Basque ethnography at a glance

Leitzaran (Navarre). Euskal Herria. Collection of slides. SEIE Group.

There are two major types of settlement patterns in the Basque Country: dispersed and concentrated, the former on the Atlantic side of the watershed and the latter in the southern regions. Semi-compact settlements or rural villages consisting of small clusters of houses, and therefore considered a phase of transition from isolated to compact settlements, are also to be found. According to Barandiaran, higher-density forms of settlement are preceded by agro-pastoral developments.

As it turns out in our ethnographic research, the oft-mentioned hydrographic divide which separates the Atlantic and the Mediterranean drainage basins shapes both basic types of population distribution. The said circumstance is likewise a decisive factor influencing house models and construction materials. Thus, there, where scattered settlements abound, half-timbered and stone houses with a gable roof, not too steep, and a ridge line perpendicular to the main facade; by contrast, the presence of earthy elements, such as bricks, adobe and mud wall, as well as stone, and a single-slope roof with a more shallow pitch characterizes dwellings in the south of the country.

Errezil (Gipuzkoa) from Hernio Mountain. Euskal Herria. Collection of slides. SEIE Group.

The dispersion of the population on the Atlantic side depends largely on geographic factors. The preferred south- or east-facing orientation, the proximity of water sources, the nearness of communication paths, and the quality soils for farming and shepherding practices conditioned the location of farmsteads. Each family and, consequently, each house behaved as a whole, as suggested by the term baserria, from baso ‘forest’ and herria ‘village’, used to identify the traditional Basque farmstead. Houses in these regions were given a proper name, which they still retain, often referring to the topographic characteristics of their surroundings.

The so-called Basque farmstead stands as the typical example of dispersion. However, total isolation is the exception rather than the rule. Farmsteads are more frequently found associated in hamlets or neighbourhoods, known as auzoak, neighbours sharing the ownership of a chapel and assuming mutual assistance obligations.

Barandiaran understood that the remote antecedent to population dispersion should be placed on the coincidence of areas over which dolmens spread and pastoral sites. And added that many farmsteads are actually the result of the transformation of agro-pastoral settlements.

Mendibe (Lower Navarre). José Ignacio García Muñoz. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.

There are a series of anecdotal accounts which reflect attitudes tending towards the dispersion of farmsteads on the Atlantic side of the Basque territory. By way of example here follows an anecdote gathered by Barandiaran in Sara (Lapurdi):

A hunter from Bera (Navarre) passed the neighbouring lands of Sara at the time when the first homestead was being built. Back home, he told his father what he had seen. The old man expressed his dissatisfaction that the new house was too close for peace to reign between them and their neighbours. Both Bera and Sara are located in the Valley of Xareta, 20 km apart.

Segundo Oar-Arteta – Labayru Fundazioa

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa

References for further information: House and Family, part of the Ethnographic Atlas of the Basque Country collection; and Ander Manterola. “Etxea [The house]” in Euskaldunak [The Basques], 3. Donostia, 1980.