Tehuelche

By Teferi Abate Adem

Ahonicanka, Aonikenk, Tchonek, Tehuel people, Patagonians.

The Tehuelche are an indigenous Indian people located mostly in Patagonia, Argentina, and Southern Chile. According to George C. Musters, who traveled through the region in 1869-1870, the Tehuelche were traditionally divided into two groups: the Northern Tehuelche and the Southern Tehuelche. These groups were distinguished mostly by geographical location and slight differences in dialect. The Northern Tehuelche lived north of the Chubut River while the Southern Tehuelche inhabited the area south of the Chubut River down to the Strait of Magellan. Both groups call themselves Ahonicanka or Tchonek, but they are most commonly known as Tehuelche or Tehuel people.

The Tehuelche are said to be almost extinct, although there are no satisfactory data to document this process. In 1871, Musters estimated the total population to be “not over 1,500 souls” (Muster, 1971:184). By 1913-1914, however, this was tremendously reduced to 107 individuals who lived in smallpox-infested reserves in Santa Cruz territory (Reiher, quoted in Cooper, p. 6). More recent estimates (Gordon, 2005) suggest that the total population of all Chon speaking people, including the Tehuelche, Poya and Ona Indians, is about 200.

The Tehuelche, together with Poya and Ona, constitute the Chonan linguistic stock (Gordon, 2005).

The Tehuelche are believed to have lived in Patagonia for thousands of years. In 1520, they were contacted by Magellan at Port San Julian in Patagonia. Beginning from 1540s, the Tehuelche also maintained sporadic economic contact with the Spaniards in Chile. One consequence of this contact was the Tehuelche's adoption of the horse which they used for hunting and transportation. In 1879-1883, the Tehuelche, like all other native Indians of southern America, were defeated by military campaigns under Generals Julia Roca and Conrado Villegas. Following the conquest, the Tehuelche lost most of their land to Araucanians and settlers of European descent. Surviving Tehuelche were confined to small reserves often managed by missionaries. This process has led to near complete assimilation, making cultural revitalization all but impossible.

The Tehuelche lived in temporary camps which contained about 20 skin tents toldo. Each toldo usually housed a man and his entire family, or an extended family consisting of grandparents, children, and grandchildren with their wives and offspring. In some cases, each of a man’s wives and sons had a separate toldo (Cooper, 1946: 230).

The Tehuelche practiced no agriculture. They were primarily hunters and gatherers, although they also did a little fishing on the coast. Guanaco and rhea meat were the staple foods. In earlier times, the Tehuelche hunted on foot using bows and arrows. About 1725, however, they acquired horses from the Spaniards and skillfully used them for hunting, transportation and warfare.

After horses were acquired, commerce became an important part of the economy. Horses enabled the Tehuelche to travel long distances to exchange their products for the ones offered by European settlers from the colonies. In the 19th century, the dependence on these products increased and the journeys to important trading centers, such as Punta Arenas and Carmen de Patagones, became the core of Tehuelche economic activities.

Canoes, metallurgy, and basketry were lacking, but crude pottery was made and the women wove fabrics of guanaco wool on looms.

Barter with other Indian groups as well as European settlers was common.

A division of labor by gender existed, and became more pronounced after the acquisition of the horse. In addition to hunting, men sought and trained wild horses. They also made hunting tools, fighting weapons as well as saddles, harnesses, and objects of silver. Women were responsible for collecting wild roots and berries. They also fetched wood and water, prepared food, looked after the children and the toldo. The women also made dresses, fur blankets and painted skins (Williams, 1979:20). Women sometimes cooperated with men in hunting by forming a fence to enclose prey and, occasionally, they hunted minor prey like skunks ( conepatus humboldti), hares ( dolichotis patagonum) and armadillos ( chaetophractus villosus) alone.

Each band claimed a separate but vaguely defined territory as its exclusive hunting ground. Encroachment by members of another band occasionally caused serious conflicts (Cooper, 1946).

The Tehuelche reckoned descent bilaterally. Closely related families formed a single migratory band. Individuals were also free to join a band of their own choice especially when they anticipated better opportunities for hunting and migration under the leadership of a different headman. There were no corporate groups larger than bands.

Tehuelche kinship terminology does not differentiate between members of a person’s consanguine and affine relatives. Terms referring to “mother,” father,” “brother” or “sister” were employed for all group members without clearly distinguishing between generation, consanguinity, and affinity (Williams, 1979:17).

