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The Guanches - builders of pyramids, makers of mummies and first colonial victims.

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posted on Jan, 29 2010 @ 06:54 PM
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Tonight I saw a documentary on the Canary Islands, and to my surprise they were inhabited by a blondish race now collectively called the Guanches. The origins of the Guanches are as mysterious as their lifestyle and demise. Most often they are seen as related to the equally obscure non-Arab "Berbers" in North Africa, while others count them as isolated Cro-Magnon people. They herded goats and sheep, but were mostly extremely sparse in material culture, as far as we know. They built stone pyramids and mummified many of their dead, which has led to some debate on a link to Atlantis.
The end of the culture came with the Spanish conquest in 1402, and by 1500 all the islands were conquered. However, especially in rural areas some Guanche customs and words remain, although the people and their culture are officially extinct.
I include some links which are far from exhaustive, and I beg other members to share any links or knowledge on this fascinating, unique culture, and its heartbreaking story.
en.wikipedia.org...
What became of the Guanches:
www.ctspanish.com...

img273.imageshack.us...

[edit on 29-1-2010 by halfoldman]



posted on Jan, 29 2010 @ 09:11 PM
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very interesting. star and flag to bump this.



posted on Jan, 29 2010 @ 09:45 PM
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reply to post by Totalstranger
 

Thanks a lot - sometimes sad how interesting things go under when people just want to argue about religion, politics and polemics. But you already made it worth the effort
.



posted on Jan, 29 2010 @ 10:01 PM
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It is an interesting story, to be honest I had never heard of these people. I had always assumed the Canaries were uninhabited when the Spaniards arrived. How wrong was I?


Tad curious about the statement of "first colonial victims" though. If you're refferring to the first indiginous people colonised by the Spanish, sure, but people have been overwhelmed by colonisers and conquerors for millenia prior to Castillian Spain or any other European colonial ventures. Like slavery, it didn't start with the White man in Europe!



posted on Jan, 29 2010 @ 10:26 PM
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how many times are you going to revise the story of your existence?



posted on Jan, 29 2010 @ 10:33 PM
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reply to post by Ausar
 


Huh?

What does that mean? Rather cryptic..



posted on Jan, 29 2010 @ 10:43 PM
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reply to post by stumason
 

Fair enough - colonialism has been going on since tribal times everywhere, and then of course in the early civilizations (Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and then also the Kongo Kingdoms, and so forth in all directions).
Let's just say that the "modern-world colonialism" across the Atlantic towards the "New World" began here, and this trans-Atlantic world was not just a European conquest of the Americas and an exchange of diseases and foodstuffs, it also saw the rise of the trans-Atlantic African slave trade. So in effect, without the stop-off of the Canary Islands much of that would not have started, so it was the beginning of trans-Atlantic colonialism that enriched the banks and elites of Europe sufficiently to colonize much else of the globe.



posted on Jan, 29 2010 @ 11:17 PM
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Originally posted by Ausar
how many times are you going to revise the story of your existence?

I'm very interested in issues of self-narrative and autobiography/biography. I think we can turn unrelated events into a connected "novel" of the day within about every 24-hours.
I mean there are many obvious facts one cannot revise (age, location, name, heritage...). But we certainly ascribe order to events that makes them meaningful to ourselves in our culture.
So roughly I'd say I revise a little about every day, unless I've read a life-changing new book and theory, then one can revise instantly in a new hindsight.
In a minor way, having read about the Guanches in an epic form does make me think differently on some of my favorite topics.



posted on Jan, 31 2010 @ 07:52 PM
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reply to post by halfoldman
 

The Guanche mummies (a short introduction), see:
www.mummytombs.com...




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