Ökologie, Arbeitsorganisation und Familienformen auf dem Balkan

The project focuses on the interrelations between ecology, labourorganisation and familystructures in two Balkan upland areas. It emphasizes on to what extent the economic and social organization as well as the familystructures are dependent on environmental constraints. A comparative approach is useful, because although the two areas provide a similar ecological as well as political setting their social and economic developments are quite diverse. Besides that, the two areas are inhabited by a number of different ethnic groups (Pomaks, Vlachs, Turks, Greeks, Bulgarians, Albanians) who are either Christian-Orthodox or Muslim. In both areas the main economic occupation was transhumant sheepbreeding, but the organization of pastoralism differed in some significant aspects. What concerns the economy at whole it can be said, that the Rhodope Mountains were well integrated in the Ottoman market since the 1820ies, whereas the economies of the Pirin- and Epirus- were more isolated and subsistence orientated. A special focus will be laid on the consequences of the integration of the two regions in the new Albanian respectively Bulgarian states. With the emergence of new boundaries old patterns of economic life had to be changed. The project tries to represent this process with a perspective from below. During the l9th century in both areas a large share of households were Joint or multiple families. Their dissolution took place in different periods. In fact in some subareas traditional patterns of householdformation came to an end only with communist collectivization. The level of complexity of households seems to correlate with the level of integration of a given community into wider economic and political frameworks. Data from the 1870ies on some Christian villages in the Rhodope Mountains which were most market-orientated show a lack of joint and multiple families. A number of questions are connected with these problems, but till today little systematic research on. such topics has been conducted for the areas in discussion and the Balkan in general. For the formulation of the questions a large number of (historic-)anthropological studies on other upland areas in and outside Europe which use similar methodological and theoretical approaches can be used.

The research project succeeded in refuting some widespread notions about life in the Balkan mountain regions in the 19th and early 20th century. A great variety of life patterns could be shown for the regions of this research (southern Albanian and southern Bulgarian mountain chains). It became clear that social adaptation to a mountain ecosystem was not only determined by ecological but also by political and economic constraints. The main research problem of the project was to study the role of geographic and ecological factors for the formation of economic and social structures. A particular focus was put on the requirements as regards labour organisation and household organisation that stemmed from the mountain environment. It became obvious that external factors were also very important for the local social structure. Comparisons within and between the research regions proved for example the importance of political integration: where state authorities were efficient enough to guarantee security, other forms of social organisation developed than in regions where this was not the case. State guaranteed security usually led to a household formation pattern which toward tended toward creation of nuclear families. In their research efforts the project collaborators utilised different sorts of sources (quantitative as well as qualitative) and worked with a comprehensive set of methods, that included statistical analyses as well as fieldwork and interviews. By help of this methodology, the researchers succeeded to complicate widespread notions about the alleged backwardness and isolation of Balkan mountain regions during the 19th and early 20th centuries. On the contrary, mountain communities could have been quite bustling ones, integrated into wider social and economic relations. The project`s results also challenged the assumption that households in the mountains of the Balkans were usually large and complex. In some regions, and under specific conditions, the contrary was the case. However, differences between the regions and in the regions were considerable. The project`s findings are not only innovative in the study of the Balkans, but will also help to understand better current social organisation in the region. They show the interplay of ecological and external conditions for the creation of social organisation and culture, thus revoking the in the Balkans still very popular idea of "ethnic" explanations of the social.