Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Antonio A. Ramón Ojeda
Author-Name: Alejandro González Morales
Title:  ANÁLISIS HISTÓRICO-GEOGRÁFICO DEL POBLAMIENTO EN GRAN CANARIA
Abstract: Resumen:El tema del poblamiento en Canarias se encuentra escasamente tratado, en particular su análisis espacial. Este trabajo reflexiona sobre la validez de los censos de población y nomenclátores como fuentes básicas de estudio y analiza el poblamiento de la isla de Gran Canaria desde una perspectiva histórico-geográfica por entender que el factor histórico es condicionante del actual patrón de distribución del poblamiento. Se concluye advirtiendo que en Gran Canaria existen al menos tres etapas de poblamiento, cada una de las cuales es resultado y herencia de la anterior. La influencia del medio ha ido viéndose reducida según se producían los avances tecnológicos y, sobre todo, los cambios económicos. En efecto, la base económica ha contribuido a definir cada una de las etapas de poblamiento consideradas: prehispánica, agraria y moderna.Abstract:
The topic
of the settlement in The Canary Islands has been scantily addressed, especially
from the optics of its spatial analysis. This article reflects on about the
validity of Population censuses and nomenclatores as basic sources of studies.
Besides, this article also analyses the peopling of Gran Canaria from a
historical and geographical perspective because the historical factor is
fundamental to recognized and understand its present spatial pattern. It has
been concluded that in Gran Canaria there are at least three stages of
settlement, each of which is the result of the previous one. The influence of
the environment has been reduced for technological advances while economic
changes have taken place. In fact, the economic base has contributed to define
each of the stages of population considered: pre-Hispanic, agrarian and modern.
 
Initial
approach
The work
constitutes the initial phase of a project of general study of the population
system in the Canary Islands. During the literature review and documentation
phase, we realized that the majority of studies on settlements were in fact
population studies. This led us to the need to make an epistemological
reflection where we analyze the concepts population versus settlements
population. In order to our interests we assume the definition of Jean Tricart:
"the settlement is the tangible form of the human occupation". We
focus the analysis on the network of settlements or population centers.
Therefore,
it is the object of the present work: the network of settlements of Gran
Canaria, study of its spatial distribution.
Hypothesis:
1. The
network of settlements is organized in relation to access to territorial
resources.
2. The
consideration of what is or is not a resource, as well as its importance, changes
according to the prevailing social group and economic system.
3. The
current settlement system is inherited from preexisting models.
For the
study of these hypotheses we carried out an essay on the network of settlements
of Gran Canaria.
Known
facts:
1. The
island presents a north-south ecological duality, which provides the northern
half with better resources for an agrrarian activity.
2. There
are at least three historical stages clearly contrasted from a socioeconomic
perspective:
2.a.
Prehispanic stage (up to the fifteenth century). Agricultural, pastoril and
collecting economic base. 
2.b.
Agrarian stage (from the fifteenth century to the mid twentieth century).
Both
constitute what we could call "hydraulic state", due to the
dependence of the population on access to water resources.
2 C.
Modern, tertiary-based economic stage. It begins in the middle of the 20th
century and has not yet concluded.
When we started
to study this diachronic process we found the problem of the sources: for the
prehispanic stage we base the study on archaeological charts (population data);
for agrarian stage we use the population census (population source sometimes
difficult territorial jurisdiction), and finally to the latest stage we used
the gazetteers population must distinguish in this case a sub-step devoid of
territorial accuracy (up to 1990 ), and another in which at last the
statistical data of population were referenced cartographically to the entities
of population or census divisions.
Conclusions.
1. The
study we are analyzing has the purpose of analysis the network of population
centers or settlement system in the island of Gran Canaria. That is to say,
neither the population, nor the settlements, but its territorial footprint.
2. The
distribution of population is due to access to resources (which varies by
social group and economic system) and to the inheritance of preexisting models.
3. In Gran
Canaria it is possible to confirm that there are three socioeconomic stages
that are translated into three models of population:
The first
two constitute what we call "Hydraulic State" and are:
a.
Prehispanic stage, with a economy based on agricultural, collecting and
pastoral. His study is solved by archaeological sources. The model reflects a
duality between the interior and the north agrarian, with habitat predominant
in cave, and the south and the littoral, based on collecting and pastoral
economy, with habitat in houses.
b. Agrarian
stage (late 15th-20th century). The essential sources are demographic censuses.
The north-south duality is confirmed, mainly due to the availability of water
and the best soils and resources in this part of the island.
c.
Post-agrarian stage, beginning in the middle of the 20th century and still
unfinished. It is possible to carry out its study from the population and
population censuses. We distinguish a first stage until the gazetteer
population of 1991 in which the statistical data lacked cartographic support
and, therefore, the territorial precision was smaller. Beginning in the 1990s,
it gains in precision when it comes to studying the territorial distribution of
population. There is a new model of settlements, because the settlements system
now turns to the coast, leaving the interior, especially the mountainous area
of the island, marginalized regarding new developments. An overcoming of water
dependence is observed.
Classification-JEL: R1
Keywords: Patrón Espacial, Poblamiento: pueblos y ciudades, Etapa Histórica, Sectores Económicos, Key Words: Spatial Pattern, Peopling, History Stages, Economic Sectors.
Pages: 197-225
Volume: 3
Year: 2017
File-URL: http://www.revistaestudiosregionales.com/documentos/articulos/pdf-articulo-2532.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:rer:articu:v:3:y:2017:p:197-225