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A
culture area is first of all a geographical region; it has characteristic
climate, landforms, and biological population—fauna and flora. Humans who live
in the region must adapt to its characteristics to obtain the necessities of
life. The Americas may be divided into many culture areas, and these divisions
may be determined in different ways. Here, nine areas are used for North
America, one for Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), and four for South America.
The South-western
culture area encompasses Arizona, New Mexico, southern Colorado, and adjacent
northern Mexico (the states of Sonora and Chihuahua). The first known
inhabitants of the south-west were hunting mammoths and other game with Clovis-style
spearpoints by about 9500 BC. As
the Ice Age ended (c. 8000 BC),
mammoths became extinct. The people in the south-west turned to hunting bison
(known as buffalo in North America) and spent more time collecting wild plants
for food. The climate gradually became warmer and drier, and a way of
life—called the Archaic—developed from about 8000 BC to about 300 BC.
Archaic peoples hunted mostly deer, small game, and birds, and they harvested fruits,
nuts, and the seeds of wild plants, using stone slabs for grinding seeds into
flour. In about 3000 BC the
South-Westerners learned to grow maize, which had been domesticated in Mexico,
but for centuries it was only a minor food.
About 300 BC, some Mexicans whose culture was
based on cultivating maize, beans, and squash in irrigated fields migrated to
southern Arizona. These people, called the Hohokam, lived in towns in
adobe-plastered houses built around public plazas. They were the ancestors of the
present-day Pima and Papago, who preserve much of the Hohokam way of life.
The peoples of the
northern sector of the South-western culture area, after centuries of trading
with the Hohokam, had by AD 700
modified their life into what is called the Anasazi tradition, as early Cliff
Dwellers. They grew maize, beans, and squash and lived in towns of terraced
stone, or in adobe apartment blocks built around central plazas; these blocks
had blank walls facing the outside of the town, thereby protecting the people
within. During the summer many families lived in small houses at their fields.
After 1275 the northern sector suffered severe droughts, and many Anasazi farms
and towns were abandoned; those along the Rio Grande, however, grew and
expanded their irrigation systems. In 1540 Spanish explorers visited the
descendants of the Anasazi, who are called the Pueblos. After 1598 the Spanish
imposed their rule on the Pueblos, but in 1680 the Pueblos organized a
rebellion that kept them free until 1692. Since that time, Pueblo towns have
been dominated by Spanish, then Mexican, and finally United States government.
The Pueblos attempted to preserve their culture: They continued their farming
and, in some towns, secretly maintained their own governments and religion. Twenty-two
Pueblo towns exist today.
In the 1400s,
hunters speaking an Athabascan language—related to languages of Alaska and
western Canada—appeared in the south-west, having migrated southward along the
western Great Plains. They raided Pueblo towns for food and—after slave markets
were established by the Spanish—for captives to sell; from the Pueblos, they
learned to farm, and from the Spanish, to raise sheep and horses. Today these
peoples are the Navajo and the several groups of Apache.
The western sector of the South-west is inhabited by speakers of Yuman languages, including the isolated Havasupai, who farm on the floor of the Grand Canyon; and the Mojave, who live along the lower Colorado River. The Yuman-speaking peoples inhabit small villages of pole-and-thatch houses near their floodplain fields of maize, beans, and squash.
The Eastern
Woodlands culture area consists of the temperate-climate regions of the eastern
United States and Canada, from Minnesota and Ontario east to the Atlantic Ocean
and south to North Carolina. Originally densely forested, this large region was
first inhabited by hunters, including those who used Clovis spearpoints. About
7000 BC, with the warming
climate, an Archaic culture developed. The peoples of this area became
increasingly dependent on deer, nuts, and wild grains. By around 3000 BC human populations in the Eastern
Woodlands had reached cultural peaks that were not again achieved until after AD 1200. The cultivation of squash was
learned from Mexicans, and in the Midwest sunflowers, amaranth, marsh elder,
and goosefoot and related plants were also farmed. All of these were grown for
their seeds, which—except for those of the sunflower—were usually ground into
flour. Fishing and shellfish gathering increased, and off the coast of Maine
the catch included swordfish. In the western Great Lakes area, copper was
surface mined and made into blades and ornaments, and throughout the Eastern
Woodlands, beautiful stones were carved into small sculptures.
