half the total population, and the Tosks in the south. Although the
terms _Geg_ and _Tosk_ have disappeared from the vocabulary because they
connote division rather than Communist unity, Tirana officials and the
press have often implied in recent years that the old differences and
contrasts between the two groups still existed. These differences were
marked not only in the physical appearance of the people and in dialect
but also in the way of life in general.

The Gegs, partly Roman Catholic but mostly Muslim, lived until after
World War II in a mountain society characterized by blood feuds and
fierce clan and tribal loyalties. The Tosks, on the other hand, were
considered more civilized because of centuries of Greek and other
foreign influences. Coming under the grip of the Muslim landed
aristocracy, the Tosks lost the spirit of individuality and independence
enjoyed for centuries by the Gegs, especially in the highlands.

Until the end of World War II society in the north and, to a much lesser
extent, in the south was organized in terms of kinship and descent. The
basic unit of society was the extended family, usually composed of a
couple, their married sons, the wives and children of married sons, and
any unmarried daughters. The extended family formed a single residential
and economic entity held together by common ownership of means of
production and common interest in defense of the group. Such families
often included scores of persons, and as late as 1944 some contained as
many as sixty to seventy persons living in a cluster of huts surrounding
the father's house.

Extended families were grouped into clans, the chiefs of which
preserved, until the end of World War II, patriarchal powers over the
members of the entire group. The clan chief arranged marriages, assigned
tasks, settled disputes, and decided what courses should be followed in
such basic issues as blood feuds and politics. Descent was traced from a
common ancestor through the male line, and brides were usually chosen
from outside the clan. Clans in turn were grouped into tribes.

In the Tosk regions of the south the extended family was also the most
important social unit, although patriarchal authority had been diluted
by the feudal conditions imposed by the _beys_. The clan and tribal
systems had disappeared at a much earlier period in the south and were
retained into the mid-twentieth century only among the northern
highlanders.

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