The chapter on ethnology concerns every aspect of ethnology in general and ethnography in particular which cannot be placed under the chapters on music, dance and costumes or others. The chapter will contain articles on traditional architecture, customs, utensils, cooking, folk tales and whatever other subjects relevant to ethnology, ethnography and related fields.
Extensive research was executed in Albania since WWII and has resulted in many publications on all kind of subjects but under different institutes like history, philology, folk culture, language and literature, sociology etcetera.
In 1962 the journal “Etnografia Shqiptare” was published for the first time and in 1979 after the installation of the Institute for Folk Culture a Folklore Institute was founded which started to publish also the journal “Kultura popullore”. Both publications contain valuable information on the folklore of Albania in many aspects. Some articles were also bundled in the French editions.
Early copies of these journals are no longer available but can be found in second hand bookshops. Some of the later issues of “Kultura popullore” are online available on the C.E.E.O.L, the Central and Eastern European Online Library where articles are available for subscribers, institutional or private.
In 1994 the National Centre for Immaterial Folklor, Qendrës Kombëtare të Veprimtarive Folklorike, QKVF for short, was established as an Institute of the Ministry for Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports. The main purpose of the QKVF is the organization of several festivals and contests on folklore, music, songs and dances. In this way the QKVF is preserving the immaterial culture and offers also a wealth of information for scholars and scientists. Last but not least the QKVF stimulates the youth to take interest in folklore and become active as dancer, musician, singer or other arts. The QKVF supports the amateur groups as well as individual artists. The QKVF publishes a magazine from time to time, titled Gjurmë të Shpirtit Shqiptar, maybe best translated as Traces of the Albanian Spirit, in which articles are published about the festivals, musicians, singers and dancers, new books etcetera.
