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GUANCHES, GUANCHIS

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 651 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GUANCHES, GUANCHIS or GUANCHOS (native Guanchinet; See also:Guan = See also:person, Chinet = See also:Teneriffe,—" See also:man of Teneriffe," corrupted, according to See also:Nunez de la Pena, by Spaniards into Guanchos), the aboriginal inhabitants of the See also:Canary Islands. Strictly the Guanches were the See also:primitive inhabitants of Teneriffe, where they seem to have preserved racial purity to the See also:time of the See also:Spanish See also:conquest, but the name came to be applied to the indigenous populations of all the islands. The Guanches, now See also:extinct as a distinct See also:people, appear, from the study of skulls and bones discovered, to have resembled the Cro-Magnon See also:race of the See also:Quaternary See also:age, and no real doubt is now entertained that they were an offshoot of the See also:great race of See also:Berbers which from the See also:dawn of See also:history has occupied See also:northern See also:Africa from See also:Egypt to the See also:Atlantic. See also:Pliny the See also:Elder, deriving his knowledge from the accounts of See also:Juba, See also:king of See also:Mauretania, states that when visited by the Carthaginians under See also:Hanno the See also:archipelago was found by them to be uninhabited, but that they saw ruins of great buildings. This would suggest that the Guanches were not the first inhabitants, and from the See also:absence of any trace of Mahommedanism among the peoples found in the archipelago by the Spaniards it would seem that this extreme See also:westerly See also:migration of Berbers took See also:place between the time of which Pliny wrote and the conquest of northern Africa by the See also:Arabs. Many of the Guanches See also:fell in resisting the Spaniards, many were sold as slaves, and many conformed to the See also:Roman See also:Catholic faith and married Spaniards. Such remains as there are of their See also:language, a few expressions and the proper names of See also:ancient chieftains still See also:borne by certain families, connect it with the See also:Berber dialects. In many of the islands signs are engraved on rocks. Domingo Vandewalle, a military See also:governor of See also:Las Palmas, was the first, in 1752, to investigate these; and it is due to the perseverance of D. Aquilino Padran, a See also:priest of Las Palmas, that anything about the inscription on the See also:island See also:Hierro has been brought to See also:light. In 1878 Dr R. Verneau discovered in the ravines of Las Balos some genuine Libyan See also:inscriptions.

Without exception the See also:

rock inscriptions have proved to be Numidic. In two of the islands (Teneriffe and See also:Gomera) the Guanche type has been retained withmore purity than in the others. No inscriptions have been found in these two islands, and therefore it would seem that the true Guanches did not know how to write. In the other islands numerous Semitic traces are found, and in all of them are the rock-signs. From these facts it would seem that the Numidians, travelling from the neighbourhood of See also:Carthage and intermixing with the dominant Semitic race, landed in the Canary Islands, and that it is they who have written the inscriptions at Hierro and See also:Grand Canary. The See also:political and social institutions of the Guanches varied. In some islands hereditary See also:autocracy prevailed; in others the See also:government was elective. In Teneriffe all the See also:land belonged to the chiefs who leased it to their subjects. In Grand Canary See also:suicide was regarded as See also:honourable, and on a See also:chief inheriting, one of his subjects willingly honoured the occasion by throwing himself over a precipice. In some islands See also:polyandry was practised; in others the natives were monogamous. But every-where the See also:women appear to have been respected, an insult offered any woman by an armed man being a See also:capital offence. Almost all the Guanches used to See also:wear garments of See also:goat-skins, and others of See also:vegetable See also:fibres, which have been found in the tombs of Grand Canary.

