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About Basque People                                                From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



1st row: Arista - Sancho III - Elcano - Loyola - Urdaneta - Oñate - Bolívar
2nd row:Zumalakarregi - GardoquiGarat - Iraola - Arana - Balenciaga -Aguirre
3rd row:Garrastazu - Larrazábal - Perón - Laxalt - Basterretxea - Guevara-Mariano
4th row:Domingo - Garamendi - Ibarretxe - Eyharts - Chao - Zorreguieta -Arteta

Total population

approx. 18,000,000 worldwide

Regions with significant populations
 Basque Country[1]

           Total (Basque Country)2,123,000
 Spain Total (Spain)2,304,000

          Lower Navarre40,000
          Total (France)285,000
Basque Patronyms in other French and Spanish regions


 Argentina3.1 million[citation needed]
 Chile1.5 million[citation needed]
 Cuba1.5 million[citation needed]
 Brazil800.000 - 1.500.000[citation needed]
 United States57,000[citation needed]
 Uruguay35,000[citation needed]
 Costa Rica8,800[4]
 Philippines6,000[citation needed]

Basque - few monoglots
Spanish - 1,525,000 monoglots
French - 150,000 monoglots
Basque-Spanish - 600,000 speakers
Basque-French - 76,000 speakers
[citation needed]

other native languages
Traditionally Roman Catholic
This table assumes that all residents in the Basque Country, Navarre and the Northern Basque Country are of Basque ethnicity, currently it is recognised that a large percentange isn't

The Basques (BasqueEuskaldunak) are a those who inhabit a region spanning over parts of north-central Spain and southwestern France.

The name Basque derives from Medieval French and from the ancient tribe of the Vascones,[6]described by Ancient Greek historian Strabo as living south of the western Pyrenees and north of the Ebro River, in modern day Navarre and northern Aragon. This tribal name, of unknown etymology, was extended in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages to cover all Basque-speaking people on either side of the Pyrenees.

Basques are now mainly found in an area traditionally known as Euskal Herria, which is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay.

The Basques are known in local languages as:

  • Euskaldunak ("Basque speakers", also used loosely to describe all ethnic Basques) oreuskotarrak ("Natives of the Basque Country", an often mentioned but rarely used neologism) in Basque
  • Vascos in Spanish
  • Basques in French
  • Bascos in Gascon

This article discusses the Basques as an ethnic group or, as some view them, a nation, in contrast to other ethnic groups living in the Basque area. The history of the Basque region as covered here will focus on how that history bears on the Basques as a people.

Recent genetic studies have confirmed that many western Europeans, including the great majority of Spaniards, Portuguese, Britons, Irish and French, have a common ancestry with modern Basques that can be traced to inhabitants of the Basque areas of Spain and France based on Y-chromosome and mtDNA analysis.[7] The originators of these genes are thought to have traveled up the Atlantic Coast in the Upper Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic period.



[edit] Etymology of the word "Basque"

The English word "Basque" comes from French Basque (pronounced /bask/), which itself comes from Gascon Basco (pronounced /ˈbasku/) and Spanish Vasco (pronounced /ˈbasko/). These, in turn, come from Latin Vasco (pronounced /wasko/), plural Vascones (see History section below). The Latin labial-velar approximant /w/ generally evolved into the bilabials /b/ and /β̞/ in Gascon and Spanish, probably under the influence of Basque and Aquitanian, a language related to old Basque and spoken in Gascony in Antiquity (similarly the Latin /w/ evolved into /v/ in FrenchItalian and other languages). This explains the Roman pun at the expense of the Aquitanians (ancestors of the Gascons): 'Beati Hispani quibus vivere bibere est", which translates as "Blessed (are the) Spaniards, for whom living is drinking'. The Romans considered the Aquitanians akin to the Spaniards.

Barscunes coin. Roman period
Barscunes coin. Roman period

Several coins from the 1st and 2nd centuries BC found in the north of Spain bear the inscriptionbarscunes written in the Iberian alphabet. The place where they were minted is not certain but is thought to be somewhere near Pamplona in the heartland of the area that historians believe was inhabited by the Vascones. Some scholars have suggested a Celtic etymology based on bhar-s-, meaning "summit", "point" or "leaves", according to which barscunes may have meant "the mountain people", "the tall ones" or "the proud ones", while others have posited a relationship to a pre-Indo-European root *bar- meaning "border", "frontier", "march".[8]

Others suggest that Latin Vasco comes from a Basque and Aquitanian root used by these people to refer to themselves, eusk-, pronounced /ewsk/, which is rather similar to Latin/wasko/.[citation needed] The name of an Aquitanian people which the Romans recorded as Ausci(pronounced /awski/ in Latin) appears to represent from the same root. The basque word for hand/grasp is similar to the root "eusk" in Basque as well, with the sense that other ethnic groups have also for self referral as "those who grasp(thought,word),those who understand (us)".

