Editing Cagot (section)

=== Other origins ===

[[File:Stjacquescompostelle1.png|thumb|right|275px|The [[Way of St. James]]; the anti-Cagot prejudice existed in northern Spain, Western France, and Southern France, roughly coinciding with the main routes]]

{{ill|Victor de Rochas|fr}} wrote that the Cagots were likely descendants of [[Erromintxela language|Spanish Roma from the Basque country]].<ref>{{cite book |last=de Rochas |first=Victor |author-link=:fr:Victor de Rochas |date=1876 |title=Les Parias de France et d'Espagne (cagots et bohémiens) |language=fr |trans-title=The Parias of France and Spain (cagots and bohemians) |location=Paris}}</ref>

In Bordeaux, where they were numerous, they were called {{lang|oc|ladres}}. This name has the same form as the [[Old French]] word {{lang|fro|[[wikt:ladre#Old French|ladre]]}}, meaning leper (ultimately derived from Latin {{lang|la|[[wikt:Lazarus#Latin|Lazarus]]}}). It also has the same form as the [[Gascon language|Gascon]] word for thief (ultimately derived from Latin {{lang|la|[[wikt:latro#Latin|latrō]]}}, and cognate to the Catalan {{lang|ca|lladres}} and the Spanish {{lang|es|ladrón}} meaning robber or looter), which is similar in meaning to the older, probably [[Celtic languages|Celtic]]-origin Latin term {{lang|la|[[bagaudae]]}}{{sfnp|Álvarez|2019}} (or bagad), a possible origin of {{lang|es|agote}}.

The alleged physical appearance and ethnicity of the Cagots varied wildly between legends and stories; some local legends (especially those that held to the leper theory) indicated that Cagots had blonde hair and blue eyes,{{sfnp|Álvarez|2019}}{{sfnp|Tuke|1880|p=377}} while those favouring the Arab descent story said that Cagots were considerably darker.{{sfnp|da Silva|2006}} In [[Pío Baroja]]'s work {{lang|es|Las horas solitarias}}, he comments that Cagot residents of {{ill|Bozate|es}} had both individuals with "Germanic" features as well as individuals with "Romani" features,<ref>{{cite book |last=Baroja |first=Pío |author-link=Pío Baroja |date=1982 |title=Las horas solitarias |language=es |trans-title=The lonely hours |publisher=Caro Raggio Editor S.L. |isbn=9788470350665 |quote=Cara ancha y juanetuda, esqueleto fuerte, pómulos salientes, distancia bicigomática fuerte, grandes ojos azules o verdes claros, algo oblicuos. Cráneo braquicéfalo, tez blanca, pálida y pelo castaño o rubio; no se parece en nada al vasco clásico. Es un tipo centro europeo o del norte. Hay viejos en Bozate que parecen retratos de Durero, de aire germánico. También hay otros de cara más alargada y morena que recuerdan al gitano. |trans-quote=Wide, bunion face, strong skeleton, prominent cheekbones, strong bizygomatic distance, large blue or light green eyes, somewhat oblique. Brachycephalic skull, white, pale complexion and brown or blonde hair; It doesn't look anything like classic Basque. It is a central European or northern type. There are old men in Bozate who look like portraits of [[Albrecht Dürer|Dürer]], with a Germanic air. There are also others with a longer and darker face that are reminiscent of the gypsy.}}</ref> this is also supported by others who investigated the Cagots in the Basque Country,<ref>{{harvp|Huici|1984|p=19}}: "{{lang|es|Webster rechaza la idea de que los agotes fueran un pueblo distinto del vasco, por razones lingüísticas. Según el sabio Inglés un pueblo, extranjero, que vive aislado de la sociedad que le rodea y con barreras severísimas, no ha podido olvidar totalmente su lengua ancestral. Los agotes, sin embargo, hablan el vascuence exactamente Igual que los vascos que les rodean.}}" ["[[Wentworth Webster|Webster]] rejects the idea that the agotes were a people distinct from the Basque, for linguistic reasons. According to the wise Englishman, a people, foreigners, who live isolated from the society that surrounds them and with very severe barriers, have not been able to completely forget their ancestral language. The agotes, however, speak Basque exactly like the Basques around them."]</ref> such as {{ill|Philippe Veyrin|fr}} who stated the "ethnic type" and names of Cagots were the same as the Basque within Navarre.{{sfnp|Veyrin|2011|p=85}} Though people who set out to research the Cagots found them to be a diverse class of people in physical appearance, as diverse as the non-Cagot communities around them.<ref>{{harvp|Roussel|1893|p=149|ps=: "{{lang|fr|M. Roussel persiste à voir des descendants blonds des Goths dans les Cagots des Pyrénées. Mais ils sont en réalité très diversifiés plus souvent bruns que blonds, brachy et dolichocéphales, semblables au fond de la population où ils vivent; ls parlent la langue ou le patois du pays.}}" ["M. Roussel persists in seeing blond descendants of the Goths in the Cagots of the Pyrenees. But they are in reality very diverse, more often brown than blond, brachy and dolichocephalic, similar to the background of the population where they live; They speak the language or patois of the country."]}}</ref> One common trend was to claim that Cagots had no ears{{r|Supplement 2010}} or no [[earlobe]]s,{{sfnp|Álvarez|2019}}{{sfnp|Tuke|1880|p=379}} or that one ear was longer than the other,{{sfnp|da Silva|2006}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Fabre |first=Michel |date=1987 |title=Le Mystère des Cagots, race maudite des Pyrénées |language=fr |trans-title=The Mystery of the Cagots, cursed race of the Pyrenees |publisher=MCT |isbn=2905521619}}</ref> with other supposed identifiers including webbed hands and/or feet, or the presence of [[goitre]]s.{{sfnp|Cabarrouy|1995}}{{sfnp|Michel|1847|pp=50–51}}{{sfnp|Tuke|1880|p=376}}

