- Email: [email protected]
Outsiders: Basque nationalism
M. Clyne 1 Cultural differences
Garfinkel exploring
in academic texts
245
(1978), Geiss (1982), Coleman (i.p.), and Kumatoriya (1982) have been the murky area of language in advertising, especially television advertising.
Law. It is the field of language and law, however, which appears to offer great promise for applied sociolinguistics in the next decade. As such, this area of application can serve as a model or case study for other fields in which the emerging tools, theory, and insights of sociolinguistics can be utilized. The field of law seems to be a growth potential area for future applied sociolinguistic work as a result of a number of conditions, including (1) a credible research base; (2) the recent development within sociolinguistics of research and theory which appear to be applicable to legal issues; (3) the growing recognition of the field of law for the service that sociolinguistics can offer; and (4) the willingness of some scholars to stick their necks out and leap into the middle of issues that had hitherto seemed separate, foreign, and dangerous.
Appendix B
An example of a more ‘digressive’ (German) text. The four categories ‘Path and Organization’, ‘Definition of Terms’, ‘Discontinuity’ and ‘Digressiveness’ are indicated by footnotes. Text by a speaker of German Pp. 169-171 from: M. Heiberg, Insiders/Outsiders : Basque nationalism, Archives Europkennes de Sociologic 16: 169-193 (1975).
Insiders/Outsiders:
Basque nationalism
M. HEIBERG
The material which I will try to analyse is largely historical and relates to the initial period of Basque nationalism at the turn of the last century. Moreover, the historical material will be presented only cursorily since the main emphasis on the paper is theoretical. It is believed that the Basque nationalism of today is incomprehensible if there is no theoretical understanding of the factors which led to its emergence in the 1890s. Furthermore, this paper does not purport to prove its conclusions. It is rather a tentative exploration of one theoretical line which may or may not eventually be useful. This paper is divided into three sections. The first section presents the historical material. The second will give an analysis of the specific character of Basque nationalism. By modifying the theory of Ernst Gellner and illustrating it with the Basque material, the third part will attempt to put nationalism into a general theoretical framework.’
246
M. Clyne / Cultural differences in academic texts
I
As a preliminary to any study of the Basques, and especially to a study of Basque nationalism, the crucial position of the Basque fieros, or local privileges, must be discussed. Thesefueros.were the foundation of Basque social, political and economic life from the twelfth and thirteenth century when they were first formulated until 1840 when they were finaily revoked. As a symbol of Basque autonomy, the return of the fueros has always constituted a major demand of the Basque nationalists. On one level, the jiieros were charters granted in the Middle Ages to particular Basque provinces and regions allowing local autonomy in return for political allegiance to the kings of Spain or the kings of France. The privileges granted by thefueros enabled the Basques to have their own courts, parliaments, coinage, militia, customs boundaries and to be free from outside taxation. Moreover, the ordinances of the jiieros covered nearly every aspect of Basque life from marriage and dowry to inheritance and political participation. Most importantly, the fueros guaranteed that the Basques were not to be integrated into either France or Castile. But the full significance of the fueros extends even deeper than this. When the fueros are referred to in documents, the phrase fueros, buenos uses y costumbres (‘fueros, good practices and customs’) is almost always used. The fueros when first granted did not introduce unfamiliar innovations into the Basque provinces, but rather they molded and made formal the existing institutions of the time. As one author has put it, the fueros were ‘first customs and later law’, and as such were derived from the very fabric of the social structure itself. Thefueros were formed to tit and protect the needs of a rural society whose social outlook in the main was one of peasant egalitarianism.2 However, existing in enclosed pockets within this rural society from the thirteenth century onwards were urban, mercantile centers. Compressing drastically, the opposition between urban and rural gave rise to a fierce antagonism marked at times by bloody demonstrations. It was a duality of ‘open land’, la tierra Ziena, against closed, walled cities whose influence and power were gradually increasing. As a result two political apparatuses developed; one fitted to a prosperous rural people and the other adjusted to the needs of a mercantile class of traders. The conflict of interests which developed between the urban centers and rural areas became a crucial factor in the Carlist wars.
