Yugoslav Peasant Society in Transition, Stability in Change

In order to place Yugoslav peasant culture in broad perspective it is necessary to formulate a conceptual evolutionary scheme for the analysis of recent change. Peasant may be defined as a subculture of which the essential feature is a territorial based relationship between familial units either nuclear or extended and the land they cultivate mainly with their own labor. This relationship has continuity through time. The term peasant also implies the association of these familial units in political, social and economic units called villages. All members of this society need not practice agriculture as their primary occupation nor need they reside continuously in the village as long as their main social and economic ties remain there . Migration of individuals or family groups is possible from one peasant community to another. The peasant is also a member of a national state to which he must contribute. services, in labor, in kind or in cash, and from which he receives as a minimum some form of protection of his life and property against external and internal threats