1. History and mode of settlement

The Arvanites settled in Boeotia towards the end of the Byzantine Period, moving in from northern Epirus and central Albania, more specifically from the area of the Toska clan. In particular, the largest wave of Boeotian Arvanites entered the region through Thessaly and Magnesia, where the Serbs had expanded in the meantime, while others arrived from Arta and Acarnania through Phocis. Indeed, they settled as farmers and warriors/soldiers (stradioti), receiving concessions of fiefs or pronoiai in return to the services they provided to the western conquerors. More specifically, they arrived in the region in 1383, following an invitation by the Catalan duke of Athens and Hypate, Ramon de Villanova.

It appears, however, that earlier Arvanitic settlements existed in Boeotia, as attested by the Arvanitic place names Kapraina (=Zarkadou) for Chaeronea and Skripou (=Halmyros) for Orchomenus, mentioned as early as the 13th century in the Chronicle of Morea and in other sources. In return for their military services, the rulers offered the Arvanites land suitable for farming and animal husbandry, and exempted them from taxation for a period of time.

The process and the way in which they settled has been studied by eminent historians and archaeologists, like the Dutch Kiel and the British Bintliff. The Arvanites originally settled in small communities composed exclusively of Arvanites, the katounes (in the Arvanitic language katount means village), in lowland and later in highland areas (e.g. Mt Helicon) in the outskirts of other villages. Later, they gradually entered larger settlements that pre-dated their arrival in highland and lowland zones.

The settlement of Arvanites/Albanians in Boeotia is intriguing from a historical perspective and deserves closer study, for it can elucidate the modern history of Boeotia.

2. The Arvanitic Language

The Arvanites are bilingual. Apart from Greek they also speak Arvanitic. The Arvanitic of the region, like this of the rest of Greece, is a branch of the archaic Toska Albanian, significantly enriched by Greek vocabulary.

In general, and withstanding linguistic depreciation, limited ideological self-respect in terms of language and minimal pressure from the official state, Arvanitic has vanished in some areas, but has managed to survive in other. Nowadays in Boeotia, however, everyone thinks it is good to be able to speak a language that is incomprehensible to others, even if its usefulness is otherwise rather limited.

We should mention here that in highland villages, as opposed to other regions, Arvanitic is very much alive and is intelligible by small children, while it is often heard in the street and in the coffee-houses. To date, many people around the age of 40 can easily communicate in Arvanitic, while younger individuals, around the ages of 20 to 30, can understand it. This is attributable to the fact that the mountainous villages of Helicon are rather isolated and strictly endogamic. Thus, linguistic losses are minimal. This does not mean the Arvanites of these villages are not fluent in Greek. For example, apart from speaking vernacular Greek, they sing songs both in Arvanitic and in Greek. A definitive characteristic of Arvanitic songs, however, is the peculiar alternation between 7-syllable and 8-syllable verse, whereas Greek songs are in iambic 15-syllable.

3. Economy: Agriculture and transitional animal husbandry

Then as in now, a mixed economy existed in the Arvanitic villages of Boeotia, a combination of semi-nomadic (transitional) animal husbandry (the shepherds migrate seasonally within a small area) and agriculture. There is a difference between the highlands and the lowlands of Boeotia, with animal husbandry being prevalent in the former and agriculture and market gardening in the latter.

Apart from cereal, cotton growing was and remains, to a degree, quite advanced in the lowlands; this is due to the ample water sources, more so as in modern times water has become more abundant through drilling. This is why the Athenians have dubbed the Boeotians 'cottoners'. In general, agriculture in Boeotia is fully modernized (use of tractors, irrigation machinery etc.).

Moreover, semi-nomadic animal husbandry is linked with the large fiefs (tsiflikia, from the Turkish çiftlik) of the lowlands, as it was simpler to rent feeding grounds in a unitary space and having to deal with a single landlord. By 1879, however, with the expropriation of these fiefs and land distribution, nomadic and semi-nomadic animal husbandry gradually declined. Nonetheless, the traditional social structures were not severely affected, at least not immediately. Semi-nomadic husbandry is still practised.

As indicated by statistics, on Mt Helicon the Arvanites raised mostly goats and to a lesser degree sheep. This was due to the rocky and mountainous terrain of the area. Goats require less care compared to sheep, and need fewer people to tend after them, as they range free. Yet goat-breeding is less efficient in terms of the quality of the milk, the cheese and the wool produced. For example, in earlier times goat wool was used to make capes and tents, yet nowadays there is hardly any demand for it in the markets. On the contrary, the women used sheep's wool to weave items for household use (clothing, bedspreads etc.). Today this wool is sold to wholesale traders, albeit at a low price.

Because the highland villages of the Arvanites are located at medium heights, it was necessary to move the herds twice a year, in the winter and in the summer. Thus, with the first snowfalls, the Arvanites shepherds moved their flocks to the coasts of the Corinthian Gulf, more specifically to an area called Saranti. In the summertime, those owning larger herds and lacking suitable grazing grounds moved their flocks to higher altitudes, e.g. Mt Giona (Kaloskopi and Mavro Lithari).

