Resumen
La Alimentación Doméstica en Vasconia (Family Diet in the Basque Country) is an ethnographical investigative work produced by the ETNIKER Groups of EUSKALERRIA. It is the first of a set of works that will make up the Atlas Etnográfico de Vasconia (Ethnographical Atlas of the Basque Country), which has been designed by Mr. José Miguel de Barandiarán.
Thematically, this publication is focused on the questionnaire on food which appears in the Guía para una encuesta etnográfica, (Guide for an ethnographical survey), (Chapter 1, Domestic Group, questions 37-87). Its main contents refer to traditional diet within the family, food preparation processes, preserving techniques and changes undergone throughout this century. This survey has mainly been rounded off with ritual aspects and celebrations related to traditional diet.
This investigation has been carried out within the territory forming nowadays the Basque Country, located in West Europe and covering the area between the rivers Adour, in the North, and Ebro, in the South. These provinces are made up by two political authorities of the Spanish State (Basque Autonomous Community and Community of Navarra) and part of the French Department of the Atlantic Pyrenees. As a whole, it covers an area of 20,531 km2, and its population amounts to 2,937,151 inhabitants (By 1990).
Las encuestas y el trabajo de campo se han realizado en 74 localidades distribuidas regionalmente en Alava, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Iparralde (Labourd, Basse-Navarre, Soule) y Navarra. Para la selección de las poblaciones se ha atendido a la diversidad regional del territorio objeto de estudio así como a la de las zonas (rural, urbana y costera) donde se han efectuado.
Tanto este primer volumen como los posteriores que compondrán el Atlas pretenden estudiar el grupo humano de Vasconia. La alimentación doméstica es la primera aportación al mismo, a la que seguirán otras, entre las que cabe destacar, la casa con su mobiliario y ajuar, la indumentaria, la composición de la familia con sus relaciones jurídicas, los ritos de pasaje y las relaciones intrafamiliares y vecinales, la medicina popular, la religiosidad, el calendario popular y los diversos modos de vida.