Underground spirituality and materiality: religious culture under surveillance and persecution in communist Albania, 1967-1990

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the indispensability of religious material culture for identity processes during times of surveillance and persecution under Albania’s communist regime, especially after 1967, under conditions of intensified anti-religious frenzy. The significance of materiality in underground spirituality is investigated through two case studies. After outlining the methodological design of this study and its theoretical principles grounded on the Identity Process Theory, we delineate the historical background in which religious communities and individuals found themselves vis-à-vis their religious identities during 1967–1990. Then, we comparatively study two inconspicuous religious artefacts alongside their stories and the people who preserved and used them. Through these two cases, we strive to demonstrate how surveillance and prosecution mobilize identity processes that often act in dissidence to the political establishment by looking at how communication and memories associated with visual, material religious objects emit emotions and affection.

KEYWORDS:

• Underground spirituality
• religious materiality
• Albania
• communism
• religious persecution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Data gathering was made possible through two Short-Term Scientific Missions of the NEP4DISSENT Cost Action CA 16,213 “Give-Out and Survive OR Save and Risk? People’s Choices to Save or Lose Tangible Religious Heritage at Times of Crisis,” conducted comparatively in Albania and Finland by the author together with Prof. Heikki Hanka. The research design provisioned obtaining informed consent by all interviewees, by which provision the Ethics Committee of the European University of Tirana waived the requirement of approval.

2. A teke is a monastery of dervishes, devoted followers of the Bektashi path of Islam, living a life of solitude.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the NEP4DISSENT Cost Action CA 16213 “Give-Out and Survive OR Save and Risk? People’s Choices to Save or Lose Tangible Religious Heritage at Times of Crisis.”

Notes on contributors

Konstantinos Giakoumis

Konstantinos Giakoumis is Associate Professor of History, Arts and their Methods at LOGOS University College, Tirana, Albania. He holds a doctoral degree in Byzantine, Ottoman Modern Greek Studies from the University of Birmingham, U.K. His research interests extend to the political, cultural, social and economic history of the Balkans with an emphasis on its western parts. His publications include the following studies: