Basques

By William A. Douglass and John Beierle

Euskaldunak, Eskualdunak, Vascos.

Basques inhabit the area of southwestern Europe where the western spur of the Pyrenees Mountains meets the Cantabrian seacoast. Their territory straddles the French-Spanish frontier, providing a distinction between Spanish Basques and French Basques. There are four traditional regions (Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Nafarroa, Araba) on the Spanish side and three (Lapurdi, Behe-Nafarroa, and Zuberoa) on the French side. Basques refer to their homeland as Euskal-Herria ("Land of the Basques") or Euskadi ("Country of the Basques"). While the seven regions have not been unified for nearly a millennium, the Basques remain one of Europe's most distinctive ethnic groups.

The Basque Country is located between 41 and 43 degrees north latitude and 0 and 3 degrees west longitude. It contains 20,747 square kilometers of which 17,682 square kilometers are on the Spanish side of the frontier. There are three ecological zones in the Basque country. The northern zone is comprised by the Cantabrian seacoast and interior foothills. It is characterized by a maritime climate and is one of the wettest regions in Europe. The ridges of the Pyrenees constitute a central zone with its alpine climate. The southern zone, or about two-thirds of the Basque Country, is in the rain shadow of the Pyrenees and has a continental climate.

In 1975 the population was 2,871,717, of which only 229,383 persons resided on the French side. Population density varies greatly by region. Highly urbanized Bizkaia has 533 persons per square kilometer, while rural Behe-Nafarroa has only twenty-two. There are an estimated 828,000 Basque speakers. Basque language proficiency is distributed unevenly, being concentrated primarily in the northern and central ecological zones. It is also more pronounced in rural and fishing communities than in the urban centers. In recent years there has been a vigorous campaign by Basque nationalists to encourage Basque language acquisition. It has met with considerable (though not total) success. All Basques are fluent in either French or Spanish (some in both) depending upon which side of the border they inhabit. Diglossia is due both to erosion of the Basque language over the centuries in places where it was previously spoken and to the influx of non-Basque speakers into the area.

Basque is an agglutinative language and employs the Roman alphabet. It is the sole representative of its own language family. Scholars have tried to demonstrate affinities between it and languages from disparate parts of the world, particularly with languages in the Caucasus Mountains of the Soviet Union. Another possibility is that Basque is linked to Ibero, a language spoken throughout the Iberian Peninsula in pre-Roman times.

The uniqueness of the language underscores the mystery of the origins of the Basques. Some scholars have suggested that they may even be the direct descendants of Cro-Magnon man and the upper paleolithic cave painters active in southwestern Europe about 15,000 years ago. Until the Middle Ages Basques were an enclaved, pastoralist people, fierce in resisting the intrusions of outsiders and regarded as barbarians by them. Romans, Goths, Franks, and Moors all controlled parts of the Basque Country without ever quite subjugating it. It was a Basque force that attacked Charlemagne's rear guard as it traversed the Pass of Roncesvalles, killing Roland and giving rise to the famous Chanson.

After 1000 A.D. the several Basque regions were brought increasingly under the influence of emerging European kingdoms and duchies, and were subsequently contested by the embryonic states of England, France, and Spain. Frequently pawns in larger power plays, sovereignty over the various Basque regions shifted according to the fortunes of battle or the whims of marital alliances among Europe's royalty. Basques retained, however, a considerable degree of autonomy in their own affairs, codified in written FUEROS or charters. This relative autonomy was reflected in the custom whereby the monarchs of Castille, upon ascending the throne, were required to travel to the town of Gernika to swear beneath a sacred oak tree to respect Basque laws. Coastal Basques were Europe's earliest whalers. Their shipbuilding and navigational skills made them Iberia's most noted seafarers.

By the early fifteenth century (and possibly earlier) Basques were crossing the Atlantic for whaling and cod fishing off the Labrador coast. Basques crewed the ships of Columbus and Magellan. (The Basque Elcano was the first to circumnavigate the globe.) Basque mariners, mercenaries, merchants, and missionaries swelled the ranks of Spain's colonial elite, providing much of the shipping on the American run, capital for development of the colonies, and major figures in both the civil and ecclesiastical administrations. The French Revolution, with its strong centralist tendencies, destroyed the political autonomy of Lapurdi, Behe-Nafarroa, and Zuberoa. Many of their residents resisted and were sent to the guillotine or to concentration camps. In the nineteenth century Basques fought on the losing side of Spain's two Carlist wars, relinquishing much of their political autonomy in defeat. This, coupled with the late nineteenth-century influx of Spanish workers to Basque industries, which threatened to make Basques a minority in their homeland, caused concern.

