Post by highduke on Jul 1, 2008 19:03:38 GMT -5
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THIS?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_pederasty
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by Western travelers in the 19th century."[1][2] Among these is Johann Georg von Hahn[3], also known as "the father of Albanian studies.[4] According to these reports it was common and socially accepted for young men between sixteen and twenty-four to court boys from about twelve to seventeen. [3]
In the literature, the lover, or erastes, is called ashik (after the Arabic ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, or eromenos, dyllber (after the Turkish dilber, "beautiful")[5]. A Geg married at the age of twenty four or twenty five, and then he usually, but not always, gave up boy-love.
The practice was curtailed by the advent of communism in 1944.[6]
While most prevalent among the Muslims, pederastic relationships were reportedly also found among the Christians, and there was even a special ceremony performed by a priest in church to seal them, called vellameria (from the Albanian vella, "brother" and marr, "to accept"), analogous to the Greek adelphopoiia ("brother making"). Jealousy was a frequent phenomenon, and sometimes men would even commit murder on account of a boy.[7]
According to Naecke, "The Skipetars (North Albanians) entertain for handsome youths a quite enthusiastic love. Their passion and jealousy is so strong that even to-day sometimes a case of suicide on that account will occur. . . . Further, it is quite true that the brotherhood-unions when taking place are blessed by the priests--the two partners sharing the Eucharist immediately after."[8]
Travelers to the country, among whom the French historian Frederick Fran?is Guillaume (the Baron de Vaudoncourt) and George Gordon (Lord Byron) also mention Ali Pasha's interest in this type of love, describing his seraglio of handsome youths, from which he drew not only his lovers but also his most trusted assistants, such as the Greek Athanasi Vaya, who became his right hand man as well as a capable general in his own right.[9]
Some observers cast the practice in a negative light. Fran?is Pouqueville, Napoleon's consul general in Albania between 1805 and 1815, blames the Albanians for being "no less dissolute in this regard than the other inhabitants of modern Greece, without seeming to have any idea of the enormity of the crime."[10]
Others present it as surprisingly positive, especially in light of the cultural values of the educated European audience of the period, for which the publication was intended. The following passage is reported by Hahn as the actual language used to him by a Geg Albanian:
The lover's feeling for the boy is pure as sunshine. It places the beloved on the same pedestal as a saint. It is the highest and most exalted passion of which the human breast is capable. The sight of a beautiful youth awakens astonishment in the lover, and opens the door of his heart to the delight which the contemplation of this loveliness affords. Love takes possession of him so completely that all his thought and feeling goes out in it. If he finds himself in the presence of the beloved, he rests absorbed in gazing on him. Absent, he thinks of nought but him. If the beloved unexpectedly appears, he falls into confusion, changes color, turns alternately pale and red. His heart beats faster and impedes his breathing. He has ears and eyes only for the beloved. He shuns touching him with the hand, kisses him only on the forehead, sings his praise in verse, a woman's never.
Lord Byron, who in the course of his travels encountered this aspect of Albanian culture, may have been influenced by it when he included several stanzas alluding to pederastic love in his narrative poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.[citation needed] Upon publication, however, the relevant stanzas were edited to obscure any pederastic references. The original, an Albanian song found after stanza 72 of Canto II, contained:
VI (original)
I ask not the pleasures that riches supply,
My Sabre shall win what the feeble must buy;
Shall win the young minions with long-flowing hair,
And many a maid from her mother shall tear. ?VII (original)
I love the fair face of the maid, and the youth,
Their caresses shall lull us, their voices shall soothe;
Let them bring from their chambers their many-toned lyres,
And sing us a song on the fall of their Sires.[11]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_pederasty
Albanian pederasty was a custom reported by Western travelers in the 19th century."[1][2] Among these is Johann Georg von Hahn[3], also known as "the father of Albanian studies.[4] According to these reports it was common and socially accepted for young men between sixteen and twenty-four to court boys from about twelve to seventeen. [3]
In the literature, the lover, or erastes, is called ashik (after the Arabic ishq, "passionate love") and the beloved, or eromenos, dyllber (after the Turkish dilber, "beautiful")[5]. A Geg married at the age of twenty four or twenty five, and then he usually, but not always, gave up boy-love.
The practice was curtailed by the advent of communism in 1944.[6]
While most prevalent among the Muslims, pederastic relationships were reportedly also found among the Christians, and there was even a special ceremony performed by a priest in church to seal them, called vellameria (from the Albanian vella, "brother" and marr, "to accept"), analogous to the Greek adelphopoiia ("brother making"). Jealousy was a frequent phenomenon, and sometimes men would even commit murder on account of a boy.[7]
According to Naecke, "The Skipetars (North Albanians) entertain for handsome youths a quite enthusiastic love. Their passion and jealousy is so strong that even to-day sometimes a case of suicide on that account will occur. . . . Further, it is quite true that the brotherhood-unions when taking place are blessed by the priests--the two partners sharing the Eucharist immediately after."[8]
Travelers to the country, among whom the French historian Frederick Fran?is Guillaume (the Baron de Vaudoncourt) and George Gordon (Lord Byron) also mention Ali Pasha's interest in this type of love, describing his seraglio of handsome youths, from which he drew not only his lovers but also his most trusted assistants, such as the Greek Athanasi Vaya, who became his right hand man as well as a capable general in his own right.[9]
Some observers cast the practice in a negative light. Fran?is Pouqueville, Napoleon's consul general in Albania between 1805 and 1815, blames the Albanians for being "no less dissolute in this regard than the other inhabitants of modern Greece, without seeming to have any idea of the enormity of the crime."[10]
Others present it as surprisingly positive, especially in light of the cultural values of the educated European audience of the period, for which the publication was intended. The following passage is reported by Hahn as the actual language used to him by a Geg Albanian:
The lover's feeling for the boy is pure as sunshine. It places the beloved on the same pedestal as a saint. It is the highest and most exalted passion of which the human breast is capable. The sight of a beautiful youth awakens astonishment in the lover, and opens the door of his heart to the delight which the contemplation of this loveliness affords. Love takes possession of him so completely that all his thought and feeling goes out in it. If he finds himself in the presence of the beloved, he rests absorbed in gazing on him. Absent, he thinks of nought but him. If the beloved unexpectedly appears, he falls into confusion, changes color, turns alternately pale and red. His heart beats faster and impedes his breathing. He has ears and eyes only for the beloved. He shuns touching him with the hand, kisses him only on the forehead, sings his praise in verse, a woman's never.
Lord Byron, who in the course of his travels encountered this aspect of Albanian culture, may have been influenced by it when he included several stanzas alluding to pederastic love in his narrative poem, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.[citation needed] Upon publication, however, the relevant stanzas were edited to obscure any pederastic references. The original, an Albanian song found after stanza 72 of Canto II, contained:
VI (original)
I ask not the pleasures that riches supply,
My Sabre shall win what the feeble must buy;
Shall win the young minions with long-flowing hair,
And many a maid from her mother shall tear. ?VII (original)
I love the fair face of the maid, and the youth,
Their caresses shall lull us, their voices shall soothe;
Let them bring from their chambers their many-toned lyres,
And sing us a song on the fall of their Sires.[11]