Researching from the past: My house is also yours!
Having ancient origins, from the social rules of first Kanuns and peasant habits, the Albanian mikpritja is something that goes beyond mere hospitality. Considering guests and foreigners not as just strangers but, even without knowing them, as already friends or comrades, unlike hospitality, Albanian mikpritja can be interpreted as a sort of project of life: after knocking at someone’s door in a medieval or ottoman house, for the landlord the stranger guest becomes a friend as soon as he stands on the threshold of the house and once inside in, welcoming – l’accogliere – gives origin to some new form of collective life between the two or more of them.
The recurrence of the mikpritja as a strong value up to our days is not so much a question of tradition, as it is a question of collective discipline, a modus vivendi and a habit maturated within the domestic character of Albanian communities. Considering how it has been preserved and inherited through wars, occupations, colonial exploitations, conserving almost the same shades of friendship, of sharing, of care, where my property, my house, and possessions are also yours, it is strongly arguable that on the concept of the mikpritja lies a potential for future forms of collectivity.
In Albanian language, this term is both a noun and a verb. Landlords welcomed their guests and gathered around the room, sitting cross-legged in the lower sofa along the sidewalls, or directly on the ground on fur rugs or large Islamic carpets. The void in front of them was a sort of sacred space, left always empty even when it was full of people. The way it was inhabited was similar to a democratic assembly of people facing each other and having the same role and right to speak within the group. Partying or celebrating a mourning, a marriage, a baby birth, or some other event – exclusively between men smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol – was a sort of temporary form of cooperation: a moment of collective otium where men discussed about politics, about everyday life, family affairs and business, speaking loudly all together or between groups of those sitting close to each other.
However, this form of being together had an ambiguity, this was possible only due to the patriarchal family structure and to the hierarchical role of “The Man of the House” over women. This was the very obscure part of the Albanian mikpritja and the mechanism behind men’s collectivity: when gatherings occurred, the woman (wife, or daughter) was just an exploited servant. She entered in the room only with permission for serving food and regale her husband’s friends, left totally outside important choices and discussions, but still educated with the notion of hospitality.