Original scientific paper
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF THE INHABITANTS AND ANTHROPONYMS OF THE HINTERLANDS OF MUĆ AND LEČEVICA
Danica Božić-Bužančić
; Split
Abstract
In the 18th century the villages surveyed here made part of the hinterland of Trogir. It was already in the 15th and 16th centuries that the old population fled before the Turks and epidemic dieases, aspecially the plague or Black Death whose visitations were very fraquent in Dalmatia. The consequence was deserted hinterland, uncultivated land, the hunger. Neither of the two Powers, Venice and the Turks, judged this situation as favorable to their economic and military plans in the region. So they both colonized the deserted countryside by the Morlacchi, the vigorous warriors and transhumant sheep raisers, but poor farmers.
Based on the family names of the surveyed population, we have concluded that in the 18th century single villages in the region were still inhabited by the descendants of some families contemporaries of the great families of Šubić and Nelipić.
Yet with all these newcomers the region remained thinnly populated, as it was the case with the whole of Dalamtia.
The conquered Turkish lands known as »Nova stečevina« were declared by Venice promerty of the State and were shared out to whom the Republic pleased, in exchange for all sorts of services. Sometimes it would give it to the hinterlanders (Morlacchi). The new holders had different duties to the authorities. These burdens were particularly heavy for the poor Morlacchi as is witnessed by archive records and contemporary writers.
Economic discontinuity, barren land, an uneven parcelation, tax policy and primitive methods used in agriculture and sheep raising, all these factors conspired to crate the basis for poverty and delay the march of modern civilization and culture. Consequently, up to Word War II in these hinterland quarters, as well as in the rest of Dalmatia, customs and clothing mirrored the traditional culture, while the dwelling and the diet were marked by poverty.
The paper is supplemented by the data relating to the quality of soil, number of families and population in general, number of domestic animals and a register of family names and nicknames recorded in the 18th century in each of the surveyed villages.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
136223
URI
Publication date:
10.1.1989.
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