Article
Contemporary Research on the Balkan Family, Anthropological and Historical Approaches
Bulletin of the Ethnographical Institute SASA
(1997)
Abstract
It seems appropriate to stress at the outset that while we continue to adhere to our scholarly objectives, focusing on social structure, we also cannot avoid being concernedwith the ways in which contemporary values are formed. Thus is especially so in societieswhere so much concern, both overt and covert, is concerned with the importanceof "traditions", including those in which patriarchal values play a significant role. Patriarchy can be defined as a value embedded in a social structure system whichemphasizes both gender and age as the formation factors. This structuring is linkedto defining a system of values which guide both family life and broader social units.Patriarchy in the Balkans is given form through patrilineality, patrilocaly and a masculine oriented common law. Patriarchy has many manifestations but certainly two outstanding ones have to do the supremacy and related enhancement of male moral authority through these law codes. A corrolery to this defined structure is the formal subordination of women within the context of an overtly protective family and household environment.
Keywords
- Balkans,
- Patriarchy,
- family origins,
- social progress,
- adaptation,
- Serbia,
- Orasac
Disciplines
Publication Date
1997
Publisher Statement
Also published in the book "Household and family in the Balkans, Two decades of Historical Family Research at the University of Graz"
Citation Information
Joel Halpern and Karl Kaser. "Contemporary Research on the Balkan Family, Anthropological and Historical Approaches" Bulletin of the Ethnographical Institute SASA Vol. XLVI (1997) p. 63 - 72 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/joel_halpern/157/
Creative Commons license
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