Basque ethnography at a glance

Fields of Arraba. Mount Gorbeia, 2016. Gorane Etxebarria. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

The Valley of Carranza is a large municipality in Bizkaia where cattle farming and milk production have acquired such paramount importance as to become its major sign of identity. However, the inhabitants of the valley devoted themselves to shepherding before they turned into cow’s milk producers. Shepherding gradually lost relevance throughout the 20^th century, and it is only in recent years, coinciding with the crisis besetting livestock farming, that we notice a rebound in the number of small flocks of sheep grazing the meadows dairy herds frequented in the old days, primarily to keep the pastures ‘clean’ and provide meat and a few cheeses for domestic consumption.

A riddle from our childhood in the Valley goes like this:

Un pastor en la montaña
vio lo que no ha visto el rey de España
ni con capa ni sin capa
lo puede ver el papa
y Dios con todo su poder
tampoco lo puede ver.

(A shepherd in the mountain / saw what has not seen the king of Spain; / neither with his cape nor without it / can the pope see it, / and even God with all his power / cannot see it either.)

The answer to the riddle is that the shepherd saw another shepherd.

Now that enough years have elapsed since, two kings sit at court in Madrid and two popes in the Vatican. As for God, let us just say religious diversity is gaining acceptance. However, the mountains surrounding our dear Valley are empty of sheep, the reason being a combination of the low profitability of the practice, on one hand, and the return of the wolf, on the other. So not only is it difficult for a shepherd to come across another shepherd, but even those who have taken up strolling through the bush as their new passtime shall see none. Lo and behold!

Luis Manuel Peña – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Language Department – Labayru Fundazioa

Reference for further information: Livestock Farming and Shepherding, part of the Ethnographic Atlas of the Basque Country collection.