…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,…
Location and Environment
…freshwater springs and pools that are used by the local inhabitants to water their crops and their animals, and they provide essential water for high altitude pasturelands as well. In…
Mapuche
…as we understand it). It is a way of conveying ideas, expressing emotions and communicating the interior self, and for this reason it does not matter whether one is a…
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…
Economy
…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,…
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….
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…
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…
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”),…
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…
‘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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The petroglyphs of Kalina
…are believed to have been hunters in the early stages of domesticating camelids, specifically through the capture and taming of wild guanacos, among other species. The large rock wall situated…
Art
…shells and other artifacts, and also possibly as body paint. By the end of the Archaic Period, a new form of artistic expression emerged that was to become widespread: rock…
Agriculturalists of the semi-arid north
…way of life centered on the large-scale cultivation of corn. Along with this change, these groups’ longstanding relations with societies of northwest Argentina would bring new cultural influences to their…
Hunter-gatherers of the Arid North
…At the end of the Pleistocene, the hunter-gatherers of the arid north hada way of life based on their regular movement from the lowlands to the edge of…