Patriarchy in the Balkans: Temporal and cross-cultural approaches

Abstract

The article deals with the history, distribution and ideology of Balkan patriarchy; the Balkan agnatic kinship system; and with the most significant patriarchal family structures. The demographic analyses are based primarily on the Serbian state census of 1863 (the first available census listing women) and the Federal Yugoslav census data for 1948, 1953, and 1961, coupled with archival and field data for the central Serbian village of Oras̆ac for 1818–1975. Balkan patriarchy has much in common with similar well-documented systems in Asia and the Middle East. The Balkan situation was differentiated, however, in that this system existed both within and outside formal state structures. The patriarchal ideology shaped kinship and family patterns, as well as coresidential patterns within households. These patterns reproduced patriarchal structures, but the full reproduction of the system was constrained by economic circumstances.