Sociology and Space, No. 31-32, 1971.
Review article
Thirty-three years of Family Transformation (Research - Reactions - Prospects)
Vera St. Erlich
Abstract
The authoress discusses a pre-war survey of the Yugoslav rural family which
she carried out during the period of the world-wide economic depression and harsh
political coniditions within Yugoslavia. There was much enthusiasm, however,
among young people, especially teachers, to help »the village«. As an acknowledged
psychologist and scientific writer, and as the wife of a prominent physician, the
authoress had a relatively independent position and good opportunities for couritry-
-wide research. First students and then teachers approached her with the request
to investigate family relations. Without official support or financial funds, large-
-scale investigations were carried out which continued for four years and involved
nearly 400 interviewers. Most of these were teachers, in a race against time, tried
to save a maximum of records about traditional rural life before the rising war
tide. When the Second World War broke out, the authoress succeeded in rescuing
most of the material and taking it out of occupied Yugoslavia. She brought the
material to the United States where she obtained assistance for further work on
it. In 1966, the Princeton University Press published The Family in Transition —
A Study of 300 Yugoslav Villages which has become a textbook of anthropological
and Slavic study departments at American and British universities. In Yugoslavia
the study was published by Naprijed, Zagreb in 1964 under the title Porodiva u
transformaciji — Studija u 300 jugoslavenskih sela and is now used as a textbook
for sociological and anthropological courses at universities. The authoress deals
with some of the problems which have emerged since the war, including the
improved position of the woman, the worsening position of old people within the
family and the community, and the crude material interests which have recently
begun to prevail in family relations. In conclusion she suggests shifting the emphasis
of family research towards investigations of emotional ties within the family
and giving more attention to cultural traditions in individual regions.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
119402
URI
Publication date:
10.6.1971.
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