That family systems are more complicated and that means that the turns of history could have been something else is a context speculated here.
Slovenia is in Witchdoctor knowledge, a unique place in Europe which has at least somewhat documented family system before the Stem Family violent invasion from the north Europe and consequent mutation.
So, there is a good history track after 7, 8 century of the family organization of the Slovenians, who already had the notion to be something like “Slovenians” and still one can read easily the first written words in Slovenian around the 10th century.
The family was a communitarian type where the Family = Property (plus Capital), Power, Division of labor, Kinship network and social network, Influence, = Wealth and structure was undivided!
The so called family had up to 300 members and in fact it worked as a kind of Corporation where all members inside it where stakeholders. If all was going well so was the wealth of all rising proportionally. Strangely , the word to define it is Zadruga even today. It could be translated into cooperative, but that is nearest and furthest possible comparison. Slovenian etymological dictionary defines it as a big family. A sort of clan or lineage group, with other meanings as comrade or friend or similar to companion. The “ zadruga” was federated into village communities into a “Župa” a sort of council of all clans or lineage groups. A sort of township or a county which , unbelievable but true, elected a mayor or their representative leader.
Also the zadruga had the chosen body selected by the elderly or maybe by the males or by the whole community consensus!
At that time this was a far cry from what was going on around this people place.
A stem family structure is a multi-generational household where one designated child stays with their parents after marriage to continue the family line, while other siblings leave – AI definition. Definitely it is a male heir who inherits and this is completely opposite on what was going on at the same time in Slovenian family system.
Surrounded by this Frank – western Germans or Italic stem families which were there to invade the living space of Slovenian federation of clans and lineages, and with the brute force of the Catholic church who was already a methaphysic Father and Son structure which derived from some patrilinear male family with a holy spirit as a cherry on the cake.
Yes Slovenians had at the time a very articulated religion which, after it went underground for more than a thousand years is still to be found as a local worship in some places in Slovenia even it was ostracized until well after the second world war and its members imprisoned or harassed!
So, the joint attack of Germans , Italics and company of stem system defeated the Slovenian federation but in 772 AD the Slovenian Zadruga federation strikes back and gains part of the lost territory, pushing out Germans and other stem families fans and exterminates the catholic priests and even the converted Slovenians but , alas, to no avail, the Stem Rule and the catholic church take over sometimes after the social structure of the Slovenians and “normalize” them. They became serfs to Overlords of mostly foreign rulers. The AustroHungaric Empire englobed all in a Stem family structure and completed the ordnung and discipline drill in Slovenia. Slovenians at the surface became like Germans.
What if? What if Slovenians would have won the battle against the stem system?
Would we have seen and be living in some other world?
Not that Witchdoctor is a fan of the zadruga. Zadruga certainly had the strong social control of its members, strict sexual rules, even probably a mafia style social life ( Sicilian millefoglie comes back on the scene), and definitely it was not a free speech free corner. But, on the other hand the German Stem Family was and is an autocratic and collectivist drill machine of inequality- see Emmanuel Todd, so , the choice is hard. But, Zadruga was what we today call the public Corporation with only inner stakeholders and equal ownership of participants and today corporations are even more deadly to live in than this.
Willy nilly, this hybridization and grafting of two opposed family systems on unconscious level is still here, today.
What they have in common is Authority and obeying.
The egalitarian stance, concept or attitude has morphed into a collective envy. Nobody has to stick out! What the fuck he or she think she is? Keep down!
Quiet! It is not for a public. Who do you think you are? Why are you showing off?
On the other hand, the mainstream populace regards a crook who succeeded to be, like even a president or a mayor of a major city as a hero? This guy knows how it is done!!
Znajdi se! This is another almost untranslatable concept in puritan English.
Strangely the dictionaries, especially Slovenian try that the practice of “znajdi se” is a hidden gem.
The concept means on how to behave or speak or act in any way, legal or illegal in order achieve ones goal.
AI in negative tone, which is fine:
Ruthless: Cruel, showing no mercy or pity to get results.
• Underhanded: Marked by secrecy, deception, and unfair actions.
• Nefarious: Wickedly criminal, vile, and completely devoid of morals.
• Devious: Using indirect, deceitful, and crooked ways to succeed.
