The Selected Essays of Julio Caro Baroja

Center for Basque Studies Basque Classics Series, No. 7 The Selected Essays of Julio Caro Baroja Edited and with an introduction by Jesús Azcona Translated by Robert Forstag Basque Classics Series No. 7 Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada This book was published with generous financial support obtained by the Association of Friends of the Center for Basque Studies from the Provincial Government of Bizkaia. Basque Classics Series, No. 7 Series Editors: William A. Douglass, Gregorio Monreal, and Pello Salaburu Center for Basque Studies University of Nevada, Reno Reno, Nevada 89557 http://basque.unr.edu Copyright © 2011 by the Center for Basque Studies All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Cover and series design © 2011 by Jose Luis Agote Cover illustration: Self-portrait by Julio Caro Baroja Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Caro Baroja, Julio. [Essays. English. Selections] The selected essays of Julio Caro Baroja / edited and with an introduction by Jesús Azcona ; translated by Robert Forstag. p. cm. -- (Basque classics series ; no. 7) Includes bibliographical references and index. Summary: “Collection of essays by leading historian and ethnographer on Basque history, culture, anthropology, and language”--Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-935709-15-2 (pbk.) -- ISBN 978-1-935709-16-9 (cloth) 1. País Vasco (Spain) 2. Basques. I. Azcona, Jesús. II. Forstag, Robert. III. Title. DP302.B46C37213 2011 946’.6--dc23 2011044018 Contents Note on Basque Orthography.......................................... 7 Introduction: The Life and Work of Julio Caro Baroja . 9 Part 1 Basque Times and Spaces 1. Neighboring Peoples and the Historical-Cultural Context........ 41 2. The Basque Country, 1500–1800................................. 65 3. Cultural Cycles and Basque Identity .............................. 79 Part 2 The Basques, Their Origins, and Their Language 4. Origins: Basque-Iberianism ....................................... 99 5. Historical-Cultural Problems of the Basque Language............ 115 6. On the Basque Lexicon............................................ 131 7. The Basque Country and Dialectology............................ 145 Part 3 Economy and Society in the Basque Mountains 8. The Historical Basis of a “Traditional” Economy................. 163 9. The Structure and Functions of the House........................ 179 10. Agriculture and Cattle Raising .................................... 207 Part 4 The Basques, Other Peoples, and Other Worlds 11. Regarding the Basque Shipbuilding and Iron Industries........... 221 6 The Selected Essays of Julio Caro Baroja 12. The Basques and the Sea .......................................... 239 13. The Feeling of Belonging in the Basque Diaspora ................. 253 Part 5 The Basques Yesterday and Today 14. The Basques Yesterday and Today................................. 267 Endnotes ............................................................... 285 List of Sources ......................................................... 325 Suggestions for Further Reading ....................................... 327 Index ................................................................... 331 Note on Basque Orthography The standard form to refer to the Basque language today is Euskara. Most English-language texts on the Basque Country have traditionally employed only the French and Spanish orthographic renderings of Basque place names. Here, in light of the standard Basque orthographic renderings of these same place names by the Basque Language Academy (Euskaltzaindia), we will endeavor to use these Basque versions, with an addition in parentheses of the French or Spanish equivalents on first men- tion in each chapter. Some exceptions to this rule include the use of Navarre (Nafarroa in Basque, Navarra in Spanish) and Lower Navarre (Nafarroa Beherea in Basque, Basse Navarre in French); the hyphenated bilingual cases of Donostia-San Sebastián, Vitoria-Gasteiz, and Iruñea-Pamplona; and occasions where French or Spanish place name variants are used to make a linguistic point. In the latter case, the Basque equivalents appear in parentheses after the French or Spanish place name. While we have preserved the original renderings of surnames, on occasion—where the sur- name clearly corresponds to a town or village—a Basque equivalent of these is provided in parentheses. Additionally, on occasion we anglicize certain Basque terms, rather than use the original Basque, French, or Spanish terms themselves. Thus, for example, inhabitants of Zuberoa (Soule), instead of being ren- dered here as zuberotarrak or xiberotarrak (from the Basque alterna- tive Xiberoa), or Souletines (in French), are described here as Zuberoans. Baiones and Baioneses is our anglicization of the “people of Baiona” (Bayonne) instead of Baionesak (Basque) or Bayonnais (French). Occasionally, Caro Baroja cites words and phrases in Basque to make a point. We have preserved his original renderings, but where applicable added the standard modern Basque variants of these words and phrases in parentheses. For longer phrases—proverbs and sayings for example— we have maintained the original orthography. 