Zadruga

From Slavic.info

Zadruga (family community, household community) is to Serbs what Mir is to the Russians. In fact Zadruga unites in itself the advantages both of small and large properties, safeguarding the people against poverty, tending them in sickness or old age in such a way as no socialistic legislation or Utopian panaceas could ever bring about. It is strictly an altruistic institution whose motto is all for one, and one for ail. Such an economie-social system, which among the South-Slavs from times immemorial prevented pauperism and the rise of a landless class, is still in existence in some parts of Serbia, but in recent days, at the instigation of the Austro-Hungarian government, it was abolished among the South-Slavs of the Dual Monarchy. Zadruga's essence is the custom of owning and carrying on a household and farm, not individually but as a family association. The male members of a Serbian family continue to live after marriage in the paternal home. If the house is too small to accommodate the young couple, an annex ("vayat") is built. The home may be frequently enlarged in this way, and as many as 50 to 100 members ("souls") of a family have been known to reside together.10 Such family associations are called Zadruga. Zadruga's administration is in the hands of the elected stareshina or domachin (head), generally, though not necessarily, the father or eldest man. The choice depends on character, ability and circumstances. A woman, usually but not always the wife of the head man, is chosen to superintend and direct the women's work and sometimes a woman is made the head of the whole Zadruga. Vivian calls Serbia a "paradise of poor men," a land where there are no beggars in the sense of civilized Western Europe, a land where a certain minimum of a peasant's property is inalienable and no court of law can authorize, much less enforce, the sale of his house and courtyard, his last six yutara (Serbian acres) of land, his plough and his last pair of heifers.11

Serbo-Kroatian Zadruga has been of great interest to many foreign sociologists, economists and statesmen. Sir Henry J. S. Maine (in his books on Ancient Law, London, 1885, and Village Communities m the East and West, London, Murray, 1871), Emile Louis Victor de Laveleye (18221892), in his De la Proprieté et ses Formes Primitives, (Paris, 1874; English translation under the title, Primitive Property, London, 1878), J. Peisker, Turner, R. Millet, Dopsch, P. Dillon, and many others called attention to it.13 Many Serbo-Kroatians wrote books (in Serbian or in German and French) about it, such as Professor M. Milovanovich (1889), Sigismund Cajkovac, Balthasar Bogishich,18 P. Demelich, M. Vlainatz, J. Perich, Milorad v. Cuculich, Ivich, L. R. Jovanovich and Gruich, Milan G. Milichevich, Milorad Zebich, M. Glushchevich, Popovich, M. Markovich, J. Spevac, V. Tkalac, Utjeshenovich, Dragoljub Novakorich, K. v. Vojnovich, F. Vrbanich, Ignatz Vatroslav Jagich, Milovan Zorichich, etc.14 However, I am going to quote here only two English authors, in order to give a better insight into the spirit of Zadruga's organization.

Herbert Vivian 1S who studied Zadruga by direct observation in Serbia, says that it "is the living together of a whole tribe, numbering sometimes as many as a hundred persons, all under the absolute authority of one chief. He was originally the father, ruling over his own children; but when they have married and remarried at home, and their children and children's children have done the same for some generations, members of the Zadruga may be under the dominion of a distant relation. He keeps all the money, makes all purchases, and decides the minutest details of a family life. On his death a successor is elected by all the grown-up males of the Zadruga. Of course, as a family grows, the building has to be enlarged, and sometimes it stretches the whole length of a street. When a member of Zadruga marries, he builds a new wing or pavilion, and instals himself there with his bride; but both are in complete subjection to the chief. Members are at liberty to leave the Zadruga when they choose; but the system works well on the whole, and the sentiment of family induced them to put up with many inconveniences and discomforts.

"Imagine a temperament which can tolerate the proximity and perpetual criticism of a whole array of mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, and you may then do some justice to the boundlessness of Serbian equanimity. The publicity of the life has its advantages, however; for family opinion is thereby brought more directly to bear on individuals, and keeps alive many old-fashioned sentiments which might otherwise run a risk of dying out. Moreover, living in a Zadruga, with its practical co-operation, is, of course, much cheaper than setting up separate establishments. It is an ideal institution to keep peasants prosperous and contented, but it could certainly not be created at the bidding of a reformer for the solution of the problems of poverty. . . . Perish the Zadruga, and workhouses, almshouses, destitution—in fact all the penalties of that uncivilizing struggle for life which we elect to call civilization—will certainly be engendered."

