News

Basque Government Culture Councilor Josune Ariztondo, member of Eusko Ikaskuntza Pello Salaburu, Professor at the Center for Basque Studies in the University of Nevada (Reno) Joseba Zulaika , Music Professor and Ethnomusicology Doctor by the University of London Sabin Bikandi presented these two volumes; The Basques by Julio Caro Baroja and Alejandro Aldekoa (1920-96): Master of pipe and tabor dance music in the Basque Country, both of them published by the University of Nevada.

Basque Government Culture Councilor Josune Ariztondo referred to the ''important'' effort made by the Center for Basque Studies in Reno-Nevada on the popularization of Basque culture and added that ''it is obvious that English is the lingua franca in the 21st century, that''s why it is so important to spread the knowledge about our Country through this language.

In relation to the two new volumes , The Basques by Julio Caro Baroja and Alejandro Aldekoa (1920-96): Master of pipe and tabor dance music in the Basque Country, she pointed out that these two books can be added to the work done by the Coordinator Emeritus of Basque Studies William Douglass, who helped to initiate the Basque Studies Program (now Center for Basque Studies) and served as its Coordinator for over thirty years.

The Basques (Los vascos) by Julio Caro Baroja was first published in 1949, and the current edition is a translation of the third revised edition published in 1971. It is a comprehensive study of Basque culture from an anthropological and historical point of view. In The Basques, Julio Caro Baroja studies Basque material culture including population center development, farming, seafaring, mining, and ironworking, as well as social structure, mentality, mythology, arts, music, poetry, among many other topics.

Baroja eschews grand theory in any guise (be it of sweeping culture areas and cycles, Marxist, a historical functionalist, or structuralist) in favor of concretely defined culture areas that must be understood in their own historical terms. He defends the primacy of cultural differences in human affairs, including their capacity to define distinctive ethnic groups. However, the latter were to be understood as both unique historical precipitates and the result of a complex (indeed functionally integrated) interaction between the crucial components of society, economy, geography, and culture. Baroja specifically eschewed explanations of human difference as expressions of inherent racial propensities (a postulate that still informed at least some of the social scientific thinking of his day).

In the foregoing regards the author proved to be thoroughly modern and even visionary, however as always his journey to such conclusions deviated from conventional pathways. Throughout his career, Caro’s gaze wandered over a vast array of subjects, but Basque Studies remained his one abiding interest. The Basques is the cornerstone of that corpus and remains unique within Basque literature, as was its influence over subsequent generations of Basque Studies scholars.

Alejandro Aldekoa: Master of Pipe and Tabor Dance Music in the Basque Country explores the pipe and tabor dance music of Berriz (a small town in the Basque Country), as revealed through the life and work of Alejandro Aldekoa (1920–96), dance master and txistularia (''pipe and tabor player''). His life spanned the difficult period of the Spanish Civil War, the Franco regime, and the present uncertain political situation. His art both responded to and shaped the times he lived through, becoming part of the process for expressing Basque nationalism.

Sabin Bikandi addresses many issues: the influence of Basque nationalist ideology on music and dance, the part played by the Association of Txistulariak of the Basque Country and its journal Txistulari in articulating that ideology, the role of the dance master as a ritual specialist in the transmission and performance of the tradition, the importance placed on local knowledge of Western music theory, the repertoire of the ritual dances (including new prescriptive notations for their performance), and the significance of the ritual dances as a cohesive element of Basque identity in this ethnically mixed community.