A zadruga (, ) refers to a type of rural community historically common among

South Slavs South Slavs are Slavic peoples who speak South Slavic languages and inhabit a contiguous region of Southeast Europe comprising the eastern Alps and the Balkan Peninsula. Geographically separated from the West Slavs and East Slavs by Austria, Hu ...

. The term has been used by the

Communist Party of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...

to designate their attempt at

collective farming Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...

after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

History

Originally, generally formed of one

extended family An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem ...

or a clan of related families, the zadruga held its property, herds and money in common, with usually the oldest (

patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

) member ruling and making decisions for the family, though at times he would delegate this right at an old age to one of his sons. Because the zadruga was based on a

patrilocal In social anthropology, patrilocal residence or patrilocality, also known as virilocal residence or virilocality, are terms referring to the social system in which a married couple resides with or near the husband's parents. The concept of locat ...

system, when a girl married, she left her parents' zadruga and joined that of her husband. Within the zadruga, all of the family members worked to ensure that the needs of every other member were met. The zadruga eventually went into decline beginning in the late 19th century, as the largest started to become unmanageable and broke into smaller zadrugas or formed villages. However, the zadruga system continues to color life in the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

; the typically intense concern for family found among

even today is partly due to centuries of living in the zadruga system. Many modern-day villages in the Balkans have their roots in a zadruga, a large number of them carrying the name of the one that founded them. Villages and neighbourhoods that originated from zadrugas can often be recognized by the patronymic suffixes, such as , etc., on their names. This type of traditional, village style cooperation is similar to a late 19th-century Russian system called . Today, in

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

"zadruga" is regulated by the Law (Official Gazette, nr. 34/2011, 125/2013, 76/2014, 114/2018 and 98/2019). It has been debated whether the zadruga was actually as common historically as once assumed. Recent works have pointed out that the word zadruga itself originated only in 1818 and the scarcity of evidence for historical zadrugas.Norman Davies, Europe a History. 390.

References

Sources

* * *{{cite book, author=Momčilo Isić, title=Seljaštvo u Srbiji: pt. 1., 2 Socijalno-ekonomski položaj seljaštva, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lIzuAAAAMAAJ, year=2001, publisher=Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije

External links

Zadrugas in Bulgarian society
South Slavic culture Serbian culture Croatian culture Bulgarian culture Patriarchy

History

See also

References

Sources

External links