutionaries and against Muslim Albanians. Arvanites participated in the 1821 Tripolitsa massacreHeraclides, Alexis (2011). The essence of the Greek-Turkish rivalry: national narrative and identity. Academic Paper. The London School of Economics and Political Science. p. 15. "On the Greek side, a case in point is the atrocious onslaught of the Greeks and Hellenised Christian Albanians against the city of Tripolitza in October 1821, which is justified by the Greeks ever since as the almost natural and predictable outcome of more than '400 years of slavery and dudgeon'. All the other similar atrocious acts all over Peloponnese, where apparently the whole population of Muslims (Albanian and Turkish-speakers), well over twenty thousand vanished from the face of the earth within a spat of a few months in 1821 is unsaid and forgotten, a case of ethnic cleansing through sheer slaughter (St Clair 2008: 1–9, 41–46) as are the atrocities committed in Moldavia (were the "Greek Revolution" actually started in February 1821) by prince Ypsilantis." while some Muslim Albanian speakers in the region of Bardounia remained after the war, converting to Orthodoxy.Andromedas, John N. (1976). "Maniot folk culture and the ethnic mosaic in the southeast Peloponnese". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 268. (1): 200. "In 1821, then, the ethnic mosaic of the southeastern Peloponnese (the ancient Laconia and Cynouria) consisted of Christian Tsakonians and Albanians on the east, Christian Maniats and Barduniotes, and Moslem Albanian Barduniotes in the southwest, and an ordinary Greek Christian population running between them. In 1821, with a general Greek uprising impending, rumors of a "Russo-Frankish" naval bombardment caused the "Turkish" population of the southeastern Peloponnese to seek refuge in the fortresses of Monevasia, Mystra, and Tripolitza. Indeed, the Turkobarduniotes were so panic stricken that they stampeded the Moslems of Mystra along with them into headlong flight to Tripolitza. The origin of this rumor was the firing of a salute by a sea captain named Frangias in honor of a Maniat leader known as "the Russian Knight." Some Moslems in Bardunia, and elsewhere, remained as converts to Christianity. Thus almost overnight the whole of the southeastern Peloponnese was cleared of "Turks" of whatever linguistic affiliation. This situation was sealed by the ultimate success of the Greek War for Independence. The Christian Albanians, identifying with their Orthodox coreligionists and with the new nationstate, gradually gave up the Albanian language, in some instances deliberately deciding not to pass it on to their children." In recent times, Arvanites have expressed mixed opinions towards Albanian immigrants within Greece. Negative views are perceptions that Albanian immigrants are "communists" arriving from a "backward country",Bintliff, John (2003). " The Ethnoarchaeology of a "Passive" Ethnicity: The Arvanites of Central Greece" in K.S. Brown & Yannis Hamilakis, (eds.). The Usable Past: Greek Metahistories. Lexington Books. p. 138. "The bishop was voicing the accepted modern position among those Greeks who are well aware of the persistence of indigenous Albanian-speakers in the provinces of their country: the "Albanians" are not like us at all, they are ex-Communists from outside the modern Greek state who come here for work from their backward country" or an opportune people with questionable morals, behaviors and a disrespect for religion.Hajdinjak Marko (2005). Don't want to live with them, can't afford to live without them: Albanian labor migration in Greece . Academic paper. International Center for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations (IMIR). pp. 8–9. "What is striking is that IMIR's team encountered exceptionally negative attitude towards the Albanians even among those Greeks, who are of Albanian origin. Arvanitis are ethnic group of Albanian descent. According to Greek historians, they were an Albanian speaking Christian population, which was hired by Venetians as sailors in the 14th century to fight against the Ottomans. Arvanitis have long since abandoned Albanian language for Greek and integrated fully into the Greek ethnos. Arvanitis respondents IMIR's team spoke with talked about Albanians with disgust, saying that "they have flooded Greece," that "they were not good people" and that they "steal, beat and kill." Some were afraid