Basque ethnography at a glance

Bison of Altamira (Cantabria). National Museum and Research Centre of Altamira.

The prehistory of humankind is as distant to us as our time shall be to future civilizations. And yet we do not think of ourselves as a primitive people but ignorantly look down on our ancestors of generations past and boast of great improvements to their comparative primitiveness. As an ethnographer, I have nonetheless the general impression that such an approach is far from flawless, and thus prefer to talk about change rather than progress, just as Barandiaran did.

Yesteryear’s cutting-edge technology might look silly to us as much as today’s technology might look silly to the people of tomorrow, but advances are undeniable anyhow. Technological innovations, moreover, come at an exponential rate, so it shall not be millenniums, not even centuries, before major transformations occur, each generation being rapidly rendered completely ‘obsolete’ by the next. Such material complexity is all the same accompanied by our complicated selves, still largely submerged in deep caverns, impelling us to tribal patterns of behaviour.

Our species reached optimal welfare at different stages throughout the Magdalenian period. Temperatures were good, food was abundant, communities were small, no wars raged, and there was ample time to fill caves with paintings of unequalled quality. Climate changes and the Neolithic revolution followed: greater food availability enabled a significant increase of the population, which favoured ‘social complexity’ but did not serve to avoid neither hunger nor war.

The ongoing digital revolution has brought a major advantage, namely the democratization of information by guaranteeing freedom of access to it, along with its drawbacks, among others the generalized loss of ‘knowledge’. How dare we, in the midst of this digital era, dare to hold in contempt prehistoric cultures who released the creativity of their unconscious minds upon cave walls and ceilings? The fact is that they achieved astonishing development in the preservation of their artistic production. Technology gurus who could assure me that our digital creations shall survive some 30 000 years, as cave paintings have, may raise their hand.

I hope this does not sound too pessimistic, but we should not regard prior generations with a feeling of superiority, turning our nose up at them, because there are important lessons to be learned from our past. While it remains to be seen whether we shall be able to leave a new Altamira or another impressive Chauvet to future archaeologists, they shall most surely inherit vast amounts of waste, so let us be humble.

Luis Manuel Peña – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa

Translated by Jaione Bilbao – Ethnography Department – Labayru Fundazioa