Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

Cultures > Southern > Southern Maritime Hunters or Canoe Hunters

Economía

These canoeists had a hunter gatherer lifestyle and based their diet mainly on marine mammals, which they hunted with harpoons made from animal bone and tipped with stone points. They also hunted land animals—including local deer species, Pudú and Huemul—and seabirds, collected shellfish and plant material, and fished from the shore. They lived a highly mobile lifestyle, using their region’s resources in a sustainable way by moving on before any food species became extinct in a given spot. They moved around almost exclusively by water, using canoes made out of tree bark or wooden boards.