Basque ethnography at a glance

Burning of the land in Sara (Lapurdi). Michel Duvert.

Burning the land or lur-erretzea (different from the slash-and-burn farming of grasslands and woodlands, lurra atera or luberritu in Basque) is an ancient and well-established cultural trait in Europe. The nomadic way of life involved itinerant forms of agriculture based on the exploitation of pastures and fern fields as well as the shifting cultivation of cereal with fallow periods for the soil to recover. Farmers (laborariak or nekazariak) would later settle down in humus-rich (lur beltza) productive areas. Might the general term larrekia refer to the burnt plots of land? This is an issue ethnography research does not entirely confirm.

Moorland (larrea) thus emerged and stretched to the detriment of the forest. The current low-mountain areas and scrublands are not vestiges of their former use but the result of deforestation and forest degradation. Had the commons remained in the care of shepherds, the mentioned landscape would not have invaded open-access territory. To give an example, an acre (around 42 ares) of access land in Lapurdi was worth 25 francs, and 75 if it was fenced.

Starting in 1955 mechanical logging intensified in middle-mountain regions and came to replace the referred ancestral practices. From a perspective strictly focused on productivity, it was about creating pasturage for livestock to graze with the ultimate goal of producing milk (from sheep) and meat (both from sheep and cattle).

Nowadays the burning serves to keep the mountain clean, otherwise covered by thick undergrowth (sasia) and the fauna associated to it (wild boars…).

On 14 February 2008 a group of 18 residents of a neighbourhood in Sara met to clear the foothills of Larhun Mountain. They continue to do so approximately every 4-5 years. In the absence of specific regulations, the fields are burnt when it is deemed necessary. In the wake of several serious accidents have occurred (carelessness by locals, hikers…), advance notice to the council is required now. However, peasants minimise the risk of fire spreading; all it really takes, we are told, is common sense and a large dose of cold blood…, not least the much-needed sense of solidarity.

This is how the burn is carried out. The crew leaves early in the morning equipped with nothing but blades. Shouting loudly they warn of their presence. They begin by setting fire to a piece of land protected from the wind, so its rapid propagation and scope are contained. They undertake small sections of a few tens of ares at a time, using firebreaks to control the flames from burning their way across. They progressively move onto ever wider tracts of land.

Large gorse bushes. Michel Duvert.

During the process the advancing wall of flames can reach more than 10 metres high, a pall of haze that runs up and down slopes and through the woods without destroying a single tree. Three more mountains are cleaned and only an old hollow oak is given up for lost… The fire borders the fenced meadows, but not one acacia stake suffers damage.

The large bushes of gorse (otatxak) that due to their high calorific value resisted the prescribed burn were precious as fuel for the bread ovens. The tenderest gorses (otheak) were collected and ground (together with nettle…) to make the staple food of the flock: a mixture, known as jokia, fed to the sheep in emptied tree trunks or troughs (askak) kept in the entranceways (ezkaratzak) of the farmhouses.

Michel Duvert – Etniker Iparralde – Etniker Euskalerria Groups

Original text in French.

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Language Department – Labayru Fundazioa

Reference for further information: Agriculture, the forthcoming volume of the Ethnographic Atlas of the Basque Country collection.