Casería
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[[File: | [[File:Caseria.jpg|alt=Casería Asturiana|thumb|425x425px|[https://ablanco.artelista.com/ Blanco Súarez, D. Alberto]. ''Casería Asturiana.'' 2008. (Private Collection)]] | ||
The ''casería'' is the common name in [[Asturias]] for a farmstead. In most usage, it denotes the farmhouse, along with all assorted other buildings and spaces, such as the antoxana, hórreo, cuadra, tool sheds, wood sheds, etc... It forms a single unit of agricultural production, residence, consumption, use, and storage. Also included are the associated orchards, fields, meadows, pastures, and communal land rights. The term does not describe a single unit of land with one boundary, but instead the functional areas making up a whole farm.<ref>Rodríguez Muñoz, Javier. ''Diccionario histórico de Asturias''. pp 211. 1st ed., Editorial Prensa Asturiana : La Nueva España, 2002.</ref> The immediate area around the farmhouse formed by the closest buildings and land is (or at least was) called the ''quintana''.<ref>Fernández Benítez, Vicente. ''Trabayar pa comer: producción y alimentación na Asturies tradicional - Tomo I (Asturiano)''. pp 37. Fundación Municipal de Cultura, Educación y Universidá Popular, 2002.</ref> The space within the ''quintana'' directly in front of the door to the house, and usually surrounded by the most important buildings is the ''antoxana''. | The ''casería'' is the common name in [[Asturias]] for a farmstead. In most usage, it denotes the farmhouse, along with all assorted other buildings and spaces, such as the antoxana, hórreo, cuadra, tool sheds, wood sheds, etc... It forms a single unit of agricultural production, residence, consumption, use, and storage. Also included are the associated orchards, fields, meadows, pastures, and communal land rights. The term does not describe a single unit of land with one boundary, but instead the functional areas making up a whole farm.<ref>Rodríguez Muñoz, Javier. ''Diccionario histórico de Asturias''. pp 211. 1st ed., Editorial Prensa Asturiana : La Nueva España, 2002.</ref> The immediate area around the farmhouse formed by the closest buildings and land is (or at least was) called the ''quintana''.<ref>Fernández Benítez, Vicente. ''Trabayar pa comer: producción y alimentación na Asturies tradicional - Tomo I (Asturiano)''. pp 37. Fundación Municipal de Cultura, Educación y Universidá Popular, 2002.</ref> The space within the ''quintana'' directly in front of the door to the house, and usually surrounded by the most important buildings is the ''antoxana''. | ||
Revision as of 14:45, 23 October 2022
The casería is the common name in Asturias for a farmstead. In most usage, it denotes the farmhouse, along with all assorted other buildings and spaces, such as the antoxana, hórreo, cuadra, tool sheds, wood sheds, etc... It forms a single unit of agricultural production, residence, consumption, use, and storage. Also included are the associated orchards, fields, meadows, pastures, and communal land rights. The term does not describe a single unit of land with one boundary, but instead the functional areas making up a whole farm.[1] The immediate area around the farmhouse formed by the closest buildings and land is (or at least was) called the quintana.[2] The space within the quintana directly in front of the door to the house, and usually surrounded by the most important buildings is the antoxana.
The rest of the farm — the fields and pastures for instance — are connected to the main house area, and each other, by farm roads (caminos) and walking paths (caleyas).
History
Originally a medieval unit of farm land, owned by a noble or the church, the casería became owned directly by the peasants during the 16th century, whereas earlier they had been tenant farmers, and even earlier, they too were owned directly by the privileged classes.
Traditionally the inhabitants of a caserío would be a married couple, their parents, and their children. One of the children could marry "pa la casa" - for the house. The other children would receive some compensation before leaving, or remain to help on the farm. Laws existed at least from 1781 to stop further subdivision of caserías. This system of mayorazgo inheritance lived on longer in western Asturias - centuries after it was enforceable law.
Many small villages (aldeas) grew out of a consequence of this remaining after marrying. The children who did not inherit the house might then go on to build their own near, or joined to, the original house.
Asturian Customary Law
According to the customary laws of Asturias, collected and codified in 2007, a casería is:
an economic and family farm unit made up of dissociated elements, both in terms of their nature —house, antoxana , adjoining buildings and complementary constructions, hórreos or paneras, orchards, land, meadows, mountains, trees, animals, machinery and tools farming, and exploitation rights in communal property—, as well as its property system —private, leased or sharecropping—, its dispersed location and its destination or use —cultivation, harvesting, pasture—, which form a set agricultural capable of supporting a peasant family, without prejudice to the latter having other complementary sources of income.[3]
Common Parts of the Casería
A casería usually encompasses the following buildings and spaces:
- a farmhouse
- an antoxana
- an hórreo or panera
- a cuadra (with or without a payar)
- a pomarada and other orchards (huertas)[4]
- a garden or gardens (huerto or güertu)[4]
- ↑ Rodríguez Muñoz, Javier. Diccionario histórico de Asturias. pp 211. 1st ed., Editorial Prensa Asturiana : La Nueva España, 2002.
- ↑ Fernández Benítez, Vicente. Trabayar pa comer: producción y alimentación na Asturies tradicional - Tomo I (Asturiano). pp 37. Fundación Municipal de Cultura, Educación y Universidá Popular, 2002.
- ↑ La Comisión Especial de Derecho Consuetudinario Asturiano. “Dictamen de la Comisión Especial de Derecho Consuetudinario Asturiano (06/0177/0001/00390).” Junta General del Principado de Asturias, vol. VI Legislatura, 455, 9 Mar. 2007, p. 48.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 See also this short article on the difference between a huerto and a huerta.
