Guanches

See also: Canary Islands in pre-colonial times

Guanches (also: Guanchis or Guanchos), now extinct as a distinct people, were the first known inhabitants of the Canary Islands, having migrated to the archipelago sometime between 1000 BC and 100 BC. Europeans saw their culture as being neolithic when Europeans colonized the Canary Islands in the Middle Ages. Their culture as such has since disappeared, although traces of it can still be found, an example being the "whistle" Silbo language of La Gomera Island.

Reconstruction of a Guanche village.

Etymology

The native term Guanchinet or Achinet means "man of Tenerife" (from Guan = person and Chinet = Tenerife). It was modified, according to Juan Núñez de la Peña, by the Castilians into "Guanchos".

Historical background

Guanche rock carvings in La Palma

The Roman author and military officer, Pliny the Elder, drawing upon the accounts of Juba II, king of Mauretania, states that a Mauretanian expedition to the islands around 50 BC found the ruins of great buildings, but otherwise no population to speak of. If this account is accurate, it may suggest that the Guanches were not the only inhabitants, or the first ones; or that the expedition simply did not explore the islands thoroughly.

Strictly speaking, the Guanches were the primitive inhabitants of Tenerife, where the population seems to have lived in relative isolation up to the time of the Castilian conquest, around the 14th century (though Genoans, Portuguese, and Castilians had occasionally landed there since the second half of the 8th century). The name came to be applied to the original populations of Tenerife island, the most important.

Some Guanches died resisting the European colonizers, while others died from infectious diseases that accompanied the invaders, diseases to which the Guanches, because of their long isolation, had little immunity.

What remains of their language, Guanche—a few expressions, vocabulary words and the proper names of ancient chieftains still borne by certain families—exhibits positive similarities with the Berber languages. The first reliable account of Guanche language was provided by Genovese explorer Nicoloso da Recco in 1341, with a translation of numbers used by the islanders.

Petroglyphs attributed to various Mediterranean civilizations have been found on some of the islands. In 1752, Domingo Vandewalle, a military governor of Las Palmas, attempted to investigate them, and Aquilino Padron, a priest at Las Palmas, catalogued inscriptions at El Julan, La Candía and La Caleta on El Hierro. In 1878 Dr. R. Verneau discovered rock carvings in the ravines of Las Balos that resemble Libyan or Numidic writing from the time of Roman occupation or earlier. In other locations, Libyco-Berber script has been identified. However, according to European chroniclers, the Guanches did not possess a system of writing at the time of conquest.

The Spanish conquest

Alonso Fernández de Lugo presenting the captured Guanche kings of Tenerife to Ferdinand and Isabella.

The Spanish conquest of the islands began in 1402, with the expedition of Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de la Salle to the island of Lanzarote. Gadifer would conquer Lanzarote and Fuerteventura with ease since many of the aborigines, faced with issues of starvation and poor agriculture, would surrender to Castilian rule.

The other five islands fought back. El Hierro and the Bimbache population were the next to fall, then La Gomera, Gran Canaria, La Palma and in 1496, Tenerife.

Tenerife was most successful against the Castilian invaders. In the First Battle of Acentejo (31 May 1494), called La Matanza or "The Slaughter," Guanches with stones and spears ambushed the Castilians in a valley and killed many.

One in five survived, including the leader of the expedition, Alonso Fernandez de Lugo. Lugo would return later to the island with the alliance of the kings of the southern part of the island, and defeated the Guanches in the Battle of Aguere. The northern Menceyatos or provinces fell after the Second Battle of Acentejo with the defeat of the successor of Bencomo, Bentor, Mencey of Taoro - what is now the Orotava Valley - in 1496.

Origins

Genetic evidence shows that northern African peoples (most likely descendants of the Capsian culture) made a significant contribution to the aboriginal population of the Canaries following desertification of the Sahara at some point after 6000 BC. Linguistic evidence suggests ties between Guanche language and the Berber languages of northern Africa, particularly when comparing number systems. Research into the genetics of the Guanche population have lead to the conclusion that Berbers are their most probable ancestors.

The islands were visited by a number of peoples within recorded history. The Numidians, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians knew of the islands and made frequent visits. The Romans occupied northern Africa and visited the Canaries between the 1st and 4th centuries AD, judging from Roman artifacts found on the island of Lanzarote.These show that Romans did trade with the Canaries, though there is no evidence of their ever settling there. However, the cultures of the Canaries seem to have reached a higher level of technology than the Neolithic culture that was encountered at the time of conquest.

