Background Information

The Basque people date as far back as the 1st Century. It is said that the area which they live was once inhabited by a group called the Vascones. It has not been determined as to their exact origins, but there are many leads and theories as to how this group came about. Scientists believe that the Basques might be direct lineage of European Cro-Magnon hunter and gatherers that first came about 35,000 years ago.

To them, they are known as Euskaldunak, in Spanish its Vascos, and to the French and English they are known as the Basque people. There are 2,123,000 people living in the Basque Country.

Geographical Location

The Basque people are an indigenous people that live in both Spain and France and are bordered by the Bay of Biscay and the Pyrenees Mountains. The area that they mainly occupy is known as Pays Basque which is translated to Basque Country.

Education

The Basque took education very seriously. They have over 330,000 students in their schools. Just about under 60% of their students attend state schools. In their culture, they have compulsory education which is free education for students from the age of 6 to the age of 16. Their early-learning program has students up to the age of 3. Then, they move to primary school till the age of 12. After that, they go to secondary school where they stay till they are 16. After all of that, they move on to a higher education such as college. The primary school is subdivided into 3 cycles which last about 2 years each.



Source:
Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning
       2005. Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning.
           Electronic Document,
                  http://www.mercatorresearch.eu/fileadmin/mercator/dossiers_pdf/basque_in_spain2nd.pdf
                  Accessed July 29, 2013

The Technology

The Cromlech of Okabe

(Courtesy of http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=9544)

        The people of the Basque used technology in many different ways from the start of the Paleolithic Age.  Early settlers of the Basque resided within the regions of France and Spain, bringing with them the Aurignacian culture, which later was replaced by the Azilian culture, which introduced the technology of fishing and hunter-gatherer for food resources. Whale hunting/fishing or "whaling" was very popular among the Basques, as the meat and fat was a highly valued product, and the blubber of the whale was used to create oil for lamps. The majority of whale hunting occurred in the Red Bay in Labrador, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
        During the Copper, Bronze and Iron Ages, the technology of trade was introduced with the use of metals including gold and copper as trading goods, using caves as trading centers. Another technology. the use of the Cromlech, located in Okabe within the Basque country, was used with the placement of large stones in a circle, which gave way to the possible technology of astronomy, as the sun’s placement of the shadow was used as a method of measuring time.

Biblioteca Pleyades

    2013 History of the Basque People

         http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_basques04.htm, accessed July 22, 2013.


Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation
    2013 Economic Activities; Basque Whalers
        http://www.civilization.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/economic-activities/basque-whalers/, accessed July 24, 2013.

Basque War & Sports

The Basque people have never truly dominated the population of a state so they have no history of war or comflict on any political or territorial basis. The basque people do however have many different sports they participate in. They have been known to play both rural and urban games. The rural games represent some common games played in summer camps for example, such as tug of war and fishing. Some unique rural sports include ram fights and grass cutting in which the participants are given a scythe and told to cut as much as grass as they can in the given time. The popular urban sports include soccer in the Spanish Basque concentration and rugby amongst the French Basque populations. Cycling in numerous Basque populations is also very common in the Mediterranean communities. 

Basque Culture

Genetics
           An interesting fact is that the Basque people have the highest concentration of people with O type blood and Rhesus Negative blood which carries the possibility of pregnancy problems.

Sailors
          The Basque people are excellent seafarers. Juan Sebastian Elcano was the first person to complete a circumnavigation of the world. In fact, the Basque people were some of the first to make the travel from Europe to the New World as recurring customers through the 16th and 18th centuries. They would set up camps to fish and hunt for whales during the summer. The Basque's interest in the New World was purely commercial.

Music
            In order to understand how Basque music began, we must first look at the history of the Basque people. With the Basque Country stretching across both Spain and France the people enjoy the benefits of living in both countries, however, the Basque people see their country as independent to the two countries. The Basque people are constantly torn between incorporation and independence. Consequently, the Basque people were fighting harder than ever to keep their traditions and language protected.

            The 19^th century marked an important time for the Basque culture. In this time large choirs that sang traditional songs and melodies in the Basque language, Euskara, began to rise. This time also brought about the preservation of rural music and instruments such as the txalaparta (a hammered wooden plank) and the alboka (a goat’s horn). Despite every attempt made by the Franco regime to exterminate the customs and language of the Basque people they failed and many of the music has been preserved.

            The most popular traditional Basque music is trikitrixa which is accordion style music. This music tends to be fast-paced and quite elaborate. Some musicians have begun to incorporate new styles of music in with the traditional music. However, French Basque music has not been as creative.

            Rural poetry is another oral Basque tradition. This poetry is not generally written down. Instead, the poets create the poems on the spot and it is more improvised.

Nickson, Chris

    Basque Music Music. Electronic Document, 

         http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com, accessed July 12, 2013.

The Language

The language of the Basque culture is Euskara. Euskara comes from the word "enautis" which means "to say." It is the last non-Indo-European language in Western Europe. This language is considered to be an isolated language, but it is spoken by more than 700,000 people. This language is a mixture of Latin and Romance language. Basque language is completely different from English language. The only word that is clod to the same is the word "bi" which means "two." All the other words are not much like English words at all. In English, we say "I" and in Euskara, they say "ni." Their words are spelt and said much differently than ours. There are seven territories that use this language and two territories that border the other territories that also use this language. The seven territories are Alava, Biscay, Guipuzeoa, Labourd, Lower Navarre, Navarre and Soule. The two surrounding territories are between Gascony and Lower Navarre, and between Bearn and Soule. These are the only few places that still continue to speak Euskara.

Source:
No Author
        No Year  Euskara, The Basque Language. Electronic document,
              http://www.kondaira.net/eng/Euskara.html, accessed July 22, 2013.

Kinship, Marriage, and Family

A group of youth Basque members in Brooklyn

(Source: http://www.eitb.com/en/basques-in-boise/ )

Marriage
When it comes to the Basque, marriage is not pre-arranged and monogamy is widely used in each marriage. Based on whether the male or female will become the heir of the basseria, the parents will bestow farmland ownership to that heir as part of the marital agreement. In cases of small villages, some Basque couples have been known to practice endogamy, as well as, marrying cousins.

Family and Kinship
Once married, that new couple will move out of their parents house and live in their own. Only unmarried children are permitted to stay in their parents house for however long need be. However, whoever is the head of house, or heir, is who they have to submit to.Many of the basserias have elders living with them, and they tend to be unmarried or widowed. But everyone in the basseria pitches in to help maintain the land whether it be domestic or yard work, including the newly married couple.

As stated before, only one person is chosen to be the heir of the basseria,and that person is normally chosen by who is more fit to maintain the basseria. Based on their customs, it has been favored to be a man, however, if the man is seen as unfit, the women will have to take his place as heir. Unwed siblings are also bestowed gifts by the parents. They are given dowries, and if the parents are deceased all of the siblings are given equal proportions of the wealth left by the parents. In some traditions or customs, they may favor one child and that child may recieve 1/3 of the wealth.

Everyone in the basseria helps raise the children. Some may have a female servant that helps with the household chores, but will double as an au pair for the family. In many cases, while raising the children the parents will have already chosen the heir and the other siblings will have an idea of who that on is. The other siblings will also know that they have to leave, thus causing the Basque region to be rich in emigration.

Source:
Advameg, Inc. "Basques - Marriage and Family." Countries and Their Cultures. 2013. http://www.everyculture.com/Europe/Basques-Marriage-and-Family.html (accessed July 21, 2013).