Of the Serbian Slavic Zadruga Emil De Laveleye, in his Primitive Property, gives a specially interesting account. Under this system land belongs to the gmma (German Gemfinde, "commune"), which divides the law among the patriarchal families, according to their size. At the head of each family is a gospodar. He is elected by the community and transacts its business. He is the executive, but acts only with the advice of community. The wife of the gospodar or some other chosen woman is the domachitza, and regulates the domestic interests. The houses cluster around the central bouse of the gospodar. In this house all take their meals. Each community has 20 to 30 persons, and occasionally more. There are usually three generations. When the eommunity becomes too large it divides. The young women usually pass into their husbands' family community. The fruits of the agricultural labor are usually held in common, bat of industrial labor, individually. Each community owns about 40 acres. The aged and infirm are cared for in common. The women take turns in the common work, Communities aid each other. In the evenings, the community meets for songs and dance. Members are allowed to leave. The system of Zadruga allows of division of labor and simple fraternal life. But it is dying before the forces of self-seeking and western individualism. (See LazarevichHreblianovich's Getting the Foreign Workman's Viewpoint, a lecture given at the N. Y. meeting of the Amer. Institute of Mining Engineers, Feb., 1918, published in the Transactions of that Institute, 1918, pp. 8.) Similar communities De Laveleye says were developed all through Europe in the Middle Ages, and existed till recently in Brittany, Auvergne, and various secluded territories. To quote another English version of the Zadruga: "Until quite recently there existed among village Serbians strong associations called Zadruga, and to-day their influence is still very widely felt. As a matter of fact, a Zadruga was a large family or clan, including male kinship to the second and third degree. All landed property, as well as cattle and movable property (with some exceptions), belonged exclusively to the men. When a woman married into a strange Zadruga (they could not marry into their own on account of the kinship), she seldom was given anything but her outfit. A Zadruga which did not subdivide often numbered a hundred persons, or even more. Each member had a fixed duty to perform, and the revenues were common property. The Zadruga was ruled over by an elder, or stareshina, whose orders were obeyed unconditionally. It was he who decided where the young men were to go, and what they were to do. In agreement with his household, he sold all that was for sale, and made the necessary purchases. He also kept the money-box, and saw about the payment of the taxes. At prayers it was his privilege to begin and to conclude. When there were guests, he himself entertained them, and dined and supped with them. . . . The revenues from the land or cattle, etc., were not divided; they were laid aside for the general requirements and seldom for supporting members of the family. The property could not be touched by any one individual, hence even to-day, if a man (not necessarily the member of a Zadruga) is asked: 'Whose is that drove of sheep?' or 'Whose is the land?' he always replies 'Ours,' and never, 'Mine.' In addition to the important economic and social advantages appertaining to a member of a Zadruga, they were relieved of all fear of a bad harvest or rather evil, even of illness, in the same wav that it must appeal to a man shifting for himself and those dependent upon him. The Zadruga also played an historical part in the defense of the nation from the atrocities of the Turks; the men could easily assemble for a collective resistance, sometimes even being assisted by the armed womenfolk,

"The Zadruga has besides its economic, a religious foundation or basis, each Zadruga having its own Slava or patron feast. That it is of remote origin is proved by its having been traced to the other Indo-Europeans. The Celts had Zadrugas at a very early period, as is testified in the Irish Brelion Laws (Maine's Lectures on the Early History of Institutions). Judging from numerous ancient documents the Zadruga was in existence among the Serbians during the middle ages—that is, during the period of freedom preceding the Turkish onslaught."

If we catch only the great spirit of Zadruga we will be able to understand the Serbian proverb, "One travels the world over, to return to Serbia." It is interesting to note that Serbo-Kroats under the Austro-Hungarian rule (in Slavonia, Kroatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Istria, Bachka, Banat, Baranya) lost their Zadruga because the Government used all possible schemes to destroy this great Slavic institution, on the ground that it was not a modern, "civilized" but a Tartar institution, because "when civilization advances individual competition becomes more developed and marked."