From the Balkans to Baghdad (via Baltimore): Labor Migration and the Routes of Empire

Slavic Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 816-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Brown

While scholars of the Balkans have frequently emphasized the importance of nationalism in the region, labor migration has long been a critical component of economic, social, and cultural life. In this article, Keith Brown examines the connections between two well-documented cases of the risks faced by long-distance migrants from the territory of the modern Republic of Macedonia, separated by a hundred years. Putting each case into its larger context—U.S. industrial expansion in the early 1900s, and U.S. military occupation in the early 2000s—Brown argues that the study of contemporary Macedonia demands attending to imperial and colonial histories that make clear the larger systems of power in which the country and its people have long been suspended.

2002 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 619-638 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Cindy Fan ◽  
Ling Li

Marriage and marriage migration are often downplayed in the migration literature. The role of location in the decisionmaking underlying marriage migration, and the relations between marriage and labor migration, are little understood. Research that focuses on international marriages and on Western or capitalist economies has highlighted marriage as a strategy, but little attention is given to domestic marriage migration and to socialist and transitional economies. In this paper, through a field study of two villages in western Guangdong, China, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from that study, we wish to advance two arguments. First, we argue that changes in the spatial economy have reinforced the importance of location in the matching and trade-off processes that lead to marriage migration. Evidence of spatial hypergamy across long distance supports the notion that marriage is a means for peasant women to move to more favorable locations. Second, we show that increased opportunities for labor migration—a product of economic transition—have enlarged peasants' marriage market and at the same time promoted division of labor within marriage. The findings underscore household and individual strategies in response to macrolevel constraints and opportunities, the centrality of marriage for understanding migration, and the relations between marriage and labor migration.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Gröger ◽  
Yanos Zylberberg

We analyze how internal labor migration facilitates shock coping in rural economies. Employing high-precision satellite data, we identify objective variations in the inundations generated by a catastrophic typhoon in Vietnam and match them with household panel data before and after the shock. We find that, following a massive drop in income, households cope mainly through labor migration to urban areas. Households with settled migrants ex ante receive more remittances. Nonmigrant households react by sending new members away who then remit similar amounts than established migrants. This mechanism is most effective with long-distance migration, while local networks fail to provide insurance. (JEL J61, O15, P25, P36, Q54, R23)


