Jose Migel Barandiaran Aierbe (1889 –1991), was a Basque
anthropologist, ethnographer, and priest.
Soon after being ordained as a priest, he took up
ethnographical studies of Basque culture and archaeology around 1916 in the
Aralar Mountains. He carried out invaluable research into folk traditions and
collecting accounts and tales related to Basque mythology.
During the civil war (1936), he escaped Franco’s Spain and
took refuge in Sare (France), where he lived in exile for 15 years. In Sare he
was easily adopted by the people of the village and never stopped his research.
This priest must have been doing something right if the Franco/Roman Catholic Church regime forced him to go into exile.
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