After about 1000 BC the climate became cooler and food
resources scarcer, causing a population decline in the Atlantic part of the
region. In the Midwest, however, populations organized into wide trading
networks and began building large mound-covered tombs for their leaders and for
use as centres for religious activities. These early mound builders, called the
Hopewell, raised some maize, but were more dependent on Archaic foods. The
Hopewell culture declined by about AD
400.
By 750 a new
culture developed in the Midwest. Called the Mississippian culture, it was
based on intensive maize agriculture, and its people built large towns with
earth platforms, or mounds, supporting temples and rulers' residences. Across
the Mississippi River from present-day St Louis, Missouri, the Mississippians
built the city of Cahokia, which may have had a population of up to 50,000.
Cahokia contained hundreds of mounds. Its principal temple was built on the
largest, a mound 30 m (100 ft) high and roughly about 110 m (360 ft) long and
about 49 m (160 ft) wide. During this time period, maize agriculture also
became important in the Atlantic region, but no cities were built.
The presence of
Europeans in the Eastern Woodlands dates from at least AD 1000, when
colonists from Iceland tried to settle Newfoundland. Throughout the 1500s,
European fishers and whalers used the coast of Canada. European settlement of
the region began in the 1600s. It was not strongly resisted, partly because
terrible epidemics had spread among the Native Americans of this region through
contact with European fishers and with Spanish explorers in the south-east. By
this time the Mississippian cities had also disappeared, probably as a
consequence of the epidemics.
The Native
American peoples of the Eastern Woodlands included the Iroquois and a number of
Algonquian-speaking peoples, including the Lenape, also known as the Delaware;
the Micmac; the Narragansett; the Shawnee; the Potawatomi; the Menominee; and
the Illinois. Some Eastern Woodlands peoples moved west in the 19th century;
others remain throughout the region, usually in their own small communities.
The South-east
culture area is the semi-tropical region north of the Gulf of Mexico and south
of the Middle Atlantic-Midwest region; it extends from the Atlantic coast west
to central Texas. Much of this land once consisted of pine forests, which the
Native Americans of the region kept cleared of underbrush by yearly burnings, a
form of livestock management that maintained high deer populations for hunting.
Cultivation of
native plants was begun in the Late Archaic period, about 3000 BC, and there were large populations of
humans in the area. In 1400 BC a
town, called Poverty Point by modern archaeologists, was built near present-day
Vicksburg, Mississippi. Like the Mississippian towns of 2,000 years later,
Poverty Point had a large public plaza and huge earth mounds that served as
temple platforms or covered tombs.
The number of
Native Americans in the south-east remained high until European contact. Maize
agriculture appeared about 500 BC.
Towns continued to be built, and crafted items were widely traded. The first
European explorer, the Spaniard Hernando de Soto, marched around the south-east
with his army between 1539 and 1542; epidemics introduced by the Spaniards
killed thousands.
South-eastern
peoples included the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, the Creek, and the
Seminole, known by the explorers as the Five Civilized Tribes because they
resembled European nations in organization and economy, and because they
quickly incorporated desirable European imports (such as fruit trees) into
their way of life. The Natchez, whose elaborate mound-building culture was
destroyed by Europeans in the 18th century, were another famous South-eastern
people.
The North American
Plains are the grasslands from central Canada south to Mexico and from the
Midwest westward to the Rocky Mountains. Bison hunting was always the principal
source of food in this culture area, until the wild bison herds were
exterminated in the 1880s. Most of the Plains peoples lived in small nomadic
bands that moved as the herds moved, driving them into corrals for slaughter.
From AD 850 onward, along the Missouri
River and other rivers of the central Plains, agricultural towns were also
built.
The customs of the
Plains peoples have become well known as the stereotyped “Indian” customs—the
long feather headdress, the tepee (also spelled tipi), the ceremonial pipe,
costumes, and dancing. These peoples and their customs became well known during
the 19th century, when European colonists invaded their lands, and newspapers,
magazines, and photography popularized the frontier.
Among early Plains
peoples were the Blackfoot, who were bison hunters, and the Mandan and Hidatsa,
who were Missouri River agriculturalists. As European colonists took over the
Eastern Woodlands, many Midwest peoples moved onto the Plains, among them the
Sioux, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho. Earlier, about 1450, from the valleys
west of the Rockies, some Shoshone and Comanche had begun moving onto the
Plains. After 1630 these peoples took horses from Spanish ranches in New Mexico
and traded them throughout the Plains. The culture of the Plains peoples of the
time thus included elements from adjacent culture areas.
