CALCULO DEL PAVIMENTO FLEXIBLE MEDIANTE EL METODO

The Selk'nam were particularly skilful in making bows and arrows (e.g. Gallardo 1910, L. Bridges 1951, Gusinde 1982). Nothofagus wood was used for making the bows. The strings were made o f tendons o f guanaco legs. Different arrows were used for hunting terrestrial prey and maritime birds, and according to these different uses, different types of wood were employed to make the hafts, which also varied in shape. The arrow points were made with different lithic materials; glass was also used during the contact period (Casamiquela 1978, Borrero 1991).

End scrapers, knapped punches and cutting edges o f lithic fragments were also used. The use o f bone instruments was much less developed by the Selk'nam than by the Yamana (Orquera and Piana MS). Bags were made with leather and with bladders or pieces o f bowels; some o f these were used to carry pigments (Gusinde 1982). Bullrush baskets were also made (ibid. Cooper 1946b).

Some craftsmen were more skilful than others in the production o f different objects, and they might be asked for help, for example in the making o f bows. This difference in technical knowledge could also lead to the exchange o f products (Orquera and Piana MS).

2.4.5. Shelter.

Two types o f hut were used by the Selk'nam. The most common, particularly in the north o f Selk'nam territory, was a portable wind shelter, which was carried on the back by the women when moving from one site to another. Yet, unlike the Yamana women, the Selk’nam women’s fundamental role in the whole group’s mobility does not seem to have been recognised as socially important.

The other type o f hut, more common in the south, was a conic hut made o f logs from the surrounding woods. These were not transportable and were abandoned when leaving the site for possible later reoccupation (Gusinde 1982).

A special kind o f conic hut, o f much greater size, was built for the secret ceremony of male initiation (Gusinde 1982: 786). Both hut and ceremony were called hain, though Gusinde called the ceremony "kloketen\ which is in fact the term used to refer to the initiands.

2.4.6. Clothing and ornaments.

The typical Selk'nam garment was a long cloak o f guanaco fur. The men wrapped it around the body and held it across the chest with one hand (unless when shooting arrows, in which case they dropped it entirely and remained naked). The women tied it with stripes around the chest, and was worn with the fur outside. Men were naked under this cloak, while women wore a kind o f underskirt, under which they wore a loin cloth, both o f which they did not take off in public. Leather shoes were worn to cover the feet. Both the cloaks and the shoes could be made o f any portion o f the guanaco skins, or o f special sections, such as the limbs, which denoted special good quality o f the garments (L. Bridges 1951).

The men wore on their foreheads a triangular head band made o f skin o f a guanaco forehead, called kocel, which were handed to them after being initiated^ Feather diadems called ownh were worn in special occasions by the xo«5/shamans and wrestlers (Gusinde 1982, yet I have not found photographs illustrating these).

Tendon necklaces, bone beads necklaces, shell necklaces and bullrush bracelets and anklets have been recorded by a number o f observers (e.g. Banks 1962, Gallardo 1910,

The relation between the same area o f the body o f the animal and the person is quite striking, but I have found no information indicating an intentional and/or meaningful selection o f this guanaco skin portion.

Gusinde 1982). Scars and very simple tattooing were worn as ornaments, especially by young people (Gusinde 1982: 211). Body painting was worn in a great number o f situations, with ornamental, expressive and other purposes. Mineral pigments and paint were also used for body cleansing, body protection from cold, and object protection (Gusinde 1982: 194, 207,

1099).

2.4.7. Property.

The hunting and gathering products were shared with family and neighbours (L. Bridges 1951). Cloaks, weapons, tools, hunting and gathering products were considered individual property (Gusinde 1924: 29), and according to Gusinde, their exchange was a basis for Selk’nam commerce. But it seems more adequate to consider this as barter (Chapman 1982: 41), since Gusinde’s claim was based on the aim o f dismissing the evolutionist idea of primitive communism, rather than on the existence o f a fully developed commercial system. Everyday life goods could be shared and also given as gifts, as part o f a reciprocity system. Contrarily, all the goods used in the hain big hut were directly considered communal property o f the men (Gusinde 1982: 803, 804).

