Ancestral traditions
Beliefs, funerary practices and the symbolic world of the archipelago’s ancient inhabitants.
Before the conquest, the islands already had their own symbolic, ritual and funerary systems. That legacy survives not only in archaeological remains, but also in names, mountains, stories and ways of interpreting territory.
Symbolic world
Deities and sacred spaces organised a worldview in which volcanoes, caves, mountains and coasts had religious and political meaning. Achaman, Guayota, Magec and Chaxiraxi are not mere names: they are axes of a religiosity tied to territory.
Funerary practices
Mummification and the deposition of the dead in caves, silos or natural spaces define a particular relationship with death and landscape. These practices left a material record that is still studied at sites across the archipelago.
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Aboriginal religion
Deities, sacred spaces and ritual practices of the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands before the European conquest.
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Funerary practices
Mummification, burial and death rites in the aboriginal societies of the Canary Islands, especially in Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
Read moreSources used
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