by Roslyn Frank
This monograph was originally published as:
Roslyn M. Frank (1989), “Singing duels and social solidarity: The case of the Basque Charivari”. In: William A. Douglass (ed.), Essays in Basque Social Anthropology and History (Reno: Basque Program. Occasional Papers Series, No. 4), 43-80.
The current text is a revised and expanded version of that earlier paper.
Modern analysts argue that the Basque poetic duel, characteristic of bertsolaritza contests, is either a modern... more
Modern analysts argue that the Basque poetic duel, characteristic of bertsolaritza contests, is either a modern phenomenon or that it has mythic origins. In contrast, the charivari performances have received little attention, being treated primarily as a quaint folkloric practice. An alternative interpretation is that the two social forms derive from archaic and highly dramatic mock trials that developed, in part, as a political response to the incorporation of previously autonomous communities into state systems and the consequent process of class formation. This interpretation of the Basque data unifies a group of otherwise disparate social-artistic phenomena and brings into focus the social and historic reasons that lead to the contemporary forms of performance art that characterize the charivari today.
The initial focus for this interpretation is an analysis of the disputing processes of the French Basque provinces of Lapurdi, Nafarroa Behera and Zuberoa, as they are manifested in the charivari, clearly a type of mock folk trial. In addition, the disputing processes found in several structural variants of the public charivari are analyzed. The specific examples cited cover a period from approximately 1815 to the 1930's, although references to earlier and later versions of these disputing processes will also be utilized. In recent years a substantial number of cross-cultural case studies have been published concerning disputing processes at the village level in Western and non-Western cultures. However, no such case studies have been undertaken of Basque ethnographic data from this perspective. The theoretical model used here will be the analysis of disputing processes developed in the pioneering work of Nader (1969). The current study concludes with a discussion of the etymology of the expression charivari, a topic that has been hotly debated for decades.
Keywords: charivari, disputing processes, bertsolaritza, social protest, ritual castration, mock trials, singing duels, poetry improvisation, social solidarity, husband and wife beating, rape, Pierres Adame, legal anthropology
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