By 1900 a modern Basque nationalist movement had emerged to confront Madrid's policies in the Basque Country. The nationalists contested elections when allowed to do so, gaining control of many municipalities and the provincial assemblies of Gipuzkoa and Bikaia. When the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, those two provinces remained loyal to the republic, fielded an army, and elected an autonomous government which issued passports and coined its own currency. Within nine months the Basques were defeated by Franco, many were executed or imprisoned, thousands were exiled, and the Basque government had been removed to Paris. During the Franco years there was systematic repression of Basque culture. Consequently, in the late 1950s disaffected Basque youths founded ETA (EUSKADI TA AZKATASUNA or Basque Country and Freedom) with the goal of complete independence from Spain. Its opposition to Franco escalated into violence, providing Europe with one of its most virulent "terrorist" movements. Franco's death in 1975 ushered in an era of democracy in Spain. Mainline Basque nationalists collaborated in the framing of a new constitution which accorded considerable autonomy to the regions.

In the northern ecological zone there are major cities such as Bilbo/Bilbao, Donastia/San Sebastian, and Baiona/Bayonne, as well as regional manufacturing centers of considerable importance (Eibar, Mondragon, Irun). There are many coastal fishing villages with 5,000-10,000 inhabitants. The interior foothills have peasant villages ranging from 500 to 3,000 inhabitants. The village usually encompasses a river valley and the surrounding hillsides. The nucleus, with church, school, taverns, town hall, handball court or JAI ALAI fronton, general stores, and a few professionals (doctor, veterinarian, pharmacist, postmaster), is located on the valley floor. The surrounding hillsides contain BASERRIAK, or farmsteads, either isolated from one another or clustered into hamlets of ten or twelve dwellings surrounded by their collective landholdings. The dwellings are massive stone structures, often three stories tall. The ground floor is for animal stables, the second floor is living space, while the third is used to store hay and other crops.

Only about 20 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture. In Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa over 50 percent of the active labor force is employed in industry. Until recently the Basque BASERRIA was a mixed-farming enterprise in which the emphasis was upon self-sufficiency. The farm family grew its own wheat, corn, vegetables, fruits, and nuts and raised poultry, rabbits, pigs, cows, and sheep. Access to the village commons was an important source of animal pasturage, ferns for animal bedding, limestone for fertilizer, and wood for fuel and building materials. Over the past fifty years there has been increasing commercialization of agriculture. Plowland has been converted either to intensive vegetable growing or fodder production for dairy farming, both to supply urban markets. Agriculture is mechanized, though on a small scale due to the steep terrain. In the central ecological zone there is little permanent settlement. Rather, in the summer months shepherds ascend with their flocks, and loggers cut hardwood species (oak and beech). In the southern ecological zone agriculture is of the large-estate variety with widely dispersed agro-towns surrounded by large holdings. The main crops are the Mediterranean trilogy of wheat, olives, and grapes. Near the Ebro River there is extensive irrigation which permits vegetable growing on a large commercial scale. Basque coastal fishing villages today send their fleets into the Cantabrian and Irish seas for hake, anchovies, and sea bream, and as far afield as the coasts of West Africa in search of tuna. Some of the vessels are state-of-the-art with mechanical nets, refrigeration, and sonic depth finders and helicopters for finding their quarry.

The Basque Country is one of Iberia's most industrialized regions. The city of Bilbo/Bilbao houses many heavy industries, including steel plants and shipbuilding facilities. It is also one of Western Europe's major ports for off-loading petroleum from supertankers. Smaller industrial towns specialize in modern consumer goods ranging from plastics to sewing machines. There is also an arms industry. Industrial pollution is a major problem in the Basque Country, as there is poor air quality in the cities, exacerbated by traffic congestion. Most of the rivers are notably polluted.

While some farmers and fishermen market their products directly in nearby towns and cities, the Basque Country now has an efficient network of commercial outlets including supermarkets and department stores.

There is considerable equality between the sexes. In agriculture women frequently work alongside the menfolk at the same tasks. In urban areas women are increasingly employed in industry and services. Domestic chores remain, however, largely the purview of women.

To be the owner of a farm was socially prestigious and represented economic security in a society in which arable land was at a premium. However, developments over the past 50 years have produced both a glut and a scarcity of land. On the one hand the inability of peasant agriculture to generate sufficient income to support a twentieth-century lifestyle has prompted many families to simply abandon agriculture, departing for a city and either letting the BASSERIA fall into disuse or planting it in pines for eventual sale to the paper-pulp industry. Conversely, many urbanites are now buying or renting BASERRIAK and converting them to chalets -- weekend refugees from urban ills.

