History of The Serbs - Ethnology

Ethnology

Byzantine sources report that part of the White Serbs, led by the Unknown Archont, migrated southwards from their Slavic homeland of White Serbia (Lusatia) in the late sixth century and eventually overwhelmed the 'Serbian lands' that now make up Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Dalmatia. After settling on the Balkans, Serbs mixed with other Slavic tribes (which settled during the great migration of the Slavs) and with descendants of the indigenous peoples of the Balkans: Illyrians, Thracians, Dacians, Celts, Greeks and Romans.

Afterwards, overwhelmed by the Ottoman wars in Europe which ravaged their territories, Serbs once again started crossing the rivers Sava and Danube and resettling the regions in Central Europe which are today's Vojvodina, Slavonia, Transylvania and Hungary proper. Apart from the Habsburg Empire, thousands were attracted to Imperial Russia, where they were given territories to settle: Nova Serbia and Slavo-Serbia were named after these refugees. Two Great Serbian Migrations resulted in a relocation of the Serbian core from the Ottoman-dominated South towards the Christian North, where it has remained ever since.

Serbs are genetically and culturally close to the other ethnic groups inhabiting the Balkans. The Serbs emanated in patriarchal tribal organizations (zadrugas, see also Roman pater familias), with the Serb clan system surviving to this day, similarly maintained by Montenegrins but also in Montenegrin Bosniaks, Gheg Albanians and Maniote Greeks. This type of structure was initially part of the Serbian medieval society (feudalism), evolved to the zadruga system that declined in the late 19th century.