In modern Basque, Basques call themselves euskaldunak, singular euskaldun, formed fromeuskal- (i.e. "Basque (language)") and -dun (i.e. "one who has"); euskaldun literally means a Basque speaker. Not all Basques are Basque-speakers, and not all Basque speakers are Basques; foreigners who have learned Basque can also be called euskaldunak. Therefore the neologismeuskotar, plural euskotarrak, was coined in the nineteenth century to mean an ethnically Basque person whether Basque-speaking or not. These Basque words are all derived from euskara, the Basque name for the Basque language.


In the nineteenth century, the Basque nationalist activist Sabino Arana posited an original root euzko which, he thought, came from eguzkiko "of the sun" on the assumption of an original solar religion). On the basis of this putative root Arana proposed the name Euzkadi for an independent Basque nation. Arana's etymology is discredited today, but his neologism Euzkadi, in the regularized spelling Euskadi, is still widely used in both Basque and Spanish, since it is now the official name of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.

In fact the root eusk- might come from the name of the aquitanian tribe Ausci that gave its name to the french city of Auch that was called before Elimberrum 'new town' (from basco-aquitanian ili-berri).

[edit] History

Basque and other pre-Indo-European tribes at the time of Roman arrival (in red)

It is thought that Basques are a remnant of the early inhabitants of Western Europe, specifically those of the Franco-Cantabrian region. Basque tribes were already mentioned in Roman times byStrabo and Pliny, including the Vascones, the Aquitani and others. There is enough evidence that they already spoke Basque in that time (see: Aquitanian languageIruña-Veleia).

In the Early Middle Ages the territory between the Ebro and Garonne rivers was known asVasconia, being united under the Castilian noblesse. After Muslim invasions and Frankishexpansion under Charlemagne, the territory was fragmented and eventually the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Pamplona arose as the main states with Basque population in the ninth century.

This state, later known as Navarre, experienced feudalization and was subjected to the influences of its vaster AragoneseCastilian and French neighbours, with Castile annexing parts of it in the eleventh and twelfth century and from 1512 to 1521. The remainder of Navarre would end up being united to France.

Nevertheless the Basque provinces enjoyed a great deal of self-government until the French Revolution in the North and the mainly religious wars named Carlist Wars in the South trying to establish a catholic theocratic monarchy. Since then, despite the current self-governing status of the Basque Country, as settled by the Spanish Constitution, elements of Basque society are still attempting to establish a completely separate State (see Basque nationalism), sometimes by violent means.

[edit] Geography

[edit] Political and administrative divisions

The autonomous community (a concept established in the Spanish constitution of 1978) that is known as Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa or EAE in Basque, and as (la) Comunidad Autónoma Vasca or CAV in Spanish (in English: Basque Autonomous Community or BAC),[9] is composed of the three Spanish provinces of AlavaBiscay and Guipuscoa. The corresponding Basque names of these territories are ArabaBizkaia and Gipuzkoa and their Spanish name is Álava,Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa.



There are other three provinces claimed by the nationalist basque parties as parts of an expanded Basque Country: Labourd, Lower Navarre and Soule (Lapurdi, Nafarroa Beherea andZuberoa in Basque; Labourd, Basse-Navarre and Soule in French), have no official status within France's present-day political and administrative territorial organization and there is only a marginal political support to the Spanish Basque nationalists.

[edit] Population, main cities and languages



Approximately a quarter of a million people live in the part of claimed French Basque Country. Nationalists politicians in Basque Country generally refer to this as the "north" (Iparralde), and therefore to the Spanish provinces as the "south" (Hegoalde). Much of this population lives in or near the Bayonne-Anglet-Biarritz (BAB) urban belt on the coast (in Basque these are Baiona, Angelu and Miarritze). The Basque language, which was traditionally spoken by most of the region's population outside the BAB urban zone, is today losing ground to French at a fast rate. Associated with the northern Basque Country's lack of self-government within the French state is the absence of official status for the Basque language throughout this region.

[edit] The Basque diaspora

Main article: Basque diaspora

Large numbers of Basques have left the Basque Country for other parts of the world in different historical periods, often for economic or political reasons. Basques are often employed in sheepherding and ranching, maritime fisheries and merchants around the world. Millions of Basque descendants (see Basque American) live in North America (the United StatesCanadamainly in the provinces of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador; and Mexico), South AmericaSouthern Africa and Australia.

