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household (ikos or spiti) with the name of the father’s lineage (yenia). Particulary in the past
but also nowadays, the child is considered to belong to his father’s ikoyenia/familje. Ideally,
the latter is embraced a married couple, their children, husband’s parents and his unmarried
siblings. They live under the same roof, share meals prepared by the women, goods and
money brought and earned by the working members of the spiti (house or household).
Nowadays, due to the massive migrations ikoyenia/familje usually conjoins only the elderly
couple living under the same roof. Two of them share meals prepared by her and money
which they both acquire from pensions and remittances. They receive the latter from their
children who live in emigration. The child who sends them money is usually their son who is
going to inherit their house. He visits his parents at least once per year or once in two years
(depending on his and his wife’s vacation possibilities) and takes care of them. When they get
sick, they come to Greece to see their doctor and they live together with their son, daughter
in-law and grandchildren for that time. There are some cases when an elderly couple is taken
care of by more sons or sometimes by a son and a daughter of whom one or both live in
emigration. In these cases all of them are potential heirs. Whereas one meant is going to
inherit the house the other will inherit a plot of land. Sometimes the children will share the
house. When an elderly couple does not have male heirs but only female ones, one of the
daughters and her husband usually take care of her parents and inherit the house when they
dies. In the above mentioned cases the elderly couple often, though not necessarily, considers
their children who are taking care of them and are going to inherit the house as being part of
their ikoyenia/familje. They recognise that their children can live a more prosperous life in
emigration.
As Just (1991: 124) suggests, the meaning of family is context-sensitive and “sloppy”. In its
narrower sense in Dhërmi/Drimades ikoyenia/familje implicitly refers to the members of
household who coinhabit the house (spiti). As it has already been said ikoyenia/familje
nowadays also refers to the members who once shared the same household, but have, because
of better economic opportunities left. They nevertheless still financially take care of each
other. The meaning of family “always escapes the boundaries of the household” (ibid.).
Dhërmian/Drimadean man would never consider his parents or brothers and sisters to be
outside his family only because they do not reside together. In practice the term
ikoyenia/familje often includes one’s bilateral and affinal kin, down to the second or third
cousin. In order to illustrate the shifting meanings of ikoyenia/familje, let me give some
examples.
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