Sociology and Space, No. 75-76, 1982.
Preliminary communication
Effects of the Emigration in Rugova and the Transformation of Folk Culture
Hivzi Islami
Abstract
The consequences of enormous
investments into non-agricultural
activities, the concentration of
economic and political power in
towns and the neglecting of the
development of agriculture and the
village in many parts of Yugoslavia
in the whole post-war period can
today be seen in the dramatic
abandoning of agriculture and the
Village, in the decrease of the
birth-rate and the ageing of the
demographic mass, in the process of
depopulation, in disturbances in
social life and its dying-out in the
village, etc. In some mountain
regions of Yugoslavia, which for a
long time existed, or are still
existing without basic elements of
the infrastructure or social
institutions, the mentioned
processes have gone very far. Some
of those regions, in Kosovo also,
have in recent years born the brunt
of depopulation tendencies and
other unfavourable currents.
Rugova (13 vilages) is one of the
regions in Kosovo which has in
recent years constantly noted a
decrease in the absolute and relative
number of inhabitants because of
the mentioned limiting factors, and
primarily because there is no
electricity or roads, and the process
of leaving the native region began
early. In the period 1948—1981 the
population decrease was 14.6%. In
the period from 1971—1981 it was
27.2%. The population decrease of
many villages was above these
averages, and there are even
villages that are on the verge of
dying out.
Besides depopulation as a negative
characteristic, the effects of
migration from Rugova are also
obvious in many other segments of
social and economic life both in the
native, and the region of
immigration (Pećko polje and the
Plane of Dukadjin in general).
Specific links develop between the
old and new homeland. In the first
phase changes are (reflected on the
economic basis of the folk culture.
In most of the families there is a
double form of occupation and life:
cattle-rearing and forestry in
Rugova, and agriculture in the
lowlands. This makes it possible for
some of the family members to
remain in the native region, and
others to move to new regions.
Under the influence of migration
and development in the lowlands,
transformations later took place in
other sectors of life also, both in the
spiritual and social culture (in
marriges, family relations, customs,
dialect, weddings, leisure, help and
solidarity etc.), and in material
culture (in the structure and
function of the house, in farm
buildings, costumes, tools and
means of work, manner and
structure of nutrition etc.). Such
changes in social life and the
spreading of urban material and
spiritual innovations are stronger
among the Rugovljani an the plane
tham among those in the mountains,
because of the very strong influence
of Peć, and other towns also,
through daily commuting and
external work migrations, and also
the development of education etc.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
119612
URI
Publication date:
15.6.1982.
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