Basque ethnography at a glance

Traditional shepherd’s hut in the town of Consuegra (Toledo). Photo: Julio César Valle Perulero.

Transhumance consists on changing place and home, from time to time, in the strict sense of the word. And in this itineration, transhumance and livestock form an inseparable pairing that has enabled the development of people for centuries. In this development, traditional knowledge has been essential for the maintenance of rural life linked to grazing and livestock farming for generations.

Closely related to the intangible cultural heritage, oral tradition tells us “Es la vida del pastor, la vida más arrastrada, que en el orbe de la tierra, por experiencia se halla” (“It is the life of the shepherd, the rudest life that can be found on earth, as experience shows”). Wretched, not only because of being compromised and tough, but also a nomadic and isolated life. Away from the people and the environment where, the shepherd has traditionally derived the necessary elements to build other “homes” outside his. Hence, the importance of the vernacular architecture which shelters shepherds and cattle from inclement weather and the scourges of nature, allowing them to move from north to south and from east to west.

And going back to the issues concerning intangible cultural heritage, orality also tells us that, “Ves el chozo, ves el guarda” (“Once you see the hut, you can more or less know the keeper”). Vernacular architecture has for centuries defined the nomadic home of the shepherds, according to the regions and environments in where they have developed their activity. But what is vernacular architecture? According to the National Plan of Traditional Architecture (2015):

… a set of constructions, born of the implantation of a community in its territory and which, through its diversity and evolution, represents the ecological adaptation of the community to natural conditions and resources, as well as to the historical processes and socioeconomic models that have developed in each place. This set of buildings is a strong reference between the cultural identity signs of the community that has created it, and the result of shared experience and knowledge, transmitted and enriched from one generation to another.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage ecosystem is nourished by a great deal of intangible values, ​​whose application is a consequence of the materiality of these constructions as temporary homes, used by shepherds and livestock throughout the entire network of livestock trails that have shaped the territory for centuries. Each of these constructions brings together specific and aesthetic characteristics that are a consequence of the management of the natural environment and that, according to the National Plan for Traditional Architecture:

… correspond to the knowledge and construction techniques used, to the use they have according to domestic activities, economic activities or social celebrations, as well as their organization, distribution and meaning they have depending on the group that inhabits it. (…) At the same time, all this immaterial aspect associated with architecture is connected with knowledge other than technical-scientific structural facts, such as the organization of a territory, its reference landmarks, production areas, community areas, road networks, traditional knowledge associated with craftsmanship, livestock management, crops, exploitation of rural resources, meteorology, fauna, flora, that is, about the surrounding of these traditional constructions.

The common elements shared by the communities around the whole territory of the State, designated by a diverse and rich vocabulary, are physically beginning to disappear, and with them, the knowledge inherent in their construction and functions.

Huts, bombos (shepherd hubs from Castilla made of stone, and with circular shape), folds, cucos (Valencian hubs made using dry-masonry technique), shelters… have been essential constructions for the shepherds to carry out their seasonal and transhumance related activities, that disappear at the same rate as this kind of activities.

As a society, our task involves documenting these constructions as well as the entire ecosystem if immaterial cultural heritage linked to the construction processes and functionality.

Julio César Valle Perulero – Labrit Heritage