Albania Culture

Elona Perllaku 

"Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future." A culture that I resemble and is a part of who I am is the Albanian culture. The term Albania and Albanian are based on the root *alb, which derives from the word Arberesh, which is used to describe the Italo- Albanians of southern Italy. Albanians can be divided into two cultural groups: the northern and the southern Albanians, also known as the ( Ghegs and the Tosks). Albanians live in large areas of the southwest part of the Balkan peninsula, primarily in the Republic of Albania with its centrally located capital city of Tirana. Albania has 36 beautiful cities all together. 

The national and ethnic symbol of the Albanians is the eagle. The eagle represents freedom and heroism. The basic foods that are used in Albania are bread, rice, yogurt, and beans. Albania cuisine is meat- oriented, and the traditional dishes are often reserved for guests and special occasions. Albanian wedding are impressive festivities. They usually take place during the full moon to ensure offspring. The celebrations can last several days. In the villages, hundreds of people are invited to take part in a wedding banquet. The religions that are practiced in Albania are: Roman Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy, and Islam. These are only a few things to give you an idea of what Albania culture is about.

Albania is a country in southeastern Europe  with the surface area of 28.748 square kilometer. Borders Greece , Macedonia  and , Monte Negro and is 70 kilometer  by  sea. The republic of Albania is the central piece of a mosaic of 6 million living in the Balkan. These are only a few things to give you an idea of what Albania culture is about.

Can you and I accept me for me?

Submitted by Tazkeyah A: 

    As a Muslim I was brought up in polygamy. Polygamy is part of my culture and my religion. In Islam a guy is allowed to marry up to three wives as long as he treats them all fairly. To Muslim theses acceptable practices are normal to us. But to other people it is seen as weird,disgusting, and even taboo. As a child  I was sometimes embarrassed  to tell my friends how many siblings I had and how old we all were. I was embarrassed because my mom and my ex-step mom gave birth to my sisters five months apart. As I got older I learned more about polygamy and understood it. I don't know if it is because I'm a female brought up in polygamy, but I have strong ill-feelings towards it. At the same time I have to accept it because it's part of my religion. 
    Growing up in a society that does not allow polygamy sort of gives you different views about your belief. You become accustom to the western culture while still trying to hold on to your own subculture. This is related to what we learned about social location. Because of the environment I live in certain principles takes a back seat to environmental influences. Whereas, over-seas polygamy is accepted and known, so children are brought up with better understanding that polygamy is part of their culture values in their society. 

    To end, although America is made up of thousands of different cultures, people are still culture shock when something derails from their social norms and is introduce into their way of life. I believe it's hard for anybody growing up in the western society who religion views doesn't fit the "normal" criteria. American values monogamy and that is why polygamy is seen as taboo and will never be accepted. This environment will always have some kind of impact on people religious values, and subcultures. 

Social Location: Santa in Sandals!

               

By Jennifer Tran

One of the biggest holidays of the year in the United States is Christmas. It’s the time of the year where friends, families, and loved ones gather together to share the holiday spirit. Religiously, it is a Christian holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Traditionally, it is celebrated by standing up a Christmas tree adorned with decorations and lights, fun-filled and interactive activities, and the most favored part: the exchange of gifts. It all happens within the comfort and warmth of households, behind the windows looking out to a snowy, cold night where the true spirit of Christmas seems lively. Especially, when it means no school or work for those snowed-in days.

On the other hand, on the other side of the earth on an island-continent called Australia, it is celebrated quite differently. During the same time of the year, its 90 degree weather with beautiful sunshine on the southeast coast of Sydney. Santa’s in shorts and ready to barbie (BBQ) with the reindeers! In Australia, Christmas is celebrated in thongs (also known as flip flops), going to the beaches with hot Aussie blokes, and “bloody oath, it’s so hot.” No matter if you’re from Parramatta, Cabramatta, or a place that doesn’t really “matta,” this is how it’s done in Australia.

But all religious and traditional values are not lost! Both destinations still carry on the values of the holiday spirits but they are celebrated based on the social location and mainly, due to season changes. From a perspective of a person from Philadelphia, it may seem a little bit odd to be celebrating Christmas not indoors and without snow, especially, if they’ve never been elsewhere out of the country. Many places celebrate certain holiday occasions quite differently.

