Margaret Bullen Ba s q u e Ge n d e r St u d i e s Center for Basque Studies á University of Nevada, Reno Basque Gender Studies Margaret Bullen graduated in Modern Languages (French and Spanish) from the University of Bristol (UK), in 1987; and pursued postgraduate studies at the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of Liver- pool, from where she received her Ph.D. in 1991. She is a professor at the University Studies Abroad Consortium (USAC) by agreement with the University of the Basque Country (Donostia-San-Sebastián), where she has been teaching since 1993, offering courses on Basque and Iberian Culture and Basque and Spanish Gender Studies. She also taught on the Masters program organized by the former Seminar for Women’s Studies. She works too in the Farapi Consultancy of Applied Anthropology, based in Donostia-San-Sebastián, special- izing in issues of gender, migration and diversity. Her research interests bridge the areas of the Basque Country and Peru, and focus on the themes of gender, identity, migration and socio-cultural change. Tristes Espectáculos (Sad Sights), her latest research on the con- frontation between equal rights and the defence of tradi- tion, is soon to be published by the University of the Basque Country Press. Margaret Bullen Basque Gender Studies Basque Textbooks Series Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno For Teresa del Valle, without whom Basque Gender Studies would not be what they are today This book was published with generous financial support from the Basque Government. Cover prints by Lola Sarratea. Floral illustration of eguzkilore by Xamar. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bullen, Margaret, 1964Ð Basque gender studies / Margaret Bullen. p. cm. -- (Basque textbooks series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-877802-31-X (paperback) ISBN 1-877802-32-8 (hardcover) ISBN 1-877802-33-6 (compact disk) 1. Women, Basque. 2. Women—France—Pays Basque. 3. Women—Spain—País Vasco. I. Title. II. Series. HQ1162.B84 2003 305.48'89'992--dc22 2003024152 Published by the Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno /322 Reno, Nevada 89557-0012. Copyright ©2003 by the Center for Basque Studies. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America. Contents Acknowledgments . 9 INTRODUCTION TO GENDER THEORY 1 · Women’s studies to gender studies . 11 2 á The natureÐculture debate . 27 3 á Gender and status . 35 4 á The current status of gender studies . 45 BASQUE WOMEN FROM FARM TO FACTORY 5 á Women in traditional Basque society . 57 6 á The gender division of labor . 68 7 á Women and change . 83 8 á Gender, science, and technology . 97 POWER, MATRIARCHY, AND MYTH 9 á Concepts of power . 111 10 á The matriarchal thesis . 125 11 á The myth of Mari . 136 12 á Magic and witchcraft . 152 FAMILY, SOCIETY, AND POLITICS 13 á Making models . 169 14 á Women and cultural transmission . 182 15 á Women and nationalism . 197 16 á Women in the diaspora . 215 RITUALS, TRADITIONS, AND FESTIVALS 17 á Ritual, tradition, and change . 226 18 á Basque women and ritual . 235 19 á Changing the gender of festivals . 252 20 á Gender and space . 271 BASQUE FEMINISM AND GENDER STUDIES 21 á Women in twentieth-century Spain . 279 22 á The Basque feminist movement . 293 23 á Basque gender studies . 312 Notes . 323 Pictures . 329 Index . 330 Colophon . 373 Acknowledgments eartfelt thanks go out to all those who have con- H tributed to the writing of this book. To all the Basque women and men who over the years have shared their knowledge and experience with me. To Joseba Zulaika for his initiative in producing this series and his faith in me to produce this book. To Cameron Watson and Linda White for their sugges- tions and ideas in the early stages. To Teresa del Valle for opening the door of Basque Gender Studies to me at the Seminar of Women’s Stud- ies and for generously placing at my disposal her library and her store of wisdom. To Txemi Apaolaza, Carmen Díez, and Mari Luz Este- ban, who have been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement. To all those who have kindly given me photographs, articles, and other material. To Gunnlaugur SE Briem and Fabian Hidalgo for their patient help with the graphics and book design, and to Mark Woodworth for his affable editing. To Iñaki, Mikel, Beñat, and Aritz, and to Asun and Aristi, in a special way. Part One. Introduction to gender theory 1 · Women’s studies to gender studies s we approach the study of gender in the Basque A context we need first to open the door onto Gender Studies in general and from there take our pointers to guide us in our exploration of Basque