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Berit Backer

Berit Backer (August 3, 1947 – March 7, 1993) was a Norwegian social anthropologist and ethnographer, head of the Institute of Peace Research (PRIO) between 1978 and 1982 in Norway.[1][2] Backer was a human rights activist who fought for Albanian national causes for much of her life. She published literature on Albanian family structures from studies conducted in the village of Isniq, in the Rugova valley of Kosovo.[3] During her first visit to Albania in 1969, she became fascinated by the Albanians, and their culture and struggle for independence. She dedicated her research for a scholarly degree in social anthropology. Berit was fluent in Albanian.[4] She published the book Behind Stone Walls, a social anthropological study of traditional Albanian society. It focuses on the formation and evolution of household and family structures among the Kosovo Albanians. It was written on the basis of fieldwork carried in the village of Isniq in western Kosovo in 1975. Backer died suddenly in 1993 after having been stabbed to death by a mentally disturbed person.[5] John Halliday, editor of the memoirs of Enver Hoxha called her "an Albanian expert".[6] In 2018, Kosovos prime minister Hashim Thaqi dedicated the Presidential Jubilee Award to the Backer family.[7]

Berit Backer
Born(1947-08-03)August 3, 1947
DiedMarch 7, 1993(1993-03-07) (aged 45–46)
Oslo
Cause of deathMurder
NationalityNorwegian
Occupationsocial anthropologist
Years active1969–1993.
Known forWorking for Albanian causes, human rights activism, publishing papers, participating in documentaries, helping Kosovar Albanian refugees.
RelativesEdvard Christian Danielsen (grandfather)
Tone Danielsen (first-cousin)
Anders Danielsen Lie (second-cousin)

Background

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Berit Backer was born on August 3, 1947, as the daughter of dedicated communist Ina Margrethe Danielsen (daughter of Edvard Christian Danielsen) and Norwegian allied war photographer Ola Friele Backer who had photographed the invading Germans in Bergen.[8] They married shortly after the war. However, Ola died one month after Berit was born.[8] Berit grew up in rough circumstances living in Kirkenes in northern Norway and moving several times. As the young daughter of a communist, Berit was sent to pioneer camps during summer vacations. She suffered bullying from other children which supposedly shaped her political views. After she finished secondary school she took a course at the Nansen School in Lillehammer in 1965–1966, and later, in the spring of 1968, she registered as a student at the University of Bergen. During the following years she studied statistics, social anthropology, philosophy and sociology. In opposition to her mother, Berit joined ranks with other young radicals towards the end of the sixties. Her interest in Albania was ignited when she visited the so-called “Lighthouse of Socialism” for the first time in 1969.[8]

Anthropological studies

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Berit Backer became very popular amongst Albanian activists for her dedication working around the clock. Unable to visit Albania, she traveled to Kosovo in 1974–1975 being one of the first foreigners to conduct anthropological work.[9] Her work was submitted as a master thesis[10] for the Institute of Social Anthropology of the University of Oslo in April 1979. In 1982 she published a study of the self-reliance culture in Albania. At the time, Albania was the only country in the world without any debts.[11] In 1990, Ann Christine Eek, a photographer at the University of Ethnographic Museum in Oslo, worked with Berit on an exhibition of Albanian culture in 1990 producing a book titled "Albanske tradisjoner" published in 1991.[12] Between 1975 and 2007, Eek made journeys to former Yugoslavia together with Backer to study the rural life of villages.[13] However the project had to be finished by Eek alone after Backer was killed.[14] In 1992, Backer participated in a documentary film titled "The Albanians of Rrogam"[15] in Rrogam and Thethi, Albania where she met villagers waiting for government officials to decide on the privatization of agricultural lands after the fall of communism.[16] Berit stated in her studies that the Albanian old legal structures and rights to decide on family matters and feuds without state involvement was a characteristic which had enabled Albanians of Kosovo to survive Yugoslav oppression.[17] She also writes that the rural ideal of a man in the village of Isniq was not someone who easily fell in love, as this was a sign of unreliability and immaturity, but rather someone who could keep women at a distance.[18] Backer stated that in 1975 there were more Albanian girls in school than boys and that the 1981 economic crash forced women to be dependent on their husbands.[19] Berit writes that the nusë does not move freely in the house she arrives at until years later.[20]

Death

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Backer was suddenly stabbed to death on Mars 7, 1993, in Norway by a 29-year old asylum seeking Kosovar Albanian man suffering from paranoia.[21] The trial at the City Court of Oslo concluded that the perpetrator was mentally unstable and was sentenced to five years of preventive detention inside the psychiatric health service.[22] He received citizenship in 2001. According to photographer Per Erik Åström, who had been in a relationship with Berit, the perpetrator had murdered Berit at her home as a result of her work of abortion laws for Albanian migrant women in Norway. According to the police interrogation, he had been deeply offended by her immoral suggestions and that it was his duty to deliver a punishment.[23] The police found the perpetrators body in 2013 in a lake.