The urban Basque family is of the nuclear variety, maintaining its own apartment. In the southern ecological zone the nuclear family also predominates in rural districts. On the BASERRIAK the stem family is the basic social form. Kinship is reckoned bilaterally; there is an egocentrically defined kindred but it is activated only at the marriage or death of the defining member. Neighbors, usually unrelated, play a key role in rural Basque society. One's LENBIZIKOATIA, or "first of the neighborhood," is the household of first recourse in a crisis. The larger AUZOA, or neighborhood, is the source of social intimacy and support.

Eskimo-type terms are used. Sibling terms differ according to whether the speaker is male or female.

Basques are monogamous and exercise considerable personal choice in selecting spouses. However, the marriage of the designated heir/ess to the BASERRIA is regarded as a household affair. Ownership of the farm is transferred to the newlyweds as part of the marital arrangements. Small villages tend to be endogamous and cousin marriage is not infrequent, including some unions between first cousins.

The heir/ess to the BASERRIA and spouse form a stem-family household with his/her parents. Unmarried siblings of the heir/ess may remain in residence in their natal households until death, but are subjected to the authority of the active male and female heads. The family works the BASERRIA together with children and the elderly contributing to the lighter tasks as well. In the urban areas the apartment-dwelling nuclear family, possibly with a live-in servant for the affluent, is the domestic unit. It may also contain a spinster aunt or aging parent.

Ownership of the BASERRIA is transferred to a single heir/ess in each generation. In parts of the Basque Country custom dictates male primogeniture unless the candidate is blatantly unsuitable. Outmarrying siblings of the heir are provided with dowries. They also share equally in the "personal" wealth of their deceased parents (i.e. money, jewelry, etc.). In urban areas the offspring usually share equally in the estate of the deceased, although the national legal codes favor one recipient with a maximum of one-third of the total.

Children are raised by everyone in the household. In the case of the urban affluent this may also include a female domestic servant who doubles as a nanny. On the BASSERIAK emphasis is upon subordination of individual interests to the well-being of the domestic unit. One child is socialized into the role of heir/ess, and his/her siblings are raised with the anticipation that they should leave. This system has made the rural Basque Country a seedbed of candidates for emigration.

The Basque Country is a part of Spain and France, both constitutional democracies.

Basque society is suffused with an egalitarian ethos. The owner of a BASERRIA is extolled as an ETXEKOJAUN (lord of the household) and his spouse as ETXEKOANDRIA (lady of the household). Basque fishermen are similarly proud and independent. The Basque Country was largely untouched by western European feudalism, and there is a common belief that every Basque is a nobleman. There is considerable social mobility, and wealth differences do not automatically determine social status. However, there is an urban Basque plutocracy of factory owners, bankers, and wealthy professionals who relate more to the Spanish and French national elites than to their fellow Basque peasants, shopkeepers, etc. There is a near castelike division between Basques and non-Basques, with the latter constituting much of the lower-class, urban proletariat. They are the frequent targets of resentment and discrimination.

At the municipal level communities are governed by an elected mayor and town council. The three regions in France form, with Bearn, the Department des Pyrenees Atlantiques with its seat of government in Pau. Each of the four provinces in Spain has its own popularly elected assembly or DIPUTACION. Nafarroa now constitutes its own autonomous region within the Spanish state. Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia, and Araba together form the Autonomous Community of Euskadi. This regional government is funded largely by the participating DIPUTACIONES. With its capital in Vitoria/Gasteiz it has its own popularly elected president, parliament, and ministries. It controls some mass media, the educational system, economic development, and cultural affairs. All foreign relations are handled by Madrid. Basques elect representatives to the Spanish and French parliaments as well.

Social control at the local level is largely through peer pressure. The parish priest exercises moral influence beyond the strictly religious sphere.

The Basque area is heavily policed, particularly on the Spanish side. The Spanish GUARDIA CIVIL is an omnipresent, largely despised, factor in local life. Even political moderates tend to regard their homeland as "occupied," and removal of this force is one of the main demands of Basque nationalists of all persuasions. Clashes between the GUARDIAS and ETA have produced more than 600 deaths over the past three decades.

With very few exceptions Basques are Roman Catholic. The smallest village has its church. There are several major monasteries. Basque Catholicism has strong Jansenistic overtones.

