…Terra Australis Incógnita, the ‘unknown southern land,’ had gradually become known. As more and more ships plied these waters—those of Magellan himself (1520), Juan Ladrillero (1558), Francis Drake (1578), Pedro…
Center
…provinces of ‘Chili,’ which was both the name of one of the area’s central valleys and a reference to the cool climate of that land. The expedition journeyed to the…
Economy
…relative autonomy. The Indigenous Settlement Commission was created at this time to curtail the indigenous population and establish indigenous land titles (títulos de merced, private land ownership among a particular…
Rapa Nui
…the area he seriously disrupted Spanish colonial commercial traffic. On one of his voyages to Polynesia, in 1687, he saw an island but did not land on it. Back in…
Semi-Arid North
…of the Kingdom of Chile. In the early years of the conquest, the transverse valleys were looked upon as a land inhabited by “aggressive, warlike” indigenous groups whose leaders banded…
The Creation
…Later, he took a star and made it into a woman, and sent her over to the young man with his breath. The land was hard and the stones hurt…
Caicai and Trentren
…Caicai and Trentren are two serpents from Mapuche mythology. Caicai lives in the sea, Trentren on the land. Mapuche legend relates that when Caicai awoke from slumber, became…
The devils`tale
…grabbed a bag of toasted flour and a pouch of coca leaves and fled through a desolate, rugged land with no trail in sight. As the sun was setting, he…
Economy
…The Alto Ramirez group had a mixed economy that combined agriculture with gathering (of plants and mollusks), fishing, and hunting of sea and land animals. They grew maize, peppers,…
History
…need to conquer usable land and was driven by an ideology that sought to eliminate indigenous groups by “civilizing” them. After the Chilean military victory, the process of colonization by…
History
…giving the territory its name and endowing the land with the aura of a mythical land inhabited by giants. Although the Tehuelche had a common way of life and language,…
Environment and Location
…the Aconcagua Valley) the melting of the ice left behind a land sprinkled with lakes and rushing rivers, increasing vegetation and concentrating herds of large land animals, now extinct, around…
Hunters of the Megafauna
…transition period between the Ice Age and a modern climatic regime. Thus, temperatures were lower, and much of the land was still covered in ice. In this environment, populations of…
History
…all of which refer to the Elqui Valley in Chile. The earliest of these comes from the first Spaniards to arrive in the land that is now Chile, and who…
South Central
…for their fierce opposition to the Inca occupation of their lands. The Spaniards described them as lobos monteses (highland wolves), revealing that they, too, feared their resistance and felt contempt…
Economy
…of land in the valley bottom, where they cultivate traditional crops and keep orchards alongside their dwellings. Goat herders raise their flocks in the ravines, hills and mountains of Pinte,…
Environment and Location
…The Chinchorro people inhabited the Pacific coast of southern Peru and northern Chile, from what the present-day port of Ilo to Antofagasta. Though the land here is extremely arid,…
Economy
…a single plot of land might be used to grow potatoes, quinoa, maize, squashes, prickly pear and chili peppers, thereby optimizing the use of water and soil. In modern times,…
Environment and Location
…over the land, creating a weather pattern known in the region as the camanchaca – dense fog that carries enough water to allow a richly biodiverse terrestrial ecosystem to thrive…
Organización Social
…system was introduced and the authorities began handing over land to family based communities, identifying each estate with the name of the corresponding cacique or lonko. The establishment of these…
Arid North
…return to Peru without weapons or horses, an effective death sentence in this harsh land. Sancho de la Hoz, however, was taken away in shackles after voluntarily releasing Valdivia from…
Economy
…dogs. The eastern Yaghan also sometimes hunted the llama-like guanaco on land. This division of labor between all family members in Yaghan society was essential to their social organization, as…
Economía
…The El Molle people grew maize, squash, quinoa and probably cotton, tilling the land using stone shovels and hoes and channeling water from the ravines. They also hunted wild…
Economy
…Two kinds of hunter-gatherer societies occupied this territory, each with a distinct subsistence economy: in the inland ravines and valleys groups based their diet on hunting of land animals,…