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VIII. Conclusion
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VIII CONCLUSION A Hypothesis of Converging Theories The explanations for the existence of the zadruga have been manifold and with a few exceptions have had implicit or explicit ideological connotations. It is not the task of this work to present an exhaustive historiographical overview of theories on the zadruga (see Vinski 1938, 42–47; Popović 1921; Mandić 1949, 131–155). However, a sketch of the main trends will help explain the roots of some contemporary evaluations. It was already mentioned that, until recently evolutionist thinking was predominant in the field of family history. Whereas evolutionist theories, reducing family development to a movement from the complex to the individual, were on the whole abandoned, one of the manifestations of this thinking was until recently alive in Soviet and East European Marxist family theory (or the one that claimed to be Marxist). In this framework the zadruga was regarded as a deterministic stage in microsocial development, evolving from the tribal commune, and was considered the predominant form in the tribal and early feudal stages of macrosocial evolution. The dissolution and disappearance of the zadruga and the gradual numerical predominance of the small, individual family was attributed to the effects of private property and especially the capitalist market economy (Etnografiya 1980, 1980–1985; Pesheva 1965; Pesheva 1972; Markova 1960). Outside the realm of Marxist jargon but in the same line of evolutionist reasoning , are views of the complex family household as a survival of a primordial state common to all people in the past and encountered in societies with “retarded” development. Such theories treat the zadruga as a general transitional form between communal ownership and individual private property in land. Another less elaborate racial or psychological theory treats the zadruga as an immanent Slavic institution. Some authors attribute its existence to the undifferentiated , common and communal mentality of the Slavs as contrasted with the eternal Germanic and Anglo-Saxon individuality and sophistication. The same juxtaposition in the same line of reasoning, but with an opposite evaluation , contrasts the Slavic spirit of peacefulness and democratic cooperation with Germanic individualism, egoism and aggressiveness. The only reason this prim153 Balkan Family Structure itive, antiquated and generally abandoned theory is mentioned is that from time to time it crops up very unexpectedly and obviously unconsciously amidst some modern argumentation. Following are a few examples, consciously chosen illustrations from works of scholars at the top of the profession. Several authors have pointed out the correlation between the existence of complex households and serfdom in areas like Russia, Poland, the Baltic region, and parts of Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Generalizing on this evidence for Russia, one author argued that at least for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries…there existed certain long-standing norms of behavior to which all sections of society bowed as they accepted them implicitly…Such norms would change very slowly, their origin lying well back in Russia’s past, since in the nineteenth century a similar family system could be found operating in the area east of the Urals where serfdom was unknown” (Wall 1983, 63). The last example is based on the description of the Bashkirs, semi-nomadic shepherds . It is doubtful that this Muslim people of Turkic origins, which was incorporated into the Russian Empire with varying success only from the seventeenth century on, can support a worthwhile argument on something rather undefined “well back in Russia’s past.” Russia’s? Russian? How far back? But the expression itself is curious against the background of an otherwise very careful and sophisticated wording. One wonders what would be the scholarly reception of an unspecified argument framed simply as “something well back in England’s past.” Looking for parallels with the Russian distributional land commune (the mir), some authors took a semi-racial, semi-legal approach, seeing the zadruga as a necessary product of specific traits of Slavdom in a serf environment. Commenting that the household formation system among the Russian serfs can be encountered also among populations outside Russia, one author compared it to Croatia. He pointed out that “the Croatian population comprised large numbers of serfs” and concluded that “a Slav tradition shared with the Russians may be relevant to the interpretation of this phenomenon” (Hajnal 1983, 91–92). A refreshing exception is the very brief but excellent treatment of the Slavic commune (obshtina ) in a paragraph entitled “Esprit collectiviste douteux,” by Portal (1965, 15). The spread and acceptance of the “Slavic theory” by specialists on the Balkan region is highly...