Basque ethnography at a glance

School children. Zeanuri (Bizkaia), 1913. Felipe Manterola Collection. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Etniker Euskalerria Groups and Labayru Fundazioa together published in 1993 an extensive volume dedicated to children’s games in the Basque Country, featuring approximately a thousand pastimes. The work had a great reception, particularly among teachers and sportspeople, which led to a second edition in 2005. Besides, and due to the vast amount of information and data provided about the playful world of children, it served as a basis for subsequent studies, including a doctoral thesis presented at Paris-Sorbonne University, and furnished arguments for several television documentary scripts.

Play is a main activity for children, so let them do what they are supposed to do, or as the Basque saying goes: “Haurrek, haur-lan”. They get together in groups organized according to a hierarchical structure and leaded by the strongest or cleverest boys or girls. Their games govern the relationships between them by means of rules or customs that require a learning process and are transmitted from one to another.

Childhood games, same as all social manifestation, have undergone a deep transformation in recent years. The nature of earlier games reflected and corresponded to the days when duties and roles of men and women were markedly defined. Anything involving brute strength was considered exclusive to boys; girls, on the other hand, opted for skill and ability games. Gender differentiation in children’s play is decreasing today, partly owing to the influence of mixed schooling.

Another point to be noted was the seasonality of the games. Most winter games were practised indoors, whereas open-air activities in contact with nature used to be most frequent in the summer. At present these issues are less pronounced. On a related note, television absorbs considerable time formerly devoted to playing.

Teenagers playing on gadgets, 2014. Ane Agirre. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

Two more points of comparison between traditional and modern games. First, over the last century and till not long ago, many of the games were played in teams and are now being gradually replaced by individual pursuits. Second, children in the past engaged in games that often reproduced the social roles assigned to adult men and women, and therefore, gender differences were quite apparent. Computers, tablets and smartphones have indeed contributed to the new situation and decisively influenced the individualism, asexuality and universalisation of the games.

Children have until recently been inspired by adult models in their play and further guided to behave likewise, whereas now, I would venture myself to say, it is adolescents who are themselves more likely to ‘create’ the games and influence their seniors through their habits and behavioural patterns.

Segundo Oar-Arteta – Etniker Bizkaia – Etniker Euskalerria Groups

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Language Department – Labayru Fundazioa

Reference for further information: Children’s Games, part of the Ethnographic Atlas of the Basque Country collection.