Inja Smerdel, M.A. (born 1953, Ljubljana, Slovenia) is an ethnologist by training (graduated in 1979). She received the degree of Master of Arts in ethnology in 1989 (University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts). Since 2004 she is working on her doctoral thesis under the direction
of Prof. Dr. François Sigaut at the EHESS in France (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales).

From 1980 till 1995 she was curator of rural economy in the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, the national museum of ethnology in Ljubljana, and chief editor of the scientific periodical Etnolog (1991-1995). After her ten years long appointment as director of the same museum
(1995-2005) she is back to research and since 2005 again curator of rural economy. Her main research topic are relations between men and working oxen.

After initial studies of mass-culture phenomena (wall decorations and brass bands) her research efforts of the past twenty-five years concentrated on traditional social and economic issues, on various cultural elements of economic activities: economic self-management of
a village; harvesting jobs; sheep-farming and transhumance; bird-catching; whetstone holders and the hay harvest; querns, bread and women's work, and, most recently, yokes and draught-oxen. Her work is often featuring animals. Some of her basic insights are based upon studying
the relations between man and animal.

Noticable among her treatises and articles (altogether 157) are Sheep-farming in Pivka, Transhumance from the Middle of 19th to the Middle of 20th Century or "The three Sheep-masters" (Koper, 1989), Between Death on a Plate and a Warden's Love - On Bird-catching
in the Brda Region (Etnolog 2/1, Ljubljana, 1992), Whetstone Holders. An ode to labour, skill, creativity, individuality and Eros (Ljubljana 1994), Notre mere, donnez-nous aujourd'hui notre pain quotidien. De la fabrication, de la vente et de l'emploi du moulin a bras dans
les régions reculées de la Slovénie (Etnolog 12, Ljubljana, 2002) and many others. Some of her work has been published internationally.

She has a long standing association with national and international museums, other relevant institutions and researchers and is also a receiver of national awards for achievements in ethnology and museology.

Her thesis title: YOKED MANHOOD

Subtitle: Man and ox. On cultural aspects of working oxen in rural civilisation:

the case of Slovenia.

In 2005 she published her first treatise (in Slovene language) on working oxen, under

the following title:

Did he say "You're cleverer than a man," to the ox?

On the relationship between man and ox in the everyday life and culture of the Pivka peasants

Abstract

This paper is the first fruit of research into the relationship between man and ox, that is, into the cultural aspects of working oxen in peasant civilisation. The research concept is comparative, but based on Slovene material - manuscript, printed, pictorial and primary
material sources, literature, and fieldwork findings. In addition to several initial testimonies and deliberations, the paper includes quotes from stories and memories told by individuals from the villages of Selce, Slavina, and Juriace in the Pivka area, recorded in 2001,
2002, and 2005; their stories about oxen as part of a peasant family and village community, the working companionship of man and ox in carrying out basic farming tasks - ploughing, harrowing, hauling, and carting; castration, shoeing, care, feeding and pasture; ox drivers;
naming, training, harnessing, and commanding oxen; diseases and treatments; selecting new oxen and selling "worn out" ones. There is also testimony bearing witness to the importance of oxen in the past.