Zadruga

The Zadruga (Croatian or Serbian: cooperative, in the sense of house cooperative; also: house communion, house community, extended family, community) was an economic and living community that was widespread among the southern Slavs until the beginning of the 20th century , based on the principles of patriarchal Authority and family . Its members ran agriculture in one household and under the head of the family . The Zadruga existed mainly among the Croats , Serbs and Bulgarians and was widespread in some parts of Croatia , Dalmatia , Bosnia , Herzegovina as well as in Serbia , Montenegro , Bulgaria and occasionally in Vojvodina .

Among the Croatians , the Zadruga also originally formed the lowest level of the people's organization, the higher levels were župa and banovina .

Emergence

According to one theory, the zadruga arose in the 14th century as a result of the feudal period when the peasants were looking for a form of organization to withstand the pressure of the ruling class. The statute of the Peasant Republic of Poljica (South Dalmatia) from 1440 on the collective economic system said:

“ The family estate must be preserved for the son, the grandson and the great-grandson for centuries until the end of the world. [...] The land that a family has inherited from its parents must not be alienated, but only used and exploited and given back to the descendants in the same condition as it was received from the ancestors . "

According to another opinion, Zadruga is said to have been an ancient Slavic institution that had its origins in the collectivist-minded people of the East who had their opposite to the individualist-minded people of the West. In 1848 , immediately after the end of feudal rule in Croatia, the Croatian Sabor declared the Zadruga to be an “outflow of the patriarchal social way of life, which corresponds to Slavic customs” in a bill.

The Zadruga existed in many areas alongside other individualistic forms of life and economy.

requirements

For a zadruga, the three attributes consanguinity , community of goods and work community had to be present. Another requirement was the union of an extended family in one household and under one head of the family. Individual branches of the family could live in separate buildings, but the catering and administration had to be uniform. The outward sign of the zadruga was the common hearth . A family member who built his own stove symbolically broke away from the zadruga. In his novel Hearth Fire, Mile Budak described what such a division looked like in a Croatian Zadruga in the Lika :

" [...] he went to the fire, took a burning log - the largest one that was lying sideways - carried it a good five or six paces from the stove towards Lukan's room, made a large cross on the ground with it and put the log on the top of this cross. On top of it he put some larger logs and shouted with a raised voice: [...] "Here my brother Lukan, and here, my brother-wife Anica!" [...] "In front of our dear, deceased parents and in the name of the Holy Trinity, the Holy Virgin Mary and today's holy Sunday, I found your hearth here, as an older brother. May the grace of the Creator bless him for you and your children ... everything in the house, in the stables, in the hurdles, half belongs to you and to God. «[...] Zekan went into his room, but immediately returned with one Glass of holy water back. With this he sprinkled Lukan's hearth and said [...]: "Almighty, hold your blessing hand over this hearth! May this fire never go out as long as time and world exist. May it never change its master, but pass from children to grandchildren and great-grandchildren and from their great-grandchildren to their children's children, from sex to sex! In the name of our crucified Lord Jesus Christ. Amen! ”Then he made the sign of the cross with his hand over the fire and crossed himself. […] And when he had finished the ordinance, they made the sign of the cross […]. "

Organization and division of labor

A zadruga usually comprised 40 to 50 people, but could unite between 30 (occasionally less) and 80 (and even more, occasionally up to 200) people.

At the head of the Zadruga was the elected head, the householder or master (domačin, gospodar; also: starešina = elder). In contrast to the householder of Roman law , he only had a revocable right to administration and no sovereign right over the people and things belonging to the household. The goods of the Zadruga did not belong to a branch of the family or a generation, but to the entire family as an abstraction. In addition to the householder, the housewife (domačica), usually the householder's wife, was responsible for running the household and the female members of the Zadruga.

The male and female members were entrusted with certain tasks for permanent performance. As a rule, the members of the Zadruga were appropriately deployed according to their abilities, e.g. B. as a shepherd (čoban), cook (reduša), administrator (stopanica) etc.

The surplus generated annually and intended to be shared was, as a rule, divided equally among all working male members over the age of 17. Because of the easier work, women only got half of the male portion. In some areas the householder and housewife could each receive two shares as a reward if they had done well.

codification

The Zadruga was defined as a legal person in special laws for the Austro-Habsburg military border , for Croatia and Serbia as well as in laws for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and as such was regulated several times and in detail until the 20th century.

literature

Fiction

Mile Budak: hearth fire . Karl H. Bischoff Verlag, Berlin / Vienna / Leipzig 1943, DNB 572788169 .

Scientific literature

Cvetko Šribar: The legal development and the socio-political significance of the South Slavic house cooperative Zadruga . Self-published, Celje 1934, DNB 571577962 .

Individual evidence

^ The Brockhaus in fifteen volumes. Vol. 8, FA Brockhaus, Leipzig / Mannheim 1998, p. 99.
↑ Article 73 of the Statute. In: Franz Ritter von Miklosich: Monumenta serbica: spectantia historiam Serbiae, Bosnae, Ragusii. Braumüller, Vienna 1858.
↑ Section 28 of Article XXVII of the bill
↑ Cvetko Šribar: The legal development and the socio-political importance of the South Slavic house cooperative Zadruga. Self-published, Celje 1934, p. 13.
↑ Mile Budak: Hearth fire. Karl H. Bischoff Verlag, Berlin / Vienna / Leipzig 1943, p. 32.
↑ Lykke Aresin , Helga Hörz , Hannes Hüttner , Hans Szewczyk (eds.): Lexikon der Humansexuologie. Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-333-00410-0 , p. 218.

[1] The Brockhaus in fifteen volumes. Vol. 8, FA Brockhaus, Leipzig / Mannheim 1998, p. 99.

[2] Article 73 of the Statute. In: Franz Ritter von Miklosich: Monumenta serbica: spectantia historiam Serbiae, Bosnae, Ragusii. Braumüller, Vienna 1858.

[3] Section 28 of Article XXVII of the bill

[4] Cvetko Šribar: The legal development and the socio-political importance of the South Slavic house cooperative Zadruga. Self-published, Celje 1934, p. 13.

[5] Mile Budak: Hearth fire. Karl H. Bischoff Verlag, Berlin / Vienna / Leipzig 1943, p. 32.

[6] Lykke Aresin , Helga Hörz , Hannes Hüttner , Hans Szewczyk (eds.): Lexikon der Humansexuologie. Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-333-00410-0 , p. 218.