Traditional Agriculture and Rural Living in Croatia: Compatible with the new Common Agricultural Policy? by Katarina Laura Dominkovi A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology Chapel Hill 2007 Approved by Carole Crumley, Advisor Glenn Hinson, Reader Paul Leslie, Reader Silvia Tomášková, Reader Bruce Winterhalder, Reader UMI Number: 3257567 UMI Microform 3257567 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 © 2007 Katarina Laura Dominkovi ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT KATARINA LAURA DOMINKOVI4: Traditional Agriculture and Rural Living in Croatia: Compatible with the new Common Agricultural Policy? (Under the direction of Carole L. Crumley) This research explores the issues of family farming and sustainable practices at two levels. On one level, it compares and contrasts the sustainable farming practices of farming families in Štitar, Croatia with the smallholders as described by the theory of cultural ecology. On another level, it contrasts the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy’s (CAP) vision of sustainability to that posited by cultural ecologists and it seeks to understand the reaction of Štitar farmers to the CAP. My research goal is to explore how the social, economic and environmental health and status of the village, which is influenced by local traditional ethics and agricultural practices, fits with the CAP goals of rural preservation and agricultural sustainability. My research questions explore how Croatian local farmers have adapted to the farming regulations of the past political regimes, in an attempt to provide an understanding of how current local agricultural practices fit the EU's visions of sustainable agricultural systems that are competitive, environmentally sound, and socially just. Hypotheses are framed to illuminate ways in which these rural dwellers and family farming households are adapting to the international policies that are pushing them toward the global market and away from their goals of subsistence and independent social viability. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who helped me along this journey. First of all, I am thankful to you, my academic advisers and mentors, who always challenged me and aided my intellectual growth. I am also grateful to you, my study informants and interviewees in Štitar, Županja, Vinkovci, Osijek, Zagreb, and Brussels, whose stories always brought me to deeper understandings. And above all, I thank you, my parents, who taught me to persist and be courageous, and to the rest of my family at home and in the US, who have always provided me with love and support. This dissertation is just the beginning of the realization of the promises I have made to you all. iv PREFACE This work is based on observations, personal conversations, and the oral histories as told to me by the residents of Štitar. For the purpose of maintaining the confidentiality of my informants, their names have been changed. Many of the opinions and concepts I write about are commonly shared by most of the residents. Throughout the chapters that provide a historical overview I supply maps to make it easier for readers to follow the multiple changes in geographical borders and to better understand where national entities that no longer exist were once located. The tables and figures I use in the chapters to support my claims are either generated from my own datasets, or are incorporated from other cited sources. Apart from the data I collected, I used three different sources for the statistical data, all of which are located on-line at http://www.dzs.hr/. During my fieldwork, I also collected this same data on compact discs. Specifically, I have a copy of the Population Census 2001 from the Statistics Office in Županja; the Agricultural Census 2003 from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Water Management; and the Statistical Yearbook 2004 from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics in Zagreb. Since the first two CD copies were not final versions, I used the on-line versions during the writing of this dissertation. In order to avoid repeating the long names of these three data sets I developed a key. I reference the data source called Statistiki ljetopis Republike Hrvatske za 2004 (The Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Croatia for 2004), published by the Republika v Hrvatska–Državni Zavod za Statistiku (Republic of Croatia–Central Bureau of Statistics) as RH-DZS-SLJ 2004. I reference another publication by the same office, called Popis stanovništva 2001 (Population Census 2001), as RH-DZS-PS 2001. Finally, Popis poljoprivrede 2003 (Agricultural Census 2003) I reference as RH-DZS-PP 2003. In addition, I often use the Croatian names of places or terms for people or practices, which I italicize every time and describe their meaning the first time I mention them. I also provide a glossary of these terms in Appendix F, in which I translate them and include a short description when necessary. In this text, I change these words by number and gender as it fits the context of a sentence. Instead of changing the words by declination according to the Croatian language, I add an 's to the infinitive form of the word when using it in possessive form. Finally, I reference archival documents in this text by the author if known. I also reference them in the bibliography according to the source, year, and box number. The Vinkovci archive did not have their documentation arranged by this system, instead the archivist handed me the materials directly from the shelves. For these documents, I only cite a date and title. The keys, which I use in text to refer to the archive documents, are as follows: Arhivski Sabirni Centar Vinkovci (Archive in Vinkovci) is referenced as ASCV; and the Državni Arhiv Osijek (National Archive in Osijek) is referenced as DAO. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 A CROATIAN VILLAGE IN A GLOBAL SETTING ............................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND ARGUMENTS ......................................................................... 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ......................................................................................... 10 NEWLY REFORMED CA P................................................................................................ 13 HOW INTENSIVE ARE ŠTITAR FARMERS? ........................................................................ 15 NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL POLICY................................................................................ 17 ASPECTS OF FARMING IGNORED IN THE CAP ................................................................. 19 THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTIONS ...................................................................................... 21 WHY A STUDY OF ŠTITAR?............................................................................................. 23 RESEARCH DESIGN ......................................................................................................... 25 2 ENVIRONMENTAL SETTINGS OF LARGER SCALE...................................... 33 INTRODCTION ………………………………………………………………………... 33 ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING OF SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE................................................. 34 Borders...................................................................................................................... 34 Geology..................................................................................................................... 35 Soils........................................................................................................................... 37 Climate...................................................................................................................... 38 Hydrosphere.............................................................................................................. 38 Vegetation ................................................................................................................. 39 vii Geopolitical position................................................................................................. 40 ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING OF SLAVONIA AND ŠTITAR .................................................. 41 Borders...................................................................................................................... 41 Topography and soils................................................................................................ 42 Climate and temperature .......................................................................................... 45 Hydrology ................................................................................................................. 47 Vegetation ................................................................................................................. 47 SUMMARY...................................................................................................................... 49 3 ŠTITAR SWEPT BY POLITICAL REGIMES........................................................ 51 THE FIRST AND SECOND SPLITS OF THE DOMINKOVI4