Introduction: Household and family contexts in the Balkans

The structural study of the Balkan family began in the United States in the 1940s, producing several generations of scholars. Such scholarly continuity is much more recent on the European continent. Findings to date suggest the Balkan pattern of male equal partible inheritance could lead to four distinctive household formation patterns. But though it seems that the inheritance system played a key role, it was only in combination with additional elements that a distinctive pattern evolved. These additional elements were neolocality or patrivirilocality; environmental factors (abundance or scarcity of land, remote mountainous regions, islands); economic factors such as forms of pastoralism, mixed production or fishing; and agnatic kinship as opposed to community ties. Future research will have to continue to address the question of Balkan familial diversity, as well as how the Balkans compare to the rest of Europe with respect to crucial familial characteristics.