2015 ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Victor Friedman

The Balkan Sprachbund in the Republic of Macedonia Today: “Eurology” as Discontinuity and Dialectology as ContinuityIn the article, I attempt to uphold the thesis about the continuity of the processes which gave rise to the phenomenon of the Balkan linguistic league. I argue that these processes are very much alive in today’s Republic of Macedonia and in other Balkan states. I develop my thesis drawing on examples from modern languages: Macedonian, Albanian, Aromanian, and Romani in its urban variation spoken in modern Republic of Macedonia. However, while in all other Balkan states the classic Balkan multilingualism is present as a distinctive feature on the local level, in Macedonia it is manifest both on the local level and in the cities. I thus point out the need for dialectological research in urban and multilingual rural sites so as to overcome the limitations of classic dialectology, with its historic-nationalist, monolingual focus. Only the former type of research allows for the study of language contact as the source of language change. Finally, I emphasise the fact that the Balkan Sprachbund assumed its present form in a period when what became the core of the EU was divided into dozens of mini-states, while in the Ottoman state, as Olivera Jašar-Nasteva said, you could travel the whole territory of the Empire with one document (teskere). This means that the idea of creating a unified linguistic alliance with the centre constituted by the “old” EU member states and the Balkans as its periphery is a product of contemporary political situation, not of the historical context which enabled the emergence of the Balkan Sprachbund.Bałkańska liga językowa w Republice Macedonii dziś: „eurologia” jako nieciągłość i dialektologia jako ciągłośćW niniejszym artykule staram się podtrzymać tezę o ciągłości funkcjonowania procesów, które wykreowały fenomen bałkańskiej ligi językowej i ich żywotności na terytorium dzisiejszej Republiki Macedonii, a także na obszarze pozostałych bałkańskich państw. Tezę tę dokumentuję poprzez przykłady zaczerpnięte ze współczesnych języków, macedońskiego, albańskiego, arumuńskiego i romskiego w miejskim wariancie na terytorium dzisiejszej Republiki Macedonii. O ile jednak klasyczna bałkańska wielojęzyczność jest obecna jako cecha dystynktywna we wszystkich państwach bałkańskich na poziomie lokalnym, to w Macedonii jest to cecha występująca zarówno na poziomie lokalności, jak i w miastach. W związku z tym, w artykule wskazuję na potrzebę badań dialektologicznych w miastach i wielojęzycznych wsiach, a nie tylko na poziomie klasycznej dialektologii z jej narodowo-historycznym i jednojęzycznym ukierunkowaniem, jako że tylko w tych pierwszych można zbadać źródłowe rezultaty kontaktu językowego. Wreszcie podkreślam fakt, że bałkańska liga językowa swój dzisiejszy obraz osiągnęła w czasie, kiedy Zachód, zwłaszcza zaś obszar jądra dzisiejszej Unii Europejskiej, był podzielony na osobne jednostki polityczne, tymczasem po terytorium Imperium Osmanów podróżowało się, jak podkreśla Oliviera Jašar-Nasteva, z jednym dokumentem podróży (teskere). Oznacza to, że idea stworzenia jednego europejskiego językowego sojuszu z centrum w obrębie "starych" państw-członków Unii Europejskiej i Bałkanami jako jego peryferiami jest płodem współczesnej sytuacji politycznej, nie zaś historycznego kontekstu, który umożliwił powstanie bałkańskiej ligi językowej.Балканcки јазичен cојуз во Република Македонија денеc: „eурологија” како неконтинуитет и диjалектологија како континуитетCо примери од cовремените македонcки, албанcки, влашки, и ромcки градкcи говори во Република Македонија, во оваа cтатија cе докажува дека процеcите што го cоздадоа балканcкиот јазичен cојуз во минатото cе уште функционираaт во Република Македонија, како и во другите балканcки земјии. Cепак, додека клаcичната балканcка многујазичноcт cе уште cе наоѓа во cекоја балканcка земја, таа поcтои повеќе на локалното ниво во другите земји додека во Македонија таа cе уште е доcта раcпроcтранета, оcобено во градовите. Во врcка cо тоа, во cтатијата cе наcочува кон фактот дека заедно cо клаcична дијалектологија cо нејзината национална и еднојазично-иcториcка ориентаcија, има потреба и за дијалектологија на градовите и многујазични cела, затоа што точно во тие контекcти ги забележуваме изворните резултатите на јазичен контакт. Најпоcле, иcто така cе наcочува кон фактот дека балканcкиот јазичен cојуз го добиваше неговиот cовремен образ точно во времето кога во западна Европа, оcобено во териториите кои поcле cтануваат јадрото на Европcката Унија, поcтојуваше огромна политичка фрагментација додека во Оcманcката Империја, како што велеше Оливера Јашар-Наcтева, cе патуваше низ целиот полуоcтров cо едно теcкере. Значи идеата на еден европcки јазичен cојуз cо центар во јадрото на cегашната Европcка Унија и cо Балканот на периферијата е повеќе cоздадена од cовремената политчка cитуација, а не одговара на иcтроиcките околноcти нa балканcкиот јазичен cојуз.


Author(s):  
DEJANA VASIĆ ◽  
SNEŽANA BOŽANIĆ

The inhabitants of Dubrovnik played an important role in the development of long-distance trade not only in the Balkans, but in other places as well. The cities along the southern Hungarian border were also within the scope of Dubrovnik’s merchants, and thanks to their activities in this area, trade flourished between the Dubrovnik (Ragusan) littoral and the lower Sava and Danube regions. From the fourteenth century onwards, these merchants played a crucial role in the development of trade in these areas and most trade was conducted through them. They supplied the cities along the lower Sava and the Danube Rivers with a variety of goods, but most often dealt in cloth. This was particularly apparent during the Despotate, when Belgrade and Smederevo were developed cities full of wealthy nobles who dressed in fine fabrics imported from Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik’s merchants long dominated trade in these areas. However, the arrival of the Ottomans and the wars they waged in the lower Sava and Danube regions often caused considerable damage to their commercial endeavors.


