Sociology and Space, No. 115-116, 1992.
Original scientific paper
Communal joint families, zadrougas, and »Zadruga« process of modernization in the modernisation of the Croatian society
Vlado Puljiz
Abstract
In this article the author treats communal
joint families, zadrougas, as a form of
social organization in the traditional
village.
Communal joint families held their own
in the time of the autarkic, subsistence
village economy, when market production
was present only on the fringes of rural
society. State authority supported their
existence, too, especially in unsettled
regions where self-organization was very
present in the population. Austria tried to
retain the zadrougas in border regions
because they were very suitable for the
military order of that time.
The zadrougas began to disintegrate when
the market economy began to penetrate
the village to a greater degree stimulating
the independence of smaller families.
In the middle of the nineteenth century
there was great discussion in Croatia
about the future of the zadrougas. They
had their defenders, but their opponents,
too. The defenders considered the
zadrougas guardians of the national spirit
and a dam to the dangerous social
industrialization and deagrarization that
had taken place in West Europe. One of
them — Ognjeslav Utješenović
Ostrožinski — strongly supported the
zadrougas as the foundation of the
collectivistic civilization predominant in
Slav lands. He thus belonged to the
widespread intellectual movement
(populists and others) that rejected
western historical development as
unsuitable for the Croatian society.
However, such attitudes were not
historically verified. To maintain the
zadrougas in fact meant to slow down the
process of social modernization which
Croatia paid for by falling behind the
countries that are today the leaders
of world development.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
119762
URI
Publication date:
12.6.1992.
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