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Nowadays, with the growing number of village’s youth emigrating to Greece and with
landtenure issues becoming important, the number of intra-village marriages is on a rise
again. Many of these marriages take place in Greece, where young couples continue to live
after the wedding. The majority of them do not consider a permanent return to their natal
village, because they do not see any future for their children there. The main reasons for this
are the lack of jobs, bad education, undeveloped infrastructure, daily water and electricity
cuts, etc.
Theoretically, after the marriage the woman joins her husband’s household and adopts the
second name (surname) of his patriline. I noticed also some cases when after marriage the
man moved to the house or the land of his wife’s father (in 5 of 86 ikoyenia/familje). If the
woman originates from Dhërmi/Drimades and marries within the village, the villagers in their
day-to-day conversation often refer to her by her maiden name or the surname of her
patrigroup. Despite that she adopts the surname of her affinal group, she is never considered
as fully belonging to the affines. Household members of her affines refer to her as nifi, the
bride, for all her life, even after she delivers children. She is believed to come from ali plevra,
the other side, to originate from other ikoyenia/familje. As I suggested in the subchapter on
religion, her position is liminal and ambiguous, always divided between her affinal and
paternal group. Particularly in the past, she had to be subordinated to her husband, his male
agnates, and her mother-in-law (i pethera) and other female affines (kuniadha). In the past nifi
did not bring a big dowry or prika to her husband’s household. Her prika often consisted of a
wooden chest or kashela, in which she usually put some new clothes and some items for her
new bedroom (table cloths, bedclothes, curtains and sometimes a rug). I heard only about rare
occasions when woman brought some land to her affinal group.
1.9.5. Inheritance
Tote/Përpara 51
Most of marriages within the village are decided upon pre-marriage agreements between the
male members of two soia/fise. These decisions are based on the need to keep the ownership
of the land within the village and to preserve the Christianity of the area. Whilst the house and
the agricultural land used to be inherited by the partible inheritance (in the cases of one male
51 In those times.
95