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 Dr.
Michael Galaty, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Millsaps,
spent his summer exploring the northern highlands of Albania, searching
for stories about a lost way of life. In this remote corner of the
world, blood feuds sometimes still rage between embittered families
and soaring mountains keep watch over stone houses dotting the valleys.
In 1921, a young
writer named Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of author Laura Ingalls
Wilder, also heard the beckoning call of the newly independent nation
of Albania. She chronicled her travels in a book called Peaks
of Shala (1923). As part of a documentary project sponsored
by the Associated Colleges of the South, Galaty retraced Lane's
journeys to learn more about her intense self-examination and to
determine how much of the tribal system she described still exists.
"When Lane
was living and working in Albania, a northern Albanian tribal system
with ancient roots still functioned," said Galaty. "Oral
law governed the social, economic and political relationships that
bound rival clans. Justice was swift and brutal. Lane, and the other
female travelers to Albania, were fascinated by the tribal system
and produced complex and detailed descriptions. Eventually, the
tribal system was destroyed by Communism, though echoes of it still
persist in remote regions, such as Shala."
Traveling largely
on gravel and dirt roads, Galaty, joined by novice filmmaker Robert
Schon, retraced Lane's footsteps, visiting the cities of Theth and
Shkodre. With a translator and a
guide, the two were able to recreate several of Lane's own photographs
as well as speak to the descendants of the people she met during
her journey.
 "We
met the descendant of the man Lane called the richest in Theth,"
said Galaty. "She still lives in the family's three-story stone
house, carved with ancient pagan symbols. She received us in the
same sitting room Lane had visited and regaled us with stories of
her ancestor."
Galaty and Schon
plan to create a film of the experience, blending digital and conventional
film footage to capture and reveal the dramatic physical and human
landscapes of the land about which Lane wrote so glowingly. The
finished product, which will include moving and still images accompanied
by Lane's narrative descriptions, will document the remnants of
traditional Albanian culture.
"We learned
so much about life in the Albanian high country," said Galaty.
"It was easy to appreciate why this place affected Lane as
deeply as it did. The scenery is absolutely stunning, but the real
wonder of Shala is the people and their culture, which is barely
holding on in the new, capitalist Albania. I hope the film will
do their stories justice."
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