This area
comprises mountain ridges and valleys of Utah, Nevada, and California. An Archaic
way of life—hunting deer and mountain sheep, fishing, netting migratory birds,
harvesting pine nuts and wild grains—developed by 8000 BC and persisted with no radical changes until about AD 1850. Villages were simple, with
thatched houses, and in the warm months little clothing was worn. Agricultural
technology was sophisticated; basketry was developed into a true art. On the
California coast, people fished and hunted sea lions, dolphins, and other sea
mammals from boats; the wealth of resources stimulated a well-regulated trade
using shell money.
The Paiute, Ute,
and Shoshone are the best-known peoples of the Intermountain Great Basin area;
the tribes of California include the Klamath, the Modoc, and the Yurok in the
north; the Pomo, Maidu, Miwok, Patwin, and Wintun in the central region; and
the “mission tribes” in the south, whose European-given names were derived from
those of the Spanish missions that sought to convert them—for example, the
Diegueño.
The plateau region
comprised the evergreen forests and mountains in Idaho, eastern Oregon and
Washington, western Montana, and adjacent Canada. As in the Great Basin, the
Archaic pattern of life persisted on the Plateau, but it was enriched by annual
runs of salmon up the Columbia, Snake, Fraser, and tributary rivers, as well as
by harvests of camas (western United States plants with edible bulbs)
and other nutritious tubers and roots in the meadows. People lived in villages
made up of sunken round houses in winter and camped in mat houses in summer.
They dried quantities of salmon and camas for winter eating, and on the lower
Columbia River, the Wishram and Wasco peoples kept a market town where
travellers from the Pacific Coast and the Plains could meet, trade, and buy
dried food.
Plateau peoples
include the Nez Percé, Wallawalla, Yakima, and Umatilla in the Sahaptian
language family, the Flathead, Spokane, and Okanagon in the Salishan language
family, and the Cayuse and Kutenai (with no linguistic relatives).
The Subarctic
region comprises the major part of Canada, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean
west to the mountains bordering the Pacific Ocean, and from the tundra south to
within about 300 km (200 mi) of the United States border. The eastern half of
this region was once heavily glaciated, and its soil and drainage are poor. No
agriculture is possible in the Subarctic because summers are extremely short,
and so the region's peoples lived by hunting moose and caribou and by fishing.
They were nomadic, sheltering themselves in tents or, in the west, sometimes in
sunken round houses (as in the Plateau region). To move camp, they used canoes
in summer and sleds in winter. Because of the limited food resources, Subarctic
populations remained small.
The peoples native to the eastern half of the Subarctic region are speakers of Algonquian languages; they include the Cree, Ojibwa (also known as the Chippewa), Montagnais, and Naskapi. In the western half live speakers of northern Athabascan languages, including the Chipewyan, Beaver, Kutchin, Ingalik, Kaska, and Tanana. Many Subarctic peoples, although now settled in villages, still live by trapping, fishing, and hunting.
The west coast of
North America, from southern Alaska to northern California, forms the
North-west Pacific Coast culture area. Bordered on the east by mountains, the
habitable land is usually narrow, lying between the sea and the hills. The sea
is rich in sea mammals and in fish, including salmon and halibut; on the land
are mountain sheep and goats, elk, abundant berries, and edible roots and
tubers. These resources supported a dense population organized into large
villages where people lived in wooden houses, often more than 30 m (100 ft)
long. Each house contained an extended family, sometimes with slaves, and was
managed by a chief. During the winter, villagers staged elaborate costumed
religious dramas, and they also hosted people from neighbouring villages at
ceremonial feasts called potlatches, at which gifts were lavishly given. Trade
was important, and it extended towards northern Asia, where iron for knives was
obtained. The North-west Pacific Coast cultures are known for their magnificent
wooden carvings.
The North-west
Pacific Coast culture developed after 3000 BC,
when sea levels stabilized and movements of salmon and sea mammals became
regular. The basic pattern of life changed little, and over the centuries
carving and other crafts gradually attained great sophistication and artistry.
Tribes of the North-west Pacific Coast include the Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida,
Kwakiutl, Nootka, Chinook, Salish, Makah, and Tillamook.