For example, I, personally have visited Australia quite a bit during my summer vacations from school in the States, and even had the opportunity to live there for over 2 years in many locations such as Pennant Hills, Hornsby, Burwood, Strathfield, and Enfield. But before all of my experience, I assumed many stereotypical things about Australia that I had been taught by the media. It included the popular show of “The Crocodile Hunter”, the assumption that Australia was an uncivilized place that had dirt roads with wild-life everywhere, and that residents of Australia were all natives. These conclusions that were assumed and made were really unjust and put in their place when I finally made my visit. I learned that Australia was one of the most beautiful, inspiring, and diverse places I’ve ever visited and lived in. 

	Strathfield Girls High School, 2006

 

It’s best to leave all the assumptions, judgments, and predicaments that any form of media gives you, and consider being more open to the possibilities and the impossibilities. Lesson learned: Be open-minded!

youth culture (scene kids)

submitted by: michele graham
Scene kids has skyboard in the western culture. Also scene kids are from all social  economcial backgrounds which most of them are causcasian, but there are some scene kids that are african american, asian.   www.youtube.com/watch this is relate to our covered topics that we talk about in class which we talk about basis and these means that some of these scene kids might dont believe in what other believe in and they all prombly dont do what others do. Also it relates because we talk about culture and that music and fashion plays a part in the scene kids cultuer cause they like to listent to alot of music and they dress totally different from other people. And Scene kids may have collected styles from a variety of subculutres which make there own subculture unique, but scene kids are not who want to cry or hurt themselves instead they have a bubbly attitude towards loving life

  

Is nothing true or is everything true?

Submitted by Yuko Nishizawa

There are countless books about great philosophies, religions, ways of improving oneself and relationships in the societies. All of them are designed to make us feel better and enlightened. Despite all the available guidance, it's still not easy to find values that suit us perfectly or that make a sense in all cultures. In fact, we learned recently in SOC-101 that we must be mindful because those sources are biased on some levels. At the same time, we must rely on information created and filtered by others. So how do we know what information is true and trustworthy?

The attached image from the magazine AZURE, July/Aug,2003 issue, caught my eye. It's a mini coliseum made with books on religion and philosophy as construction material, like piled up bricks. The spines of books have fancy titles like "Dialog with Socrates", "Joyous Freedom with God", "Buddha's Wisdom",etc. Each book presents perspectives of things that are supposed to be good for people and society. We see all different colors and thickness in the exterior, but the interior becomes a wall of white paper. To me, this illustrates that inside, we are all the same. We are all human, want to be at peace and pure, like those white pages. The book coliseum was installed and exhibited at the 2001 International Contemporary Art Bienniale in Florence by architect team from Finland.

The book coliseum represents the relation between outer and inner worlds.

The various concepts exit in cultures, the outer world, but the ultimate goal is to have a peace in ourselves, the inner world. The worlds are not separate, they co-exist. We seek peace and happiness in the all culture no matter who we are, where we come form or what we believe. 

             It isn't hard to do

             Nothing to kill or die for

             And no religion too

             Imagine all the people  

             Living life in peace

            ("Imagine" by John Lenon, 1971)

There is a sad coda to this coliseum installation. It was destroyed within a day when every book was stolen by local thieves. Photographs of the thefts showed that the majority of the pilferers were largely average local citizens.

Defining Deviance in our Society

Submitted by Christopher Getz

    Deviance is defined within the text “Sociology Matters” as “...behavior that violates any social, whether it concerns conduct or personal appearance. Some forms of deviance carry a negative social stigma, while others are more or less accepted.”

    Certainly, within this definition, we would consider racism and bigotry as deviant behavior. In fact, many argue that we have so stigmatized racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry, that even the allegation of such bias in action can be enough to condemn the accused in the eyes of the media or wider public. But interrogating this claim, we have to ask if the society at large has truly taken steps to stigmatize this form of deviance, or if some societal messages are, at best, mixed.

    Consider the case of the killing of James C. Anderson in Mississippi, this summer. Warning, the video below contains both footage of the murder of Anderson, as well as a discussion involving the use of racial slurs.