that Greeks might start to identify them, Arvanitis, with Albanians and their condemnable behavior, and as a result start to reject them. The one thing Arvanitis, who are devout Christians, cannot forgive Albanians, is their apparent lack of respect for religion. In order to facilitate their integration, a large number of immigrants from Albania has been changing their names with Greek ones and adopting Orthodox Christianity, but only nominally, as a façade." Other Arvanites during the late 1980s and early 1990s expressed solidarity with Albanian immigrants, due to linguistic similarities and being politically leftist.Lawrence, Christopher (2007). Blood and oranges: Immigrant labor and European markets in rural Greece. Berghahn Books. pp. 85–86. "I did collect evidence that in the early years of Albanian immigration, the late 1980s, immigrants were greeted with hospitality in the upper villages. This initial friendliness seems to have been based on villagers' feelings of solidarity with Albanians. Being both leftists and Arvanites, and speaking in fact a dialect of Albanian that was somewhat intelligible to the new migrants, many villagers had long felt a common bond with Albania."Nitsiakos, Vassilis (2010). On the border: Transborder mobility, ethnic groups and boundaries along the Albanian-Greek frontier. LIT Verlag. pp. 23–24. "Linguistic community and cultural intimacy have played and still play a role in the search of a place of settlement and line of work on the part of migrants, but, also, in their reception and incorporation by the communities of local Arvanites. I have had the opportunity to substantiate this fact through many interviews with Albanian migrants, whose report of their good reception by the populations of Arvanite villages tends to be uniform, especially around the area of Thebes during the first months of their ventures in Greece. The fact that the elderly, at least, speak Arvanite and can communicate with Albanians is of crucial importance. As to the question of cultural intimacy, the matter is more complex and demands special research and study. It was brought up at the Korçe conference by S. Mangliveras, who, with his paper on A1banian immigrants and Arvanite hosts: Identities and relationships" (Magliveras 2004; also Derhemi 2003), demonstrated its complexity and great significance for the understanding of the very concepts of ethnic and cultural identity. It is very interesting, indeed, to examine the way such bonds are activated in the context of migration, but, also, the way the subjects themselves confer meaning to it. After all, the very definition of such a bond is problematic, in the sense that it is essentially ethnic, since it concerns the common ethnic origins of the two groups, while now their members belong to different national wholes, being Greek or Albanian. The formation of modern, "pure" national identities and the ideology of nationalism generate a difficulty in the classification of this bond, as is the case with any kind of identification, which, on top of any other social and psychological consequences. It may have, may produce an identity crisis as well. The apparently contradictory attitude of the Arvanites, which Mangliveras discerns, has to do with their difficulty of dealing with this phenomenon in public. Public manifestation of ethnic and linguistic affinity with Albanian immigrants is definitely a problem for the Arvanites, which is why they behave differently in public and in private. For them, the transition from pre-modern ethnic to modern national identity involved, historically, their identification with the Greek nation, a fact that causes bewilderment whenever one wants to talk to them about the activation of ethnic bonds. From this perspective, too, the particular issue is provocative." Relations too between Arvanites and other Orthodox Albanian speaking communities such as those of Greek Epirus are mixed, as they are distrusted regarding religious matters due to a past Albanian Muslim population living amongst them.Adrian Ahmedaja (2004). " On the question of methods for studying ethnic minorities' music in the case of Greece's Arvanites and Alvanoi." In Ursula Hemetek (ed.). Manifold Identities: Studies on Music and Minorities. Cambridge Scholars Press. p. 60. "That although the Albanians in Northwest Greece are nowadays orthodox, the Arvanites still seem to distrust them because of religious matters."
