Society-SERBS

Serbia is the largest of the six republics of the modern state of
Yugoslavia, and occupies most of its eastern border. It is bounded
on the north by Hungary, on the east by Rumania and Bulgaria, on the
south by the Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, and on the west by Albania
and the Yugoslav republics of Montenegro, Bosnia-Hercegovina, and
Croatia. Its location is approximately lat. 42 degrees-45 degrees
N and long. 19 degrees 30 min.-23 degrees E. Serbia is ethnically
homogeneous although it contains two autonomous regions. The Vojvodina,
in the north, with the richest farmland in all Serbia, is mainly Serbian,
but includes large minorities of Rumanians and Hungarians. Kosmet
(Kosovo-Metohija), in the south, is the center of a large Albanian
Muslim minority.

Serbs speak Serbo-Croatian, or Serbian, a South Slavic language of
the Slavic Branch of Indo-European. The nearest related languages
are Slovene, Macedonian, and Bulgarian (Voegelin and Voegelin 1965:
100). The Serbs use the Cyrillic script, which differentiates them
from the Croats, who write essentially the same language in Latin
script.

Serbians are almost exclusively members of the Serbian Orthodox Church,
another significant factor differentiating them from the Croats and
the Slovenes, who areRoman Catholic.

The Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes began to enter the Balkan region about
500-600 A.D., moving south out of an area around the Carpathian Mountains.
They did not invade the Balkans, but rather migrated there with their
flocks and herds.

By the middle of the ninth century, the first Serbian state had been
established. From the end of the fourteenth to the middle of the fifteenth
centuries, internal warfare within the Serbian feudal state facilitated
the Ottoman conquest, and Serbia remained a part of the Ottoman Empire
until the beginning of the nineteenth century. By 1830, after many
years of rebellion, Turkey was forced to recognize Serbia as an autonomous
principality under the Sultan. In 1882, Serbia was proclaimed an independent
state, but it was not until 1918 that a united kingdom of Serbs, Croats,
and Slovenes, called Yugoslavia (Southern Slavs), was established.

The 1974 United Nations estimate of the population of Yugoslavia was
21,120,000. In 1953, the Serbs comprised 41.7 percent of the Yugoslav
population. The next largest group were Croats, with 23.5 percent
(Golenpaul, ed. 1974: 292).

Geographically, Serbia is two-thirds highlands and one-third rolling
plains. The region of Sumadija, the heartland of Serbia, lies to the
west of the wide valley of the Morava River, just south of Belgrade.
The climate of Sumadija consists of dry, warm summers; long, humid
autumns, which are good for agriculture; and cold, dry winters, with
cold winds that do much crop damage. The growing season begins in
mid-March and runs through November. Precipitation (annual average--30
inches) is approximately equal all year round, with the maximum amounts
in May and June. Temperature extremes range from 109 degrees to -17
degrees F., but the average warmest temperature is 74 degrees F. in
July, and the average coldest is 35 degrees F. in January (Halpern
1958:6).

The economy is based primarily on subsistence agriculture, concentrating
on wheat and maize. Livestock raising is common, with an emphasis
on sheep, pigs, cattle, and horses (Halpern 1958: 52-53). Wheat has
become the principal crop, since it provides flour for bread, the
dietary staple. Oats and barley are grown for the market. Cultivation
is still for the most part accomplished by hand; mechanical equipment
is rare (as of 1953).

Serbia is a predominantly peasant society. In 1953, 61 percent of
the population was dependent on agriculture. Although this was a 10
percent drop from 1948, many of those who were not completely dependent
on agriculture still drew a large part of their subsistence from it
(Halpern 1958:49).

The division of labor between the sexes is not sharply drawn among
the peasants. Most things are done by all family members, but baking,
cheese-making, weaving and spinning, housecleaning, and clothes washing
are almost exclusively female jobs. Watering the stock, chopping wood
and most agricultural matters are done by the men.

The peasant diet consists largely of wheat bread, pasulj (a thick
bean gruel), and vegetable (potato and pepper) stews, with seasonal
variations and a great deal more variety and quantity from July to
October, after the harvest. Lamb is reserved for holiday meals. Chickens
and turkeys are eaten occasionally. Cheese is made from cow's milk,
but milk is rarely drunk, and butter is not made.

Age at marriage is usually late teens to early twenties. Some sources
report that boys marry at a younger age than girls do, i.e. 18-20
for boys, 20-22 for girls (French 1942: 40; Erlich 1966: 222). Others
report the reverse (Halpern 1958: 189). In either case, the ages are
close. Before World War I most marriages were arranged; presently
only parental consent is required to allow a marriage. Halpern (1958:
41) reports that all the marriages in the village of Orasac (pop.
2,182) were with partners from less than 20 miles away; 30 percent
were from the same village, and another 30 percent from neighboring
villages.

