Basque ethnography at a glance

Luis Maria Artabe Zearreta feeding the livestock. Aldanagoikoa Farmstead in Amorebieta-Etxano (Bizkaia), 1985. Manuel Ignacio Zubia Artabe.

The internal distribution of spaces in rural houses varied to more adequately meet the needs of households and their way of living. So there where livestock farming was the major activity the whole or most of the ground floor would be originally used for stabling. Should the hearth be on that same floor, hatches in the wall were fairly common for feeding the cows straight from the kitchen or the passageway. Being so very close, domestic animals actually provided a natural means of heating agricultural dwellings.

Folks were, in the main, respectful of their livestock: animals on the farm were treated in a cordial and friendly manner. Farmers were very much concerned over the health of their livestock and would grow deeply worried should a head fall ill or feel under the weather. After all, domestic animals were part and parcel of the ‘domestic group’, as Barandiaran named it.

Hatch window looking into the stable. Goikoetxea Farmstead in Berriatua (Bizkaia), 2016. Akaitze Kamiruaga. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

As an illustrative example of the relevance of livestock for the wellbeing of former rural households,  here follows a stanza of the poem titled “Nere etxea [My farmstead]” or “Laboraria [A farmer]”[1], and written by the poet Jean Baptiste Elizanburu, a native of Lapurdi, in 1862.

Landako hirur behiak,
esnez hanpatu ditiak,
ahatze eta ergiak;
bi idi handi kopeta zuri,
bizkar beltz, adar handiak,
zikiro, bildots guriak,
ahuntzak eta ardiak,
nereak dire guziak.

(Three cows grazing the meadow, / their udders full of milk, / calves and steers; / two strong, white-headed oxen, / with black backs, large horns, / rams, young lambs, / goats and sheep, / all are mine.)

The most widely-spread Basque term to refer to domesticated animals, and more particularly to large livestock is abereak, from Latin habere, meaning ‘possessions, assets’. And there are many derivatives of it: aberekia ‘animal meat’, aberetzarra ‘large farm animal’, aberekeria ‘beastliness, brutality’, abeltzaina ‘herder, stockbreeder’, abelduna ‘stockbreeder’…

No wonder that aberatsa ‘rich’ also derives from abere, since whoever possessed a considerable amount of livestock would be regarded as wealthy. And it is precisely from Spanish hacienda ‘fortune, property’ that the Basque word azienda derives, hence the denominations azienda larria and azienda xehea, and their equivalents abere nagusia and abere txikia. The said names may likewise be accompanied by a colour adjective: azienda gorria or abelgorria ‘cattle’, azienda beltza or abere beltza ‘pigs’, and azienda zuria ‘sheep’.

Finally, it is worth noting the existence of place names and last names which derived from or compound by abere or aberats: Abeletxe, Aberasturi, Aberasturizar, Aberastain, Aberastegi…

Ziortza Artabe Etxebarria – Popular Cultural Heritage Department – Labayru Fundazioa

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa

[1] Also known by its opening words: “Ikusten duzu goizean [Can you see in the morning]”.

Original text in Basque.

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