Basque ethnography at a glance

Picture from Aguirre Photographic Archive included in House and Family in the Basque Country.

When we talk about ethnography and oral transmission, it is almost inevitable to visualise an old-time family gathered around a fireplace and grandparents relating stories or folktales to an attentive child audience.

Time goes by, and the precious fire is stored within a heavy cast iron frame called kitchen stove, or simply stove, but the transmission process remains unchanged. Rural culture is gradually replaced by a predominantly urban society, the fireplace rapidly recedes in importance within the house, and the living room takes hold as a space in its own right. There we find our family, reduced in members now and totally absorbed by moving pictures, as fascinating as the fireplace flames of olden times, coming from a television set, the new storyteller. (more…)