Author(s):  
Jonathan Schwartz

Jonathan Schwartz: Wedding in Krani: Notes on Balkan Rites of Passage This retrospective essay, inspired by the Biblical wedding in Kana, looks as well towards the future. Its topics are drawn from twenty years of periodic visits to and field work in the Prespa Lake region of Macedonia, bordering on Albania, Greece, and the Republic of Macedonia. Studies of labor migration (pechalba) are orchestrated by weddings, in which villagers are married away to spouses in the metropoles. This is a Virtual rite de passage, especially for the bride. Since the collapse of communism, the breakup of Yugoslavia, and the violence of ethnic cleansing, new imperatives for anthropology have appeared. If once we could direct our interest to the dramatic rites de passage, we now must pay attention to guarding the everyday rights of passage, especially in regions with several ethnic, religious, and linguistic communities. The Prespa Lake village of Krani, half Albanian and half Macedonian, with half its population abroad in diasporas, is an exemplary site for this sort of anthropology.


Author(s):  
Mark Whittow

The Roman world in the second century was remarkably homogeneous, and the ties that bound it together remarkably thick and apparently strong. But what happened when the western half went its own way, when imperial territories were limited to bits of Asia Minor and the Balkans, when the construction of new monumental buildings had slowed to a trickle or stopped entirely, when the epigraphic habit had died? How did political communication work in the Roman empire of the Middle Ages that we know as Byzantium? The answer requires conjuring up a picture of people on the move; of soldiers, priests, students, pilgrims, appellants, merchants, tax collectors, administrators, painters, and builders. And it requires thinking about the messages they received and passed on. Placing the Byzantine experience in comparative perspective to Song China, this chapter surveys the evidence of Byzantine political communication to investigate both the means of transmitting news and orders as well as the underlying networks of shared discourse and identity. It shows that the survival of the Byzantine state depended largely on its ability to create an imagined community as the nation-state of the Romans. The decline of Byzantium and the rise of Muslim identities in its former territories can thus be linked to a failure to maintain effective long-distance communication networks that projected a ‘Roman’ narrative across the entirety of the empire.


2014 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 363-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Baysal ◽  
Burçin Erdoğu

The use of marine shells in the manufacture of bracelets and beads is a well-attested phenomenon of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods of Western Anatolia, the Aegean, and the Balkans. The site of Gökçeada-Uğurlu, located on an island in the Aegean between mainland Europe and Anatolia, shows evidence for the manufacture and use of bracelets and beads from Spondylus and Glycymeris shell. This use of personal ornamentation ties the site into one of the widest material culture production and trade networks of the prehistoric period. This article explores the possible role of, and influences on, an island site within the wider context of long-distance exchange. The life history of shell products is investigated, showing that a bracelet may have gone through processes of transformation in order to remain in use. The article also questions whether there was a relationship between the use of marine shell and white marble from which similar products were manufactured in contemporary contexts. In its conclusions the article addresses the value of materials and of the personal ornaments they were used to make.


Phytotaxa ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 172 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
SANJA ZORAN ĐUROVIĆ ◽  
GORDANA TOMOVIĆ ◽  
VLADIMIR STEVANOVIĆ ◽  
VLADO MATEVSKI ◽  
MARJAN NIKETIĆ

Status of numerous taxa from Silene sect. Saxifragoideae is still taxonomically unresolved, especially in the Balkans. In 1925 Bornmüller described a taxon from northern part of the Republic of Macedonia, first as S. saxifraga var. triflora and twelve years later as a separate species S. triflora. This taxon is listed in the Flora of the Republic of Macedonia as a variety of S. saxifraga. In other regional Floras regarding the Republic of Macedonia and the Balkans it is not included at any subgeneric level, or as a synonym. Delimitation between S. triflora and S. saxifraga is discussed on the basis of multivariate analysis of morphometric and meristic characters. The most significant characters for distinguishing these two taxa are stem length, inflorescence length, longest internode length, middle leaf length and the number of flowers. Considering that it was perceived that these two taxa differ significantly only in the number of flowers, addition to the original description of S. triflora is given. A specimen designated here as lectotype is deposited in JE. Considering geographic range and the number of locations, as well as the number of mature individuals in the largest population IUCN threatened status vulnerable (VU) is proposed.


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