Sacred mountains in the southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

Abstract

The majestic snow-capped peaks, granite towers and extensive glaciers have been of symbolic and religious importance for the Native groups of southern Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. They inspired tales that link the mountains to cultural heroes, shamans, petrified warriors, atmospheric forces, and mythical floods. The author did extensive walks as far as the base of the Torres del Paine, the Chaltén massif and CerroTorre, as well as walks in the Perito Moreno and Viedma glaciers. She photographed rock art sites in the vicinity of Torres del Paine and in the Hands Cave of the Río Pinturas. In Tierra del Fuego she visited shell middens in Ensenada Bay, Lapataia Bay and Navarino, as well as historical museums and ethnographic exhibitions in Ushuaia.These pages focus on the diversity of legends and cultural traditions with which the canoeists and hunters of Tierra del Fuego and Southern Patagonia have represented and updated their symbolic relationship with the peaks and glaciers of the Southern Andes. Ethnohistorical, ethnographic and anthropological perspectives are combined with field studies on sacred landscapes to analyze the role that the mountains play in the mythology, shamanic practices and initiation rites of the ancient Yamanas, Onas and Tehuelches.