In some regions of Chile, the extensive knowledge that people had acquired of camelids (guanacos and vicuñas) over thousands of years of hunting led to the domestication of these animals. This control over the reproduction of animals and their transformation into livestock began very early, but always in association with the first cultivation of crops.
Together, these activities shaped a way of life in which tending sown fields and livestock herds accelerated the process of sedentarism itself. In turn, the keeping of camelids—which in addition to being a source of food also produced wool and offered a means of transporting goods and commodities over long distances—was a unique characteristic of these groups.