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In medieval times the Cagots – also knows as Agotes, Gahets, Capets, Caqueux, etc – were divided from the general peasantry in several ways. They had their own urban districts: usually on the...
Mar 29, 2018 · Manet-Beauzac had to find out about her Cagot ancestry through genealogical research, which uncovered the fact that her bloodline included many carpenters, basket weavers, and severely impoverished peasants.
Jul 9, 2022 · Those at the bottom of these communities were often treated horribly, and in some cases classified as "untouchables." In France, one of these groups of people were known as the Cagots (per a 2011 report by the Independent ), and their story has been mostly forgotten until recently.
May 14, 2022 · The Cagots were segregated for still obscure reasons which boiled down to the well established belief that they were impure men and women, and thus likely to taint the voisins if they came to close to them (in church, at the lavoir, at the dance etc.). Still, there were no anti-Cagot massacres (though there were expelling in the Spanish areas).
The cagots were a poorly understood marginalised group found on both sides of the western Pyrenees. They started to become prominent from the thirteenth century before largely disappearing in the twentieth century. This paper describes a curious incident in Biarritz in 1721.
The cagots is not a group many would recognise today. Yet, for hundreds of years they were discriminated against, and at times persecuted, in France and Spain. It is difficult to determine precisely what a cagot was, at least if one seeks a substantial definition. Their case is curious precisely by virtue of the absence of any such definition.
“Cagot” historically referred to an ethnic group in Western Europe, particularly in France and Spain, who were considered to be “untouchables” and faced discrimination and exclusion from society. Today, the term is considered derogatory and should not be used to refer to any group of people.
