Atacameño music, like that of most indigenous groups in the Americas, is linked to ritual practices. The Atacameño people divided the year into a dry period and a…
Haciendo un casco andino
Para hacer el armazón de un casco, primero se doblan tres tablillas de madera y se fijan con un cordel en el punto donde éstas se interceptan. Con…
History
While the influence of the State of Tiwanaku faded into memory in the Atacama region, local societies reconfigured themselves into señoríos, each with its own unique features, giving…
Historia
In many ways, the Las Ánimas groups broke with the past to begin a new cultural tradition. The formerly common tembetás or lip adornments of the El Molle…
Selk’nam
The music of the Selk’nam people is essential vocal and includes both solo and choral singing, sometimes accompanied by simple instruments such as bird bone whistles and the…
Carnaval Cariquima
Música de la celebración de carnaval en el pueblo aymara de Cariquima, altiplano de la I región de Chile. Tercera parada, Mancasaya Cuarta parada. Mancasaya y Araksaya Ingreso…
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…
Economy
The Colla’s traditional economy is based on herding and, to a lesser degree, agriculture. In former times, the Collas had a more diversified economy that included firewood extraction…
Organización Social
Up to the 16th century, Mapuche society was organized in a polygamous kinship system that was patrilineal—lineage was passed down through the male line. In the first half…
Horticultural-pastoralists of the arid north
In the highlands of the Arid North, in places such as the Tulan ravine and the Atacama salt flat, the pronged contact that human groups had with…
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…
Beliefs and Funerary Practices
Many of the festivities celebrated in Colla communities have been “reinvented” by recovering ancient Andean knowledge and practices and/or adopting celebrations promoted by State institutions, such as the…
History
According to oral tradition and archeological research, the Rapa Nui descended from a single group of people that sailed from Eastern Polynesia around 1000 A.D. to settle on…
Beliefs and Funerary Practices
The Diaguitas have celebrated Catholic religious celebrations since colonial times, as this part of the Norte Chico was one of the first to be evangelized in the early…
Social organization
The fundamental unit of Yaghan society was the family, which consisted of parents and children. The family was a closed, independent structure and the only clearly determined social…
Economy
The three distinct environments in which the groups of the Arica culture settled—mountain, valley and coast—allowed them access to complementary resources from different ecological strata. Surplus goods were…
Environment and Location
The Yaghan inhabited the archipelagos at the southern tip of South America, from the Brecknock Peninsula to Cape Horn. They were found on the southern coast of the…
Art
Evidence of the Chinchorro’s artistic development has come almost exclusively from the arrays of fine grave goods that accompanied their mummified remains, and to some degree from their…
Agricultural-pastoralists absorbed by the inca state
Beginning in 1400 A.D., the societies inhabiting virtually all of the territory in the northern half of Chile, whether agricultural-pastoralist or nomadic hunter-gatherer, faced a dramatic change in…
Beliefs and funeral rites
In the Copiapó and Huasco valleys, the El Molle people usually buried their dead in artificial earth and stone mounds encircled by a line of stones. Most of…
Horticulturists
One of the great revolutions in human history was the domestication of plants. Once humans began cultivating plants, they quickly became the principal source of food in…