Basque ethnography at a glance
Bonifacio “Fasio” Arandia and Maurizia Aldeiturriaga. Artea (Bizkaia), 28/06/1986. Photo credit: Emilio Xabier Dueñas.
The human brain and its behaviour throughout life being a rather unknown and somewhat enigmatic topic, even for scientists, it has always interested me. Adventurous in spirit as I am, I shall draw a daring critical reflection.
Our life experiences —the simple fact of living through noteworthy events which we experience first-hand— and memories, created in specific time frames, differentiate us from all other animals. Our ability to remember, is as fragile as it is selective; both physical and mental in its conception and process. And when memories cannot be brought back to mind, oblivion takes over, triggered off by senescence disorders, Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive impairment, and so on.
Sun-kissed strings of peppers. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.
Summer is not over yet! And our vegetable gardens keep offering us their best fruits: runner beans, courgettes, chard, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce…
Although vegetables and fruits are generally consumed soon after harvest, both fresh or cooked, different methods might be employed to safely preserve them at home so that they can be enjoyed throughout the year, the most common food preservation techniques being: drying, preservation with sugar or vinegar, bottling, and more recently, freezing.
Polychrome bell collar from the 19th century. Ethnographic Museum of the Kingdom of Pamplona. Arteta (Nafarroa). Photo credit: Fernando Hualde.
Within the shepherding culture, within its ethnography, and especially within the craftsmanship surrounding a shepherd’s occupation, there are pieces and devices which need no introduction; quite the opposite applies to others, though, not so much because we do not know them, but because we often do not know their name. Among the latter are bell collars, so-called canablas, and also known as cañablas.
We are referring to collars which sheep, goats, cows and horses wear around their neck, and from where bells are hung so that herds can be heard, identified and located. These are pieces which tend to go unnoticed, very much unlike the truly striking and noticeable bells dangling from them. Here, in these lines, we shall focus on livestock collars made of wood by shepherds themselves, being now gradually pushed into the background by leather straps, and likely to disappear in the short or medium term.
Gorri and banderari. Luzaide (Nafarroa), 2013. Photo credit: Emilio Xabier Dueñas.
In traditional European collectives, the socializing process of transition to adulthood and the role attributed to the age category of young adults have been of essential importance, manifesting itself in their gradual social implication, younger birth cohorts being the natural generational replacement of older workforces and actively committed to social responsibility, while implementing a balanced dichotomy between social control and the possibility of taking certain liberties or permissibility inherent to this stage in life. Their duties included the following: defence of local geographic limits and organized use of arms, supervision and censorship of deviations from customary practice, invitations to fellow young folks as token of inter-local good-neighbourliness and interventions as effective agents in cases of overt rivalry, courtesy visits and accompaniments to authorities and notables, and provision of obligatory services to the neighbourhood. Indeed, it could not be otherwise, they epitomized the regenerative potential, so necessary for the generational continuity of communities.
Bilbo-Abando
Colon de Larreategi 14, 2. esk.48001 Bilbo (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 443 76 84
labayru@labayru.eus
Derio
Larrauri 1A, 5.a48160 Derio (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 406 01 71
idazkaritza@labayru.eus
Bilbo-Bolueta
Metroalde eraikinaBilbo-Galdakao errep. 6A
48004 Bilbo (Bizkaia)
Tel.: +34 94 607 72 10
labayru@labayru.eus