The Arctic culture
area runs along the coasts of Alaska and northern Canada. Because winters are
long and dark, agriculture is impossible; people live by fishing and by hunting
seal, caribou, and (in northern Alaska and eastern Canada) whale. Traditional
summer houses were tents. Winter houses were round, well-insulated frame
structures covered with skins and blocks of turf; in central Canada the winter
houses often were made of blocks of ice. Populations were small because
resources were so limited.
The Arctic was not
inhabited until about 2000 BC,
after glaciers finally melted in that region. In Alaska the Inuit and the Yuit
(also known as Yupik) developed ingenious technology to deal with the difficult
climate and meagre resources. In about AD
1000 bands of Alaskan Inuit migrated across Canada to Greenland; called the
Thule culture, they appear to have absorbed an earlier people in eastern Canada
and Greenland (the Dorset culture). These people are now often referred to as
the Greenland Inuit. Because of this migration, traditional Inuit culture and
language are similar from Alaska to Greenland. Living in south-western Alaska
(and the eastern end of Siberia) are the Yuit, who are related to the Inuit in
culture and ancestry but whose language is slightly different. Distantly
related to the Inuit and Yuit are the Aleuts, who since 6000 BC have remained in their homeland on
the Aleutian Islands, fishing and hunting sea mammals. Like the Subarctic
peoples but, unlike most Native Americans, the Inuit, Yuit, and Aleut peoples
today retain much of their ancient way of life, because their culture areas are
remote from cities and their lands cannot be farmed.
Civilizations
developed in Mexico and upper Central America after about 1400 BC. These civilizations originated from
an Archaic hunter-gatherer way of life that by 7000 BC included cultivation of small quantities of beans, squash,
pumpkins, and maize. By 2000 BC
Mexicans had come to depend on their planted fields of these crops, plus
amaranth, avocado and other fruits, and chilli peppers. Towns developed, and by
1400 BC the Olmec civilization
boasted a capital with palaces, temples, and monuments built on a huge
constructed platform about 50 m (165 ft) high and nearly 1.6 km (1 mi) long.
The Olmec lived in the jungle of the east coast of Mexico; their trade routes
extended as far as Monte Albán in western Mexico (in what is now Oaxaca State)
and the Valley of Mexico in the central highlands. As the power of the Olmec
declined (about 400 BC), the
centres in the central highlands grew, and, shortly before the beginning of the
Christian era, the earliest city in pre-Columbian Mexico had developed to an
urban size at Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico. From 450 to 600 Teotihuacán
dominated Mexico, trading with Monte Albán and with the kingdoms of the Maya
that had arisen in south-western Mexico and conquering rivals as far south as
the Valley of Guatemala. The capital city covered some 21 sq km (8 sq mi) with
blocks of apartment houses, markets, many small factories, temples on
platforms, and palaces covered with murals. Mayan culture was also
distinguished for developing, uniquely among Native American peoples, a written
language based on glyphs.
About AD 700 Teotihuacán suffered attacks
that destroyed its power. Later in the same century many Mayan cities were
abandoned, perhaps economically ruined when their trade with Teotihuacán ended.
Other Mayan cities, mostly in northern Yucatán, were not so affected. By 1000
in central Mexico, a new power—the Toltec—began building an empire based around
that extended into the Valley of Mexico and into Mayan territory Chichén Itzá.
This empire collapsed in 1168. By 1433 the Valley of Mexico had regained
domination over much of Mexico as a result of an alliance of three neighbouring
kingdoms. This alliance secured the homeland from which one king, Montezuma I
of the Aztecs, began territorial conquests in the 1400s. The empire flourished
until 1519, when a Spanish soldier, Hernán Cortés, landed in eastern Mexico and
advanced with Mexican allies upon the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán. Internal strife
and a smallpox epidemic weakened the Mexicans and helped Cortés conquer them in
1521.
At the time of
these initial Spanish conquests the native peoples of Mexico included those in
the domains of the Aztec Empire and of the powerful kingdoms of the Mixtec
rulers in what is now Puebla State and the Tarascan in Michoacán State, and of
the Zapotec in Oaxaca, the Tlaxcalan in Michoacán, the Otomí in Hidalgo, and
the Totonac in Veracruz; the subjects of the remnants of the Mayan state of
Mayapán in the Yucatán and of a number of smaller undestroyed Mayan states to
the south; and many independent groups in the frontier regions, such as the
Yaqui, Huichol, and Tarahumara in northern Mexico and the Pipil in the south.
