This new translation of Caro Baroja’s The Basques is yet another welcome book in the Center for Basque Studies Basque Classics Series. Caro Baroja’s book is indeed a classic in Basque studies, and with so few books on Basque ethnography available in English it fills a real need.

Caro Baroja’s book is divided into two parts: the first looks at the environment and material folk culture of the Basques; the second, the social life of the Basques. Though theory does not strongly inform his work, Caro does begin the first section of his book with an introduction that draws on the writings of the proto-semiotician Jakob von Uexküll, in which he reflects on the relationship of man and the environment in the Basque regions.

From there Caro Baroja proceeds to examine the various facets of Basque folk culture. Though he doesn’t reference European folklife scholarship, his book is written very much in that framework, with its insistence on the study of the totality of a folk culture. The first chapters of Caro Baroja’s book are a careful description of the types of town found in the Basque region and their history. He then moves to an examination of the types of the Basque house and settlement patterns, finally concluding his enquiry into towns and houses with a chapter on the names and functions of houses.

Caro Baroja moves next to the agricultural sector, where he describes the types of crops, implements, work patterns, and animals that Basque farmers used. He continues this section of the book with a chapter about the pastoral sector that describes the folklife of shepherds, woodcutters, and charcoal burners, which is followed by chapters on Basque fishermen, miners, and ironworkers.

The second section of the book, on social life, starts with a chapter on family and family relations, followed by one on the neighborhood. Caro Baroja then describes Basque life-cycle rituals. The following chapters look closely at the supernatural world of the Basques, with chapters on the mentality of the Basque peasantry, Basque religion, legendry, folk rituals, folk belief, and finally, witchcraft.

There are two final chapters on Basque folk arts, one on material folk art and the other on performed poetry, theater, and sports. The book ends with a brief conclusion.

The Basques was originally published in 1949, and was further revised for two later editions. It thus is largely a picture of a Basque culture that has passed; in fact, Caro Baroja himself wrote in the preface to the third edition of 1971 that “the author today no longer agrees with everything said in it; he does not intend, therefore, to offer it to the public as anything but a simple introduction to several arduous problems” (5). Yet, while Caro Baroja’s work does have a rather old-fashioned feel to it at times, it is, nonetheless, a model ethnography based on a profound knowledge of the Basque region, its history and prehistory, and its folk culture.

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[Review length: 490 words • Review posted on February 16, 2011]