• Mercenary
• “Znajdi se” is a common devious practice
Obedience and the respect of authority is a common trait at the surface and so this people are like that and they are copy cats in social life. But even this is muddled by the balcanic south influence and immigration, a moussaka is really multilayered and hard to define because the forces- egalitarian and inequality clash until today, with the treacherous tactics learned from the byzantine practices of former Yugoslavian brotherhood. A Sort of “pretending to” is pretty well developed- Being ruled over by some foreign bodies they adapted in never being straightforward as German stem family are- as E. Todd states.
So what means “potuhnjeno” in english:
Sneaky: Acting or behaving in a furtive, underhand, or sly manner
Furtive: Attempting to avoid notice or attention, often because of a guilty feeling.
Underhand: Acting or done in a secret and dishonest way.
Stealthily: Moving or acting in a cautious and surreptitious manner, so as not to be seen or heard.
From this examples we can see that Slovenian language is in many cases superior to English. They say it and do it with one word, in even more meanings!
The clash between egalitarian autoctone roots, and here E. Todd is dead wrong defining communism as an import article in Slovenia, was terrible in the second world war, where the atheist- communist resistance – the egalitarian-clashed with the catholic pro Nazi part – catholic stem- and made tens of thousands of dead in war time and the same after the end of the second world war with the extra judicially killings of so called collaborators after the war. The catholics sided , so they say, with the lesser evil- the Nazi Germany , in order to fight the atheist communism. As history proved, they were both on the wrong side of history and the killings were only a waste of human life and complete stupidity. They still did not reach an agreement on what happened and who is to blame up to today 16.6.2026.
So, even in a stem family rule, the surfacing of the stara pravda-”Stara pravda (literally “old justice” or “old rights” in Slovenian) is a historic socio-political concept that translates to “the old law” or “ancient rights.” It refers to the traditional, customary laws and freedoms that peasants in the historical Slovenian lands believed were guaranteed to them before feudal lords gradually increased their taxes, serfdom, and obligations. “
This ideas never went out of history , the old idea or myth of Carantania justice lives on.
The other consequence of the socialist revolution which nationalized all land and business was that the Stem Family system before the 2ndw.war was working very fine on the economic level. The stem families built up a lot of small, medium and big mostly family businesses and with the speed up of the industrial revolution, the austro hungaric rules and mindset the place was doing well, better than the west Italian neighbors! Even dis equality was diminishing.
Be Beheading all this entrepreneur forces the economic situation went down. The new Socialist class at the beginning had no idea how an economy is led or had no people able to run it, so they used the old owners and forced them to teach the new socialist class how things are done, if not, prison. That was the case of Witchdoctor wealthy stem family.
The stem family authoritarian collectivism morphed in hybrid polarization in current Slovenia.
AI summary:
The stem family is a historically recognized household structure where one child marries and remains with the parents to continue the lineage, while siblings leave to form independent households. It is characterized by authoritarianism (a strong, centralized parental or patriarchal figure) and inequality (typically, the eldest son inherits the estate). [1, 2, 3, 4]
This structure shapes cultural values, often fostering an authoritarian collectivism—a societal framework where individuals prioritize group harmony, hierarchy, and obligation over individual autonomy, deeply influencing political and social behaviors.
Emmanuel Todd’s Typology: Anthropologist Emmanuel Todd theorized that the stem family dictates broader regional and political tendencies, emphasizing authority over absolute individual liberty
Authoritarian Collectivism
Unlike the pure individualism found in absolute nuclear families, the stem family model operates on vertical authority paired with collective familial responsibility. Key features include: [1]
• Inclusion and Duty: The inheriting child receives the property but accepts the collective obligation to care for aging parents and, historically, provide for unmarried siblings. [1, 2]
• Social Stratification: Institutionalized inequality and respect for authority tend to translate into more hierarchical, class-conscious, and rule-oriented societies. [1, 2]
• Cultural Transmission: This environment strongly emphasizes social conformity, filial piety, and group cohesion, directly impacting how individuals view state authority and societal norms
This AI needs some improvements: Stem family, like in Slovenia few decades ago, regardless of socialism on the outside was characterized with a house in property where three generations lived, This are this big houses one sees in Slovenian countryside. It was a sort of farmer or some stem family diversified business brand.
In the part three Witchdoctor will speculate how this all translates on a systemic State level, how the model is dead in the 21st century capitalism and how this may play out in social, cultural and economic regress…
hopefully a good Sicilian millefoglie with some mafia fillings will come out…
By the way, where are all the men gone, in Slovenia? Witchdoctor was driving his kids to kindergarten, going to a bank, being in court, visiting the tax office, being in hospital…. The men have gone…