Page 340 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 340
integr ated peasant economy in a compar ative perspective
the peasant economy or farming from the perspective of the farming enter-
prise has been in the domain of the agrarian economists, while the family
enterprise or family has been in the domain of ethnologists, rural sociolo-
gists, geographers and other professionals from social sciences and human-
ities from the 1960s onwards. Some of the (social) data on the way of life can
be found in the collections of life stories in the micro-ethnological stud-
ies made by Marija Makarovič (Knežević Hočevar and Černič Istenič 2010,
61‒3).
3. Domestic crafts from an ethnological perspective
The problem of past ethnological research lies in the idealisation of pea-
sants perceived as the base for national mythology (Sedej 1988–1990, 9). The
attitude towards domestic crafts (obrt) in ethnology has changed from pre-
viously documenting the disappearing original products and techniqu-
es towards a broader understanding of its historical development from an
economic and social perspective: such a case is represented for instance in
the monograph of Janez Bogataj (1989) on crafts from the Slovenian territo-
ry (Slavec Gradišnik 2000, 477).
One of the important ethnological articles on the history of the peas-
ant economy was written by Inja Smerdel (1988–1990, 25–60). This research
has a rather different perspective than the previous ones, because it de-
scribes the ground-breaking events in Slovenian agrarian history in the
second half of the 18th and in the 19th century. Her research is based on dif-
ferent literature, from ethnological articles, archival sources, newspapers,
researchers (Hacquet Balthasar) and novelists of that time, to literature,
written by historians, for example the fundamental (encyclopaedic) pub-
lication on Slovenian agrarian history with works of Pavle Blaznik, Bogo
Grafenauer, and Valenčič Vlado (Blaznik, Grafenauer, and Vilfan 1970) and
Bogo Grafenauer (1979).1 According to the interpretation of Smerdel, the
novelties which caused considerable changes in the structure of two ba-
sic agricultural activities in Slovenia – farming and cattle-breeding – in
the frame of physiocracy and agro-technical revolution, were the abandon-
ment of fallowing, improvements in fertilising, and the diffusion of potato
growing. Essential changes were made in agricultural implements, as well
as with the abandonment of transhumance and the distribution of com-
1 It seems that Smerdel wrongly cites Ferdo Gestrin and Vasilij Melik as authors of the
chapter entitled Revolucionarno leto 1848 in program Zedinjene Slovenije in Zgodovi-
na Slovencev (1979), which is in reallity written by Bogo Grafenauer.
338
the peasant economy or farming from the perspective of the farming enter-
prise has been in the domain of the agrarian economists, while the family
enterprise or family has been in the domain of ethnologists, rural sociolo-
gists, geographers and other professionals from social sciences and human-
ities from the 1960s onwards. Some of the (social) data on the way of life can
be found in the collections of life stories in the micro-ethnological stud-
ies made by Marija Makarovič (Knežević Hočevar and Černič Istenič 2010,
61‒3).
3. Domestic crafts from an ethnological perspective
The problem of past ethnological research lies in the idealisation of pea-
sants perceived as the base for national mythology (Sedej 1988–1990, 9). The
attitude towards domestic crafts (obrt) in ethnology has changed from pre-
viously documenting the disappearing original products and techniqu-
es towards a broader understanding of its historical development from an
economic and social perspective: such a case is represented for instance in
the monograph of Janez Bogataj (1989) on crafts from the Slovenian territo-
ry (Slavec Gradišnik 2000, 477).
One of the important ethnological articles on the history of the peas-
ant economy was written by Inja Smerdel (1988–1990, 25–60). This research
has a rather different perspective than the previous ones, because it de-
scribes the ground-breaking events in Slovenian agrarian history in the
second half of the 18th and in the 19th century. Her research is based on dif-
ferent literature, from ethnological articles, archival sources, newspapers,
researchers (Hacquet Balthasar) and novelists of that time, to literature,
written by historians, for example the fundamental (encyclopaedic) pub-
lication on Slovenian agrarian history with works of Pavle Blaznik, Bogo
Grafenauer, and Valenčič Vlado (Blaznik, Grafenauer, and Vilfan 1970) and
Bogo Grafenauer (1979).1 According to the interpretation of Smerdel, the
novelties which caused considerable changes in the structure of two ba-
sic agricultural activities in Slovenia – farming and cattle-breeding – in
the frame of physiocracy and agro-technical revolution, were the abandon-
ment of fallowing, improvements in fertilising, and the diffusion of potato
growing. Essential changes were made in agricultural implements, as well
as with the abandonment of transhumance and the distribution of com-
1 It seems that Smerdel wrongly cites Ferdo Gestrin and Vasilij Melik as authors of the
chapter entitled Revolucionarno leto 1848 in program Zedinjene Slovenije in Zgodovi-
na Slovencev (1979), which is in reallity written by Bogo Grafenauer.
338
