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A zadruga (Cyrillic: ???????) refers to a type of rural community
historically common among South Slavs. Generally formed of one family or a
clan of related families, the zadruga held its property, herds and money in
common, with the oldest capable patriarch usually ruling and making
decisions for the family. Because the zadruga was based on a patrilocal
system, when a girl married, she left her parents' zadruga and joined that
of her husband. Within the zadruga, all of the family members worked to
insure that the needs of every other member were met.
The zadruga eventually went into decline beginning in the late 19th
century, as the largest started to become unmanageable and broke into
smaller zadrugas or formed villages. However, the zadruga system continues
to color life in the balkans; the typically intense concern for family
found among south slavs even today is partly due to centuries of living in
the zadruga system. Many modern-day villages in the Ba