Amongst the wider Greek speaking population however, the Arvanites and their language Arvanitika were viewed in past times in a derogatory manner.Tsitsipis. Language change and language death. 1981. pp. 104–105. "In the shaping of their attitudes towards Arvanitika, speakers have been influenced by the way members of the dominant culture, namely, Greek monolinguals view them their language. One example of the criticism that an old women experienced for her Arvanitika at a hospital in Athens was presented in Chapter IV. Kazazis (1976:47) observes with regard to this matter, that: The attitude of other Greeks certainly reinforces the low opinion so many Arvanites have (or profess to have) of Arvanitika, and other Greek are probably the main source of that opinion. Once or twice, Arvanitika was described to me by non-Arvanites as "ugly" and several people... have told me how "treacherous and sly"... "uncivilized"... and "stubborn"... the Arvanites are. That the view of the Greek monolingual segment of the society has been a major source for the development of negative attitudes among Arvanites toward their language can be substantiated on evidence including earlier and more recent information. In the discussion of the Linguistic Policy in Greece (Chapter IV) I observed that the seeds of Arvanitika language are to be sought in the efforts of the intellectuals to bring about the regeneration of Greek nationalism by promoting Greek as the only legitimate language of the nation." These views contributed toward shaping negative attitudes held by Arvanites regarding their language and thereby increasing assimilation.Tsitsipis. Language change and language death. 1981. pp. 104–105. In post-dictatorial Greece, the Arvanites have rehabilitated themselves within Greek society through for example the propagation of the Pelasgians regarding Arvanite origins. The theory created a counter discourse that aimed to give the Arvanites a positive image in Greek history by claiming the Arvanites as the ancestors and relations of contemporary Greeks and their culture. The Arvanite revival of the Pelasgian theory has also been recently borrowed by other Albanian speaking populations within and from Albania in Greece to counter the negative image of their communities.De Rapper, Gilles (2009). " Pelasgic Encounters in the Greek–Albanian Borderland: Border Dynamics and Reversion to Ancient Past in Southern Albania." Anthropological Journal of European Cultures. 18. (1): 60–61. "In 2002, another important book was translated from Greek: Aristides Kollias' Arvanites and the Origin of Greeks, first published in Athens in 1983 and re-edited several times since then (Kollias 1983; Kolia 2002). In this book, which is considered a cornerstone of the rehabilitation of Arvanites in post- dictatorial Greece, the author presents the Albanian speaking population of Greece, known as Arvanites, as the most authentic Greeks because their language is closer to ancient Pelasgic, who were the first inhabitants of Greece. According to him, ancient Greek was formed on the basis of Pelasgic, so that man Greek words have an Albanian etymology. In the Greek context, the book initiated a 'counterdiscourse' (Gefou-Madianou 1999: 122) aiming at giving Arvanitic communities of southern Greece a positive role in Greek history. This was achieved by using nineteenth-century ideas on Pelasgians and by melting together Greeks and Albanians in one historical genealogy (Baltsiotis and Embirikos 2007: 130–431, 445). In the Albanian context of the 1990s and 2000s, the book is read as proving the anteriority of Albanians not only in Albania but also in Greece; it serves mainly the rehabilitation of Albanians as an antique and autochthonous population in the Balkans. These ideas legitimise the presence of Albanians in Greece and give them a decisive role in the development of ancient Greek civilisation and, later on, the creation of the modern Greek state, in contrast to the general negative image of Albanians in contemporary Greek society. They also reverse the unequal relation between the migrants and the host country, making the former the heirs of an autochthonous and civilised population from whom the latter owes everything that makes their superiority in the present day." However, this theory has been rejected by modern scholars and it is seen as a myth.Schwandner-Sievers & Fischer (2002). Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers and Bernd Jürgen Fischer, editors of Albanian Identities: Myth and History, present papers resulting from the London Conference held in 1999 entitled "The Role of Myth in the History and Development of Albania." The "Pelasgian" myth of Albanians as the most ancient community in southeastern Europe is among those explored in Noel Malcolm's essay, "Myths of Albanian National Identity: Some Key Elements, As Expressed in the Works of Albanian Writers in America in the Early Twentieth Century". The introductory essay by Stephanie Schwandner-Sievers establishes the context of the "Pelasgian Albanian" mythos, applicable to Eastern Europe generally, in terms of the longing for a stable identity in a rapidly opening society.
In the 1990s, the Albanian president Sali Berisha raised a question about an Albanian minority in Greece, but the Arvanite cultural associations reacted angrily to his statement.
