home > canary islands > gran canaria> native culture and crafts

NATIVE CULTURE AND CRAFTS

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.

Native Culture 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.

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.

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.

Crafts 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.

Basket weaving , 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.

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.