A great many Basques emigrated to Argentina, where they represent about 10% of the national population,[10] and substantial numbers settled elsewhere in North and South America, particularly in ChileColombiaEcuadorPeruBoliviaCuba, Mexico, GuatemalaVenezuela, and the United States, where Basque place names are to be found, such as New Biscay, nowDurango (Mexico), Biscayne BayJalapa (Guatemala), Aguerreberry or Aguereberry Point in the United States, and the Nuevo Santander region of Mexico.[citation needed] Many people inUruguay are of Basque heritage also.[11]

In Mexico most Basques are concentrated in the MonterreySaltilloCamargoJaliscoDurango, and the Mexican states of Nuevo LeonTamaulipas, and Coahuila areas. In Guatemala most Basques are concentrated in Jalapa Guatemala for six generations now, some have immigrated to the city of Guatemala. The Basques were important in the mining industry, many were ranchers and vaqueros (cowboys), and the rest opened small shops in major cities like Mexico CityGuadalajara and Puebla.

The largest of several important Basque communities in the United States is in the area aroundBoise, Idaho, home to the Basque Museum and Cultural Center, host to a Basque festival every year, as well as a festival for the entire Basque diaspora every five years. Reno, Nevada, where the Center for Basque Studies and the Basque Studies Library are located in the University of Nevada, is another significant nucleus of Basque population. In Winnemucca, Nevada there is an annual Basque festival that celebrates the dance, cuisine and cultures of the Basque peoples of Spanish, French and Mexican nationalities arrived to Nevada since the late 19th century.

California is a major concentration of Basques in the United States, most notably in the San Joaquin Valley between StocktonFresno and Bakersfield, the city itself has a large Basque community and the city boasts several Basque restaurants. There also exists a history of Basque culture in Chino, California. In Chino, there are two annual Basque festivals that celebrate the dance, cuisine, and culture of the peoples, and the surrounding area of San Bernardino Countyhas many Basque descendants. These Basques in California are grouped in the ethnic termCalifornios.

In South Texas along the Mexican-Texan border of the Rio Grande Valley, many people are of Basque heritage or have Basque surnames. Along this area are many ranches given to colonial Spanish settlers from Basque Country to New Spain which still exist today. These Basques in south Texas are grouped in the ethnic term Tejanos. Basques of European Spanish-French and Latin American (Latino) nationalities also settled throughout the western U.S. in states like New MexicoArizonaUtahColoradoWyomingMontanaOregon and Washington state.

There are also many Basques and people of Basque ancestry living outside their homeland in Spain, France and other European countries. A total of over 100,000 ethnic Basques may live inGermany, the Netherlands and United Kingdom as a result of emigration to industries in those countries between 1945 and 1970.

Classification of population according to cultural identity
Classification of population according to cultural identity

[edit] Culture

[edit] Language

Main article: Basque language





[edit] Land and inheritance




[edit] Cuisine

Main article: Basque cuisine


[edit] Cultural production


[edit] Music

Main article: Basque music

[edit] Religion

One of the pieces found in the Roman town of Veleia is interpreted as the oldest representation of the Calvary ever found. If confirmed, this could advance the date of the diffusion of Christianity in the Basque Country, at least in the valleys. Traditionally Basques have been mostlyRoman Catholics. In the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, Basques as a group remained notably devout and churchgoing. In recent years church attendance has fallen off, as in most of Western Europe. The region has been a source of missionaries like Francis Xavier andMichel GaricoïtsIgnatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, was a Basque.


Bayonne held a Jewish community composed mainly of Sephardi Jews fleeing from the Spanishand Portuguese Inquisitions. There were also important Jewish and Muslim communities inNavarre before the Castilian invasion of 1512-21.

Nowadays only slightly more than 50% of Basques show some kind of belief in God, while the rest are either agnostic or atheist. The number of religious skeptics increases noticeably for the younger generations, while the older ones are more religious.[17]

[edit] Pre-Christian religion and mythology

Anboto mountain is one of sites where Mariwas believed to dwell.
Main article: Basque mythology




Legends also speak of many and abundant genies, like jentilak (equivalent to giants), lamiak(equivalent to nymphs), mairuak (builders of the cromlechs or stone circles, literally Moors),iratxoak (imps), sorginak (witches, priestess of Mari), etc. Basajaun is a Basque version of theWoodwose. There is a trickster named San Martin Txiki ("St Martin the Lesser"). It has been shown that some of these stories have entered Basque culture in recent centuries or as part of Roman superstitio. It is unclear whether neolithic stone structures called dolmens have a religious significance or were built to house animals or resting shepherds. Some of the dolmens and cromlechs are burial sites serving as well as border markers.


