Bratstvo

From Slavic.info

The Bratstvo of Montenegrins is based almost on the same principle of independent spirit as Zadruga and Mir. Bratstvo occupies, according to its size, one or more villages; and church, cemetery, meadows and mills are held in common. Several Bratstvos (brotherhoods) compose a Pleme (tribe, pi. plemena), and Rod (relationship). According to Rovinsky two or four households connected by ties of blood are called Trbushchini (diminutive for trbuch, stomach) in Vasoyevich tribe, whilst more than four families are called Trbuch.20 Among the Slavic peoples brotherhood remains clearly defmed only in Montenegro (Cirna Gora, Black Mountain), where it is regulated as follows: sons of one father are called brats, or brothers; their sons are bratuchzi; the sons of these are bratuniche^, and again, the sons of these latter are bratsvenizi, etc. The members of a bratstvo consider themselves blood relatives, intermarriages were formerly prohibited; and even to-day are not common. Montenegrins count pure kinship constitutes a single family, and intermarriage is, therefore, impossible. Any one transgressing the law in this respect is shunned as a godless renegade. Down to this seventh generation all members of a family belong to one Bratstvo, and often have one surname, and keep one house-patron or Slava (krsno vme or rvecharstvo).21 A Bratstvo may live in several villages, but the kinship is not forgotten, and the members take part in common in a combat. At present the common property of a Bratstvo consists of meadows and forest; fields for ploughing which are hedged in have always been regarded as the private property of a family or Zadruga. Landed property, such as mountains, hills, pastures, mill-streams, and other water is all divided among Bratstvos, who even possess each other's own churches. The names of many villages are patronymics derived from Bratstvos. They build, their houses on elevated spots safe from floods and hostile attacks. Bratstvo is ruled by an elder, elected by all its male members.22 He is their justice of the peace, the presiding officer at all meetings, and in case of war is the captain of his company. He can withhold permission for smoking, dancing, or playing; no one touches the food until he has tasted it, no one is seated in his presence until he has permitted it. If there is any trouble among the members of a bratstvo, a group of dobri lyudi (good people) is selected to settle it. Prof. Tucich points out how the relations between the Montenegrins and their rulers is without parallel in Europe. He says:

"Certainly the King is the 'Gospodar' (ruler), but he is really only the chief warrior, the chief farmer, and the chief poet in the country. The dynasty is descended from Montenegrin farmers and is deep-rooted in the people themselves. The Montenegrin does not consider the King so much the head of the State, as the leader of the nation, and relations between them are familiar and fraternal. The King is the father, and the people are his children in a perfectly patriarchal sense. There is no trace of Western European formality in their intercourse. The familiar 'thou' is used on either side, and the simplest peasant shakes hands with the King as a matter of course. But in war time the King's word is law, and the unquestioning discipline of the people is founded on their mutual relations in times of peace— founded on love of the people for their ruler."

All Montenegrins have a friendly feeling toward those who sympathise with their high notions of independence and devotion to their country. The democratic way of Montenegrins charmed many foreigners. So, for example, on October 11, 1895, William Ewart Gladstone, one of the ablest and most distinguished of the Prime-Ministers of England, and an author of great learning, said the following about these "Scottish Highlanders of the Balkans": "In my deliberate opinion the traditions of Montenegro now committed to His Highness (Prince and now King Nikola, the author of The Empress of the Balkans, London, Nash, 1903, translated by V. M. Petrovich) exceed in glory those of Marathon and Thermopylae, and all the war-traditions of the world." 2S He also says: "Montenegrins are a pure Slavic stock: they are not yet poisoned by any foreign spirit. Montenegrins are most moral, virtuous, hospitable, humble, just, loyal, and poorest in Europe. Montenegrins have the greatest parliament in the world—in the open under the clear sky they assemble, and here they are conferring for the benefit of their poor fatherland, in greater peace and unison than any other nation in the senate house. Montenegrins have only one prison and this is empty because crime is unknown in Montenegro; but if a Montenegrin involuntarily makes a crime he goes alone to this prison, whose door is always open, and he stays here until his own conscience tells him that it is enough, telling the officials where and how long he was, and what crime did he commit. Every court and all the people are satisfied with that, and afterwards they again live mutually, nicely, peacefully and in accord." (See his Montenegro—a Sketch—Gleanings, vol. IV, London, new edit., 1912.)

These statements of the famous English statesman are corroborated by many Slavic students of the Montenegrins, such as Medakovich, Ljuba Nenadovich, Milutinovich, Rovinsky, Duchich, Tomanovich, Ruvarac, Vladimir Gjorgjevich (1913), Gjonovich and Bozovich, etc.