The Carlist wars
To attempt to understand the Carlism of the 19th century which was nominally a doctrine concerning the rightful heir to the Spanish throne, it is essential to understand the Liberalism that was so popular in certain political and social circles at the time; and what this Spanish Liberalism signified to the prosperous, rural Basques. Furthermore, the fanatical Carlism of Navarra which was centered around the religious reunification of Spain must be distinguished from the more pragmatic Carlism of Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa which revolved around the preservation of the fueros. Before we start, however, it might be useful to examine very briefly two topics; the rural conditions of the Basques, and the differences between the four Spanish Basque provinces.3 As Gerald Brenan has put it, rainfall is a critical factor in Spain, and in the Basque provinces rainfall is ample. An even distribution of resources combined with regular
M. Clyne / Cultural differences in academic texts
241
rainfall produced in the Basque provinces a large and prosperous yeoman class. Agrarian reformers attributed the prosperity of the Basque countryside to the caserio, the rural, self-sufficient farmstead, which is the most prominent feature of the Basque rural landscape. The caserio, the concrete symbol of the Basque family, was founded on the small landholding which consisted of about ten to fifteen hectares. The caserio was an autonomous and self-supporting unit. Social and economic links between caserios were weak. Augmenting this system of small farms were communal forest and grazing lands which played an indispensable role in maintaining the general affluence of the Basques. In the Basque region a person’s first loyalty was always directed toward the farmstead rather than toward a village which in the Spanish sense hardly existed. But this view of the typical Basque countryside based on the caserio was by and large confined to Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya. In Alava and parts of Navarra the land is dryer, villages tend to replace farmhouses as the focal points, the presence of a landed gentry as evidenced by castles and fortresses is a more marked feature, and the Spanish crops of vines and wheat become more prominent. Some differences between the four provinces can be traced to geographical factors. Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa have been isolated from the rest of Spain by the Cantabrian mountain range; and historically have been more oriented toward the sea and the rest of Europe. Navarra, on the other hand, is cut off from France by the Pyrenees on one side, is separated from Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya by the Cantabrian, and merges with Aragon to the south. Alava, landlocked like Navarra, blends gradually into Old Castile, and has the climate and appearance of the Castilian meseta. Of further note is the fact that both Navarra and Alava have remained, unlike the two other Basque provinces, almost completely rural and isolated from industrial centers until the last ten to fifteen years4 Having said this much we can now turn our attention to the opposed ideologies of Liberalism and Carlism... (Continuation of note 3.)
Notes 1 Example of ‘Path and Organization’. The author indicates and explicitly outlines the conceptual structuring of the text. Z Example of ‘Definition of Terms’. The term ‘fueros’, an understanding of which is, according to the author, crucial for the ensuing discussion, is worked into the main argument while at the same time defined. 3 Example of ‘Discontinuity’. The argument (related to Carlism and Liberalism) is left unfinished for the time being and taken up again later in the text. 4 Example of ‘Digressiveness’. The main argument (see note 3) is abandoned. Instead the author inserts a segment on a topic (‘rural conditions of the Basques’ and ‘differences between the four Basque provinces’) which at this stage of the discussion is peripheral to the main argument. Also note that the author seems to be well aware of the less ‘linear’ nature of this segment, as it is pragmatically marked (‘Before we start, however, it might be useful to examine.. .‘).
Garfinkel exploring
in academic texts
245
(1978), Geiss (1982), Coleman (i.p.), and Kumatoriya (1982) have been the murky area of language in advertising, especially television advertising.
Law. It is the field of language and law, however, which appears to offer great promise for applied sociolinguistics in the next decade. As such, this area of application can serve as a model or case study for other fields in which the emerging tools, theory, and insights of sociolinguistics can be utilized. The field of law seems to be a growth potential area for future applied sociolinguistic work as a result of a number of conditions, including (1) a credible research base; (2) the recent development within sociolinguistics of research and theory which appear to be applicable to legal issues; (3) the growing recognition of the field of law for the service that sociolinguistics can offer; and (4) the willingness of some scholars to stick their necks out and leap into the middle of issues that had hitherto seemed separate, foreign, and dangerous.
Appendix B
An example of a more ‘digressive’ (German) text. The four categories ‘Path and Organization’, ‘Definition of Terms’, ‘Discontinuity’ and ‘Digressiveness’ are indicated by footnotes. Text by a speaker of German Pp. 169-171 from: M. Heiberg, Insiders/Outsiders : Basque nationalism, Archives Europkennes de Sociologic 16: 169-193 (1975).
Insiders/Outsiders:
Basque nationalism
M. HEIBERG
The material which I will try to analyse is largely historical and relates to the initial period of Basque nationalism at the turn of the last century. Moreover, the historical material will be presented only cursorily since the main emphasis on the paper is theoretical. It is believed that the Basque nationalism of today is incomprehensible if there is no theoretical understanding of the factors which led to its emergence in the 1890s. Furthermore, this paper does not purport to prove its conclusions. It is rather a tentative exploration of one theoretical line which may or may not eventually be useful. This paper is divided into three sections. The first section presents the historical material. The second will give an analysis of the specific character of Basque nationalism. By modifying the theory of Ernst Gellner and illustrating it with the Basque material, the third part will attempt to put nationalism into a general theoretical framework.’
