Old Economy Lanzarote

The economic base of the old society of Lanzarote was represented by farming and herding, supplemented by gathering wild plants, fish and shellfish, and the capture of small animals from the island. Agriculture was very weak and was of the cereal-type, mostly based on the cultivation of barley with rudimentary methods. This was used in the production of gofio (the Canary Island name for flour).

Livestock is the main source of funding for Majos given the adaptation of goats to the environmental conditions of the island. Goats, sheep and pigs are the main domestic species present in aboriginal times, from which were extracted meat, milk, cheese (curd) and butter.

The Majo’s diet was completed with a high consumption of shellfish (limpets and towns, mostly), with fish caught in a rudimentary way, the game birds (shearwaters, hubaras) and reptiles, along with the collection of plant products such as dates.

Socio-political organization

Socially, the core of Majo organization was the extended family or lineage, around which were articulated productive and reproductive activities. Many authors have defended the matrilineal descent (in which kinship is established with the maternal family) established as the system of Lanzarote lineage, which was something going on between the Canary Islands of Gran Canaria and North African Berber tribes prior to Islam.

In the immediate moment of the Conquest, Majo society would have transitioned from a tribal, lower hierarchical society based on kinship relations, towards a model of leadership, which appears in the hierarchical figure of the “head” with functions of redistribution and power over the entire island area.

Other social practices among the Majos were polyandry, whereby each woman would have three husbands, as relayed in The Canary chronicles, as well as “the hospitality of bed”, attested to in the legend of Princess Ico.

This was a custom whereby the temporary marital rights would be suspended in favor of other men, as a sign of entertainment to the guests.