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The Albanian tribes (Albanian: fiset shqiptare) form a historical mode of social organization (farefisní) in Albania and the southwestern Balkans characterized by a common culture, often common patrilineal kinship ties and shared social ties. The fis (Albanian definite form: fisi; commonly translated as "tribe", also as "clan" or "kin" community) stands at the center of Albanian organization based on kinship relations, a concept that can be found among southern Albanians also with the term farë (Albanian definite form: fara).
Inherited from ancient Illyrian social structures, Albanian tribal society emerged in the early Middle Ages as the dominant form of social organization among Albanians.[1][2][3] The development of feudalism came to both antagonize it, and slowly integrate aspects of it in Albanian feudal society, as most noble families themselves came from these tribes and depended on their support. This process stopped after the Ottoman conquest of Albania and the Balkans in the late 15th century and was followed by a process of strengthening of the tribe (fis) as a means of organization against Ottoman centralization particularly in the mountains of northern Albania and adjacent areas of Montenegro.
It also remained in a less developed system in southern Albania[4] where large feudal estates and later trade and urban centres began to develop at the expense of tribal organization. One of the most particular elements of the Albanian tribal structure is its dependence on the Kanun, a code of Albanian oral customary laws.[2] Most tribes engaged in warfare against external forces like the Ottoman Empire. Some also engaged in limited inter-tribal struggle for the control of resources.[4]
Until the early years of the 20th century, Albanian tribal society remained largely intact until the rise to power of the communist regime in 1944, and is considered to be the only example of a tribal social system with tribal chiefs and councils, blood feuds and oral customary laws, to survive in Europe until the middle of the 20th century.[4][5][6]
- ^ Galaty 2018, p. 102.
- ^ a b Galaty 2002, pp. 109–121.
- ^ Villar 1996, p. 316.
- ^ a b c Elsie 2015, p. 1.
- ^ De Rapper 2012, p. 1.
- ^ Galaty 2011, p. 118.