[edit] Society


Strabo's account of the north of Spain in his Geographica (Strabo) makes a mention of 'a sort of woman-rule - not at all a mark of civilization' (Hadington 1992), a first mention of the - for the period - unusual position of women. “Women could inherit and control property as well as officiate in churches. Combined with the issue of lingering pagan beliefs, this enraged the leaders of the Spanish Inquisition, perhaps leading to one of its most savage witch-burnings in the Basque town of Logroño in 1610”.[18]


Although the kingdom of Navarre did adopt feudalism, most Basques also possessed unusual social institutions different from those of feudal Europe. Some aspects of this include the elizatetradition where local house-owners met in front of the church to elect a representative to send to the juntas and juntas generales (such as the Juntas Generales de Vizcaya or Guipúzcoa) which administered much larger areas. Another example was the fact that in the medieval period most land was owned by the farmers, not the Church or a king.[14][20]

[edit] Traditional Basque sports

[edit] Pilota

Main article: Basque pelota

The great family of ball games has its unique offspring among Basque ball games, known generically as pilota (Spanish: pelota). Some variants have been exported to the United Statesand Macau under the name of Jai Alai.

[edit] Rural sports

Trainera in the Bilbao estuary.
Trainera in the Bilbao estuary.
Barrenatzaileak in Barakaldo.
Barrenatzaileak in Barakaldo.
Main article: Basque rural sports


[edit] Bull runs and bullock games


[edit] Football


[edit] Politics


Navarre has a separate autonomy based in the historical fuero (charter) and on the fact that, unlike the Basque region, it was an independent kingdom before the unification of Spain in the Middle Ages. Of the territory belonging to the modern autonomous region of Navarre, only the northern half can be considered Euskal Herria (literally, "where Basque is spoken"). Basque ultra-nationalists would like to see the whole of Navarre integrated with the Basque Country.

The Northern Basque Country has no autonomy whatsoever and it is just part of the Frenchdepartment of Pyrénées Atlantiques, centered in Bearn. The claim of a separate Basque department has been large among a very minority of local elects of nationalist ideologies in the last decades but incompatible with the French Constitution[citation needed].

[edit] Political conflicts

[edit] Language

Main article: Basque language





[edit] Political status and violence

Since its articulation by Sabino Arana in the late nineteenth century, the more radical currents ofBasque nationalism have demanded the right of self-determination and even independence. It should be noted that within the Basque country, that this element of Basque politics is often in balance with the conception of the Basque Country as just another part of the Spanish state, a view more commonly espoused on the right of the political spectrum. In contrast, the desire for greater autonomy and/or independence is particularly common among leftist Basque nationalists. The right of self-determination was asserted by the Basque Parliament in 2002 and 2006.[22] Since self-determination is not recognized in the Spanish Constitution of 1978, a wide majority of Basques abstained and some even voted against it in the referendum of December 6of that year. However, it was approved by clear majority at the Spanish level, and simple majority at Navarrese and Basque levels. The derived autonomous regimes for the (Western) Basque Country was approved in later referendum but the autonomy of Navarre (amejoramiento del fuero: "improvement of the charter") was never subject to referendum but just approved by the Navarrese Cortes (parliament).

[edit] Political violence

See also: ETAGrupos Antiterroristas de LiberaciónBatallón Vasco EspañolComandos Autónomos Anticapitalistas, and Iraultza

[edit] Classification




[edit] Genetics

Although they are genetically distinctive in some ways, the Basques are still very typically west European in terms of their Mt-DNA and Y-DNA sequences, and in terms of some other geneticloci. These same sequences are widespread throughout the western half of Europe, especially along the western fringe of the continent. The Sami people of northern Scandinavia show an especially high abundance of a Mt-DNA type found at 11% amongst Basques. Somewhat higher among neighbouring Cantabrians, the isolated Pasiegos have a Mt-DNA V haplogroup of wider microsatellite variation than Saami. [24][25][26] Autosomal genetic studies confirm that Basques have a very close relationship with other Europeans, especially with Spaniards - who have a common genetic identity of over 70% with Basques.[27]

