Arantxa Robles highlights GR-138 trail cultural heritage

Anthropologist Arantxa Robles has highlighted the deep connection between ancient footpaths and the living memory of rural communities, pointing to historic routes as integral components of cultural heritage. laprovincia.es reported that Robles addressed these themes during her presentation titled GR-138: The landscape along the path at the XII Risco Caído and Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Conference.

Emotional Anthropology and the GR-138 Trail in Gran Canaria

Robles earned a degree in History, specialized in Anthropology, and received her doctorate cum laude from the Universidad de La Laguna, where she has developed a broad academic and research career spanning cultural and intangible heritage and citizen participation. She also works as a lecturer in Social Anthropology at the institution. She also served as a technician for Gesplan, a public company of the Canary Islands government, working on fieldwork that applied emotional anthropology to cultural identity and heritage valorization projects in Gran Canaria. laprovincia.es reported that she participated with Gesplan in homologating the GR-138 trail. She will test a guinea pig stage to check the placement of signage and ensure that hikers can successfully move from the starting point to the final destination on a stretch, as she still needs to complete the remaining sections.

The GR-138 is a circular route stretching over 70 kilometers through the landscape surrounding Risco Caído. Robles described the trail as visually and topographically diverse, offering changing vistas of the local orography and natural spaces, presenting completely different and spectacular natural areas for both scenery and hiking that unite multiple characteristics to be felt and experienced.

Paths Functioned as Communication Axes for Social Relationships and Practices

She noted that paths functioned as communication axes that allowed social relationships, the transmission of cultural practices, and served as meeting points.

Arantxa Robles

Combining Disciplines to Understand Cultural Landscapes and Community Ownership

Robles advocated for an intersectional approach that combines geography, history, archaeology, anthropology, architecture, astronomy, and photography to understand cultural landscapes. laprovincia.es reported that she stressed the importance of active community engagement, noting that protecting a World Heritage territory requires residents to feel ownership and pride in their local legacy.

She also expressed support for the work carried out by the Instituto Insular de Gestión Integral del Patrimonio Mundial y la Reserva de la Biosfera, noting that the organization actively engages with local populations, research initiatives, and heritage preservation.

Uncovering Cultural Layers Through Walking

Traversing a territory on foot allows people to uncover the different layers of a cultural landscape, taking in flora, fauna, and material cultural heritage alongside memories tied to ancient paths. Robles explained that human movement creates relationships by opening possibilities to reach agricultural estates, generate resources, and make use of them, while historically enabling the transport of the deceased and the sick, imbuing routes with an added layer of heritage that requires proper recognition and resignification. Recovering these sociocultural practices ensures they are not lost and can be integrated into an inventory of intangible cultural heritage, history, and living memory, thereby adding value to existing material heritage through accumulated wisdom and knowledge.