    The CNN report expresses outrage and surprise at the racially motivated murder of Mr. Anderson by white teenagers, commenting repeatedly that this is the sort of behavior one would expect in the beginning of the 20^th century, even saying that Anderson's family are shocked by a crime they could not reasonably see taking place in this day and age.

    There is, of course, no question that society has deemed this deviant behavior. Those who committed the crime have been arrested and charged, with one of the teenagers-- thought to be the leader of the group-- charged with murder and Hate Crimes. Clearly, the message of this is that society deems not just murder, but racially-motivated crimes, to be “deviant”.

    However, it is not simply an isolated largely white community that has socialized these teenagers. Were that the case, we could simply point an accusatory finger at the offending community, parents, or church that encouraged or justified violent behavior against Blacks. But our society, which extends well beyond such a confined space as Rankin County, Mississippi where these teenagers lived, also socialized these teenagers, and sent coded messages that formed and influenced their worldview, beliefs, and, ultimately, their crime.

    It is worth noting, beyond as a tragic case of adding insult to injury, that the state of Mississippi denies Mr. Anderson's same-sex partner the right to join the wrongful death lawsuit filed by his other family members. The couple have adopted and are raising a four year old daughter together, but under Mississippi law, they are not considered a “true” family and afforded the rights of a heterosexual couple with children. Seemingly, Mr. Anderson and his partner's relationship was considered, to some degree, deviant within the state of Mississippi.

    Similarly, Mississippi, was the last state to recognize the 13^th Amendment to the US Constitution banning slavery within the United States. Originally ratified in 1865 as the first of the post-Civil War Reconstruction Amendments, Mississippi rejected the amendment, as did New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky. New Jersey was the first to reverse their decision the following year, Delaware followed suit in 1901. In the 20^th century, only Kentucky and Mississippi refused to ratify the Amendment. Finally, in 1976 Kentucky reversed its earlier position, however, Mississippi would wait until 1995 to follow suit.

    So, although the violent crime which killed James C. Anderson would and is clearly labeled deviant behavior by our society, so too was Mr. Anderson's very life. He lived in a state which considered his relationship deviant, and stated-- regardless of how subtly or implicitly in their laws-- that Mr. Anderson's very freedom from involuntary slavery was only recently considered to be a social norm and not, in and of itself, a deviance. Considering the role that such subtle and often unremarked upon socialization has on the perpetrators of such violent hate crimes may help us to better understand what it is that our society considers truly deviant and how we socialize our youth to accept our values.

the impact of family to culture

Submitted by: Hoang Yen Nguyen

The Impact Of Family To Culture

How does the importance of family background affect culture? We know that family is a big role in society where the children are taught about the primaries of manner, behavior, in these days, we can say the" peer group “or even " media" really raise the children so family background is very important.

The impact of good family is expressed by the way children act. Back in that day, if you were disrespectful to elders and parents, you will get a smack on her hands or a time out. Everybody had to go to school and did their homework every day. There was no arguing or talking back to the teachers and parents.  Moms always were at home to give their children snacks and tell them do homework when kids came back from school. Every kids were educated carefully the importance of honesty and responsibilities. Besides, they had to earn the things they wanted. The parents did not give a gift for their children with no reasons.

Now, the laws make the immature teens have more power than parents. They say:" if you hit me, I'll call the police" so the parents have to back off in fear of prosecution. The kids have been out of control. They do sex, drugs, drinking and disrespecting elders. We can see that those of bad consequences happen because of parents' neglects. When the kids come home from school, nobody is there to give them snacks or ask about their school days. The kids are growing-up in the street because their parents don't spent time with them. They are making adult decisions with their underdeveloped-minds and ending up to be a 13 or 14 years old singled-mom. Their parents are going to be 26 or 28 years old grandparents. Sometimes some girls don't even know who the father of their child is. The rate of the kids dropping-out of school is higher because their parents either are a single parent or not have a high school diploma.

I am really scared to think that those kids who have no education, ill manners, and bad behaviors will be our future leaders? That is terrifying. There are very few youth today who have been instilled with good moral values from their family. However, more kids are going out partying with their "young parents" and that is really sad. Where are all the "big mommies “and "big pops"? We need them desperately to be more responsibilites to their generations.