During this time several stock breeders would merge their flocks under the leadership of the largest flock owner (the tselingas). This type of organisation never took on the form of the tselingato as we know it in the case of the Sarakatsans and the Vlachs. By combining their herds, the breeders could more easily rent grazing lands in mountainous areas and sell their products. They produced cheese jointly or sold milk to merchants for a period of three months, from April to June.

4. Family

In the Arvanitic villages of Boeotia we can observe the nuclear, the multiple nuclear extended family and the stem family. By c. 1920, though, the multi-nuclear family had disintegrated in some villages (this is the time of the land distribution following the draining of Lake Copais), while in other places this occurred somewhat later (between 1920 and 1940), or much later (between 1940 and 1960).

The multi-nuclear family, the extended family ('φαμίλjε ε μάδε') or the askeri, as it was called in this area, underwent the familiar cycle of growth, evinced elsewhere as well, beginning with the marriage of the children.

Once married, the daughters would immediately leave their house and move in with their parents-in-law. The sons would bring their brides to the paternal house. Marriages were arranged according to birth order, i.e. the oldest offspring would marry first, yet younger daughters took precedence over any unmarried older brothers. If all the offspring were female, the parents would invite one of their sons-in-law to come live with the family; that person became a sogambros, and would inherit their property, including the house. The sogambros would often take on the nickname or sobriquet of his father-in-law.

Again, male and elderly family members ranked higher in family hierarchy. The leader of the vertical multi-nuclear family was the father, but in the event of his death the horizontal brotherly multi-nuclear family would be headed by the older brother. These two persons allocated various tasks, agricultural and other, among the members of the family and were responsible for the family 'business'. The eldest female family member (mother, grandmother, eldest daughter-in-law) assigned household chores. The women helped out in the field and tended after the animals, but they were not supposed to plough the land. They could only dig using a pickaxe. The Arvanites preferred sons, for they could, as the saying went, 'guard the livestock with the grades (=rifles)'. Married women in these villages were addressed using an andronym, e.g. Mitsaina (the wife of Mitsos).

In the later years of the father's life, the multi-nuclear family could split even before his passing away. In such an event, the parents would keep with them one of their married sons, usually the youngest (apospori), who would look after them in their old age (stem-family). This son would inherit the family house and the largest portion of their property: he would receive a share of the inheritance equal to that of his other brothers, plus the share their parents had put aside for their old age ('πjες ε πλέικτετ').

5. Kinship

The Boeotian Arvanites form wider kinship groups. These are the sogia (clans, 'σόjτε'). They are always formed by reference to an ancestor three or four generations back, the starting point being the eldest member. Therefore their 'depth' is five to seven, at most, generations. These can also bifurcate with sobriquets or given names (segmental system). Indeed, the father's name is used in conjunction with the grandfather's name (e.g. Loukatsamides, from Loukas and Tsamis, or Kitsomitsides, from Kitsos and Mitsos), while the collective name of the family ('σόjτε') is often mentioned in its plural or neuter form.

The sogia are dispersed in the village. Until recently some such clan cells remained in the neighbourhoods of mountainous villages, e.g. Kyriaki and Koukoura, which means that in earlier times the sogia were probably localized in specific areas of each village. This form of organization of the Arvanites apparently ceased to exist quite early in Boeotia, as revealed by a saying from Steveniko (Agia Triada): 'First you'll gaze upon your neighbour, and then the sun'. Nowadays family members, apart from second cousins, do not reside in the same neighbourhood. It has been said, however, that in earlier times they used to build their folds next to each other.

The clans of the Arvanites in Boeotia were more patrilateral and patrilineal in the mountainous zone, less so in the lowlands. For example, when asked by the author whether the children of a sister or a daughter would be counted among the members of the soi (clan), the Arvanites responded negatively. They claimed the clan revolves around the father, and that when women leave their house they take on their husband's surname. In other words, the children belong exclusively to the clan of their father. They can not belong to both clans. They do accept, however, that the mother's clan has some role to play.

The patrilateral/patrilineal nature of these clans is also reflected on a symbolical level. The sogia are associated with blood ('γκjακ') and the seed, the male semen ('φάρε'). As a saying goes 'Clan, last name and blood are one and the same'. They also argue that blood is 'transferred' through the seed. The author discovered, however, that clans are somewhat more bilateral in the lowland villages and more patrilineal/patrilateral in the highland villages.

The Arvanites have the opinion that the clan lasts seven generations or seven 'cinctures' ('να στάτε μπρέζα'). For example, when they want to determine whether two persons are related, they will ask: "Σα μπρέζα γιαν?" (=How many cinctures is that?). They believe they are also related to their third cousins, and they have the saying 'those bearing the same last name care for each other as if they were brothers'. They also claim that second cousins are like first cousins. They say: "Within seven 'cinctures', the person's characteristics are the same".

