A Tooth for a Tooth

(Cross-posted to Ta-Nehisi Coates)

In certain precincts of Albania, where familial ties still mean everything, minor grudges have a way of spiraling seriously out of control. Take the the sad case of the Morevataj clan, which has been embroiled in a decade-long blood feud thanks to a drunken spat that ended in murder. According to the Kanun, the 15th-century legal code that still governs certain aspects of Albanian society, vengeance for such a crime can be exacted not only on the perpetrator ...