ABSTRACT
The general state of confusion produced in Yugoslav society by the Occupation could not leave the basic institution of the peasant family unaffected. Foreign invasion and occupation in the past had tended to draw together the strands of family relationship and to keep the peasant family separate from the rest of society, thus producing or maintaining the autonomy of the zadruga. But this time the effect of foreign occupation was different. By 1941 the mass of the Yugoslav peasants were too much involved with the life of society generally to make such a withdrawal practicable or lasting.
