太田述正コラム#14554（2024.10.31）
＜G・クラーク『ユニークな日本人』を読む（その20）＞（2025.1.26公開）

[アングロサクソン文明の誕生を巡って（続々）]

ところで、イギリスについて考えていると言うのに、どうして、アイルランド神話な のか、ということについてだが、’not enough is known of the British mythological background to reconstruct either a narrative of creation or a coherent pantheon of British deities. Indeed, though there is much in common with Irish myth, there may have been no unified British mythological tradition per se. ‘（☆）ということからであり、また、アイルランドを持ち出すのならガリアのケルト神話だって持ち出していいわけだが、カエサルによるガリア征服より前からガリアはローマの影響を強く受けていたらしい（☆）ことから、だ。
　だから、ブリトン人の神話は、取り敢えず、アイルランド神話で「近似」させることにした次第だ。
　ここで注意すべきは、アイルランド神話・・ブリトン人の神話の近似神話・・が、ケルト人の神話であるとは断言できないことだ。
　というのも、’At a minimum, “Celtic” is a linguistic term without an implication of a lasting cultural unity connecting Gaul with the British Isles throughout the Iron Age. The Brittonic languages, which were widely spoken in Britain at this time (as well as others including the Goidelic and Gaulish languages of neighbouring Ireland and Gaul, respectively), certainly belong to the group known as Celtic languages. However, it cannot be assumed that particular cultural features found in one Celtic-speaking culture can be extrapolated to the others.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Iron_Age
だからだ。
　その上でだが、ブリトン人を含むブリテン諸島の原住民に関しては、昔、バスク人説を紹介したことがある（コラム#379）ところ、その後、この話が殆ど出てこないので首を傾げていたのだけれど、この話、今でも生きているだけではなく、どうやら定説化しているようなのだ。（注13）

　（注13）’Studies based on the Y chromosome genetically relate the Basques with the Celtic Welsh, and Irish;[10] Stephen Oppenheimer from the University of Oxford says that the current inhabitants of the British Isles have their origin in the Basque refuge during the last Ice age. Oppenheimer reached this conclusion through the study of correspondences in the frequencies of genetic markers between various European regions. The haplogroup R1b, can be found most frequently in the Basque Country (91%), Wales (89%) and Ireland (81%). The age of subclade which Basque carry, Haplogroup R1b-DF27, “is estimated at ~4,200 years ago, at the transition between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, when the Y chromosome landscape of Western Europe was thoroughly remodeled. In spite of its high frequency in Basques, Y-STR internal diversity of R1b-DF27 is lower there, and results in more recent age estimates”, implying it was brought to the region from elsewhere.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Basques

　そのバスクだが、地理的意味での欧州では極めて珍しいことに、現在まで、一貫して、女性優位の社会だったという。（注14）

　（注14）’Historically, Basque society can be described as being somewhat at odds with Roman and later European societal norms. Strabo’s account of the north of Spain in his Geographica (written between approximately 20 BC and 20 AD) makes a mention of “a sort of woman-rule—not at all a mark of civilization” (Hadington 1992), a first mention of the—for the period—unusual position of women: “Women could inherit and control property as well as officiate in churches.” The evidence for this assertion is rather sparse however.
　This preference for female dominance existed well into the 20th century:
… matrilineal inheritance laws, and agricultural work performed by women continued in Basque country until the early twentieth century. For more than a century, scholars have widely discussed the high status of Basque women in law codes, as well as their positions as judges, inheritors, and arbitrators through ante-Roman, medieval, and modern times. The system of laws governing succession in the French Basque region reflected total equality between the sexes. Up until the eve of the French Revolution, the Basque woman was truly ‘the mistress of the house’, hereditary guardian, and head of the lineage.
　While women continued to have a higher position in Basque than other western European societies, it is highly unlikely that any point the society was ‘matriarchal’, as is often falsely claimed about pre-Indo-European peoples in general. The ‘Basque matriarchy’ argument is typically tied to 20th century nationalism and is at odds with earlier accounts of the society.
　Although the Kingdom of Navarre did adopt feudalism, most Basques also possessed unusual social institutions different from those of the rest of feudal Europe. Some aspects of this include the elizate tradition where local house-owners met in front of the church to elect a representative to send to the juntas and Juntas Generales (such as the Juntas Generales de Vizcaya or Guipúzcoa) which administered much larger areas. Another example was that in the medieval period most land was owned by the farmers, not the Church or a king.[page needed]’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basques

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