100 UNIVERSALITY OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



On reviewing in succession these various phases 

 in the evolution of landed property, it will clearly 

 be seen that modification has everywhere been 

 attended by degeneration. 



1. Family property (Montenegro). Of all the 

 Balkan States, Montenegro owing to the natural 

 barriers which separate it from the rest of Europe 

 has best preserved its archaic institutions. Here, 

 side by side with modern institutions, may be found 

 the old system of division into forty-two tribes 

 (pleme) which are sub-divided into clans or confrater- 

 nities (brastvo) and into patriarchal families (zad- 

 rugas and inokosnas). 1 The development of modern 

 political and judicial institutions has, however, con- 

 siderably lessened the importance of the plemes 

 and the brastvos, so that progression in this direc- 

 tion has not been effected without accompanying 

 degeneration. 



With regard to property, the two different forms 

 of family tenure have been substituted for what 

 was formerly the tribal or clan system. Of the 

 former collective property of the clan, there only 

 remain the following traces : 



1. Property rights held over certain portions of 



land generally forest or waste land. 



2. The right of pre-emption in favour of mem- 



bers of the brastvo or of those related to 



1 For information about the common or differential characters 

 of the zadruga and the inokosna see Ardent, La Famille zougo- 

 slave au Mont&ntgro. (Ittforme sociale, 17th October 1888.) 



