…with complex water systems. Livestock husbandry was based on alpacas and llamas before the arrival of the Spanish; today, sheep, goats and mules are also raised. The people obtained meat,…
Cenuke
…Cenuke lived during the time of the first ancestors. He was a very powerful man and a powerful xon (shaman). He was the only child of Kakrecen and Sakutá,…
Marine hunter-gatherers of the southern zone
…in shallow waters, a practice that has been inferred from the many stone weights of different shapes and sizes they left behind, as the nets have disappeared over time. These…
Hunter-gatherers of the central Chile
…During the final stage of the Pleistocene-Holocene transition, a few herds of huge herbivores still roamed around parts of the Central Valley, especially near bodies of water such…
Atacameña
…evolved in different ways. One of the customs most commonly celebrated among the Atacameño people is the cleaning of the irrigation canals. In the ritual surrounding this activity the people…
Marine fisher-hunter-gatherers of the Arid North
…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…
Settlement pattern
…oldest and most representative sites of the early San Pedro culture is Túlor, which contains circular mud-walled dwellings joined together in a way that suggests the spontaneous growth of the…
Ways of Life
…What are ways of life? A simple way to distinguish and classify human societies is to consider how people organize themselves to survive, certain technology they use, and the…
Rapa Nui
…Across the south sea to Rapa Nui Around the middle of the 16th century the “South Sea,” as the Pacific Ocean was formerly called, was full of vessels…
The Son of the Canelo
…were slaughtered. In those days, the only tree in the land was a single canelo, and they say that from one of its seeds a man was born. In the…
Leather Armor
…Before going into battle, Andean warriors altered their state of consciousness by using hallucinogenic substances that allowed them to imagine themselves as jaguars, pumas, mountain lions, foxes, hawks,…
Economy
…were made from the skins of four male sea lions, softened in fresh water, sewn together and inflated, to produce floats up to 3 meters (10 feet) in length. A…
Economy
…and textiles (düwekafe/weaver). The colonial period’s War of Arauco brought a wartime economy, in which assaults and raids provided revenue for the Mapuche. At this time the Mapuche also began…
‘Lost wax’ bronzes
…This bronze piece was found in Illapel and is one nearly 30 bronze discs that have been attributed to the Aguada, one of the most important cultural traditions…
History
…Tehuelche was the name given by the Mapuche to the people inhabiting the Pampa on the northern coast of the Strait of Magellan. European sailors called them “Patagones” (“bigfoot”),…
Agricultural-pastoralists of the arid north
…North of what is now Chile became increasingly complex economically and socially, a process that would change their way of life from horticultural-pastoralist to agricultural-pastoralist. This development would reach its…
Beliefs and funeral rites
…which represents the courses of rivers and streams. These three spirits are linked to the origin, abundance and distribution of water, the giver of life, and to the natural ordering…
Marine fisher-hunter-gatherers of the Arid North
…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…
Art
…Until the time of the Spanish conquest, both men and women wore thick tunics made from llama or alpaca wool and drawn in at the waist with a woolen…
Settlement pattern
…often were established on the slopes of ravines close to agricultural terraces. The buildings of these peoples were made of mortared stone walls with straw roofs supported by cactus wood…
The pictographs of Milla
…latter site. The Milla panels contain large-scale red pictographs painted onto rock walls that are highly visible from the valley floor. The combined use of lines and flat painting are…
A tale of two brothers
…the head of a rooster and some bits of bread. After walking all day, the poor brother came across a cave at nightfall and decided to sleep there, covering himself…
Settlement pattern
…by walls, called a kancha, inside which they built structures that served different functions. The kancha also had a central plaza-like area that the buildings within the enclosure opened onto….
Settlement patterns
…dwellings were simple and easy to dismantle and transport. They were made of wooden frames covered with layers of waterproofed hides, originally of guanaco skin and later horse skin. One…