Мюсюлмански и християнски домакинства в Родопите от втората половина на XIX до първата половина на XX век
Moslem and Christian Households in the Rhodopes from the Second Half of the 19th Century to the Mid-20th Century

Summary/Abstract: The article is a contribution to the study of historical family forms in Bulgaria. The interrelations of kinship and family structures have been studied in the region of the Rhodopes in a comparative presentation of Moslem and Christian households. Apart from field research material and archive sources, church sexton registers, registers of the civil status and of the population of a number of Rhodope villages have been used. The Moslem households arc presented as formations of a complex structure, whereas the Christian households are primarily nuclear. Complexity and nuclearity are two phases in the cycle of evolution of the households. Two different models have been substatiated for the formation of households: early neolocalisation among the Christians, and the patri local principle of settlement among the Moslems. The causes underlying the differences in the household cycle have been sought in two aspects: marrigeable age (lower among the Moslems, higher among the Christians) and the transfer of ownership to the heir-sons (after the death of the father or during his lifetime). Common features can also be identified in the marital behaviour of the two ethnic and confessional groups: universal marriage, parental control over the choice of a marital partner, succession in the marriages in the family according to seniority. What is common among the households is that they consist of relatives, and the average number of their members is identical for Christians and Moslems. The household structures have been considered in their social and economic context: influence of the political conditions (in the Ottoman Empire and, later on, in the liberated Bulgarian lands), forms of social integration (among the community of relatives, neighbours and the village, as well as within the frameworks of the vocational associations) and economic base (ownership of the basic means of production).

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