Katun (community)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Katun (Albanian: Katund; Aromanian: Cãtun; Romanian: Cătun; Serbian: Катун) is the name for the form of medieval self-governing community (family, settlement) in the Balkans. This form of association of people is a consequence of the absence of strong central government, and is observed in documents from the second half of the 14th and 15th centuries. It is often associated with a living style of Vlachs (that is, Eastern Romance people) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, as well as some Albanian and Slavic communities of hill people.[1]
Usually it is described as "mountainous landscape with pastures where people lived temporarily with cattle and where they lived only during the summer in huts".[2] However, this description is more in line with today's distinct form of nomadic pastoralism called transhumance, whereas in the medieval times it had socio-political dimension, and significance in social and state affairs.[3]