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…
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…
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…
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…
Art
…of five hundred years, they erected close to three hundred altars, called ahus, and carved more than six hundred stone moaistatues. These monumental pieces expressed the competition for power among…
Social organization
…family; but the women of the tribe governed their own activities and enjoyed equal rights. With no hierarchies, the community had no leader or chief; rather, the entire tribe was…
Agricultural-pastoralists related toTiwanaku State
Around 600 A.D., the highlands and northernmost valleys of the Arid North would capture the economic interest of Tiwanaku, one of the first states to develop in…
Agricultural-pastoralists absorbed by the inca state
Beginning in 1400 A.D., the societies inhabiting virtually all of the territory in the northern half of Chile, whether agricultural-pastoralist or nomadic hunter-gatherer, faced a dramatic change in…
Economy
…In ancient times, the people of Rapa Nui subsisted by growing several varieties of plantain, squash, tubers and sugar cane, and complemented their diet with fishing, hunting and gatheringfood…
Settlement pattern
As seafaring nomads, the Chonos moved around from island to island without having a home base. They spent most of their lives on board their dalcas, moving the…
Horticultural-pastoralists of the arid north
In the highlands of the Arid North, in places such as the Tulan ravine and the Atacama salt flat, the pronged contact that human groups had with…
Economy
…The three distinct environments in which the groups of the Arica culture settled—mountain, valley and coast—allowed them access to complementary resources from different ecological strata. Surplus goods were moved…
History
…and perfected their ancestral way of life. The increasing complexity of the societies of the Atacameña area, which was closely tied to the traffic of goods with llama caravans, strongly…
Horticulturalist of the Semi-arid north
By all indications, both ceramic making and horticulture seem to have been imported to the semi-arid North as innovations from outside the region; regardless of their provenance,…
Aymara
…member plays a flute (sikuri or zampoña) and a drum at the same time. Sikuri bands participate in the patron saint festivals using a complex, typically Andean musical dialogue. The…
Beliefs and funeral rites
Early Tiwanaku religious practices display influences from the Amazon basin, especially in its emphasis on shamanism associated with the consumption of hallucinogens. Later, official State rituals gradually led…
Economía
…groups seem to have moved around locally according to seasonal cycles, with some longer journeys linking them with the coastal and trans-Andean regions. The other groups lived in communities that…
Art
Through their contact with the agricultural and herding groups living in the desert and inland valleys, these hunter-gatherer-fishers obtained objects such as ceramics, metal and fine woven cloth…
Economía
…by irrigation canals to complement the wild fruit they gathered from the algarrobo and chañar trees. They traveled frequently from East to West, seeking out products for trade—fish and mollusks…
Beliefs and funeral rites
…more complex ideology. The use of hallucinogenic powders inhaled through the nose (using tablets and tubes) appears to have become more prevalent as a ritual practice at this time, and…
Agriculturalists of the semi-arid north
…agricultural focus would cause the Diaguita and Copiapóto adopt a completely sedentary way of life, with most groups living in villages located near their farm fields. One such Diaguita settlement…
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…