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INTRODUCTION 1. The environment in which bertsolaritza finds itself: the basque-speaking (euskaldun) community 2. Sociocultural relevance of bertsolaritza within this basque-speaking community
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1 The
environment in which bertsolaritza finds itself: the Bertsolaritza
is a cultural expression with its own specific consumption within the
Euskaldun culture(16). To understand
bertsolaritza, we have to provide some data about the Euskaldun linguistic
community. The Euskaldun
community is a linguistic community of some 600,000 speakers(17)
spread over four provinces inside the Spanish State and three within the
French Republic. The total population in this Basque territory is about
three million. We are, therefore, a community of speakers who are a minority
in their native land. It is also
a linguistic community with a long and great history. The latest research
in a number of scientific disciplines would appear to confirm its pre-Indo-European
origin, and current data shows it to be one of the oldest linguistic communities
in Europe and in the world. It is important to be aware of the key steps
in its evolution; key moments, events and activities involved in a resistance
to the disappearance of its roots; to be aware of its adaptation in a
myriad of epochs, of invasions, empires and other contexts, all this and
continuing to be what it was. These keys and intuitions also impregnate
the way in which we face the future of bertsolaritza, as they reappear
in our struggle to assure the Euskaldun linguistic community that future
as a cultural community. So, bertsolaritza has had a remarkable trajectory of survival and adaptation in a small community, but it faces a serious challenge for the future. A challenge of survival as, in some areas, it is on the point of extinction and is seriously threatened by novel forms of cultural and linguistic uniformity. It is a challenge, nevertheless, which the wide spectrum of people who support the art are taking on more and more in the activist and entertaining sense of the term than in its negative or dramatic one. |