Basque ethnography at a glance

Burning of the land in Sara (Lapurdi). Michel Duvert.

Burning the land or lur-erretzea (different from the slash-and-burn farming of grasslands and woodlands, lurra atera or luberritu in Basque) is an ancient and well-established cultural trait in Europe. The nomadic way of life involved itinerant forms of agriculture based on the exploitation of pastures and fern fields as well as the shifting cultivation of cereal with fallow periods for the soil to recover. Farmers (laborariak or nekazariak) would later settle down in humus-rich (lur beltza) productive areas. Might the general term larrekia refer to the burnt plots of land? This is an issue ethnography research does not entirely confirm. (more…)