Cuce (Cyrillic: Цуце, ) is a historical tribe (pleme) and region in Montenegro, located in the area of the Katunska nahija from Old Montenegro.

History

The toponym Cuce is first mentioned in 1431 in documents from Kotor, then again in a chrysobull of the Cetinje Monastery from the end of the 15th century. In Ottoman defters from 1521 and 1523, Cuce is mentioned as a village. The majority of inhabitants migrated to Cuce in the 16th and 17th century, from Old Herzegovina and Old Kuči. In 1718, after the Peace of Passarowitz, the Cuce along with 9 other tribes of the Katun nahiya, became de facto independent from the Ottoman Empire. In 1829 Bjelice struggled against Ozrinići and Cuce, two neighboring tribes, and Petar I Petrović-Njegoš sent Sima Milutinović Sarajlija and Mojsije to negotiate peace among them. Smail-aga Cengic wrote a letter in 1838 to Njegos, complaining about the Cuce who had raided Ottoman territory. Traditionally, the Vojvode (Dukes) of tribe were from the House of Krivokapić and the Serdari (Counts) were from the House of Perović. In the case of lower Cuce, Knez (Prince) Rogan founded the House of Roganović.

Anthropology

Jovan Cvijić extensively studied the tribes of Old Montenegro. Cuce are divided into Upper Cuce and Lower Cuce. Most of the inhabitants of Upper Cuce descend from Herzegovina, while the inhabitants of Lower Cuce generally descend from the Kuči tribe. The Djer-didije is a dance of the Cuce.

People