Arvanite women were known for wearing a chemise shirt that was heavily embroidered. They also wore a heavily embroidered foundi or gown like garment that was heavily embroidered in silk and on the mainland the sigouni, a woolen thick white coat. On the Aegean islands, Arvanite women wore silk gowns with Turkish influences.Welters. Ethnicity in Greek dress. 1995. p.68. "Whereas the foustanella represented Greek nationalism to Greeks and non-Greeks alike, the lesser known foundi of the peasant women of Attica communicated that the wearer was Greek-Albanian to the inhabitants of a much smaller geographical area. Greek dress could also have more than one meaning. For example, within Attica, the colours and patterns of the embroidered foundi indicated both ethnicity (Greek-Albanian) and geographical origin (Messoghia villages of Attica). Thus, Greek dress can be simultaneously both ethnic dress and regional dress... One hypothesis generated by the field research projects in Attica and Argolidha-Corinthia was that the white sigouni was associated with Greek Albanians. In villages throughout Attica Greek-Albanian villagers identified this garment as theirs. Other ethnic groups in Attica knew that the outfit with the white sigouni was worn by the Arvanites. In Argolidha and Corinthia, where the population was of mixed ethnic background, I was told again that only the Arvanites wore the sigouni."; p.69. "Similarly, not all areas of Albanian settlement in Greece have traditional clothing which includes the sigouni. Traditional attire attributed to the wealthy islands of Hydra and Aegina was of a type associated with the seafaring Greeks, baggy breeches for men and Turkish inspired silk gowns for women." Terms for Arvanite female clothing were in Arvanitika rather than in Greek.
Arvanitic culture
Fara
Fara (, means "seed", "descendants" in Albanian,Χριστοφορήδης, Κων. ΛΕΞΙΚΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΑΛΒΑΝΙΚΗΣ ΓΛΩΣΣΗΣ, p. 456. from Proto-Albanian *pʰarā) is a Kinship, similar to the Albanian tribal system of fis. Arvanites were organised in phares (φάρες) mostly during the reign of the Ottoman Empire. The apical ancestor was a warlord and the phara was named after him. In an Arvanitic village, each phara was responsible to keep genealogical records (see also Civil registry), that are preserved until today as historical documents in local libraries. Usually, there were more than one phares in an Arvanitic village and sometimes they were organised in Phratry that had conflicts of interest. Those phratries didn't last long, because each leader of a phara desired to be the leader of the phratry and would not be led by another.See Biris (1960) and Kollias (1983).
Role of women
Women held a relatively strong position in traditional Arvanitic society. Women had a say in public issues concerning their phara, and also often bore arms. Widows could inherit the status and privileges of their husbands and thus acquire leading roles within a fara, as did, for instance, Laskarina Bouboulina.
Arvanitic songs
Traditional Arvanite folk songs offer valuable information about social values and ideals of Arvanitic societies.Songs have been studied by Moraitis (2002), Dede (1978), and Gkikas (1978).
Dress
The traditional clothing of Arvanites included distinctive attire that sometimes identified them in past times as Arvanites from other neighbouring populations. Arvanite males on the Greek mainland wore the fustanella, a pleated like skirt garment or kilt, while those who lived on some Aegean islands wore baggy breeches of the seafaring Greeks.Welters, Lisa (1995). "Ethnicity in Greek dress". In Joanne Eicher. Dress and ethnicity: Change across space and time. Oxford: Berg Publishers. . p.59. "According to old travel books, the nineteenth-century traveler could readily identify Greek-Albanian peasants by their dress. The people and their garb, labeled as "Albanian", were frequently described in contemporary written accounts or depicted in watercolours and engravings. The main components of dress associated with Greek-Albanian women were a distinctly embroidered chemise or shift and a thick white woolen sleeveless coat called sigouni and for men an outfit with a short full skirt known as the foustanella. Some names for the components of women's garments were Albanian rather than Greek (Welters 1988: 93–4). For instance, bridal and festival chemises with hems embroidered in silk were termed foundi, meaning "the end" in Albanian."
Notable people
Greek War of Independence
Presidents of Greece
Prime Ministers of Greece
Politicians
Clergymen
Military
Literature
Folklore
Science
Artists
Architecture
See also
Sources
(2025). 9783030941376, Springer. ISBN 9783030941376
External links
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