While possibly the last people in western Europe to convert to Christianity, the Basques have produced such titans of the Catholic Church as St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis Xavier. There is strong Marist devotion focused upon icons of the Virgin Mary housed in several churches. Until recently there were so many religious vocations that Basque priests and nuns regularly staffed Catholic missions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Since the Second Vatican Council church attendance and religious vocations have plummeted, prompting the closure of some churches. Formerly there were beliefs in witches and legendary supernatural dwellers of mountain caverns and forest fastnesses.

Practically every village has its folk-dance group. The TXISTU (flute) and drum, played simultaneously by a single performer, are the distinctive musical instruments. There are BERTSOLARIAK, or versifiers, capable of spontaneously composing and singing rhymes on any subject. Such performances are a part of every village festival, and regional and national championships are held periodically. In the fine arts Basques have produced several composers of note (Arriaga, Guridi, Ravel), writers (Baroja, Unamuno), painters, and sculptors (including the world-famous Eduardo Chillida).

Even the most remote villages have access to modern medical care. Beliefs in the efficacy of certain folk treatments (usually herbal) persist. Fear of evil eye is still discernible in the older generation.

A funeral is the most important life ritual in Basque society, triggering a year-long series of ceremonies involving the deceased's household, neighborhood, kindred, and village. Failure to conduct them is felt to compromise the deceased's smooth transition to the afterlife. Otherwise standard Christian beliefs in heaven, purgatory, and hell obtain.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Basques file consists of fifteen English and two Spanish language documents. Many of these are specific community studies dealing with the villages of Echalar, Murelaga, Elgeta, Fuenterrabia, Mondragon, Usurbil, Itziar, Excurra in northern Spain, and Sainte-Engrace in the Province of Soule in southwestern France. Most of the studies in the file, however, relate to the Spanish Basque areas and particularly to the Province of Guipuzcoa.

Although there is no single work in this file to give a comprehensive ethnographic coverage for all the Basques, the studies by Douglass (1975, no. 1), Heiberg (1989, no. 8), and Caro Baroja (1959, no. 20), will give the reader a general overview of the society. Douglass presents a comparative study of social, economic, and demographic change in two Spanish Basque villages -- Echalar and Murelaga -- from the beginning of the twentieth century to around 1966. This work contains much information on social structure, the domestic group, the hamlet or AUZOA, and the social and economic history of the two communities. Heiberg's work, although primarily an historical study of the development of Basque nationalism, does provide some information on the evolution of the traditional political system, the emergence and development of the Basque bourgeoisie, economic and social evolution of the rural area (especially the village of Elgeta), and industrialization within the area. Caro Baroja's study of the Spanish and French Basque areas, presents an in-depth look at Basque culture history from pre-Roman times to the mid-twentieth century. Although this work is entirely in Spanish, it does contain much information on agriculture, pastoralism, dwellings, the food quest, craft specialization, concepts of ethnicity, marrige, the household, death, religion, and the fine arts.

As to be expected in Basque studies, many of the works lean heavily on the subject of Basque nationalism and politics, and relations with the Spanish government during the Spanish Civil War. Principal documents dealing with these topics (in addition to those already noted above), are: Zirakzadeh (1989, no. 10), Silva (1989, no. 14), and Zulaika (1988, no. 19). Other major topics given special attention in this file are: the Mondragon system of cooperatives in Clamp (1989, no. 12) and Milbrath (1989, no. 13); culture history in Collins (1987, no. 5); and gender roles and the status of women in Basque society in Valle (1988, no. 21). This latter document, like that of Caro Baroja noted above, is also in Spanish.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

This culture summary is from the article, "Basques", by William A. Douglass, in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 4, 1992, Linda A. Bennett, editor. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall & Co. The Human Relations Area Files wishes to acknowledge with thanks the suggestions offered by Davydd J. Greenwood and earlier ones by William A. Douglass in the bibliographical selection of materials for this file. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle in April 2000.

• ADUR -- categories 772, 778

• APARCERIA -- share cropping -- category 427

• Arana -- categories 665, 159

• AUZOA (pl. AUZOAK) -- neighborhood unit or hamlet composed of several adjacent BASSERIAK -- category 621

• AYUNTAMIENTO -- "village" councils -- category 632

• BASERRIA (pl. BASSERIAK) -- an agricultural household or farmstead; the basic rural social unit -- category 592; as a structure -- 342; as a peasant class -- 565