After the Spanish conquest—which took more than two centuries to reach
throughout Mexico—most of the Native American peoples were forced to survive as
peasants governed by the Spanish-Mexican upper class.
The culture area
of Mesoamerica—Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, western Honduras, and western
Nicaragua—was one of farming villages producing maize, beans, squash, amaranth,
turkeys, and other foods, supporting large city markets where traders sold
tools, cloth, and luxury goods imported over long land and sea trade routes. In
the cities lived manufacturers and their workers, merchants, the wealthy class,
and priests and scholars who recorded literary, historical, and scientific
works in hieroglyphic texts (astronomy was particularly advanced). Cities were
adorned with sculptures and brilliant paintings, often depicting the
Mesoamerican symbols of power and knowledge: the eagle, lord of the heavens;
the jaguar, lord of the earth; and the rattlesnake, associated with wisdom,
peace, and the arts of civilization.
The culture areas
of South America extend from lower Central America—eastern Honduras, Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica—to the southern tip of South America. Four principal areas can
be distinguished: northern South America, including the Caribbean and lower
Central America; the central and southern Andes Mountains and adjacent Pacific
coast; the Tropical Forest of eastern South America; and the tip and eastern
portion of the narrow southern third of the continent, an area supporting only
nomadic hunting-and-gathering peoples.
1. Northern South America and the Caribbean
The culture area
of northern South America and the Caribbean includes jungle lowlands, grassy
savannah plains, the northern Andes Mountains, some arid sections of western
Ecuador, and the islands of the Caribbean. Given its geographical location, the
region might seem to link the great civilizations of Mexico and Peru; but
because land travel through the jungles and mountains of lower Central America
is difficult, pre-Columbian contacts between Peru and Mexico took place mostly
by sea, from Ecuador's Gulf of Guayaquil to western Mexican ports. The
indigenous peoples of northern South America and the Caribbean lived in small,
independent states. Although they traded directly with Mexico and Peru by way
of Ecuador, they were bypassed by the empires.
Finds of
Clovis-like spearpoints indicate the presence of hunters in the area by 9000 BC; other evidence suggests that people
were in the northern region by 18,000 BC.
The Archaic style of living continued from the time of the extinction of the
mastodons and mammoths, in the Clovis period, until about 3000 BC. About this time, village dwellers
developed the cultivation of maize in Ecuador, and of manioc (or cassava) in
Venezuela, and pottery-making flourished. Also after this date, the Caribbean
islands were first settled. By 500 BC, in towns in some areas of northern
South America, distinctive local styles had developed in sculpture and
metalwork. Population growth and technological progress continued until the
Spanish conquered the region; at that time the Chibcha kingdoms of Colombia
were famous for their fine gold ornaments. Around the Caribbean, smaller groups
such as the Mískito of Nicaragua, the Cuna of Panama, and the Arawak and Carib
peoples of the Caribbean islands farmed and fished around their villages; the
Carib also lived along the coast of Venezuela. These peoples lived a simpler
life than did the peoples of the northern Andean states.
The chain of the Andes that stretches down the western half of South America, together with the narrow coastal valleys between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, were the home of the great indigenous American civilizations.
In recent years,
excavation at the Monte Verde site in southern Chile has yielded unequivocal
evidence of human occupation dating back to 11,000 BC. Excavations farther north, in Peru, show that by 7000 BC beans, including the lima bean, were
cultivated, as were chilli peppers. A few centuries later the domestication of llamas
was begun. Guinea pigs were eventually raised for meat; cotton, potatoes,
peanuts, and other foods gradually became part of Peruvian agriculture, and
about 2000 BC maize was brought
from the northern Andes. The peoples of the Pacific coast, from Chile through
Peru into Ecuador, also made use of the rich sea life, which included many
species of fish, as well as water birds, sea lions, dolphins, and shellfish.
