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The Balkan joint family household: seeking its origins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Karl Kaser
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Continuity and Change , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , May 1994 , pp. 45 - 68
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

ENDNOTES

1 This term is a literary, not a folk term and is often misleadingly used. Todorova suggests eliminating the term from historical-demographical analyses (Todorova, Maria, ‘Myth-making in European family history: the zadruga revisited’, East European Politics and Societies 4 (1990), 64).Google Scholar

2 Hammel, Eugene A., ‘Some medieval evidence on the Serbian zadruga: a preliminary analysis of the chrysobulls of Decani’, in Byrnes, Robert F. ed., Communal families in the Balkans: the zadruga (Notre Dame, 1976), 100–17.Google Scholar

3 Todorova, Maria N., Balkan family structure and the European pattern: demographic developments in Ottoman Bulgaria (Washington, 1993), 151–8Google Scholar. See also Todorova, , ‘Myth-making’, 30–76.Google Scholar

4 Kaser, Karl, Hirten, Kämpfer, Stammeshelden. Ursprünge und Gegenwart des balkanischen Patriarchats (Vienna, Cologne and Weimar, 1992)Google Scholar, and ‘The origins of Balkan patriarchy’, Modern Greek Studies Yearbook 8 (1992), 1–39.Google Scholar

5 Mosely, Philip E., ‘The distribution of the zadruga within Southeastern Europe’, in Byrnes ed., Communal families in the Balkans, 59.Google Scholar

6 Hammel, Eugene A., ‘The zadruga as process’, in Laslett, Peter and Wall, Richard eds., Household and family in past time (Cambridge, 1972), 370Google Scholar, and Halpern, Joel M., ‘Town and countryside in Serbia in the nineteenth century, social and household structure as reflected in the census of 1863’Google Scholar, Ibid. 403–5.

7 Mosely, , ‘The distribution of the zadruga’, 58–69Google Scholar; Stoianovich, Traian, ‘Family and household in the Western Balkans, 1500–1870’, Mémorial Ömer Lutfi Barkan (Bibliothèque de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes d'Istanbul) 28 (1980), 189–203Google Scholar; Todorova, Maria, ‘Population structure, marriage patterns, family and household (according to Ottoman documentary material from North-Eastern Bulgaria in the 60s of the 19th century)’, Études balkaniques 19 (1983), 59–72Google Scholar; Todorova, Maria, ‘Recent research on household and family in the Balkans (15–19th century)’, in Grimm, Gerhard ed., Von der Pruth-Ebene bis zum Gipfel des Ida. Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Emanuel Turczynski (Munich, 1989), 11–22.Google Scholar

8 Hammel, Eugene A., ‘Household structure in fourteenth-century Macedonia’, Journal of Family History 5 (1980), 242–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hammel, , ‘Some medieval evidence’, 100–17Google Scholar; Filipović, Milenko S., ‘Struktura i organizacija srednjovekovnog katuna’, in Filipović, Milenko S. ed., Simpozijum o srednjovjekovnom katunu (Sarajevo, 1961), 45–120.Google Scholar

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10 See Kaser, Karl, ‘The Balkan joint family: redefining a problem’, Social Sciences History Journal (forthcoming).Google Scholar

11 The Lika region is part of the so-called Krajina or Republik of Krajina, populated mainly by Serbs seeking independence from Croatia at the time of writing of this paper.

12 It is accidental that the material was not destroyed; it was not supposed to preserved. It was also an accident that I came across it. An alert civil servant of the Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv in Graz (the Styrian Regional Archives in Graz) called my attention to this forgotten box, ‘full of strange material’ – household listings, describing the composition and land holdings of more than 2,000 households. The census was named ‘Conscriptio terrenorum et hominum beeder graffschafften Lica and Corbavia’ (‘Description of the land and the population of both the principalities Lika and Krbava’). It is located in the Steiermärkisches Landesarchiv in Graz, Innerösterreichische Hofkammer, call number 1712–X–268. Additional parts of the census (summaries) are located in the Arhiv Hrvatske in Zagreb (SLK, kutja 4) and in the Wiener Kriegsarchiv (IÖHKR/Croatica, 1714–IV–21).

