EN LA AMBIGÜEDAD DE TU PIEL. SOBRE MOMIAS Y TUMBAS

«In the ambiguity of your skin. About mummies and tombs». We offer some reflections on the mortuary practices of the ancient canaries and, particularly, about the phenomenon of mummification. It begins with a brief historiographical review of the basis on which it has built the notion of mummy. Next, the analysis of this entity is proposed, not as a singularphenomenon with value itself but under the rules for burial followed by the prehispanic population of Gran Canaria. This perspective of study, as well as the archaeothanatological analysis of funeral deposits,  particularized assessment of taphonomic processes in those contextsand, basically, the re-conceptualization of the idea of death in that society, provides an understanding of “mummy” different from what we have habitually considered. As a result, it calls into question the traditional view of “mummy” as a reflection of social asymmetriesin the funerary practice, along with the assumption of mummification as a particular and specific mortuary ritual in the belief system of the ancient canaries.Keywords: archaeology of Gran Canaria, prehispanic period, mummies,  funerary practices, shrouding, archaeothanatology.