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"The most important personality of contemporary post-war Spanish historiography." -Juan Pablo FusíCaro was prepared to eschew grand theory in any guise (be it of sweeping culture areas and cycles, Marxist, ahistorical functionalist, or structuralist). . . . He was a clear proponent of the primacy of cultural differences in human affairs, including their capacity to define distinctive ethnic groups. However, the latter were to be understood as both unique historical precipitates and the result of a complex (indeed functionally integrated) interaction between the crucial components of society, economy, geography, and culture. He specifically eschewed explanations of human difference as expressions of inherent racial propensities (a postulate that still informed at least some of the social scientific thinking of his day). In the foregoing regards Caro proved to be thoroughly modern and even visionary, however as always his journey to such conclusions deviated from conventional pathways. -William A. Douglass, from the new introduction

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CHOICE Review

This book by the late Spanish ethnologist Julio Caro Baroja is the fifth volume in the Basque Classics Series from the Center for Basque Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno. The series delivers key texts published by Basque specialists that deepen an understanding of Basque history, linguistics, and culture. The Basques, originally published in 1949, is now available for the first time in English in this adroit translation by Kristin Addis, and features a new introduction by William A. Douglass (cofounder of the Center for Basque Studies), who was mentored for a number of years by Caro Baroja. The book can be a bit of a trudge through relatively discreet chapters on everything from social structures, architecture, and agricultural systems to art, music, and the problem of Basque witchcraft. Caro Baroja reminds readers that it is not possible to explain the present-day characteristics of the Basques by any phantasmagorical traditional spirit that carries one back to a native or prehistoric age, but he also rejects any sweeping theories that remove from the Basques the ability and license to make, absorb, and adapt their cultural norms on their own historical terms. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students/faculty. E. A. Sanabria University of New Mexico