Characteristic Features of the Zadruga (Extended Family) of the Croatian Subethnic Group of Bunjevci
Characteristic Features of the Zadruga (Extended Family) of the Croatian Subethnic Group of Bunjevci

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to introduce certain characteristic features of life in extended families of Bunjevci in the different regions that they have inhabited since the 17th century, with a focus on interrelations of the family members in everyday organization of life and work; the role of the master and the mistress – her duties in relation to other female family members; and (in)formal partition as well as some specific transitional forms of family life from the zadruga to nuclear families. The authors observe the zadruga phenomenon as a dynamic process, depending on the internal as well as the external socio-economic factors, and provide a comparative insight into the zadruga phenomenon in two branches of the same subethnic group, which largely reflects the historical and social circumstances in which such a family lifestyle existed and was transformed. The authors pay attention to the influence of common law, which had a great importance in preserving specific features of family life, despite the strong influence of historical, socio-political, ecological and economic factors on the Bunjevci family life structure in the final stage of the existence of the zadruga.

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