Exchange was also carried out when obtaining certain raw materials. Raw materials circulated within the Selk'nam territory: wood for bows usually circulated from south to north; and pinniped leather or other objects gathered on the coast shores were moved from the coast to the interior o f the island (Gusinde 1924: 29).

2.4.8. Ceremonies.

The Selk’nam celebrated rites in certain circumstances, such as the girls’ first menstruation, the ‘engagement’ and wedding o f a couple, and peace rituals, all o f which involved the use o f body painting (see chapters 4 and 5). But the most important ceremony, which is also the situation that involved the most varied and elaborated production o f body painting designs, was the hain initiation ceremony.

Records o f this ceremony have been made by three different observers, in three different occasions: an Anonymous Salesian Missionary (written in 1914, published 1974), L. Bridges (1951) and Gusinde (1982). The ceremony could last for various weeks, and when it was observed by Gusinde in 1923, it was celebrated in winter.

The hain was a very complex ceremony with a two-fold purpose: the initiation o f the young men to adulthood, and the actual practice o f the suppression o f the women by the men

(both male adults and young male initiands) by scaring them as spirits (disguised with masks and body paintings to represent spirits and conceal their real identity).

The young men were initiated through very tough tests o f physical and mental endurance, which fostered and developed practical skills, self-discipline, alliance with the adult men, and access to secret mythical knowledge. The Selk’nam myth o f origin stated that

in hoowin epoch (mythical time), women had maintained their superiority over men by

celebrating a ÎQmalQ-hain, in which, guided by Moon, a powerful shaman, they disguised as spirits by wearing masks and body painting to scare the men. The Sun then discovered the w om en’s secret, and he and the men killed the women (except for the little girls and for the Moon, who escaped to heaven'^). They afterwards started celebrating the malQ-hain to keep the women under control. Such secret mythical knowledge was the core around which the

hain was built: its transmission revealed that the spirits o f the ceremony were men disguised to control and suppress the women, as the women had done in ancient/mythical times in order to suppress them.

The hain was celebrated in a special big hut, built near the woods in front o f a flat grass land, where most o f the spirits performances and dances took place. This place could be seen from the domestic camp, which was located at about 200 metres to the west o f this flat space (see plate 2.13). Such place has been called ‘stage’ by Chapman, who compares the whole ceremony to a theatrical performance carried out by male ‘actors’ and mostly viewed by female ‘public’ (1982: 77; 1997: 90). The hut’s entrance faced east, towards the woods, and hence it was not visible from the camp, keeping what happened inside it out o f the sight o f the cam p’s residents (mostly women and children). The hut had seven wooden poles (in the mythical first male hain, they were made o f stone, dragged by seven great shamans), four aligned with the cardinal points, which represented the ‘skies’ {sho’ons) which were the places o f creation o f the universe (Chapman 1997: 86), and three placed between these, at the north-east, south-east and south-west. The seven posts were linked to the Selk’nam territories and lineages (see section 2.4.9), and the spatial location o f the participants in the hain hut was indicated by such territorial and kinship symbolic structure (ibid). Some o f the hain spirits were also related to these skies, and, as it will be shown in this thesis, so was their body painting.

Due to her battering, her bums and bruises are still visible in her face; she w ill be persecuted by Sun for eternity (Chapman 1982: 70). After being found by the men, the w om en metamorphosed into natural elements such as animals, plants and landscape features (Gusinde 1982: 961).

This does not imply that the men were just deceiving the wom en, since as Chapman notes, they also believed they were in touch with the spirits (ibid).

N A W- - > E

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flat treeless area 2 0 0 paces V ç V ?

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Plate 2.13. Location of hain but, ‘stage’, and domestic camp (Chapman 1982: 79).

P late 2 .1 4 . H a in hut (G u sin d e in B rü ggem an n 1 9 8 9 ). Télil (flam ingo) Keyâishk (shag) 'Shénu= (w ind) W Pàhuil fire 1 W e c lu is h Jôichik Shéit (ow l) S \ 2 \ 1 I I 'Y • E

P late 2 .1 5 . P lan o f h ain hut, n o te the hut p o le s and their cardinal o rien tation (C h ap m an 1982: 8 1 ).

