Chile - Patagonia

The Indians of Patagonia, represented by two groups, terrestrial in the pampa (atlantic side), and maritime in the archipelagoes (pacific coast), have now almost disappeared. Only a little group subsist at Puerto Eden in the center of the archipelagoes. In this place a french scientist, J. Emperaire, realised an ethnological study, 60 years ago. Today, ethnology has given way to archaeology, which is now the only field involved in the research of these groups.

The research program of the french archaeological mission in Patagonia is focused, since 20 years, on maritime adaptation in the archipelagoes. It presents four main objectives: discovery of the socio-economic systems developed by the Canoeros Indians; analysis of the cultural stability that characterized this population during 6000 years; reconstitution of the dynamic process of the population of the archipelagoes; and finally, the search for the origin of this maritime adaptation.

The aim of the last mission (Ponsonby) was to test the too commonly accepted hypothesis that the maritime adaptation resulted from a transformation of terrestrial hunters into marine hunters in a transitional zone, very favourable to such event, at the middle of the Holocene (7000 to 41000 BP). The diachronical study of the site shows that Ponsonby’s hunters -first terrestrial- were lastly adapted to marine economy, after the opening of Fitz-Roy channel and insularity of their territory, about 4100/4500 BP ago. The original mixed culture observed in the upper layers of the site shows the influence of maritimes cultures already present in the region: it was not at the origin of this adaptation.

Further researches have been undertaken in order to test a second hypothesis, that maritime peoples arrived from the north along the pacific coast. This hypothesis, supported by the discovery of a 4500 years old burial in the Madre de Dios island, will need a large survey in not very explored archaeological region, between Magellan Strait to the south and Chiloe island to the north.