…is the pedestrian stage, documented in the writings of early European travelers. During that stage the Tehuelche numbered around 4,000–5000, divided into nomadic groups of up to 100 members each….
Historia
…The unique conditions of the site have preserved some evidence, allowing us a window into how these early hunters adapted to the rainforest environment. After the extinction of the megafauna,…
History
…Altiplano, ultimately reaching the city of Potosí, in Bolivia. The zone was also home to early colonial pueblos de indios (“indian towns”) such as Amincha and Alota, created by order…
Hunter-gatherers of the southern zone
…their diet by gathering edible wild plants. These early groups led a nomadic life, traveling through the large open spaces of the Patagonian steppe and Tierra del Fuego, with brief…
Marine hunter-gatherers of the southern zone
…In the Southern Zone of the territory that is now Chile, as early as 8000 B.C., another kind of marine hunter-gatherer culture emerged. These groups not only extracted…
Horticulturalists of the central zone
…grown by early horticulturalist groups on the other side of the Andes. But it was not until around 300 B.C. that the first crops, primarily quinoa and squash, were first…
Horticulturists
…human diet. The first definitive step in this process, after early experimentation, was the horticulturalist way of life. At a certain time, some human groups began to grow plants for…
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…
Hunters of the Megafauna
…these lands. Many of these early groups specialized in hunting the Pleistocene megafauna, though they undoubtedly supplemented their diet by gathering root vegetables, fruit and nuts and hunting smaller animals….
History
…In the Early Archaic period (11,000 – 6,500 BCE), the presence of discoidal stones at sites attributed to the first coastal communities suggests a connection or underlying cultural similarity…
Culto y Funebria
…used as tools. We do not know exactly what their role was in early Paleo-Indian cosmology, but they clearly had a ritual purpose. Red and ochre pigments were also often…
South Central
…of several chiefs and local dignitaries hanging in place as a warning. For Pedro de Valdivia, it was vital to squash resistance in that territory, and he sent several deputations…
Marine hunter-gatherers
…resources that were available there. In any case, given the rich resources available on most of the Chilean coast, they often had to travel less than their land-based contemporaries….
History
…The El Molle people were heirs to the hunter-gatherer tradition of the Archaic period, but they developed a new way of life based on horticulture and village life. They…
Economy
…The San Pedro people had an agriculture and livestock based economy that was complemented by the gathering of algarrobo and chañar fruit. They built primitive irrigation systems that mainly…
The pictographs of Cueva Blanca
…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…
Economía
…Araucaria nut or piñón) and hunting of guanaco and deer. This type of economy was based on seasonal migration in search of resources, especially among groups inhabiting the mountain zone….
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….
Polynesian horticultural-fisher-gatherers
…as well as the ceremonial village of Orongo. They achieved these great feats with an economy based on marine resources and horticulture. They irrigated their crops with rainwater, as there…
Economy
…The Colla’s traditional economy is based on herding and, to a lesser degree, agriculture. In former times, the Collas had a more diversified economy that included firewood extraction for…
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…
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 for…
Economy
…shares the same fate, mainly because of migration to urban centers, where Quechuas engage in salaried employment, leaving behind their traditional subsistence activities and land-based practices, especially owing to the…
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,…