Did You Know What Others Have to Say about Us?
Contemporary Greek folk music is related to both classical Greek and Byzantine church music. Certain folk dance types and their musical meters are directly related to classical ones, while certain modes and melodic characteristics, with their inherent ornamental techniques, are largely derived from Byzantine ecclesiastic music. In a description of Greek music and the numerous ...
Read More →
Zig Zags and Crossroads: Subsequent Field Research on the Vlachs of Albania, Summer 1995
The Road to Gjirokastėr I began my journey to Albania with two days in Anilion [Greece], my favourite and first Vlach village. The tunnel through the Katara pass is now completed, but the road to it is not finished. When the road is in place, Anilion will be a tourist trap, and in anticipation of ...
Read More →
The Balkan Vlachs: Born to Assimilate?
(Editor’s note: This article is reprinted from the Summer 1995 issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly.) The Vlachs are a Romance-speaking Balkan population once characterized by a transhumant lifestyle. Among their many other characteristics one must count an uncanny way of making those who study them question their most fundamental notions about ethnic groups and cultural survival. ...
Read More →
From the Editor
“Each person, withdrawn into himself, behaves as though he is a stranger to the destiny of all the others. His children and his good friends constitute for him the whole of the human species. As for his transactions with his fellow citizens, he may mix among them, but he sees them not; he touches them, ...
Read More →
Community News
We are pleased to welcome the following new members: Zachary Seavey Manchester, NH Jonathan Seavey Manchester, NH James Nassikas Mill Valley, CA Lewis Nassikas Mill Valley, CA Robert Nassikas Mill Valley, CA We have lost several more elder members of our community. We mourn their loss and extend our heartfelt condolences to their familes: George ...
Read More →
“Before the Rain” – A Film Review
Today, Mr. Manchevski is hopeful about the future of his homeland. He rejects the idea that Balkan nations are doomed to repeat a century-long cycle of violence… Manchevski said. “It’s not so that if something happened 300 years ago, it has to happen again. For me, the only thing that matters is your own personal responsibility–whether ...
Read More →
Did You Know What Others Have to Say about Us?
In the six months since my first visit to Tirana the city has acquired a bit of spit and polish…. But in some ways times are harder. Prices are rising constantly; telephone rates have skyrocketed since December…. TVSH is running the same advertisements as in winter, mostly for sweets, soft drinks and cat food… in ...
Read More →
Friends, Family, and Nostalgia: Remembering the Clinton Avenue of Yesteryear
Nicholas Shola, Peter Costulas, and John Cook grew up together in the St. Dimitrie Romanian Orthodox Church in Bridgeport, Connecticut, sons of immigrants from far away towns and villages located what is now Albania and northern Greece. Nick moved to St. Luis, Missouri, and thereafter kept in touch with his old buddies through a series ...
Read More →
The Watering Can: Memories of My Childhood
Growing up in America is a special blessing. But it seems to me that those who grow up in one of this country?s many immigrant communities are twice blessed, for we have at least two sources of values, support, and knowledge. I see this in my own life. As a child, I grew up in ...
Read More →
Southern Albania, Northern Epirus: Survey of a Disputed Ethnological Boundary
This paper is based on several short visits to Albania between 1992 and 1995. It is, I hope, an objective and accurate account, but makes no pretense at giving a full or final picture. A full picture could only be presented if every village in the area were visited, no light undertaking in view of ...
Read More →
From the Editor
It’s been almost 3 years since the euphoric discovery that the Aromanian community in Albania had somehow survived communism and was organizing to preserve itself. At the time, scholars were estimating our population in the Balkans at around 50,000 and declining fast; here was a forgotten pocket of Vlachs claiming to be some 250,000 strong! ...
Read More →
Exclusive to the Society: Excerpts from Shattered Eagles – Balkan Fragments
Preface This book has been written at odd moments in the last four years. Some chapters have been developed from lectures I gave during these years. Some recount Balkan adventures squeezed in between writing these lectures and carrying out the normal duties of an English university lecturer. We hear much of the onerous nature of ...
Read More →
Community News
The Society is pleased to welcome two new members: Chris Gatz of New South Wales, Australia (he is featured in an article in this issue about the Aromanians down under) — Mr. Gatz was born in the Farsarot village of Kefalovrison (Megidia), in the province of Epirus, Greece; and Christy M. Kara of Omaha, Nebraska, who recently discovered his ...
Read More →
A Tree Grows Down Under: The Aroumanian Australians
The emblem of the Australian Aroumanian Society is a tree stump with a healthy, yet fragile new growth springing from one side. And that sums up pretty well how the members consider the state of Aroumanian culture — in fresh and vibrant rebirth. Officially, the 800-member strong society is only a year and a half ...
Read More →
Did You Know… What Other People Have to Say about Us?
The major Greek migration to Rhode Island began in the 1890s… According to extant records, Greek migration to Providence began in 1898. The period from 1898 to 1902 brought John Coufoudakis, Costas Costakos, Dr. Haralambie Cicma, Theordore Kanelos, and Dr. George Aloucos to the capital city… The distinction of being the state’s first Greek settler, ...
Read More →
The Vlachs in Bosnia
Editor’s Note: The turmoil in the Balkan Peninsula in recent years has led some of the world’s sharpest minds to focus on the history of that tragic region. Their discoveries are of interest to all who are concerned with the Balkans, including the Vlachs, as the following excerpt shows. Although there are many recorded cases ...
Read More →
From the Editor — The Failure of the Ethnic-State
Not long ago I attended a lecture about Woodrow Wilson and his support of the right of ethnic groups to have their own states — a principle that falls into greater disrepute with each new atrocity committed in its name. At the lecture’s end, a bow-tied professor with an elegant accent arose and said, “Yes, ...
Read More →
Letter from Albania
Editor’s Introduction: Two issues ago we published Helen Winnifrith’s absorbing account of her journey to Albania with her husband Tom. We now publish Prof. Tom Winnifrith’s description of his follow-up visit to Albania. Prof. Winnifrith is the editor and contributing writer for the recently published Perspectives on Albania (St. Martin’s Press, 1993) and is currently working on a ...
Read More →
Community News
We welcome with great pleasure new member Terry A. Terezi of Florida, whose parents hailed from the once famous town of Voskopolje. As announced by President Robert Nicola at the 90th Anniversary Dinner Dance, the Society wishes to express its deepest appreciation to Ms. Margaret Caciavely for her generous donation in memory of her late ...
Read More →
The Tamposi Brothers, Pioneers in American Civil Aviation
Nick, Jim and Sam. With such familiar American names they could be three brothers in any Yankee family. But their common names mislead us, for they belong to three very uncommon men. They are the stalwart sons of George and Aspasia Tamposi, who immigrated here from the mountain hamlet of Avdhella, Greece, at the start ...
Read More →