Ethnographic Atlas of the Basque Country

The Ethnographic Atlas of the Basque Country is an ethnographic research project intended to provide an overview of popular culture and lifestyles of the Basques throughout the 20th century up to the present day.

Exhibition of the bridal trousseau. Bidegoian (G), 1957. Source: Ana Larrarte, Etniker Euskalerria Groups.

Old and young husband and wife. Areatza (B), beginning of the 20th century. Source: Rubén de Las Hayas’ private archive.

House and Family in the Basque Country

The aim was to ensure that the family wealth, taken to be the farmstead and its belongings, would be passed on in full or only slightly diminished, and improved if possible, from parents to their offspring.

House and Family in the Basque Country

Family Diet in the Basque Country

Gabon, bon-bon; Natibitate, ase eta bete; San Estebantxe, lehen letxe. Eat heartily on Christmas Eve; until you feel full at Christmas; and back to normal on St Stephen’s Day.

Family Diet in the Basque Country

Market on St Thomas’ Day. Bilbao, 1950. Source: Sancho el Sabio Foundation.

Leapfrog jumping. Source: Iñigo Irigoyen, José. Folklore Alavés. Vitoria-Gasteiz: Chartered Government of Álava, 1949.

Children’s Games in the Basque Country

Astoka One or more participants bend down in a position that is usually called a frog and the others jump over them.

Children’s Games in the Basque Country

Traditional Medicine in the Basque Country

Zantiratu, zan urrutu, zana bere lekuan sartu.Spell against sprains

Traditional Medicine in the Basque Country

Local healer in Zeanuri (B), 1921. Source: Labayru Fundazioa Photograhic Archive: Felipe Manterola Collection.

Nursemaid. Zeanuri (B), 1924. Source: Labayru Fundazioa Photograhic Archive: Felipe Manterola Collection.

Rites from Birth to Marriage in the Basque Country

Until the mid-twentieth century women gave birth at home with the help of a midwife and women relatives and neighbours. Giving birth was almost exclusively a female domestic occasion exclusively concerning females.

Rites from Birth to Marriage in the Basque Country

Funeral Rites in the Basque Country

Each homestead used to have a burial site inside the church’s nave. When burials were transferred to cemeteries, the once real burial site in church became a symbolic family grave, were offerings of light and bread were made to their dead.

Funeral Rites in the Basque Country

Symbolic graves in church. Amezketa (G), 1990. Source: Antxon Aguirre, Etniker Euskalerria Groups.

Dolmen of Gaxteenia. Mendibe (NB), 1980. Source: Blot, Jacques. Artzainak. Les bergers basques. Los pastores vascos. Donostia: Elkar, 1984.

Livestock Farming and Shepherding in the Basque Country

“The axial zone of the Basque Pyrenees retains underneath a maze of folds traits of a time-honoured culture.” J. M. Barandiaran

Livestock Farming and Shepherding in the Basque Country

Agriculture in the Basque Country

Uzta garaian lokartzen, miserian iratzartzen. Anyone who sleeps at harvest time wakes up destitute.

Agriculture in the Basque Country

Milking of olive trees. Moreda (A), 2015. Source: José Ángel Chasco, Etniker Euskalerria Groups.