…enabling these groups to fish on the open ocean, using their harpoons to hunt whales, turtles or swordfish directly on the water. Fishing was especially productive, providing a surplus that…
Marine hunter-gatherers of the Semi-arid North
…The semi-arid north was home to the earliest marine hunter-gatherers in Chilean territory, and those groups appeared at virtually the same time as the last hunters of the…
Beliefs and funeral rites
…Modern Aymara religion is a syncretic belief system, a mixture of custom—the group’s traditional cosmic vision—and religion—practices of the Catholic Church. Together, these two systems form a whole that…
Horticulturalist of the Semi-arid north
…By all indications, both ceramic making and horticulture seem to have been imported to the semi-arid North as innovations from outside the region; regardless of their provenance, however,…
Economy
…In ancient times, the people of Rapa Nui subsisted by growing several varieties of plantain, squash, tubers and sugar cane, and complemented their diet with fishing, hunting and gatheringfood…
Hunter-gatherers of the southern zone
…Continuing a tradition begun at Monte Verde, the oldest site occupied by megafauna hunters in Chilean territory, the hunter-gatherers of southern Chile specialized in making use of the…
History
…nobility and priest-elders, warriors and stone and wood craftsmen. He also brought the household items, plants and animals needed to sustain the settlers. Rapa Nui’s prehistory, history and present day…
The geoglyph of Cerro Sagrado
…Cerro Sagrado (Sacred Mount) is located in the Azapa Valley, eight kilometers from the Pacific coast. The mountain slope that faces the valley holds a geoglyph outlined in…
The pictographs of Tambillo
…The Tambillo pictographs are found on the walls of eight small rock shelters distributed along some 300 meters of the narrow, dry bed of the upper Quisma Ravine,…
Art
…used. These refer mainly to their boats and their tents, which were of a design known as the ruca. The Changos seem to have dressed in simple attire made from…
Story of the Forbidden Otter and the Great Flood
…find a forbidden otter, and he killed it, they say. And when his father was out, and his mother was out [for they had left before him], while they had…
The Son of the Canelo
…Among the Kawashkar, the Son of Canelo is a hero who appears in many stories. Some say that a long time ago, on the western coast of Wellington Island…
Marine hunter-gatherers
…At almost the same time that the terrestrial hunter-gatherer way of life emerged inland, along Chile’s extensive coastline other groups relied on the coastal environment as their main…
History
…between the Bío Bío Rover and Reloncaví Sound. When the Spanish came to this region, however, the Mapuche tongue of Mapudungun was in use all the way from the Choapa…
Marine hunter-gatherers of the southern zone
…The Southern Zone was the setting for the development of a hunter-gatherer culture with a strong maritime emphasis that dates back as early as 8000 B.C.These groups not…
Los changos en la actualidad
…Este video fue realizado para la exposición Pescadores de la niebla: los changos y sus ancestros (MCHAP 2008 – 2009). Filmado en Cobija, costa norte de Chile, muestra la…
The pictographs of Confluencia
…Typical of the Confluencia style are scenes that combine human and animal figures, usually camelids, in a single composition. These were painted in red and reddish-yellow, usually inside…
Social organization
…The community provides the organizational structure of Atacameño society and gives form to the social, economic and religious relations that govern a given territory owned communally by a number…
The petroglyphs of Tamentica
…The site of Tamentica is located in a deep, narrow section of the middle Guatacondo Ravine and consists of around fifty stone blocks concentrated in an area of…
Pipes of Central Chile
…Ritual pipe smoking was a common practice among early agricultural groups in the region, but the custom seems to have disappeared around 400 C.E. in Chile’s far north…
Kawashkar
…As an integral part of Kawashkar tradition, the music of these people suffered the same deterioration that the entire culture did in the 20th century. Because of this situation,…
The encounter
…A MEETING OF CULTURES ON CHILEAN SOIL The 16th century Spanish enterprise: conquest and consequences This historical review of the European conquest of the territory that would one day…
The son of the animals
…The Mapuche people tell the story of a woman who was raped before her husband had returned home from war and who escaped into the forest to give birth…