On Peasant Culture

Abstract

Kmet, ki je po letu 1848 postal lastnik zemlje, je z naraščajočo narodno zavestjo tvoril temelj narodno-prebudnega gibanja. Iz nastajajočih gospodarskih in kulturnih organizacij je raslo tkivo političnega življenja kmetov. Zaradi gospodarske krize v času karadžordževičevske Jugoslavije je med drugo svetovno vojno nemška okupacijska oblast zlahka uvedla nekaj gospodarskih inovacij in obnovila staro štajersko tržišče. Racionalizacija kmetijstva po drugi svetovni vojni je ukinila tradicionalne oblike kmetovanja, s tem pa bistveno spremenila tudi miselnost kmečkega človeka. Dotedanjo samopreživetveno vlogo kmetij je nadomestila tržna usmerjenost kmečkih gospodarstev. Izvirne prvine kmečke kulture izginjajo; nadomešča jih sodobna množična kultura.

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After the land reform of 1848, when farmers were allowed to become landowners, this social class became the basis of the gradually awakening national awareness. The newly formed economic and cultural associations of farmers became the fabric of their political movement. Due to the pressing economic depression in Yugoslavia during the rule of the Karađorđević family, during the Second World War the German occupational government had no difficulties in introducing several economic reforms and in renewing the previous markets of Štajersko. Rationalization of agriculture, which was introduced after the war, dispensed with old, traditional agricultural forms, thus greatly affecting the farmers’ ways of thinking. Once self-sufficient farms were replaced by market-oriented agricultural homesteads, a result of which is a gradual disappearance of original agricultural elements that are being replaced by modern mass culture.