La piel humana en la narrativa corta tradicional

Abstract

As an attribute of the human being, the skin is polyvalent; it forms the basis for beliefs about immortality, about individual temperament, and about the invulnerability of legendary warriors. These beliefs lie in their turn at the origin of many traditional folktales. The perception of the renewal each year of the earth's vegetation, and of the skins of reptiles, is suggestive for the primitive narrator: the macrocosm also has a covering of skin. So one may identify a wide spectrum of related stories and legends, sometimes facetious, sometimes illustrative of the powers of the Devil.