LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

the Social Being of the Aromâni; the Vlahs of the
Balkans and their predilection for the Book
johN NANdriŞ
In Memoriam for Costas Tahikas of Samarina
the purpose of this brief overview is not to introduce or define the
Aromâni or Vlahs, but to give an impression of the nature of their Social
Being; their relationship to man, animals and nature ; and their entrepeneurial
activities. It commemorates one man, Costas tahikas of Samarina, as a
paradigm of those qualities. It must omit many dimensions of Vlah culture
and history 1 . It assumes a basic familiarity with these indigenous latinspeakers
of the Balkan peninsula south of the Danube, from Istria and
Vienna to Istanbul and Athens or odessa. the cosmopolitan and polyglot
Aromâni, transcending as they did national boundaries and narrow
definitions, must be regarded as amongst the earliest true europeans.
With minor exceptions, notably in Muzechia in Albania and in the
Meglen in northern Greece, the Aromâni were not agriculturalists and
disdained the occupation. the most the Vlahs of Metsovo would ever admit
to was a fondness for leeks, which they grew in their terrace gardens 2 . the
Karaguni of western thessaly seem to represent a large population of now
agricultural and settled Vlahs. on the whole the Aromâni are usually seen
as shepherds and muleteers, dominating most of the inland commerce
of the Balkans with their mule trains before the advent of the railways.
But they cannot be characterised merely as shepherds. their largely
1 See eg., NANdriŞ, j.G., “The Enduring identity, social Being and Material
Culture of South-east european latinity”. Journal of the American-Romanian Academy
of Arts & Sciences, 19 (1994): 74-111.
2 this may have palaeo ethnobotanical significance for the origins of a plant, the history
of whose domestic ation is unclear since it leaves no seed remains for flotation, but it is probably
of highland origin. I am extremely grateful to professor peter Mackridge for correcting some
of my many mistakes concerning leeks and other even more important matters.