Ethnicity Albanian | Current region Northern Albania | |
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Connected families Shala tribe, Mirdita tribe | ||
Shoshi is a tribe and a region of Northern Albania in the Shala valley. The Shoshi name was first recorded in Italian in 1671 as "Sosi".
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Anthropology
The legendary ancestral father of the Shoshi tribe was called "Mark Diti". Mark Ditis brother, "Zog Diti", was the ancestral father of the Shala tribe, and his other brother, "Mir Diti", was considered to be the ancestral father of the Mirdita tribe. Shoshi and Shala is said to have settled the land in a northwards migration from Mirdita. As one of the main Dukagjini tribes, they may have an original tie with the Dukagjini family. Much of their local legendry is , at any rate, connected to Lekë Dukagjini. The area of Kodra e Shëngjergjit, which was the capital of the Dukagjin is situated in the Shoshi territory.
According to local tradition, it was to Shoshi that Lekë Dukagjini, came fleeing from Rashia. A rock that stands on a hill side of the valley, marks the spot were he stayed.
Religion
The patron Saint of the Shoshi is Saint Cyriacus (Shën Qurk), whose feast day is commemorated on 12 or 15 July.
The religion of the tribe is entirely Catholic, in the first reliable census taken in Albania in 1918, the population of the Shoshi were 1,293 inhabitants.