246
M. Clyne / Cultural differences in academic texts
I
As a preliminary to any study of the Basques, and especially to a study of Basque nationalism, the crucial position of the Basque fieros, or local privileges, must be discussed. Thesefueros.were the foundation of Basque social, political and economic life from the twelfth and thirteenth century when they were first formulated until 1840 when they were finaily revoked. As a symbol of Basque autonomy, the return of the fueros has always constituted a major demand of the Basque nationalists. On one level, the jiieros were charters granted in the Middle Ages to particular Basque provinces and regions allowing local autonomy in return for political allegiance to the kings of Spain or the kings of France. The privileges granted by thefueros enabled the Basques to have their own courts, parliaments, coinage, militia, customs boundaries and to be free from outside taxation. Moreover, the ordinances of the jiieros covered nearly every aspect of Basque life from marriage and dowry to inheritance and political participation. Most importantly, the fueros guaranteed that the Basques were not to be integrated into either France or Castile. But the full significance of the fueros extends even deeper than this. When the fueros are referred to in documents, the phrase fueros, buenos uses y costumbres (‘fueros, good practices and customs’) is almost always used. The fueros when first granted did not introduce unfamiliar innovations into the Basque provinces, but rather they molded and made formal the existing institutions of the time. As one author has put it, the fueros were ‘first customs and later law’, and as such were derived from the very fabric of the social structure itself. Thefueros were formed to tit and protect the needs of a rural society whose social outlook in the main was one of peasant egalitarianism.2 However, existing in enclosed pockets within this rural society from the thirteenth century onwards were urban, mercantile centers. Compressing drastically, the opposition between urban and rural gave rise to a fierce antagonism marked at times by bloody demonstrations. It was a duality of ‘open land’, la tierra Ziena, against closed, walled cities whose influence and power were gradually increasing. As a result two political apparatuses developed; one fitted to a prosperous rural people and the other adjusted to the needs of a mercantile class of traders. The conflict of interests which developed between the urban centers and rural areas became a crucial factor in the Carlist wars.
The Carlist wars
To attempt to understand the Carlism of the 19th century which was nominally a doctrine concerning the rightful heir to the Spanish throne, it is essential to understand the Liberalism that was so popular in certain political and social circles at the time; and what this Spanish Liberalism signified to the prosperous, rural Basques. Furthermore, the fanatical Carlism of Navarra which was centered around the religious reunification of Spain must be distinguished from the more pragmatic Carlism of Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa which revolved around the preservation of the fueros. Before we start, however, it might be useful to examine very briefly two topics; the rural conditions of the Basques, and the differences between the four Spanish Basque provinces.3 As Gerald Brenan has put it, rainfall is a critical factor in Spain, and in the Basque provinces rainfall is ample. An even distribution of resources combined with regular
M. Clyne / Cultural differences in academic texts
241
rainfall produced in the Basque provinces a large and prosperous yeoman class. Agrarian reformers attributed the prosperity of the Basque countryside to the caserio, the rural, self-sufficient farmstead, which is the most prominent feature of the Basque rural landscape. The caserio, the concrete symbol of the Basque family, was founded on the small landholding which consisted of about ten to fifteen hectares. The caserio was an autonomous and self-supporting unit. Social and economic links between caserios were weak. Augmenting this system of small farms were communal forest and grazing lands which played an indispensable role in maintaining the general affluence of the Basques. In the Basque region a person’s first loyalty was always directed toward the farmstead rather than toward a village which in the Spanish sense hardly existed. But this view of the typical Basque countryside based on the caserio was by and large confined to Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya. In Alava and parts of Navarra the land is dryer, villages tend to replace farmhouses as the focal points, the presence of a landed gentry as evidenced by castles and fortresses is a more marked feature, and the Spanish crops of vines and wheat become more prominent. Some differences between the four provinces can be traced to geographical factors. Vizcaya and Guipuzcoa have been isolated from the rest of Spain by the Cantabrian mountain range; and historically have been more oriented toward the sea and the rest of Europe. Navarra, on the other hand, is cut off from France by the Pyrenees on one side, is separated from Guipuzcoa and Vizcaya by the Cantabrian, and merges with Aragon to the south. Alava, landlocked like Navarra, blends gradually into Old Castile, and has the climate and appearance of the Castilian meseta. Of further note is the fact that both Navarra and Alava have remained, unlike the two other Basque provinces, almost completely rural and isolated from industrial centers until the last ten to fifteen years4 Having said this much we can now turn our attention to the opposed ideologies of Liberalism and Carlism... (Continuation of note 3.)
Notes 1 Example of ‘Path and Organization’. The author indicates and explicitly outlines the conceptual structuring of the text. Z Example of ‘Definition of Terms’. The term ‘fueros’, an understanding of which is, according to the author, crucial for the ensuing discussion, is worked into the main argument while at the same time defined. 3 Example of ‘Discontinuity’. The argument (related to Carlism and Liberalism) is left unfinished for the time being and taken up again later in the text. 4 Example of ‘Digressiveness’. The main argument (see note 3) is abandoned. Instead the author inserts a segment on a topic (‘rural conditions of the Basques’ and ‘differences between the four Basque provinces’) which at this stage of the discussion is peripheral to the main argument. Also note that the author seems to be well aware of the less ‘linear’ nature of this segment, as it is pragmatically marked (‘Before we start, however, it might be useful to examine.. .‘).