8 The Selected Essays of Julio Caro Baroja It should be noted that, for much of the period under study here, there was little consistency in the rendering of either place names or personal names in any of these languages (in fact, Caro Baroja himself renders some place names in a mixture of languages, although we have standardized the toponyms here); a fact of life that is apparent in a region of Europe where multiple cultures and identities overlap. We see such lack of consistency as a more flexible way of appreciating this diversity. Introduction: The Life and Work of Julio Caro Baroja “Garibay is representative of a particular era in the Basque Country and he is also a figure who reflects the common phenomenon of Basques assuming an increasing importance in the wider afairs of Spain.” — Julio Caro Baroja, Los vascos y la historia a través de Garibay I From his birth in Madrid on November 13, 1914 to his death in Bera (Vera de Bidasoa) on August 18, 1995, the life and work of Julio Caro Baroja were inextricably woven into the context of his family, the politics of his time, and a distinct academic and social milieu. Bridging a period between the end of the nineteenth century (which in Spain efectively lingered well into the twentieth) and an era that, in the last decades of his life, augured a future that was constructed on the ruins of a forgotten past, and that was characterized by an ongoing and seemingly endless conflict in the Basque Country, his life and work are, in large part, a reflec- tion and product of his sociopolitical milieu. Caro Baroja’s work during the first phase of his career—a period that spanned more than two decades—is only comprehensible within the context of a postwar Spain in which Franco’s dictatorship attempted to employ folklore and tradition for the purpose of creating a unifying Catholic and nationalist myth. The period from 1940 until the mid- 1960s was thus something of a golden age for the study of folklore and traditional practices and customs. This same period also marked a high point for the kind of research of specific folkways that Caro Baroja conducted. His research tends to support the thesis that, beneath the 10 Jesus Azcona apparent diversity of the diferent regions of Spain, there is an underly- ing common legacy rooted in the distant past. This legacy values the “natural” authority of ecclesiastical and civil leaders and family patri- archs, the “heads of families.” The modernity of the decades preceding the military rebellion was erased from history, forgotten in the service of the new regime’s political and ideological objectives. The object of this intentional forgetfulness was to prevent an acknowledgment of the achievements of the Second Republic and to “unite” all Spaniards in the preservation of traditional Catholicism, seen as the root of the ancient and imperishable glories of Imperial Spain. The roots of Spanish Cathol- icism, and especially the peninsula’s medieval history, were explored in depth. The self-proclaimed National Uprising thus not only unearthed the long-buried past, but also became its self-appointed curator. This state of afairs began to change in the mid-1960s. These changes were introduced by the technocratic ministers afliated with Opus Dei who assumed posts at that time. Although it might seem paradoxical at first glance, those who consolidated themselves as a religious force under the auspices of Franco’s regime also became catalysts of economic change. For Caro Baroja, this was also a time of personal disorientation and uncertainty. The technocrats were intent on transforming the historical image of Spain. This resulted in “the paradox of those who most radi- cally contravened tradition being considered the most conservative— most ‘orderly’ elements.” What order? one might ask. The answer: the order imposed by the construction of a country, which had been “poor but beautiful” now “appeared superficially rich, but in fact had grown alarmingly ugly.”1 The Spain that Caro Baroja had imagined and experi- enced was disappearing before his eyes. “I am nothing more than a mir- ror that continues to reflect a world that has past,” he wrote.2 Some years after he wrote this, the democratic transition and the establishment of the autonomous provinces seemed to confirm this per- ception. The diferent peoples of Spain were

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