Girls were free to choose their husbands, but they were sometimes betrothed while very young. Boys married around the age of 20, while girls married from 15 to 18. Marriage involved exchange of gifts by the bridegroom and the bride’s family. The groom gave horses and silver ornaments for the bride. The bride’s parents also gave presents of equal value, which in case of later separation were the property of the bride (Muster, 1871: 177-178). The bridegroom then escorted his new bride to his toldo with the cheers of his friends and the singing of the women. Tehuelche culture allowed men to have as many wives as they could support, but it was very rare to find a man with more than two wives. Marriage was mostly monogamous.

The Tehuelche tent ( toldo often housed a man and his extended family which typically consisted of grandparents, children, and grandchildren with their wives and offspring. Married adults who are members of large size families often slept in a separate toldo. About twenty families joined together to form a single migratory band.

A man’s property was not transferred by inheritance. Instead, all of his horses were killed and all of his possessions were burned or buried with him. The meat from slaughtered horses was distributed to relatives.

Tehuelche children were indulged and seldom corrected by their parents (Cooper, 1946:30). Women were primarily responsible for taking care of children. Other relatives and band members also recognized each child by participating in a variety of ceremonies marking the passage of the child through different developmental stages. Children learned about religious beliefs and social norms by participating in these ceremonies from earliest childhood. Children also learned other practical skills including hunting, gathering, weaving and tool making, from parents and band members.

Social classes were absent, although captives were sometimes kept as slaves. Individual Tehuelche owed no allegiance to any hereditary headman or chief. Economic differentiation was minimized both by the redistribution of the spoils of the hunting among all members and by the destruction of property in burial and other ceremonies.

The migratory band was the basic Tehuelche political and economic unit. Each band consisted of about twenty related families and was politically autonomous under a local headman ( cacique). There was no single chief uniting all bands together. Each band claimed hunting rights on its own territory and trespassing by members of another band often caused war. Duties of the headman included defending and promoting the resource access of band members. When the headman grew old and for lack of vigor could not fulfill this obligation, he relinquished the leadership to another person in the group, usually respected by the group as a whole (De Viedma, 1837: 74). The headman had practically no authority to issue orders as nobody would obey him.

Influential men sometimes tried to mediate disputes with friendly words. At times, members of all bands would gather in one place to discuss ethnic-wide issues. A member of a band wishing to pass through the hunting grounds of another band had to request permission before entering the territory.

Isolated quarrels and fights between two persons occurred often, but a battle between two groups provoked by murder was rare. At times, encroachment by members of one band on the hunting ground of another, together with disputes often relating to horse or women stealing, led to battles (Cooper, 1946).

The Tehuelche believed in a creator god called Kóoch who resides in otiose solitude at the eastern end of the world. In most narratives, Kóoch is presented as an all-powerful deity who created everything including the sea, and the “sun-man” and the “moon-woman” who later became husband and wife. The Tehuelche also believed in a mythological hero called Ela who is said to have inherited Kóoch’s divine power by marrying his daughter, the evening star. Elal is credited for several heroic deeds including “arranging” Patagonia to become the home of the Tehuelche, for creating fire, and for killing a powerful human rival and a devourer whale (Wilbert, 1984: 32). Elal retired from this world relatively young to live in his sky-world. The Tehuelche hope to join him after death for a blissful afterlife in the sky.

The Tehuelche consulted shamans who were believed to possess special ability and essential knowledge relating to a variety of functions including rites of passage, curing ritual and general witchcraft practices.

The Tehuelche observed a variety of ceremonies associated with marriage, death, loss of teeth among children, female puberty rites, bad illness, preparation for combat, difficulties encountered in hunting and placation of the gods. Most of these ceremonies involved slaughtering horses and/or destroying items of prestige. The meat from slaughtered mares was eaten by participants immediately. Part of the meat, typically the horse’s head, backbone, tail, heart and liver, was thrown to a nearby hill as an offering to an evil spirit called "Gualychu."

In addition to a rich repertoire of mythology and folklore, the Tehuelche had songs without words. They also danced and played several musical instruments including a flute and skin-covered drums. They also decorated their mantles (ponchos) in red, yellow, green, blue, white and black colors.

The Tehuelche sought to heal sickness and evil happenings by practicing magico-religious rituals with the help of shamans and diviners. When someone in the family became sick, the shaman would, for example, come to chant in the person’s ear. If the condition worsened, the shaman would invite the participation of other shamans and camp members to chant and sing with him.

