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NATIVE CULTURE IN GRAN CANARIA
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The
original inhabitants of Gran Canaria based their economy on
agriculture more than on cattle, harvesting, gathering of seafood
or fishing.
Barley was the product par excellence in the diet of the first
settlers of the island, and with it they elaborated gofio (toasted
and ground cereal meal), with which they took wheat and beans.
A distinct characteristic that still remains in Gran Canaria
are the silos, which were places in caves where the original
inhabitants kept their products. |
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Natives stayed
mainly in big settlements of semi-urban structure. The highest
concentration of the population was centred in Gáldar,
Telde or Arguineguín.
Caves served as lodges, a tradition that still exists in Gran
Canaria. The other type of housing the natives used was excavated
in the ground -which had a round shape on the outside- and made
of big blocks of dry rock and a wooden cover. |
Hierarchy
was crucial in the social structure of the native communities
in Gran Canaria. Firstly, there were the nobles, with hereditary
titles and power of decision in political administration and
economy, on top of being the land and cattle owners, and the
villains, to whom the class directly above gave plots of land
and good cattle in exchange for their payment in kinds and services.
The guanarteme, absolute leader of the native community, shared
his power with the faycán, the figure second in importance
in the native community of Gran Canaria and on whom fell the
weight of religious rituals and services. Nevertheless, this
figure was not exempt from playing political, military or social
roles. |
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| Acorán
was the supreme god of the Grandcanarians, to whom the natives
offered their sacrifices and offerings. The harimaguada was
the feminine figure of nobility who was preserved from her childhood
to share the same labours as the faycán. |
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Gran Canaria boasts
the greatest repository of native art and culture of all the
islands in the archipelago. Some of the most outstanding archaeological
finds consist of cave paintings, such as the ones in the painted
cave (‘cueva pintada’) of Gáldar, which is
decorated with geometric motifs that are made up of squares,
triangles and circles, all painted in red, ocher and white.
These motifs -which are similar to the ones that have been found
on ceramics and ‘pintaderas’ (clay seals)- are found
throughout the arts and crafts of Gran Canaria. |
The
natives had a great reputation as artisans, whose techniques
and means reach our days. Mud was one of their main raw materials.
Apart from domestic utensils and icons, such as the Ídolo
de Tara, the natives made the so-called pintadera canaria, which
they decorated with geometric drawings.
Masonry, knives, woodwork or spinning became, with time, part
of the long list of handicrafts that are nowadays a legacy maintained
or recovered by the current population of Gran Canaria. |
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The island
territory has a wealth of stone quarries, which the people
of Gran Canaria have used for a host of applications, including
the building of roads, bridges, benches, mills, troughs and
fountains.
More information in www.fedac.org
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