Cracks in the Wall: Breaks Down the Myths of Egalitarianism and Matriarchy in the Basque Country
The invitation to reflect upon the work of historian Alfonso de Otazu y Llana, Basque egalitarianism: myth and reality (1986) from a gendered perspective is a timely opportunity to revisit another book that also questions a myth pivotal in the construction of “Basqueness”: Mujer vasca. Imagen y real...
| Autores: | , |
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| Tipo de documento: | capítulo de livro |
| Data de publicação: | 2017 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universidad del País Vasco |
| Repositório: | Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/76505 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/10810/76505 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | basque egalitarianism basqueness myths matriarchy basque women anthropology |
| Resumo: | The invitation to reflect upon the work of historian Alfonso de Otazu y Llana, Basque egalitarianism: myth and reality (1986) from a gendered perspective is a timely opportunity to revisit another book that also questions a myth pivotal in the construction of “Basqueness”: Mujer vasca. Imagen y realidad directed in 1985 by anthropologist, Teresa del Valle. If De Otazu’s work questioned the notion of social egalitarianism which from the sixteenth century presents Basque society as classless and free from feudalism (De Otazu, 1986:7), Del Valle’s team exposed the similarly pervasive myth of matriarchy which depicts a gender balance of power in favour of Basque women and presents a society operating outside the dominant gender system where men generally have the prerogative.There are interesting parallels in these two projects which set out to examine the reality beyond the myth, to go beyond the idealization of Basque society and uncover a different story, one that might challenge the dominant discourse. But what is particularly interesting is the exploration of why such myths prevail even when they have been proven to be erroneous, why - as De Otazu asks - “can something false have been able to impose itself as a clarifying explanation of history?” (1986:8). In order to address this question we have decided to focus our discussion on the contribution of the matriarchal myth to the fixing of gender inequality in the Basque Country and the way women have found ways to contest its categories. |
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