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Domosiletskaya M., Novik A. Inspiration from a Ripe Bunch: Wine Culture in Albania at the Turn of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

M. Domosiletskaya
Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-5599-7878
E-mail: marinaling@mail.ru  

 

A. Novik
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0002-1123-1109
E-mail: njual@mail.ru

 

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ABSTRACT. The article analyzes in an anthropological paradigm the degree of inclusion of wine and winemaking in the nutritional sphere, consumption culture, and economic structure of Albanians in the Balkans. The authors used ethnological and linguistic materials collected in the region between 1990 and 2023 to compare and accumulate complex data: anthropological, historical, and linguistic. The paper analyses the possible influence of religious, social, and gender factors on adopting innovations in Albania’s economic, political, and cultural conditions. It also studies the effects of the global information fields and the dictates of new centers of cultural gravity on all spheres of human life, including nutrition and consumption. As the analyzed materials show, the nutritional sphere and food preferences are among the most conservative ones: habits and prohibitions formed since childhood change very slowly, even if influenced by such vital factors as changes in social formations and ideological/religious beliefs. On the other hand, even in a traditionalist society, the information exchanges spur shifts in nutritional habits. Among the engines for changes, there are factors of prestige (i. e., the standards of the “Western lifestyle” in recent years), a trend to consume “healthy,” traditional foods and drinks (i. e., “products grown in one’s area,” “drinks produced in one’s own country,” etc.), the latter trends do not go hand-in-hand with alcohol, but they fit into the construct of luxury life.

 

KEYWORDS: wine, nutritional sphere, festive culture, leisure time, consumer culture, eating habits, Albanians, Balkans

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8600-2024-3(25) -88-115
UDC 663.25:392.86(496.5)

 

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