Gender Studies. To this end, we will begin with an overview of the devel- opment of gender theory from its first formulation as an effort both to focus on women in different areas of study and to redress earlier male bias through the evolution of a concept of gender and its consolidation into a strong body of theory. What is particularly interesting in the history of gen- der theory is that it has a pragmatic parallel in the his- tory of feminism. Teresa del Valle, a prominent Basque anthropologist whose work we will be quoting through- out this book, places emphasis on the relationship between gender theory and feminism, finding that as a social movement feminism provides a base that lends credibility to the developing body of theory. She also points out that feminism is essentially a movement for social change, originating in the suffragettes’ fight for equal rights and their continuing struggle for social jus- tice for women (del Valle, 2000:10). Gender theory should then build upon the way “inequality is created, transmitted and validated” (del Valle, 1993:6) and the manner in which change is demanded or brought about by different social groups pushing for greater equality. The identification of women’s subordination in differ- ent walks of life has been at the core of Gender Studies from its birth. At the end of the sixties and beginning of the seventies a growing awareness of women’s universal oppression was emerging and the question rang out loud and clear: Why? The quest to uncover the reasons 12 á One —— — — — — for inequality between men and women has led to a greater knowledge of both women’s and men’s situation in society and to an increasingly sophisticated body of theory. The knowledge of how gender inequality main- tains and reproduces itself eventually leads to knowl- edge of how change has been brought about, or could be. This returns us to the purpose of feminism, which as Janet Saltzman Chafetz, a leading sociologist in feminist theory, so rightly says is “committed to changing sys- tems of gender that are inequitable to women” (1990:7). he scientific field has drawn from and contributed T to feminist practice and vice versa. The dialogue has not always been straightforward but it is through the interaction, discussion, and sometimes disagreement between the two that new ideas have emerged and cru- cial concepts have been molded. Gender theory is one of the most dynamic areas of Cultural Studies today and right on the cutting edge of the fight for greater equality in contemporary society as a whole—and no less in the Basque society we are concerned with here. The suggested readings for this book are in English and the theory we study takes into account the major texts on gender, many of which were originally written in English. However, I believe a book on Basque Gender Studies cannot ignore the vital work that has been done by scholars both from the Basque Country and from dif- ferent areas of the Spanish State. Consequently, here in this chapter and throughout the book, I will be referring to works—with or without English translations—which must be considered in the study of gender in the Basque context. In each chapter, as well as the required or rec- ommended readings, I will include a bibliography of some of the key texts in Spanish or Basque that bear upon the subject in hand. At the end of each section, Battleground The history of gender theory is paralleled in the history of feminism, essentially a movement for social change, originating in the suffragettes’ fight for equal rights and their continuing struggle for social justice for women. As a social movement, feminism is the battleground where theory and practice meet. Illustration by Seymour Chwast. —— — — — — you will find definitions of several key words used in the text. n the rest of this chapter we will look at the evolu- I tion of Gender Studies, a term that encapsulates its own history and that we will trace from its beginnings as “Women’s Studies” in which the focus was on women, 14 á One —— — — — — with the express intention of bringing female social actors out into the light and redressing the imbalance accruing in the literature through years of emphasis on men. We will go on to see how the concept of gender is adopted in order to include both women and men and shift the focus to the relations between them. Women: From Passive to Active The concern with the subordinate status of women in society and feminism’s fight to redress this social imbal- ance from the sixties led to a general questioning of the way in which women were represented in the social sci- ences. The overall conclusion was two-fold: 1.