[[Graham Robb]] finds most of the above theories unlikely:

{{blockquote|Nearly all the old and modern theories are unsatisfactory ... the real "mystery of the cagots" was the fact that they had no distinguishing features at all. They spoke whatever dialect was spoken in the region and their family names were not peculiar to the cagots ... The only real difference was that, after eight centuries of persecution, they tended to be more skillful and resourceful than the surrounding populations, and more likely to emigrate to America. They were feared because they were persecuted and might therefore seek revenge.{{sfnp|Robb|2007|p=45}}}}

A modern hypothesis of interest is that the Cagots are the descendants of a fallen medieval [[guild]] of carpenters.{{sfnp|Thomas|2008}} This hypothesis would explain the most salient thing Cagots throughout France and Spain have in common: that is, being restricted in their choice of trade. The red webbed-foot symbol Cagots were sometimes forced to wear might have been the guild's original emblem, according to the hypothesis. There was a brief construction boom on the [[Way of St. James]] pilgrimage route in the 9th and 10th centuries; this could have brought the guild both power and suspicion. The collapse of their business would have left a scattered, yet cohesive group in the areas where Cagots are known.{{sfnp|Robb|2007|p=46}}

Robb's guild hypothesis, alongside much of the work in his ''[[The Discovery of France]]'', has been heavily criticised for "[failing] to understand most of the secondary works in his own bibliography" and being a "recycling of nineteenth-century myths".<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Bell |first=David A. |author-link=David Bell (historian) |date=13 February 2008 |title=Bicycle History |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/61993/bicycle-history |magazine=[[The New Republic]] |access-date=11 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020235639/https://newrepublic.com/article/61993/bicycle-history |archive-date=20 October 2020}}</ref>

For similar reasons due to their restricted trades, Delacampagne suggests a possible origin as a culturally distinct community of woodsmen who were [[Christianization#Europe and Asia of the High and Late Middle Ages (800 to 1500)|Christianised relatively late]].{{sfnp|Delacampagne|1983|p=137–138}}