Bibliography

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  • Behind Stone Walls : Changing Household Organisation among the Albanians of Kosovo.[24]
  • Self-Reliance under Socialism – The Case of Albania

References

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  1. ^ PRIO, PRIO. "Berit Backer (1947–93) was researcher at PRIO 1978–1982, specializing on the Albanian population in Yugoslavia and Albania. Mag Art Social Anthropology in 1979". PRIO.
  2. ^ Doja, Albert (2012). "Customary Laws, Folk Culture, and Social Lifeworlds: Albanian Studies in Critical Perspective". In Luka Breneselovic (ed.). Spomenica Valtazara Bogišića o stogodišnjici njegove smrti [Gedächtnisschrift für Valtazar Bogišić zur 100. Wiederkehr seines Todestages]. Vol. 2. Institute of Comparative Law. pp. 183–199.
  3. ^ Marku, Hana (20 July 2015). "Kosovar love, marriage and family in 1975". Prishtina Insight. No. Berit Backer. Prishtina Insight. Prishtina Insight. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  4. ^ Young, Antonia (1994). "Obituary: Berit Backer". Anthropology of East Europe Review. 12 (1). Colgate University, Hamilton, NY 13346): c/o Department of Sociology/Anthropology: 3.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  5. ^ Elsie, Robert (2010). Historical Dictionary of Albania. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-8108-6188-6.
  6. ^ Hoxha, Enver; Halliday, Jon (1986). The Artful Albanian: Memoirs of Enver Hoxha. Chatto & Windus. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-7011-2970-5.
  7. ^ Thaçi, President of the Republic of Kosovo-Hashim (2018). "President Thaçi awarded the Presidential Jubilee Medal to Anthropologist Berit Backer". President of the Republic of Kosovo – Hashim Thaçi. No. Backer family receives an award. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  8. ^ a b c European Stability Initiative website, Behind Stone Walls - Changing Household Organization among the Albanians of Kosovo, page 8
  9. ^ Elsie, Robert (2004). Historical Dictionary of Kosova. Scarecrow Press. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-8108-5309-6.
  10. ^ Balkan Insight website, Book Review - Portrait of Vanished World of Rural, article by Anna Di Lellio dated February 15, 2022
  11. ^ Backer, Berit (1982). "Self-Reliance under Socialism. The Case of Albania". Journal of Peace Research. 19 (4): 355–367. doi:10.1177/002234338201900405. JSTOR 424349. S2CID 110557240.
  12. ^ Allcock, John B.; Young, Antonia (2000). Black Lambs & Grey Falcons: Women Travellers in the Balkans. Berghahn Books. p. 253. ISBN 978-1-57181-744-0.
  13. ^ "Ann Christine Eek". Moderna Museet i Stockholm.
  14. ^ Lundahl, Johan (28 June 2006). "Med tiden som vapen (with time as a weapon)". dt.se (in Swedish). No. Berit Backers work. MittMedia. DT. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  15. ^ Wason, Berit Backer., David (1991). "Film : "The Albanians of Rrogam" – RAI Ethnographic Film Catalogue". RAI FILM FESTIVAL. No. Length: 51 minutes. © Royal Anthropological Institute, 2019. Disappearing World Series. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  16. ^ Anthropologists, European Association of Social (2001). Anthropology of Violence and Conflict. Psychology Press. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-415-22905-0.
  17. ^ Sörensen, Jens Stilhoff (2009). State Collapse and Reconstruction in the Periphery: Political Economy, Ethnicity and Development in Yugoslavia, Serbia and Kosovo. Berghahn Books. p. 65. ISBN 978-1-84545-919-2.
  18. ^ Hemming, Andreas; Kera, Gentiana; Pandelejmoni, Enriketa (2012). Albania: Family, Society and Culture in the 20th Century. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 168. ISBN 978-3-643-50144-8.
  19. ^ Ante, Arta (2010). State Building and Development: Two Sides of the Same Coin?; Exploring the Case of Kosovo. disserta Verlag. p. 284. ISBN 978-3-942109-22-2.
  20. ^ The Anthropology of East Europe Review. Field and International Study Program, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University [and] Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Central Connecticut State University. 1998. p. 46.
  21. ^ Andersen, sociologist and philologist., Bjoern. Progër – A village in the neighbourhood of Korça in Southern Albania (PDF) (This article is a part of »Two steps forward? Albania and the Albanians. Articles«. It may be quoted free of charge, but only with a proper reference. ed.). Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  22. ^ Backer. Edited by Robert Elsie and Antonia Young, with an introduction and photographs by Ann Christine Eek. This book is dedicated to Hajria, Miradia, Mirusha and Rabia – girls who shocked the village by going to school., Berit (2003). BEHIND STONE WALLS CHANGING HOUSEHOLD ORGANIZATION AMONG THE ALBANIANS OF KOSOVA (PDF) (European Stability Initiative – ESI ed.). Dukagjini Balkan Books. p. 12. Retrieved 4 August 2019. {{cite book}}: |last1= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ Åström, Per Erik (2015). "Flyktingen, kärleken, döden och ett begagnat objektiv". Fotosidan (in Swedish). Dag för dag MINA BILDER OCH TANKAR FÖR DAGEN (My relationship with Berit Backer). Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  24. ^ Behind Stone Walls : Changing Household Organisation among the Albanians of Kosovo.
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