13 Their origins and the name Bunjevci are still in dispute. The name was first mentioned in the sixteenth century. They probably were Vlachs who, in contrast to the majority, became absorbed into the Catholic Croat community.

14 Kaser, , ‘The Balkan joint family’.Google Scholar

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid.

18 See in detail Kaser, , Freier Bauer und Soldat 456–70.Google Scholar

19 Hammel, Eugene A., ‘Demography and the origins of the Yugoslav Civil War’, Anthropology Today 9 (1993), 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 Cvijić, Jovan, Balkansko poluostrvo (Belgrade, 1922), 224–6Google Scholar; Filipović, , ‘Struktura i organizacija’, 54Google Scholar; Vego, Marko, Naselja bosanske srednjevjekovne države (Sarajevo, 1957), 128–9Google Scholar; Capidan, Theodor, Die Mazedo-Rumänen (Bucharest, 1941), 12Google Scholar; Winnifrith, Tom, The Vlachs: the history of a Balkan people (New York, 1987).Google Scholar

21 Kaser, , Hirten, Kämpfer, Stammeshelden, 399–405.Google Scholar

22 Todorova, , ‘Myth-making’, 18–19.Google Scholar

23 Mosely, Philip E., ‘Adaption for survival: the Varžić zadruga’, in Byrnes ed., Communal families, 31.Google Scholar

24 Filipović, Milenko S., ‘Zadruga (Kućna zadruga)’, in Byrnes ed., Communal families, 273.Google Scholar

25 Vucinich, Wayne, ‘A zadruga in Bileća Rudine’, in Byrnes ed., Communal families, 162–3.Google Scholar

26 Mitterauer, Michael, ‘Komplexe Familienformen in sozialhistorischer Sicht’, Ethnologia Europaea 12 (1980), 67–9.Google Scholar

27 Campbell, John K., Honor, family and patronage (New York and Oxford, 1976), 8–9.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., 19–20.

29 Ibid., 88–94.

30 Kaser, Karl, ‘Ahnenkult und Patriarchalismus auf dem Balkan’, Historische Anthropologie 1 (1993), 93–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31 Vivelo, Frank R., Handbuch der Kulturanthropologie (Munich, 1988), 131.Google Scholar

32 Murphy, Robert F., Cultural and social anthropology. An overture (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1989), 146–7.Google Scholar

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34 Scupin, Raymond and DeCorse, Christopher, Anthropology. A global perspective (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1992), 272, 279–80.Google Scholar

35 Rudolph, Richard L., ‘The European family and economy: central themes and issues’, Journal of Family History 17, 2 (1992), 133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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37 Hammel, , ‘Demography’, 5.Google Scholar

38 Wace, Alan and Thompson, M. S., The nomads of the Balkans. An account of life and customs among the Vlachs of northern Pindus (New York, 1971Google Scholar; reprint of the 1914 London edition), 258–9; Weigand, Gustav, Die Sprache der Olympo-Walachen nebst einer Einleitung über Land und Leute (Leipzig, 1898), 13Google Scholar; Antonijević, Dragoslav, Obredi i običaji balkanskih stočara (Beigrade, 1982), 28–9Google Scholar; Beuermann, Arnold, Fernweidewirtschaft in Südosteuropa (Brunswick, 1927), 174–5.Google Scholar

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40 Filipović, , ‘Struktura i organizacija’, 45–120.Google Scholar

41 Hammel, Eugene A., ‘The Yugoslav family in the modern world: adaptation to change’, Journal of Family History 9 (1984), 217–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

42 The best study is Cvijić, , Balkansko poluostrvo, 127–81Google Scholar. Hammel, (‘Demography’, 5–6)Google Scholar presents a concise summary.

