Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino

Cultures > Semi-arid North > Diaguita

Economía

The Diaguita were a farming culture that built irrigation networks to enable them to grow a wide range of crops such as maize, quinoa, beans and squash. It is not clear whether they also raised livestock before the arrival of the Inka, but after that time this practice became a part of local Diaguita economies. The sea also provided them with a variety of resources, such as fish, mollusks and marine mammals (sea lions, whales, etc.). For hunting and fishing on the open ocean they used rafts made of inflated sea lion skins.