Equality and sexual identity formation in the Basque society of farmers and shepherds

Abstract

The aim of the article is that there was a basis of equality non-totalitarian in the Basque society of farmers and shepherds, in accordance with the laws of inheritance. In opposition to the generally widespread opinion of experts, legal equality between the sexes and respect to the symbolic law were both possible, because the Basque system of inheritance assumes the imposition of the collective prohibition of incest. Taking into account this imposition —related to the rules of marriage and the original inheritance system— could lead to overcome the value judgments about the fate of the family’s young people. The legal singularity of equality («mother-right» similar) can be explained by a construction of gender identities ever saw; this gender identity is formed through the performative language, that is, from the prehistoric second person pronoun HI.