Population Genetics

A 2003 genetics research article by Nicole Maca-Meyer et al. published in the European Journal of Human Genetics compared aboriginal Guanche mtDNA (collected from Canarian archaeological sites) to that of today's Canarians and concluded that, "despite the continuous changes suffered by the population (Spanish colonisation, slave trade), aboriginal mtDNA [direct maternal] lineages constitute a considerable proportion [42 – 73%] of the Canarian gene pool. Although the Berbers are the most probable ancestors of the Guanches, it is deduced that important human movements [e.g., the Islamic-Arabic conquest of the Berbers] have reshaped Northwest Africa after the migratory wave to the Canary Islands" and the "results support, from a maternal perspective, the supposition that since the end of the 16th century, at least, two-thirds of the Canarian population had an indigenous substrate, as was previously inferred from historical and anthropological data." mtDNA haplogroup U subclade U6b1 is Canarian-specific and is the most common mtDNA haplogroup found in aboriginal Guanche archaeological burial sites.

Y-DNA, or Y-chromosomal, (direct paternal) lineages were not analyzed in this study. However, an earlier study giving the aboriginal y-DNA contribution at 6% was cited by Maca-Meyer et al. but the results were critiqued as possibly flawed due to the widespread phylogeography of y-DNA haplogroup E1b1b1b, which may skew determination of the aboriginality versus coloniality of contemporary y-DNA lineages in the Canaries. Regardless, Maca-Meyer et al. states that historical evidence does support the explanation of "strong sexual asymmetry...as a result of a strong bias favouring matings between European males and aboriginal females, and to the important aboriginal male mortality during the Conquest.

It is known that the arrival of the aborigines to the archipelago provoked the extinction of some big reptiles and insular mammals, since for example, the giant lizard Lacerta goliath (that was managing to reach up to a meter) and the Canariomys bravoi (giant rat of Tenerife).

System of beliefs

Religion

Guanche idol.

Little is known of the religion of the Guanches. They appear to have had a distinct religious system. There was a general belief in a supreme being, called Achamán in Tenerife, Acoran in Gran Canaria, Eraoranhan in Hierro, and Abora in La Palma. The women of Hierro worshipped a goddess called Moneiba. According to tradition, the male and female gods lived in mountains from which they descended to hear the prayers of the people. In other islands, the natives venerated the sun, moon, earth and stars. A belief in an evil spirit was general. The demon of Tenerife was called Guayota and lived at the peak of Teide volcano, which was the hell called Echeyde; in Tenerife and Gran Canaria, demons took the form of wild black woolly dogs called Tibicenas, which lived in deep caves of the mountains, emerging at night to attack livestock and persons.

In Tenerife also they were adoring Magec (god of the Sun) and Chaxiraxi (the goddess mother). In times of drought, the Guanches drove their flocks to consecrated grounds, where the lambs were separated from their mothers in the belief that their plaintive bleatings would melt the heart of the Great Spirit. During the religious feasts, hostilities from war to personal quarrels were stayed.

The principal gods guanches of Tenerife

• Achamán: Is the name started to the supreme god of the people guanche of Original inhabitant of the Canary Isles to the island of Tenerife. Your name means literally " the skies ", in allusion to the celestial vault (the sky). He is the god father, the creator. Achamán, all-powerful and eternal god owed his existence to him the creatures, since it created the land and the water, the fire and the air, and the whole life that in them it was fitting. Achamán was living the heights and sometimes the summits of the mountains to be glad contemplating what before his look was reviving.

• Chaxiraxi: Is the name original inhabitant of the Canary Isles of an aboriginal goddess, who means in Castilian the Sun Mother. It is the name that receives in 1430 the image of the Virgin of appeared Candelaria this year in Güímar, in the island of Tenerife (Canaries, Spain). The goddess Chaxiraxi was one of the principal goddesses of the pantheon original inhabitant of the Canary Isles.

• Guayota: Was the name that was receiving one of the mythological malignant entities in which there believed the original inhabitants of the Canary Isles. It was the principal malignant deity of the original inhabitants of the Canary Isles, the demon. To Guayota it his(her,your) demons' huésted was represented often as a black dog accompanied of the Tibicenas.

• Magec: Was the god of the Sun and the light for the former inhabitants of the Canary archipelago. It is a question of one of the principal divinities.

The aboriginal priests

The guanches had priests or shamans who were connecting with the gods, were ordained hierarchically:

• Guadameñe (in Tenerife). He was advising the Menceyes (Aboriginal kings).

• Faykan or Faicán (in Gran Canaria), spiritual and religious person in charge, was directing the worships.

• Maguadas or Arimaguadas (in Tenerife and Gran Canaria), women priestesses dedicated to the worship. They were taking part in some rituals.

• Kankus (in Tenerife) was the priests responsible for the worship to the spirits of the forbears and the Dioses paredros (Gods paredros).

Funerals

Mummy in the Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre (Tenerife, Canarias).

