Modern rural family and household in Yugoslavia
Authors: Bobic Mirjana 
Published: May 2019

The paper analyzes modern rural household in Yugoslavia, both by region and
at the level of the country as a whole. The author begins by providing a
statistical and sociological definition of basic terms, and proceeds with a
combination of social and demographic analysis. The basic criterion used is
the residential status of the population (permanent residence) based on the
administrative distribution of settlements with the non-city ("other")
population treated as part of rural population. The descriptive basis was
formed on the basis of two types of sources: population census data and
relevant studies, on the one hand, and comprehensive researches of rural
family in the 1990s, on the other. The modernization theory has provided the
basic framework for the analysis of the state and movement in rural
households in Yugoslavia since the beginning of the 20th century, but the
paper deals mainly with social and economic developments following the
Second World War. The following components of the rural households are
analyzed: dynamics and average size, as well as composition of households.
With reference to the level of the social change they had undergone and some
demographic special features, rural households are classified into four main
types: 1) purely agricultural; 2) mixed (with income earned from
agricultural and non-agricultural activities); 3) non-agricultural; and 4)
households of elderly people. The appearance and growth of mixed households
during the pest-war period, following adoption of the socialistic command
economy, came as a result of objective contradictions in transformation of
an individual agricultural household into a modern market-oriented holding,
and its cooperation with the state-owned cooperative sector. Since early
1980s, however, with deterioration in its position, agricultural production
is gradually given up or maintained at the subsistence level, while most
family members earn their living from the non-agricultural sector. These
tendencies were most rapidly observed in Vojvodina, which is the most
fertile region of the country, and most slowly in central Serbia. As a
result of the above social and economic transformation the village was also
exposed to a strong demographic transformation, which was most readily
observed in ageing and feminization of population and its labor force and
narrowing down of family structure to conjugal family united through
marriage, which is made up of aged parents without an heir. The rural
household and/or family have undergone crucial changes in respect of three
main segments: 1) size; 2) structure; and 3) position and role of family
members. This last aspect has been the subject of numerous comprehensive
studies into the way of life in villages. The analysis of family relations
in a village was conducted in two segments: intra-generation (between
spouses and between children, especially of different gender) and
inter-generation (parent - children relations). Segregation of roles by
gender is still characterized by male domination, husband - head of the
family, and son - the heir. Housework, parenthood, and the homestead itself
(due to the increased engagement of the husband in non-agricultural
activities) are the main sources of self-realization of women. Marriage and
bearing children (especially male children) represent the main social
promotion channel for young girls in a village environment, while education
and earning income from work outside the village do not ensure a significant
role in making decisions on family life in general, children's future or
even personal destiny. Incidence of conflict in marriage is rare.
Satisfaction with a twofold role of the mother and housekeeper is very high
as well as understanding for tl1e difficulties of the social position of a
man - the "bread winner" in the current social crisis and disintegration.
The author points to the lack of data on rural households in Kosovo and
Metohia caused by the boycott of the latest census by the majority, ethnic
Albanian population. An attempt was hence made to compensate for the lack of
quantitative information by presenting results of representative
investigation of Albanian zadrugas in Kosovo and Metohia.