Death and other evil happenings were attributed to evil spirits known by various local names. Tehuelche burials involve killing the deceased man’s horses and burning all of his possessions. The horse meat will be distributed to relatives. His widow cuts her hair in front and wears black paint. The body of the man is taken by relatives and buried in a sitting position, facing east with a pile of stones placed over his grave. He is usually buried sewn up in a mantle (poncho). A dead man’s soul is believed to pass into surviving children.

Documents referred to in this section are included in eHRAF World Cultures and are referenced by author, date of publication and eHRAF document number. The SH05 Tehuelche collection consists of 10 documents, including this culture summary, out of which 8 are in English and the remaining 2 in Spanish. The documents can be broadly categorized into three groups by time period and the information they cover. The first group consists of 3 documents by a colonial administrator (De Viedma, 1837, no. 6) and a European explorer of Patagonia (Musters, 1973. no. 2 and 1971, no. 3). Together, these three documents provide a first-hand account of Tehuelche society and culture, with particular emphasis on hunting methods, diet, warfare, social organization, inter-ethnic relations, religion, important ceremonies and the natural environment (including topography, fauna and flora), prior to their forced encampment in reserves in the 1880s. The second group consists of 5 documents by professional anthropologists who sought to recreate a picture of pre-conquest Tehuelche society by building on information by earlier writers. Topics covered by these documents include aspects of culture (Lothrop, 1929, no. 4, and Cooper, 1946, no.1), territoriality and social structure (Williams, 1979, no. 8), folklore and mythology (Siffredi, 1968, no. 10, and Wilbert, 1984, no. 7). The third group consists of one book by Fernández Garay (1995, no. 9) which fills a critical gap in the other documents by documenting the political and cultural processes that led to the gradual extinction of the Tehuelche beginning from their first contact with Europeans in 1520 to their final forced encampment in reserves in the 1880s.

Aonek’enk, Aónik’enk (South-Central Tehuelche group and language) - use "IDENTIFICATION" (101) and/or "LINGUISTIC IDENTIFICATION" (197)

Caciaque (band leader) – use "COMMUNITY HEADS" (622)

Cultural identity - use "TRIBE AND NATION" (619)

Kóoch (Creator god, and sky) – use "SPIRITS AND GODS" (776) or "COSMOLOGY" (772)

Gualychu – use "SPIRITS AND GODS" (776)

Migratory band – use "COMMUNITY STRUCTURE" (621), possibly with "ANNUAL CYCLE" (221) or "SETTLMENT PATTERNS" (361)

Shaman – use "SHAMANS AND PSYCHOTHERAPISTS" (756), or "MAGICAL AND MENTAL THERAPY" (755)

Toldo (tent) – use "DWELLINGS" (342), possibly with "SETTLEMENT PATTERNS" (361) or "HOUSEHOLD" (592)

The culture summary, synopsis and indexing notes were written by Teferi Abate Adem in June 2006.

Cooper, John M., 1946. “Patagonian and Pampean Hunters.” In Julian H. Steward, ed. Handbook of South American Indians, Vol. 1, Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin, Pp 127-168.

De Viedma, Antonio, 1837. Description of the Southern Shores of that Region Commonly Called Patagonia. Buenos Aires: Imprenta del Estado. (Translated from Spanish for the HRAF by Sydney J. Muirden).

Fernández Garay, Ana, 1995. Extincion de un pueblo indigena de la Patagonia Argentina. Ya no hay lugar para cazadores, Miguel A. Bartolomé (Coordinador). Gráficas Modelo: Cayambe, Ecuador.

Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.), 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Online version: http://www.ethnologue.com (as accessed on 6/12/2006).

Lothrop, Samuel Kirkland, 1929. Polychrome Guanaco cloaks of Patagonia. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York.

Musters, George Chaworth, 1873. At home with the Patagonians. J. Murray: London

Musters, George Chaworth, 1871. “On the races of Patagonia,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Vol. 1 (11):193-206.

Williams, Glyn E., 1979. “An Ecological Perspective of Socioterritorial Organization among the Tehuelche in the Nineteenth Century”. In David Browman and R. Schwarz, eds., Peasants, Primitives, and Proletariats: The Struggle for Identity in South America. The Hague; Mouton Publishers.

Wilbert, Johannes, 1984. Folk literature of the Tehuelche Indians. UCLA Latin American Center Publications, Vol. 59, A Book on Lore. University of California, Los Angeles