It is thought that the Basque Country and neighbouring regions served as a refuge for palaeolithic humans during the last major glaciation when environments further north were too cold and dry for continuous habitation. When climate warmed into the present interglacial, populations would have rapidly spread north along the west European coast. Genetically, in terms of Y-chromosomes and Mt-DNA, inhabitants of Britain and Ireland are closely related to the Basques,[28] [29] reflecting their common origin in this refugial area. Basques, along with Irish, show the highest frequency of the Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup R1b in Western Europe; some 98% of native Basque men have this haplogroup. The rest is mainly I and a minimal presence of E3b.The Y-chromosome and MtDNA relationship between Basques and people of Ireland and Wales is of equal ratios as to neighbouring areas of Spain, where similar "ethnically Spanish" people now live in close proximity to the Basques, although this genetic relationship is also very strong among Basques and other Spaniards. In fact, as Stephen Oppenheimer has stated in The Origins of the British (2006), although Basques have been more isolated than other Iberians, they are a population representative of south western Europe. As to the genetic relationship among Basques, Iberians and Britons, he also states (pages 375 and 378):

By far the majority of male gene types in the British Isles derive from Iberia(modern Spain and Portugal), ranging from a low of 59% in Fakenham, Norfolk to highs of 96% in Llangefni, north Wales and 93% Castlerea, Ireland. On average only 30% of gene types in England derive from north-west Europe. Even without dating the earlier waves of north-west European immigration, this invalidates the Anglo-Saxon wipeout theory... ...75-95% of British and Irish (genetic) matches derive from Iberia...Ireland, coastal Wales, and central and west-coast Scotland are almost entirely made up from Iberian founders, while the rest of the non-English parts of the Britain and Ireland have similarly high rates. England has rather lower rates of Iberian types with marked heterogeneity, but no English sample has less than 58% of Iberian samples...


Before the development of modern Genetics based on DNA sequencing, Basques were noted as having the highest global apportion of Rh- blood type (35% phenotypically, 60% genetically). Additionally Basques also have virtually no B blood type (nor the related AB group). These differences are thought to reflect their long history of isolation, along with times when the population size of the Basques was small, allowing gene frequencies to drift over time. The history of isolation reflected in gene frequencies has presumably been key to the Basque people retaining their distinctive language, while more recently arrived Indo-European languagesswamped other indigenous languages that were previously spoken in western Europe. In fact, in accordance with other genetic studies, a recent genetic piece of research from 2007 claims: "The Spanish and Basque groups are the furthest away from other continental groups (with more diversity within the same genetic groups) which is consistent with the suggestions that the Iberian peninsula holds the most ancient West European genetic ancestry."

[edit] Notables

Main article: List of Basques

Among the most notable Basque people are Juan Sebastián de Elcano (led the first successful expedition to circumnavigate the globe after Magellan died mid-journey); Sancho III of Navarre; and Ignatius of Loyola and Francis Xavier, founders of the Society of Jesus.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ This assumes that all residents in the Basque Country are of Basque ethnicity, currently it is recognised that a large percentange isn't
  2. ^ This assumes that all residents in Navarre are of Basque ethnicity, it is nationally accepted that more than half aren't
  3. ^ This assumes that all residents in those French provinces are of Basque ethnicity, it is nationally accepted that a large percentange isn't
  4. ^ Ethnic groups - Costa Rica
  5. ^ Ethnic groups - Venezuela
  6. ^ Definition of Basque (Merriam-Webster Online)
  7. ^ Stephen Oppenheimer
  8. ^ Vascones - el nombre (Auñamendi Encyclopedia)
  10. ^ "Vascos en Argentina”,
  11. ^ Basque Culture Day
  12. ^ Sociolinguistics (
  15. ^ J.C. Moreno Cabrera, Misconceptions about Basque
  17. ^ Opinion poll on religion by GIZAKER, published by EITB
  18. ^ Hadingham 1992. Note that Logroño is not a Basque town, but it was the see of thediocesis covering Zugarramurdi in 1610. The Spanish Inquisition rarely acted against witches, devoting most of its attention to JudaizantsMoriscos and Protestants.
  19. ^ Gimbutas, M. The Living Goddesses University of California Press: 2001
  20. ^ Collins, R. The Basques Blackwell: 1986
  22. ^ EITB: Basque parliament adopts resolution on self-determination
  24. ^ Atlas of the Human Journey - The Genographic Project
    • Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy
  28. ^ McDonald, World Haplogroups Maps
  29. ^ A United Kingdom? Maybe
  31. ^ Estimating the Impact of Prehistoric Admixture on the Genome of Europeans

[edit] References

[edit] External links



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