• Basque Study Society -- category 814

• BATZOKIS -- neighborhood recreational centers -- categories 529, 575

• BEDERATZIURRUNE -- a novena (for mourning) -- category 765

• BEREZKO -- essence of power or quality; fatalism -- categories 761, 181, 812

• ASSOCIACIONES DE VECINOS -- neighbor' associations -- category 571

• BERTSOLARIAK -- specialized singers and/or poets -- category 533

• Catholic sacraments -- categories 779, 788 and other relevant categories

• CAYOLAR -- a pastoral syndicate consisting of a group of shepherds, their communal hut, corral, and the mountain pastures on which the flocks graze -- categories 474, 233, 234

• charters -- as grants or guarantees of rights -- category 642; as documentary records of proof of title to property -- category 423

• civil code, Spanish or French, in effect in Basqueland -- categories 671, 177

• COFRADIAS -- brotherhoods -- categories 575, 794; also village fiestas in honor of the Virgin -- category 796

• CORREGIDOR -- the king's representative to each of the provinces -- category 647

• CUADRILLA -- a group of individuals of similar age, marital status or sex who share a similar life style -- category 571

• DEIXIX -- the spatio-temporal relations of an object to a referent -- category 823

• ECHEA -- household, with emphasis on its physical components -- category 592

• ECHEKOA (pl. ECHEKOAK) -- household, with emphasis on its constituent members -- categories 592, 596 (where relevant)

• EGI -- the youth organization of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) -- categories 665, 668

• ELGETA -- "village" or small town in size and political structure -- category 632

• EMBATA -- a French Basque political movement -- category 668

• ETXALTE -- propery consisting of both movable and inmovable objects (houses, barns, land, livestock, shares in a mill) -- categories 423, 422

• EUSKADI TA ASKATASUNA (ETA) -- a Basque revolutionary movement of EUSKALTZAINDIA -- the Basque Language Academy -- category 814

• FAMILIZHE -- kindred -- category 612

• FELIBRIGE -- an ethnic movement in the French Basque region -- 665, 668

• "first neighbor" relationship -- individual household in a community which cooperate with one another in ritual and agricultural services -- categories 571, 592, 476

• Franco government treatment of Basque minorities -- category 675

• FUEROS -- agreements made between kings or lesser lords and their prospective settlers -- category 642; also Basque traditional rights which have their core in custom -- category 671

• HAUZOLAN -- communal work -- categories 464, 653

• IKASTOLA -- Basque language schools -- categories 872, 871

• INDARRA -- human physical strength, life-force, procreative power -- categories 761, 147, 827; supernatural (similar to mana) -- 778

• IPEC/TALDE -- Basque research organizations -- category 814

• livestock mutual insurance associations -- categories 456, 233

• MAYORDOMO -- primary official of the AUZOA -- caategories 622, 794

• Mondragon cooperative complex -- category 474 (with 453, 816, 871)

• neighborhood roads and water systems maintained by the BASERRIA -- category 653

• OLHA -- a shepherding and cheese-making syndicate -- categories 474, 233, 234

• PARTIDO NACIONALIST VASCO (PNV) -- a Basque political party -- cateory 665

• PARTIDO OBRERO SOCIALISTA ESPANOL (PSOF) -- categories 467, 665

• political radicalism -- category 668

• religious sodalities -- categories 575, 794

• SEPULTRIEK (SEPULTURIA) -- family church plots activated during funerals and mourning -- categories 424, 764, 765

• SIADECO -- a research group in applied sociology -- category 816

• SOCIEDADES -- private social clubs -- category 575

• SOLIDARIDAD DE OBREROS VASCOS -- a nationalist labor union -- categories 665, 467

• SOLIDARIDAD DE TRABAJADORES VASCOS -- the labor union of the PNV political party -- categories 467, 665

• UNION GENERAL DE TROBAJADORES (UGT) -- categories 467, 665

• "village" -- the social unit comprised of several affiliated AUZOAK, and with a central nucleus -- category 632; (sometimes referred to as a MUNICIPO or ERRIA)

• "village" mayor, council and other officials representing and responsible to the national government -- category 632 (sometimes 631)

• XIKITO -- ritual dueling between members of the OLHA -- categories 578, 154

Douglass, William A. Death in Murelaga: Funerary Ritual in a Spanish Basque Village. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1969.

Douglass, William A. Echalar and Murelaga: Opportunity and Rural Exodus in Two Spanish Basque Villages. London: C. Hurst, 1975.

Greenwood, Davydd J. Unrewarding Wealth: The Commercialization and Collapse of Agriculture in a Spanish Basque Town. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Ott, Sandra. The Circle of Mountains: A Basque Shepherding Community. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.

Zulaika, Joseba (1988). Basque Violence: Metaphor and Sacrament. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1988