FAMILY RELATIONS BEFORE THE APPEARANCE OF INDIVIDUALISM

From the material surveying 300 Yugoslav pre-war villages the author presents typical attitudes of people living in closely tied extended peasant family »Zadrugas«. Perfectly adjusted to their setting, the young ones show only few signs of individual aspirations and no wish for personal independence. Examples are offered from different domains of life, such as the choise of the bride, when the fiance shows indifference and passivity. Other examples are from father-son relationships, with ceremonial forms of respect and great compliance of the sons toward the fathers’ wishes. The third are from the position of women in the family hierarchy and their complete lack of resistance to their low status. Two explanations for these attitudes are offered: first, the evasion of rules which is possible even under strict regulations, as for instance in bride abductions, a frequent way of evading parental orders in patriarchal villages. Second, the compensations which may be found in the patriarchal regime for restrictions on freedom. In this setting there is great security for youth in every respect, including that of getting married. There is also a carefree life and lack of harsh treatment of youth in this phase of family life. The compensation for masculine domination is shown in a lengthy quotation of a Serbian grandmother’s story. In comparing ancient and modern family life, she stresses the bright aspects of the old ways of life. A conclusion is drawn that the two components of human life — the collectivistic and the individualistic — follow each other like swing of the pendulum. When one of the tendencies has reached its high mark, the opposite begins its swing, gains momentum, and becomes dominant in family relations

Relation of Young and Old - »Peace Time«

»Peace time« is a term used by people for quiet periods before the occurence of great or/and sudden changes. In rural Yugoslavia the term applies to a long era of subsistence economy, patriarchal regime and »Zadruga« order. This epoch ended in varius regions in different historical moments during the last hundred years. In some regions the old norms still remain valid. Relations between the generations had been in balance. The older ones carrying burdens and responsibilities but enjoying authority and prestige, the younger ones enjoying rather a carefree life without hard labor but being obliged to obey and adjust to the higher in rank. Many ceremonial signs of deference towards older people are the rule; they are, however, performed voluntarily with no disciplinary means of enforcing them. The respect towards older people had been internalized and appears connected with affection and consideration towards them. Such order disappeared in a dramatic process in most regions, not gradually but suddenly, accompanied by stuggles inside the family circle, and resulted in the victory of the »right of the stronger«. Together with the infiltration of money economy, the ideas of personal liberty, independence and equality poured in, disturbing the old, stable equilibrium. Some iminent problems of egalitarianism are discussed and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is mentioned. The absurdity of schematic egalitarianism unside the family is shown in extreme form in several Yugoslav areas. Following the stormy process of urbanization ans industrialization many old people are abandoned in villages from which all younger people have left for titties or for work abroad. The innate asymetroy of parent-child relations is stressed, which cannot be ignored without hardship and loss. However, peaceful family relations are not exlusively characteristic of a patriarchal order: there are several Yugoslav regions where such relations prevail, although the regions being far from subsistence economy and patriarchal regime! In the coastal areas where economic changes developed more gradually, and where Mediterranean cultural influences were stronger than Balkan belligerent ones, friendly relations are the rule as they are also in bofle Slavonia and Slovenia! Moreover, relations in Western industrial societies, especially in the United States, England and Denmark have proved that relations of the younger people toward the older ones can be helpful and affectionate, much more than it had been assumed also in »modern« settings. Several indications in Yugoslav areas show that relations are not so deeply disturbed as it appears and that consolidation in the future is possible

Thirty-three years of Family Transformation (Research - Reactions - Prospects)

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