As the climate stabilized into conditions similar to the present-day, around 11,000 years ago, and the megafauna that flourished during the Ice Age became extinct, a foundation was laid for the development of another way of life among certain groups that would prevail virtually throughout the prehistoric period in Chile, and even into the early 20th century in the far south of the country.
These groups practiced a land-based hunter-gatherer way of life, living off the wild resources that existed in the diverse ecological environments of the territory. They usually lived in small kinship bands and practiced a nomadic way of life, traveling great distances around a well-defined territory in an annual cycle. In some periods, hunting seems to have been their main food source.