After 2000 BC peoples in villages in several
coastal valleys of central Peru organized to build great temples of stone and
adobe on large platforms. After about 900 BC
these temples appear to have served a new religion, centred in the mountain
town of Chavín de Huántar. This religion had as its symbols the eagle, the
jaguar, the snake (probably an anaconda), and the caiman, which seems to have
represented water and the fertility of plants. These symbols are somewhat
similar to those of the Mexican Olmec religion, but no definite link between
the two cultures is known. After 300 BC
Chavín influence—or possibly political power—declined. The Moche civilization
then appeared on the northern coast of Peru, and the Nazca on the southern
coast. In both, large irrigation projects, towns, and temples were constructed,
and extensive trade was carried on, including the export of fine ceramics. The
Moche depicted their daily life and their myths in paintings and in ceramic
sculpture; they showed themselves as fearsome warriors and also made moulded
ceramic sculptures depicting homes with families, cultivated plants, fishers,
and even lovers. They were also expert metalworkers.
By about AD 600 the Moche and Nazca cultures
declined, and two new, powerful states appeared in Peru: Huari in the central
mountains, and Tiahuanacu in the southern mountains at Lake Titicaca.
Tiahuanacu seems to have been a great religious centre, reviving symbols from
the Chavín. These states lasted only a few centuries; after 1000, coastal
states again became important, especially Chimú in the north, with its vast and
magnificent adobe-brick capital city of Chan Chan. All Peru was eventually
conquered by a state that arose in the central mountains at Cuzco; this was the
Quechua state, ruled by a people known as the Inca. The emperor of the Inca at
the time, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, began large-scale expansion of the empire in
the 1400s; by 1525 Inca rule extended from Ecuador to Chile and Argentina.
Civil war raged within the empire from 1525 to 1532. At its conclusion, the
Spanish adventurer Francisco Pizarro landed in Peru and had little trouble
conquering the devastated Inca Empire.
During this time
the central and southern Andes were populated by farmers who raised a variety
of crops. Local products, transported by llama caravans, were exported and
traded between the coast, the mountains, and the eastern tropical jungle. The
region's kingdoms were governed by administrators aided by soldiers and
priests. The Peruvians did not have a written language, but they did use the
abacus for arithmetic calculations, and they kept numerical records for
government by means of abacus-like sets of knotted strings called quipus.
The jungle
lowlands of eastern South America seem to have been settled after 3000 BC, for archaeologists have not found
evidence of any earlier peoples. Population was always relatively sparse,
clustered along riverbanks where fish could be obtained and manioc and other
crops planted. Various herbs and foods were cultivated, including hallucinogens
for use in religious rituals; these were also exported to Peru. Although
animals such as tapirs and monkeys were hunted, little game was supported by
the jungle. No large towns existed—people lived in thatched houses in villages.
Sometimes the whole village slept in hammocks—a local invention. Little
clothing was worn, because of the damp heat, but cotton cloth was woven, and
the people ornamented themselves with body painting. Among the many small
groups of the tropical forest culture area are the Makiritare, the Yanomamo,
the Mundurucu, the Tupinamba, the Shipibo, and the Cayapó. Speakers of Arawak
and Carib languages—linguistic relatives of Caribbean peoples—also live in the
northern tropical forest. Although tropical forest peoples retain much of their
traditional way of life, today they suffer from diseases brought by Europeans,
and from destruction of their lands by ranchers, loggers, miners, and
agribusiness corporations.
In Uruguay,
Argentina, and Chile, farming peoples such as the Mapuche of the Araucanian
group of Chile still live in villages and cultivate maize, potatoes, and
grains. Although they once kept llamas, after the Spanish invasions they began
to raise cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens, and used horses for herding and for
warfare. Farther south, on the Pampas, agriculture was not suitable; people
lived by hunting guanacos and rheas and, on the coasts, by fishing and
gathering shellfish. In Tierra del Fuego evidence of this hunting-and-gathering
life dates from 7000 BC. On the
Pampas, hunting was transformed when the horse was obtained from the Spaniards
after AD 1555. The Tehuelche
pursued guanacos from horseback, and like the North American Plains peoples,
once they had horses for transport, they enjoyed larger tepees as well as more
clothing and other goods. Even further south, around the Strait of Magellan,
the Ona, Yahgan, and Alacaluf lacked the game animals of the Pampas; they
survived principally on fish and shellfish, but also hunted seals and sea
lions. Nomadic peoples, they lived in small wigwams covered with bark or
sealskins. In spite of the cold, foggy climate, they wore little clothing. Life
in Tierra del Fuego appears to have changed little over 9,000 years, for no
agriculture or herding is possible in the climate. The peoples native to this
region suffered greatly from diseases brought by Europeans, and few survive
today.