In La Palma the old people were at their own wish left to die alone. After bidding their family farewell, they were carried to the sepulchral cave, nothing but a bowl of milk being left them. The Guanches embalmed their dead; many mummies have been found in an extreme state of desiccation, each weighing not more than 6 or 7 pounds. Two almost inaccessible caves in a vertical rock by the shore 3 miles from Santa Cruz (Tenerife) are said still to contain bones. The process of embalming seems to have varied. In Tenerife and Gran Canaria the corpse was simply wrapped up in goat and sheep skins, while in other islands a resinous substance was used to preserve the body, which was then placed in a cave difficult to access, or buried under a tumulus. The work of embalming was reserved for a special class, women for female corpses, men for male. Embalming seems not to have been universal, and bodies were often simply hidden in caves or buried.

In the Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) lean original inhabitants of the Canary Isles are as that of the photography.

Political system

Tenerife prior to the Castilian conquest.

The political and social institutions of the Guanches varied. In some islands hereditary autocracy prevailed; in others the government was elective. In Tenerife all the land belonged to the kings who leased it to their subjects. In Gran Canaria, suicide was regarded as honourable, and whenever a new king was installed, one of his subjects willingly honoured the occasion by throwing himself over a precipice. In some islands, polyandry was practised; in others they were monogamous. Insult of a woman by an armed man was allegedly a capital offense.

The island of Tenerife was divided into nine small kingdoms (menceyatos), each ruled by a king or Mencey. The Mencey was the ultimate ruler of the kingdom, and at times, meetings were held between the various kings. When the Castilians invaded the Canary Islands, the southern kingdoms joined the Castilian invaders on the promise of the richer lands of the north. The Castilians betrayed them.

Menceyes Kings of Tenerife

• Acaimo o Acaymo (Güímar).
• Adjona: (Abona).
• Anaterve: (Güímar).
• Bencomo: (Taoro).
• Beneharo: (Anaga).
• Pelicar: (Icode).
• Pelinor: (Icode).
• Romen: (Daute).
• Tegueste: (Tegueste).

In Tenerife it is important also to emphasize to the mencey Tinerfe Big and to his your father Sunta's mencey, which they governed the unified island, before that the children of Tinerfe were distributing it in nine kingdoms.

Clothes and weapons

A statue of the Guanche mencey Añaterve. Candelaria, Tenerife.

Guanches wore garments made from goat skins or woven from plant fibers, which have been found in the tombs of Tenerife. They had a taste for ornaments, necklaces of wood, bone and shells, worked in different designs. Beads of baked earth, cylindrical and of all shapes, with smooth or polished surfaces, mostly colored black and red, were fairly common. In his research, Dr. René Verneau suggested that the objects the Castilians referred to as pintaderas, baked clay seal-shaped objects, were used as vessels for painting the body in various colours. They manufactured rough pottery, mostly without decorations, or ornamented by making fingernail indentations.

Guanche weapons adapted to the insular environment (using wood, obsidian and stone as primary materials), with later influences from medieval European weaponry. Basic armaments in several of the islands included javelins of 1 to 2 m in length (known as Banot on Tenerife); round, polished stones; spears; maces (common in Tenerife, and known as Magado and Sunta, respectively); and shields (small in Tenerife and human-sized in Gran Canaria, where they were known as Tarja, made of Drago wood and painted with geometric shapes). After the arrival of the Europeans, Guanche nobility were known to wield large wooden swords (larger than the European two-handed type) called Magido, which were said to be very effective against both infantrymen and cavalry. Weaponry made of wood was hardened with fire. These armaments were commonly complemented with a stone or obsidian knife known as a Tabona.

Dwellings were situated in natural or artificial caves in the mountains. In areas where cave dwellings were not feasible, they built small round houses and, according to the Castilians, practiced crude fortification.

Toponyms original inhabitants of the Canary Isles

• Tenerife : Achinech, Achineche or Asensen.
• La Gomera : Gomera or Gomahara.
• La Palma : Benahoare.
• El Hierro : Eseró or Heró.
• Gran Canaria : Tamaran.
• Lanzarote : Titerogakaet or Titeroigatra.
• Fuerteventura : Erbania or Erbani.

Guanche people

• Taoro
• Beneharo (King guanche in Tenerife).
• Doramas
• Tinguaro
• Bencomo
• Gara and Jonay
• Tanausu
• Fernando Guanarteme
• Maninidra

See also

• Canary Islands in pre-colonial times
• Guanche language
• Hamitic
• Silbo - a Guanche whistling language, still alive
• Isleños
• First Battle of Acentejo
• Second Battle of Acentejo
• Teide

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, 1993
• John Mercer, The Canary Islanders: Their History, Conquest & Survival, 1980
• Mitochondrial DNA transit between West Asia and North Africa inferred from U6 phylogeography
• Roman Trade With the Canary Islands, Archaeology 50.3 (1997)
• The Voyages of Christopher Columbus
• E. G. Bourne, ed., The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot (New York, 1906).
• It paginates of wikipedia in Spanish.

External links

• Guanches
• Museo Canario (Canarian Museum)
• Tenerife Guanches