…disappearing altogether. The representation of individuals with poweremblems (sceptres) positioned hierarchically above other figures in the same composition points to distinctions in status that were likely based on the control…
Economy
The Tehuelche’s main prey was guanaco, and the people prized not only the meat but also the skins, which they used to make clothing, blankets, dwellings and other…
South Central
…for a mass uprising. That year was marked by the battle of the Angostura pukara, and the Spaniards’ commemorated their epic victory with a brutal gesture: Valdivia left the bodies…
Historia
…discoid stones suggests cultural relations with other groups that inhabited the Pacific coast of South America at roughly the same time and who inhabited sites such as the Huentelauquén complex…
Historia
In the last few centuries before the Spanish conquest, the Araucania Region was part of a larger sphere of interaction that extended beyond its boundaries and interacted with…
Language
…The Aymara language belongs to the jaqi family. It is polysynthetic and agglutinative, with a tendency to employ suffixes. It is both complex and regular, using compound words where…
Art
…black and very finely polished. Common pieces include pukos or bowls, pots, round pitchers, jars and cups, some of them decorated with abstract images of human faces or geometric patterns…
Economy
…These coastal hunter-gatherer-fishers had a subsistence economy based on hunting, fishing and gathering of marine resources such as mollusks, fish, marine mammals and sea birds. They complemented their diet…
History
…European and local mestizo settlers was facilitated by restricting local indigenous inhabitants to small plots of communally held land. The direct consequences of this process for Mapuche society included a…
Beliefs and funeral rites
…can be traced back to the Chinchorro culture and the Huentelauquén complex. Within this belief system, ancestor worship seems to hold a special place. In pre-Hispanic times the dead were…
Culto y Funebria
…These southern inland hunters buried their dead in a variety of ways. The most common type of burial is that of the steppe peoples of historic times, who placed…
Social Organization
…Traditional Colla society is organized on the basis of family and friendship ties among people living in the same locality. With the official constitution of indigenous communities under Indigenous…
Environment and Geography
…The present-day Diaguita people are located in in the Huasco and Choapa river valleys of Chile’s Norte Chico region, where they have officially constituted as indigenous communities, based on…
Language
…know about this language, as it disappeared quickly after the Spanish conquest, according to historians. Present-day Diaguita communities in Chile speak Spanish only. According to scholar Ricardo Latcham, surnames ending…
Marine fisher-hunter-gatherers of the Arid North
Given their already intimate knowledge of marine resources, the introduction of the fishhook prompted a major turning point in the lives of the marine hunter-gatherers of the…
By pass Temuco: Ta iñ newentumun
…La construcción de carretera de alta velocidad en la ciudad de Temuco (sur de Chile) y sus efectos sobre comunidades mapuches. Un reflejo del dilema modernidad-desarrollo versus el costo…
Toasting, Inka Style
…in the community as a permanent reminder of the community’s new inalterable relation of power with the Inka State. The kero cups embedded in the mud walls of the monumental…
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…
Taparrabo o porta bebé listado
…Tejido en faz de urdimbre, fibra de camélido. Los taparrabos de la época son rectangulares o levemente trapezoidales, confeccionado de una sola pieza o en dos paños como este…
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…
Jarro polícromo zoomorfo
…cocción es bastante deficiente en comparación con la excelencia alcanzada en engobes y decoración. La vasija sugiere la representación de un felino, aunque faltan por erosión algunos elementos para definirlo,…
Bolsa – Faja
…Tejido de urdimbre complementaria, fibra de camélido. Por lo general, la cara interior de estas fajas, que va pegada al cuerpo, sólo presenta listados. Hacia el final de la…
A tale of two brothers
…sees that his poor brother has returned as wealthy as he is, he asks him how he has become so rich—did he come by it honestly or steal it? He…