…Though little evidence remains, these groups seem to have established settlements along the main water courses of the region and only occupied more distant sites occasionally, probably because the…
Beliefs and funeral rites
…A distinctive feature of the Alto Ramirez people was their burial mound cemeteries, large groupings of artificial mounds up to 3 meters in height. The graves tended to be…
Environment and Location
…that provided sustenance to these ancient peoples. The Chinchorro people were called after the beach of the same name near Arica, Chile, where evidence of their culture was first found….
Patrón de Asentamiento
The early inhabitants of Patagonia were highly mobile and ranged freely over hundreds of kilometers, taking advantage of both the open woodland and the steppe environments. They returned…
Social organization
…could move around easily, a necessity for their nomadic way of life. Towards the end of this period, lower rainfall in the Puna region led to increasing aridity, concentrating subsistence…
Settlement pattern
To date, no residential camps have been found that could be attributed to these groups, only sites where they hunted and slaughtered their prey. These were highly mobile…
Social organization
…lived in small family bands that enabled them to move around easily, as their hunting way of life required, with a division of labor based only on age and sex….
Social organization
…Very little is known about this aspect of early hunter culture, but it is likely that these groups lived in small family bands, a unit that was suited to…
Economy
…The economy of the Aconcagua groups was based on agriculture, with clear-cutting carried out to enable crops such as maize, quinoa, beans and squash to be grown. They also…
Organización Social
…The center of canoe hunter society was probably the extended family, which moved around the southern Chilean sea channels in their canoes. Camps were probably occupied by one or…
Semi-Arid North
…the watersheds of Copiapó, Huasco, Elqui, Limarí and Choapa. In 1535, this zone was inhabited by the Copiapo and Diaguita people, who numbered around 25,000. In the valleys, these groups…
Settlement patterns
…the wood more flexible. They had better heat retention and a vaulted structure, which was formed by burying the ends of wooden poles in the ground and then bending and…
Beliefs and funeral rites
…According to the German Catholic priest Martin Gusinde, the Yaghan believed in a supreme being called Watawineiwa, the owner of all that exists, the one who gives life and…
History
…them and left short descriptions of their lifestyle and the vessels they used to navigate the coastal waters. The Chonos are thought to have interacted with the Huilliche people of…
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…
Environment and Location
These groups inhabited the western coasts of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego in the far south of Chile, a region of rugged islands, fjords, and channels extending southwards…
Far South
…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…
Marine hunters, fishers and gatherers
…The invention of fish hooks and then seagoing vessels by some early marine hunter-gatherer groups was a turning point that transformed their way of life, transforming fishing into…