43 Durham, Mary E., Some tribal origins, laws and customs of the Balkans (London, 1928), 13–52.Google Scholar

44 See Branislav Djurdjev on the Montenegrin side and Selami Pulaha on the Albanian. See, for instance, Djurdjev, Branislav, ‘Iz istorije Crne Gore, brdskih i malisorskih plemena’, Radovi Naučnog društva Bosne i Hercegovine 2 (1954), 165–220Google Scholar, and ‘Postanak brdskih, crnogorskih i hercegovačkih plemena’, Zgodovinski časopis 19/20 (1965–1966), 187–95Google Scholar; Pulaha, Selami, ‘Mbi gjallërimin e lidhjeve farefisnore dhe krijmin e fiseve në Shqipërinë e veriut në shekujt XV–XVI’, Studimë Historike (1975), 121–45Google Scholar, and ‘Formation des regions de selfgovernment dans les Malessieus du sandjak de Shkodër aux XV–XVIIe siècles’, Studia Albanica (1976), 173–9.Google Scholar

45 Vivelo, , Handbuch der Kulturanthropologie, 197–202Google Scholar, and Murphy, , Cultural and social anthropology, 117–23.Google Scholar

46 For the best overview, see Durham, , Some tribal origins.Google Scholar

47 Scupin, and DeCorse, , Anthropology, 292.Google Scholar

48 There is still no good analysis on this issue as a whole existing. A good study on the Souli and Himara regions is Ulqini, Kahreman, ‘Phénomènes de l'ancienne organisation sociale à Himara et à Suli’, Ethnographie Albanaise 15 (1987), 197–222.Google Scholar

49 Scupin, and DeCorse, , Anthropology, 292.Google Scholar

50 Ibid., 280.

51 Haviland, William A., Cultural anthropology (New York, 1987), 242–3.Google Scholar

52 The best study on the kindred among the Sarakatsans is Campbell, , Honor, family and patronage.Google Scholar

53 Campbell, , Honor, family and patronage, 138–40.Google Scholar

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55 Seiner, Franz, Ergebnisse der Volkszählung in Albanien. In dem von den österrungarischen Truppen 1916–1918 besetzten Gebieten (Vienna and Leipzig, 1922), 8.Google Scholar

56 Gopčevič, Spiridion, ‘Ethnographische Studien in Ober-Albanien’, Dr. A. Petermann's Mitteilungen 26 (1880), 405–20.Google Scholar

57 Hahn, Johann G., Albanesische Studien, vol. I (Jena, 1854), 148.Google Scholar

58 Capidan, , Die Mazedo-Rumänen, 37–8.Google Scholar

59 Campbell, , Honor, family and patronage, 36–82.Google Scholar

60 See, for instance, Halpern, Joel M. and Anderson, David, ‘The zadruga, a century of change’, Anthropologica N.S. 12 (1970), 83–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The authors demonstrate that in the case of the Serbian village Orašac, despite increasing longevity, reduced fertility and decline in household size, one cannot speak of the decline of the zadruga during the century from 1870 to 1970.

61 Hammel, , ‘The zadruga as process’, 345–6.Google Scholar

62 Kaser, , Freier Bauer und Soldat, 48–130.Google Scholar

63 Urošević, Atanasije, Etnički procesi na Kosovu tokom turske vladavine (Belgrade, 1987)Google Scholar; Urošević, Atanasije, Kosovo (Belgrade, 1965)Google Scholar; Backer, Berit, Behind the stone walls. Changing household organization among the Albanians in Yugoslavia (Oslo, 1979).Google Scholar

64 For an overview, see Beuermann, , Fernweidewirtschaft in Südosteuropa, 129–133.Google Scholar

65 Halpern, Joel M., A Serbian village (New York, 1958Google Scholar; revised edition, 1967), 12–13.