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The Performing Identity of the Canary Islands: Amazigh Heritage Influences in the Artistic Production The use of indigenous symbolism in traditional pottery work and in the Taburiente musical discourse Davinia García Master thesis Davinia García African Studies Center, Leiden University Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Merolla Prof. Dr. Dietz 30/01/2016 Davinia García The Performing Identity: Amazigh Heritage Influences in the Artistic Production of the Canary Islands Contents List of pictures ................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. 4 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 5 1.1 The researcher at home.................................................................................................. 5 1.2 The study: initial research questions ............................................................................. 7 1.3 Interdisciplinary approach. An overview of the chapters.............................................. 8 1.4 The analytical framework .............................................................................................. 8 1.4.1 Background 1: the socio-historical context ............................................................... 8 1.4.2 Background 2: the theoretical frame .......................................................................... 9 1.5 Fieldwork..................................................................................................................... 11 2. A Brief Approach to the Studies on the History of the Origins and Settlement of the Canary Islands.......................................... 13 2.1 The formation of the indigenous identity claims. First bibliographic sources ............ 15 2.2. The renaissance of identity elements in the Canarian cultural discourse (1960s) ...... 18 2.2.1 Indigenous elements found in the Canarian art ........................................................ 19 2.3 An anthropological and archaeological approach to the guanche re-creation............. 21 2.4 The indigenous imagination in the museum management .......................................... 28 2.4.1 Objects’ biographies: the case of the Guatimac figurine displayed at the Archaeological museum of Tenerife ................................................................................ 31 2.5 The indigenous inheritance: beyond its commercialization ........................................ 34 2.5. The performing identity: identity processes involved in the artistic production (for artists and audiences).................................................................................................. 35 2.5.2 Indigenous enchantment. Social and cultural impact on the audiences: an analysis of the grass-roots movements in the Social Media (Facebook) ...................... 40 3. Artistic Production in the Canary Islands Inspired by The Indigenous Heritage: Ancestral Cultures in Ethnic Markets........... 42 3.1 Performing identity: Agael’s story .............................................................................. 42 3.2 Agael: the ceramist and the trade ............................................................................... 44 3.3 Re-creating indigenous pottery “not to lose my identity” ........................................... 48 3.4 Marketing strategies in Agael’s artistic production..................................................... 51 4. Taburiente Band and the Canarian Identity: The Discourse of Pro-independence and the Practice of Integration......................................... 52 4.1 The search for identity: an analysis of Taburiente’s musical message........................ 52 4.2 “My homeland has to show its own DNA to the world”............................................. 54 4.3 “Taburiente, profaners of the Canarian music temple” ............................................... 49 4.4 “There is always a reason to live for, to fight for” ...................................................... 58 Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 68 References ..................................................................................................................... 74 2 Davinia García The Performing Identity: Amazigh Heritage Influences in the Artistic Production of the Canary Islands List of Figures 1. Indigenous imagination in political poster....................................................... 5 2. Antique postcard of local people of the Canary Islands made by travellers, 20th Century ........................................................................................................ 25 3. Samples of idealization of rural life. Canarian peasants, 20th Century ......... 26 4. Samples of idealization of rural life. Canarian peasants, 20th Century ......... 26 5. Guatimac, the logotype of the Archaeological Museum ................................ 31 6. Information panel at Agael’s stand ................................................................ 31 7. Souvenirs. Identity Merchandising in Information Office .............................. 36 8. Information panel about “Amazigh activities”. Guanche association .......... 38 9. Indigenous comic. Identity merchandising ..................................................... 40 10. Agael wearing indigenous clothes at her stand............................................ 41 11. Ritual of the ceramics’ baking...................................................................... 45 12. Information panel at Agael’s stand .............................................................. 49 13. Agael’s performing act ................................................................................. 49 14. Social positions involving Agael’s artistic activity (diagram) ..................... 51 15. Inekaren graffiti: “the Canaries are not Spain” .......................................... 55 16. Pro-independence demonstration led by Inekaren ....................................... 56 17. Amazigh flag and merchandising in Inekaren’s conference ........................ 57 18. Luis Morera with the seven green stars flag ................................................ 63 19. El Drago (painting) ...................................................................................... 65 3 Davinia García The Performing Identity: Amazigh Heritage Influences in the Artistic Production of the Canary Islands Acknowledgements I would love for these few words to carry me to all the people, to whom I would sincerely like to express my deep gratitude for their support, guidance, and kindness. Starting from the informants of this research, especially Agael and Luis Morera, who with their kindness and openness have enormously facilitated the research process. Special recognition goes to my supervisors, Daniela Merolla and Ton Dietz, for their guidance in the development of my ideas and for encouraging my work. To my friend, Marsela Janse-Zusi, for her caring insight to the research. Thank you for helping with editing the thesis. My gratitude to my mum and friends for their endless energy in nourishing me and for keeping me updated when I was away from Tenerife. You know all the struggles and successes that made this possible. Education is the best vehicle to freedom and to becoming better individuals. With an optimistic smile and while remembering those lyrics mentioned by Luis Morera, “there is always a reason to live for, to fight for”: Thank you all! 4 Davinia García The Performing Identity: Amazigh Heritage Influences in the Artistic Production of the Canary Islands 1. Introduction 1.1 The researcher at home My initial interest to inquire into the indigenous imagination in the Canary Islands arises from my curiosity about the flourishing social movements around indigenous heritage that have been expressed, among other forms, through social media and which I have been following from abroad. It is important to clarify that even though I was born in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands, I have not lived permanently there for more than ten years now. In 2004, I started my University studies in the mainland of Spain and later on, I moved to the Netherlands. Hence, from the exile as well as during my visits to the islands was how I started to be aware of such social phenomena. The anthropologist Marta Kempny has reflected on being an anthropologist at home in her article Rethinking Native Anthropologist: migration and auto-ethnography in the post- accession Europe. She was a Polish endo-ethnographer doing research on Polish migrants in Belfast. In the article, she argues that both informants and researcher do not have a single status, but a status set since we all belong to different communities simultaneously (Merton, 1972:22). Consequently, the researcher’s identity as well as the informants’ identity constitutes “a multi-stranded and manifold entity” (Kempny, 2012:9). When ethnographer and interviewees share some spheres of identity it is possible to build trust with them and create positive relations which facilitate the research process (Kempny, 2012: 8). Last April 2015, I went to Tenerife to start my fieldwork. My initial interest was reflecting on Canarian artistic production inspired by the indigenous legacy. I observed that little attention was paid