In terms of the number of members, larger sogia may include more than one hundred people, while smaller ones around fifty. There was a hierarchy between clans, as suggested by the stock phrases 'σοj μίρε' (good clan), 'σoj ι μαθ' (large clan) or, metaphorically, 'στεπί ε μίρε' (good house, good family) or 'βάτρε ε μίρε' (good clan). A bad clan is described by the phrases 'παλjό φάρε' (bad clan) and, metaphorically, 'ουλίκου με βες' (a wolf with ears).

Apart from the sogia, there are even larger kinship groups, the fares ('φάρετε'), that correspond to last names. Sometimes this term is used in parallel to ratsa (race), while the terms soi and fara are often used interchangeably. This is also evident in the belief that seed ('φάρε') and blood (' γκjακ') go together. Because these larger groups (fares, ratses) do not, in this case, exhibit extensive bifurcation and, to a lesser degree, are formed by secession and renaming, their importance is purely theoretical.

Two more relevant terms are used by the Arvanites of Boeotia: giri ('γκιρί', relatives) and tanete ('τάνετε', the close kin). Giri denotes bilateral relatives, but originally it was confined to matrilateral relations. Giri (from giou, 'γκίου') also denotes the woman's breast, and by extension affinity through 'milk' or common female ancestors. The term denotes residual matrilineal descent. The giri, however, is not used equally in all the villages of the Arvanites.

6. Marriage and marriage strategies

As a rule, local endogamy is practised in the villages of the Arvanites; it is stronger in the highlands and less strict in the lowland villages. In mountainous villages, endogamy ranges between 80 and 95%. Commenting on this practice, the inhabitants claim that the 'first-borns' (the 'good sons') marry a woman from their village. The 'seconds' usually can not find a woman from their village, and take a bride from another place. This preference to local brides is enshrined in a number of well-known sayings.

This strict local endogamy is not without consequences. In theory and according to canon law, two persons belonging to the same soi are not allowed to wed, and this interdiction is binding for kinships up to third cousins on either side of the family. They say: "Up to third cousins cannot wed, beyond that they do not belong to the soi". They also claim, again correlating kinship with blood, that "third [cousins] do not share the same blood, they are not related" ('κάνε ντάλι να γκjάκου'). In practice, however, marriages did occur between persons closely related to each other (third and second cousins), on either family side. For example, villagers consider these marriages to be more preferable than marriages outside the village.

Here, as well as in the rest of rural Greece, marriages involving mutual exchange of brides are not considered auspicious. The brides must always marry in the same direction. That means that a soi can marry women from another soi, but it can not offer its women as brides to that soi. This reveals the patrilinearity of the sogia. It terms of agnation, we can observe its dispersal and a parallel attempt to curtail it. This means that close relatives of both sides marry within a soi with which they are already related by agnation through earlier marriages. This is the so-called bouclage described by French ethnologists.

In terms of marriage provisions, these include the bride's dowry ('πρικ') and her trousseau (i.e. the bride's outfit, 'άρμετ', 'λίνjατ'). The dowry usually took the form of money, arable land, and in rare occasions a plot of land or a house. In later years urban apartments were offered as dowry. The groom was also obliged to provide certain gifts to the bride and her parents. The most important of these was the prenuptial donation, the 'ργκέρντετε' or 'γκενταρί' in Arvanitic, which mainly comprised jewellery, gold or silver coins, necklaces, chainlets, jewellery for the hair ('θέκτε'), as well as headbands, depending on the demands of the bride.

Another provision by the groom was the 'purchase', so to say, of the bride, which the author has dubbed 'portarikia'. When the groom's relatives went to the bride's house to take her with them, the relatives of the bride would bar the gate and would not open it until a symbolic amount of money was paid. After this they could take the bride away.

7. Mentality and ideology of the Boeotian Arvanites

Nowadays, the Arvanitic identity remains strong in both highland and lowland villages, even though these Arvanites are not fluent or even adequate speakers of the Arvanitic language any more. This phenomenon has been observed in other areas of Greece where members of this group reside (e.g. lowland Attica, Keratea, Kalyvia, Spata).

On a behavioural level, the Arvanites stand out among the other inhabitants of Boeotia. Although one cannot speak of stereotypes, it would be useful to explain how they perceive themselves employing an anthropological 'emic' approach (self-reference).

They always correlate their ethnic group with the ancient Dorians, insofar as they have been influenced by the publications of the folclorist Kostas Biris, and they mention the following as the defining characteristics of their group: harshness, gravity of character (Dorian demeanour), patriotism, a conservative mental outlook (belief in traditional values), a dislike of strangers, respect for elderly people, austerity etc. In terms of specific behaviours: besa (keeping one's word), blood feuds, belief in the practice of sworn/blood brothers, cattle raiding and raptio (i.e. the abduction of women for the purpose of marriage). Indeed, in the villages of Mt Helicon it is said that a young woman would be hesitant to marry a young man who had not carried out enough cattle raids. Their extreme superstition is also stressed.