They had a See also:

taste for ornaments, necklaces of See also:wood, See also:bone and shells, worked in different designs. Beads of baked See also:earth, cylindrical and of all shapes, with smooth or polished surfaces, mostly See also:black and red in See also:colour, were chiefly in use. They painted their bodies; the pintaderas, baked See also:clay See also:objects like See also:seals in shape, have been explained by Dr Verneau as having been used solely for See also:painting the See also:body in various See also:colours. They manufactured rough pottery, mostly without decorations, or ornamented by means of the See also:finger-See also:nail. The Guanches' weapons were those of the ancient races of See also:south See also:Europe. The polished See also:battle-See also:axe was more used in Grand Canary, while See also:stone and See also:obsidian, roughly cut, were commoner in Teneriffe. They had, besides, the See also:lance, the See also:club, sometimes studded with pebbles, and the See also:javelin, and they seem to have known the See also:shield. They lived in natural or artificial caves in their mountains. In districts where See also:cave-dwellings were impossible, they built small See also:round houses and, according to the Spaniards, they even practised See also:rude fortification. In See also:Palma the old people were at their own wish See also:left to See also:die alone. After bidding their See also:family farewell they were carried to the sepulchral cave, nothing but a bowl of See also:milk being left them. The Guanches embalmed their dead; many mummies have been found in an extreme See also:state of See also:desiccation, each weighing not more than 6 or 7 lb.

Two almost inaccessible caves in a See also:

vertical rock by the See also:shore 3 M. from See also:Santa Cruz (Teneriffe) are said still to contain bones. The See also:process of See also:embalming seems to have varied. In Teneriffe and Grand Canary the See also:corpse was simply wrapped up in goat and See also:sheep skins, while in other islands a resinous substance was used to preserve the body, which was then placed in a cave difficult of See also:access, or buried under a See also:tumulus. The See also:work of embalming was reserved for a See also:special class, women for See also:female corpses, men for male. Embalming seems not to have been universal, and bodies were often simply hidden in caves or buried. Little is known of the See also:religion of the Guanches. They appear to have been a distinctly religious race. There was a See also:general belief in a supreme being, called Acoran, in Grand Canary, Achihuran in Teneriffe, Eraoranhan in Hierro, and Abora in Palma. The women of Hierro worshipped a goddess called Moneiba. According to tradition the male and femaie gods lived in mountains whence they descended to hear the prayers of the people. In other islands the natives venerated the See also:sun, See also:moon, earth and stars. A belief in an evil spirit , was general.

The demon of Teneriffe was called Guayota and lived in the See also:

peak of Teyde, which was the See also:hell called Echeyde. In times of drought the Guanches drove their flocks to consecrated grounds, where the See also:lambs were separated from their mothers in the belief that their plaintive bleatings would melt the See also:heart of the Great Spirit. During the religious feasts all See also:war and even See also:personal quarrels were stayed. Canaries (See also:Paris, 1839) ; See also:Paul See also:Broca, Revue d'anthropologie, iv. (1874) ; General L. L. C. See also:Faidherbe, Quelque mots sur l'ethnologie de l'archipel canarien (Paris, 1875); Chil y Naranjo, Estudios historicos, climatologicos y Patologicos de la3 Islas Canarias (Las Palmas, 1876—1889) ; " De la pluralite See also:des races humaines de 1'archipel canarien," See also:Bull. See also:Soc. Anthrop. Paris, 1878; " Habitations et sepultures des anciens habitants des Iles Canaries," Revue d'anthrop., 1879; R. Verneau, " Sur See also:les Semites aux Iles Canaries," and " Sur les anciens habitants de la Isleta, Grande Canarie," Bull.

Soc. Anthrop. Paris, 1881; Rapport sur une See also:

mission scientifique dans l'archipel canarien (Paris, 1887); Cinq annees de sejour aux Iles Canaries (Paris, 1891); H. See also:Meyer, Die Inset Tenerife (See also:Leipzig, 1896), " Uber die Urbewohner der canarischen Inseln," in Adolf See also:Bastian Festschrift (See also:Berlin, 1896); F. von Luschan, A nhang fiber eine Schadelsammlung von den canarischen Inseln; R. See also:Virchow, Schadel mit Carionecrosis der Sagittalgegend," Verhandlungen der Berliner Anthrop. Gesellschaft (1896); G. Sergi, The Mediterranean Race (See also:London, 1901); The Guanches of Tenerife . , by Alonso de Espinosa, translated by See also:Sir Clements See also:Markham, with bibliography (See also:Hakluyt Society, 190.

End of Article: GUANCHES, GUANCHIS

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