This January, Dr. Michael Galaty, associate professor of anthropology at Millsaps College, will brave a Northern Albanian winter for the first time, snowshoeing into the remote Shala Valley to stay with a local family for a few days. Galaty will document the life of these people in the winter and see the effects that isolation has on them—which should be particularly interesting, seeing as the only ways in or out of the valley during the winter are by helicopter or on foot. Buffalo Peak Outfitters has donated clothing and gear to Galaty and his colleague to help protect themselves against the elements, and Galaty will blog about the experience on the Millsaps website. Click here to view the blog.
Northern Albania is the most remote place in Europe and the only place where tribal societies survived into the 20th century, and to some degree down to the present. Galaty’s research and his role in the Shala Valley Project (www.millsaps.edu/svp) have taken him to Albania several times. From previous trips and extensive fieldwork and research, he and his colleagues know a lot about how the Shala Valley inhabitants live in the summertime, but almost nothing about what goes on in the winter.
The Shala Valley Project (SVP) is an interdisciplinary, regional studies project focused on the Shala River valley of the Dukagjin region of the northern Albanian high mountains. The project supports integrated programs of archaeological, ethnographic, ethno-historical and geo-scientific research. The project’s aims include producing a record of the region’s cultural resources—material and human—and contributing to theoretical discussions regarding cultural isolation and why some societies choose isolation over incorporation.
The SVP has been funded by the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Millsaps College, the United States Embassy in Tirana, the Global Partners Project, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), International Peace Research Association, the University Research Council of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Louisville and two private donors, Bud Robinson and John Stevens.