Postmarital residence is almost exclusively patrilocal (Hammel 1957:
63; Pavlovic 1973: 86). Only if a family lacks sons and has a sizeable
amount of property is matrilocal residence likely to occur. In most
cases, the bride comes to live with her husband's family and becomes
a part of their household.

Neighborhoods or hamlets within villages tend to be composed of closely
related kin. These are often clan units. In the nineteenth century,
extended family households called zadrugas lived in a single household
or homestead and worked the land as a single economic unit. Zadrugas
today are much smaller, often with only two brothers and their families,
but are still common. Most range from 6 to 10 members.

The vamilija, the lineage or clan group, is the next most important
social unit after the zadruga. It consists of a number of households
tracing descent patrilineally from a common ancestor and sharing a
common name and the same patron saint. These groups vary from just
a few households to as many as 45, with over 300 members (the largest
in Orasac). Descent is always in the male line. It is these units
that often occupy the same neighborhood.

Two fictive kin relations are also important: godfatherhood, which
is inherited in the male line; and bloodbrotherhood, which is not
inherited. A godfather presides at christenings, first birthdays,
and marriage ceremonies.

After the vamilija, the village is the next most important social
unit. It is administered by a village council, elected by the people,
which decides questions affecting local affairs. The federal government
deals with education and agriculture.

Serbia is still overwhelmingly rural, in spite of a few commercial
and industrial centers, such as Belgrade. Peasant villages in Sumadija
tend to be dispersed, with each house surrounded by its own orchards
and outbuildings. However, three other types of rural settlement patterns
are also found in Serbia. Agglomerated villages, in which houses are
crowded together along narrow, crooked streets, are found mainly in
eastern and southern Serbia. Another type is the road or cross-road
village, with its evenly spaced houses, fields, and well-planned appearance.
These villages are found mainly near Belgrade and in the lower Morava
Valley. The third type is the ciflik, a type of settlement that was
created by Turkish landlords. It is a walled, densely settled village
which originally contained one landlord and his peasants. These are
found in south Serbia (Thurnher 1956: 79-80).

Class structure in present-day Serbia is simple and occupational.
In the rural areas, there are pure agriculturalists, combined agriculturalists
and wage earners, and landless working people. Hundreds of years of
Turkish rule eliminated the feudal nobility. The modern state was
founded by peasants. A combination of a large piece of land, sufficient
people to cultivate it, industriousness, and a good inheritance were
sufficient to make a wealthy family. But this wealth rarely persisted
beyond two generations. Today, the wealthy peasants have lost much
of their land, are heavily taxed, and no longer have the social and
political status of former times, although a successful farmer is
still esteemed. The urban upper class, which began to develop at the
end of Turkish rule, has today been replaced with a ruling and commercial
class developed from the peasants.

Principal anthropological sources on Serbia include Halpern (1958),
Lodge (1942), Drobnjakovic (1973), and Pavlovic (1973). The last two
were translated exclusively for HRAF. Together they provide an excellent
overview of the traditional Serbian peasantry.

Culture summary by Martin J. Malone



Drobnjakovic, Borivoje M. Jasenica, anthropogeographical research.
 1, 376 l. Unpublished manuscript -- New Haven, Human Relations Area Files, [1973].
 Erlich, Vera St.
 Family in transition: a study of 300 Yugoslav villages.
 Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966.
 20, 469 p. illus., maps.
 French, Reginald Michael.
 Serbian church life.
 London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1942.
 7, 64 p. Golenpaul, Ann, ed.
 1975 Information Please Almanac.
 New York, Dan Golenpaul Associates, 1974.
 Halpern, Joel Martin.
 A Serbian village.
 New York, Columbia University Press, 1958.
 24, 325 p. illus.
 Hammel, Eugene A. Serbo-Croatian kinship terminology.
 Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers, 16 (1957): 45-75.
 Lodge, Olive.
 Peasant Life in Jugoslavia.
 London, Seeley, Service [1942].
 332 p. illus., maps.
 Pavlovic, Jeremija M. Folk life and customs in the Kragujevac region of the Jasenica in Sumadija.
 316 l. illus.
 Unpublished manuscript -- New Haven, Human Relations Area Files [1973].
 Thurnher, Majda.
 A survey of Balkan houses and farm buildings.
 Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers, 14 (1956): 19-92.
 Voegelin, Carl F., Languages of the world: Indo-European fascicle one.
 By Carl F. Voegelin and Florence M. Voegelin.
 Anthropological Linguistics, vol.
 7, no.
 8, 1965.


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