Milenarios, por Juan Carlos Saavedra · Bilenio Actividades Culturales

Los Ranchos de Animas BIC

·15 min·1 clip

The sound you hear is the Rancho de Ánimas de Arbejales, a tradition declared of immaterial cultural interest in the Canary Islands.

The episode begins with the sound of the Rancho de Ánimas de Arbejales, a tradition recognized as immaterial cultural heritage. Host Juan Carlos Saavedra introduces the topic, noting the survival of these traditions highlights the importance of death in Canarian popular culture. Guest Oscar Vizcaíno-Denis, an anthropologist and member of the Arbejales ranch, joins the conversation. He immediately challenges diffusionist approaches to finding origins, advocating instead for understanding the tradition's meaning and functionality. Vizcaíno-Denis outlines a complex substrate: indigenous aboriginal culture with mummification practices, pagan Mediterranean elements like the coin for the afterlife, and later Catholic influences like the doctrine of Purgatory from the Council of Trent. He reveals a surprising literary connection: the ranch's song structure is based on the segel, a 7th-century Lebanese form that today survives only in Lebanon, Palestine, and the Canary Islands. The guest describes the ranch's historical role as a peasant brotherhood (from the Germanic 'ring') that collected alms to pay for burials and church access, effectively a popular tax. He cites a 1730 letter where a chaplain complains the singers ended up dancing and eating in the hermitage, illustrating perennial ecclesiastical suspicion. Vizcaíno-Denis explains the ranch was a vital social space for weddings, gossip, and community bonding. Its survival in places like Arbejales, Valsequillo, and El Valle is attributed to their isolation; elsewhere in Gran Canaria, many ranches disappeared in the 19th century due to conflicts with priests. He notes similar traditions existed in Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, now transformed into Easter ranches. The conversation concludes by framing the ranch as an 'ethnographic fossil'—a living tradition preserved against odds, dependent on the faith of older generations who see it as preparation for their own death and passage through Purgatory. The host emphasizes the need to protect such cultural fossils in the Canary Islands.

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