Guanches

The Guanches (Berber Igwanciyen ) are the first known inhabitants of the islands the Canaries. These people, of Berber origin, still lived with the Stone Age at the time of the arrival of Europeans during the Middle Ages. Their culture disappeared as such, but left some vestiges.

History

The Spanish term Guanchos would be, according to Núñez of Peña, a deformation by Spanish of Guanchinet, indigenous term meaning man (Guan) of Tenerife (Chinet). Strictly speaking, the Guanches would be thus only the aboriginals of the island of Tenerife which seem to have preserved their ethnic purity until the conquest by the Spanish . The term was then extended to the whole of the indigenous populations of the whole of the archipelago.

Guanches constituted a branch of the Berbères which, at the dawn of historical times, populated the north of the African continent since the Egypt until the Atlantic Ocean.

Pline Old the reports to us that according to Juba II, king of Maurétanie, the Carthaginois which would have visited the archipelago under the direction of Hannon it would have found vacuum of inhabitants, but that they would have perceived the ruins of important constructions. One could deduce from it that Guanches would not have been the first inhabitants; the absence of any trace of a penetration of the Islam among the populations which lived there on arrival of the Spaniards, lets think that it would be then about the most remote migration towards the west of Berbères occurred between the time of Pline the Old one and the Moslem conquest of North Africa. A great number of Guanches perished while resisting the Spanish conquest, much were sold like slaves, much also embraced the catholic faith and were linked by marriage with the conquerors.

Language

There remains testimonys of their language, some expressions, and the proper names their chiefs who remain carried like family names: these testimonys make it possible to connect them to the Berber dialects. In the majority of the islands, one found signs Rupestre S. Domingo Vandewalle, governor military of Palma was the first to recognize them in 1752. It is with the perseverance of a priest of Palma, Don Aquilino Padran, that some were identified on the island of Hierro. In 1878, Rene Verneau discovered inscriptions of the libyque type original in the ravines of Los Balos. These rupestral inscriptions all are, without exception, of origin numide. In the two islands of Tenerife and Will gum It, where Guanches preserved a greater ethnic homogeneity than in the other islands, none of these inscriptions was not discovered. It is thus thought that Guanches truths did not know the writing. The traces of Semitic presence were identified on the other islands, and in each one of them, of the rupestral inscriptions. A plausible assumption thus consists in imagining that numides surroundings of Carthage, mixed with the dominant Semites in the colony phenician, came in the Canary islands and that they are at the origin of the rupestral writings of Hierro and of Large Canarie.

Guanches are also at the origin of the Langage whistled El Silbo which is still practiced nowadays, on the island of Will gum It especially.

Toponyms guanches

Tenerife: Achinech, Achineche or Asensen
Will gum It: Will gum or Gomahara
Palma: Benahoare
El Hierro : Esero or Hero
Gran Canaria : Tamaran (according to recent theories, this name could apply only to part of the island)
Lanzarote: Titerogakaet or Titeroigatra
Fuerteventura: Erbania or Erbani

Social organization and policy

The social organization and policy of Guanches differed from one island to another. Some were subjected to a hereditary autocracy, in others, the authorities were elected. To Tenerife, all the grounds belonged to the chiefs who rented them on their subjects. On Large Canarie, the Suicide was regarded as honourable, and during the establishment of a new chief, one of his subjects honoured it in a voluntary way while being thrown in a ravine. On some islands, one practiced the Polyandrie and on the others, the Monogamie. But everywhere the women were respected and any blow carried to a woman by an armed man was punished like crime.

Lifestyle

Guanches wore textile fiber or skin garments of goat which one found in tombs on Large Canarie. They appreciated the jewel X, the collars out of wooden, stone or of shells manufactured according to various models. They used mainly pearls of Céramique of forms varied, smooth or polished, in general black and red. They painted the body. The will pintaderas , objects out of terra cotta evoking of the seals, seemed to be used only for body painting, in varied colors. They generally manufactured coarse without any decoration, but sometimes decorated Poterie S using the nails. The weapons of Guanches were the same ones as those of the former people of the south of Europe. One used especially the polished Hache in Pierre on Large Canarie, and more frequently the axe out of stone or Obsidienne cut in Tenerife. They used also the Lance, the Massue, sometimes furnished with stone points, as well as the Javelot. It seems that they knew the Bouclier. They lived in Caverne S natural or artificial, located in the mountainous parts. In the zones where the digging of caves was not possible, they built round boxes and, according to what Spanish report, they had even of the coarse Fortification S.

Funerary rites

In Palma, the old men were abandoned alone to die, if they wished it. After having bidden their farewell with their close relations, they were taken along in a sepulchral cave with anything else that a milk bowl. Guanches embaumaient their deaths, and much of Momie S were found in a state of complete desiccation, hardly weighing more than 3 or 4 kg. Two almost inaccessible caves open in a vertical rock face close to the coast to 5 km of Santa Cruz (Tenerife) would still contain bones. Several processes of Embaumement existed. In Tenerife and Large Canarie the corpse was simply wrapped in sheep or goatskins, whereas on other islands a resinous product was employed to preserve the body which was then placed in a difficult cave of access or was buried under a tumulus. The work of embalming was reserved for a certain class, women for the women and men for the men. The embalming does not seem to be systematically practiced, and of the corpses were simply hidden in caves or were buried.

Religion

One knows only few things on the religions of Guanches, which were clean for them. They professed the belief generalized in a supreme Being named Acoran in Large Canarie, Achihuran in Ténériffe, Eraoranhan with Hierro and Abora with Palma. The women of Hierro adored a named goddess Moneiba. Traditionally, the gods and goddesses lived at the top of the mountains from where they went down to listen to the prayers of the faithful ones. In the other islands, the inhabitants venerated the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and stars. The belief in the demons was general. The demon of Ténériffe was called Guayota and lived at the top of the volcano Teide, which was the hell named Echeyde. In times of disorders, Guanches led their herds in devoted meadows where the lambs were separated from their mothers in the hope which their plaintive bleats would attract the pity of the Great mind. During religious holidays, any war and even any personal argument were suspended.

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