Basque ethnography at a glance
Flock of sheep grazing in Mount Oiz (Bizkaia), 2002. José Ignacio García Muñoz. Labayru Fundazioa Photographic Archive.
It being such a rainy winter in our country, I have been reminded of a legend retold by shepherds in the course of fieldwork conducted in localities bordering Mount Oiz in 1997. Neither too much rain nor too much sun are indeed known to be beneficial to pastures and soils. (more…)
Cross section of a typical windmill in Bizkaia. Drawing by Eduardo Cordero and Ramón Higuera.
The earliest known windmills constructed in Bizkaia date from the 18th century. These wind-powered mills appeared during the decade of the 1720s, coinciding with a long dry spell that hit the entire territory of Bizkaia. (more…)
Original medieval hut and sketch of later hut (turquoise) and present farmstead (magenta). Drawing by Imanol Larrinaga. Courtesy of Gerediaga Association.
The farmstead is a cornerstone of our landscape, and although we often imagine them in isolation from each other midst farmland, the disposition of houses in the region of Durango, more precisely in Berriz (Bizkaia), indicates organized settlement clusters did occur as early as the Middle Ages. Andikoa is a clear instance of self-sufficient rural neighbourhood. (more…)
Seeding, tilling, and harvesting maize. Image taken from the 16th-century Florentine Codex. World Digital Library.
Enthusiasts for books concerned with ancient agricultural practices might have come across engravings of folk digging a pointed stick in the ground to seed the soil. More recent documentary footage of cultures where ancestral farming techniques are still alive shows the use of the said digging implement, notably in woodland, or rather forestland, cleared by the slash-and-burn method, in which native vegetation is cut down and burned off, the ashes serving as fertilizer for the new crops. Coa is one name given to the digging stick. (more…)
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