»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
