…In the countryside close to town, a shepherdess was watching her flock when a young man came down the hill, dressed in fine clothes, and began to profess his…
The Creation
…According to the Mapuche cosmovision, in the beginning there was only air, and the master of that air was called Ngen, a powerful spirit who dwelt among other spirits….
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,…
Aymara
…war of sound, with residents dividing up into the “upper” and “lower” town groups, which compete to see who will be the best, the loudest and the most long-winded singer….
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 percussive…
Economy
…pasture and water, moving from winter to summer grazing grounds in the foothills. Today, herding is still practiced by some Collas in Potrerillos and Quebrada de Paipote, while those near…
Four-cornered hat of Tiwanaku
The four-cornered hat is constructed from the crown, with a ring formed from the first series of knotted loops. The knots are continued in a spiral pattern, with…
Language
…It has been proposed that the Diaguita’s mother tongue is Kakán, as that was the language spoken by the so-called Diaguita groups inhabiting Argentina’s Calchaquíes valleys. Very little is…
Settlement Pattern
…with their animals. In the latter they maintain small shelters called majadas built with locally available materials, and consisting of dry stone walls and log-and-branch roofs covered with plastic. The…
Social Organization
…Traditional Diaguita society tended to be was organized around family and extended family ties. But the modern Diaguita indigenous community has only recently emerged, under the auspices of Indigenous…
History
…The indigenous people of Copiapó and Chañaral provinces were given the name of Collas in the 19th century, but the term was also used generally to refer to other…
Polynesian horticultural-fisher-gatherers
…classes and clans that often came into conflict with each other, even to the point of inter-communal war. While their way of life flourished for some time, the frequent disputes,…
Polynesian horticultural-fisher-gatherers
…and clans that often came into conflict with each other, even to the point of inter-communal war. While their way of life flourished for some time, the frequent disputes, coupled…
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…
Social Organization
Traditional Quechua communities are organized into groups based on extended family or friendship ties, and their members live in both urban and rural settings. The community comes together…
Settlement Pattern
…of 446,367.4 hectares. Although this vast territory was recognized in 2014, the Chilean State has officially ceded just 3.2% of that territory (14,384.19 hectares) to the Quechua community of Ollagüe….
Settlement Pattern
Colla settlements are disperse, and the dwellings remain unoccupied for much of the year, except for in the locality of Agua Dulce, in Potrerillos, which has a small…