The ceremony involved many spirit presentations performed by the men, who wore body paintings and painted masks and had to move in specific ways according to the spirit being represented (Gusinde 1982: 887-984). The presence o f these, and o f other non-visible spirits, was also hinted by specific sounds. The women took part as ‘public’, observing the spirit apparitions, but also responded by singing and painting their faces. The spirits went sometimes to the camp to scare the women, shaking their huts and throwing their belongings out o f them, while the women remained hidden inside, covering their faces. The spirits, and the men as spirit-emissaries, also collected offerings (mainly meat and pigments), which the women had to provide to calm them down (Chapman 1997: 102). According to Chapman, the women did know that the spirits they saw were men in disguise’^, although they firmly believed, as the men did, in the real existence o f the spirits (ibid: 107); nevertheless, the women were terrified by the apparitions o f the spirits and sympathetic towards the men when they suffered their attacks (ibid: 105). Various dances or ‘games’ were also celebrated by the men, and the women participated actively in some o f these; all wore body paintings for such occasions (see chapter 6).

The spirits supposedly treated the men very badly, abusing them physically by beating and hurting them and also, in the case o f female spirits, by forcing them to have sexual intercourse. In particular, Xâlpen, a female spirit who was the most powerful supernatural being, had both the power o f killing them and also o f having a baby with them, K ’termen, who was bom in each hain (represented by an initiand with a very special body painting and ornament design).

The masks were made o f guanaco skin or bark, and were painted according to the design o f the spirit. They were re-painted for re-use, and were considered communal property. When the ceremony was finished, they were hidden in the woods, since they were not to be seen by any woman, child or person who did not take part o f the ceremony within the hut. They were stored with the aim o f using them in the next ceremony, if their state of conservation allowed it. If they were deteriorated, they were abandoned to fully decay. Masks were seen with great respect and it was not considered adequate to bum them (Gusinde 1982: 804, 891, 1027).

Yet A ngela told Chapman that “the spirits didn’t look like men. You could never tell they w ere!” (Chapman 1982: 88). A lso, there is an exception to the w om en ’s suspicion about the male representation o f the spirits: they did believe that the most powerful spirit o f all, Xalpén, w ho was represented by an enormous ‘puppet’, was in fact the spirit itself, and not just a man-built object (Chapman 1982: 118). The fact that the wom en also mocked some o f the main spirits as in a ‘sham hain'' (away from the sight o f the men) is interpreted by Chapman as another indication o f the realisation o f the women about the hoax, in spite o f their firm beliefs in the spirits (Chapman 1982: 146, 1997: 107).

2.4.9. Kinship.

The Selk’nam had a very complex kinship organisation, which was structured in ‘skies’, large exogamie units called s h o ’on, which were the north, the west and the south^^. Each o f the eighty harwen territories were associated with one sky according to its location in the island (Chapman 1982: 50-51, 85). The marriage was exogamous; the exogamy rule was based on the sho ’on o f the harwen where the person was bom. The children were part o f the father’s harwen (ibid: 52), and the lineage was patrilineal and patrilocal (ibid: 54). As noted above, the 'Qdxih^'lharwens and ‘ skies’M o formed part o f a harmonic universe represented in the circular plan o f the hain hut. Other kinship relations, called ‘kindreds’ by Chapman, determined the consanguineous relationship o f one individual with the members of his lineage, and his/her forbidden and suitable marriage partners (ibid: 52). Finally, the smallest kinship entity o f the society was the family (ibid: 58), which included the father, mother, sons and daughters and occasionally other relatives.

The lineages did not have a leader, and the families moved and acted independently. The families included in each lineage had a shared right to the total amount o f goods and hunting preys, and food was also shared among hunting parties o f different lineage groups (Chapman 1982: 65). The access to another lineage's territory was not allowed without having previous permission. If any subsistence activity was carried out in a foreign territory (with permission), immediate retribution as well as reciprocity for possible future situations were required. Trespassing the territories boundaries could lead to retaliation (ibid: 19). The linkages between lineages due to the (exogamous) marriages helped in contributing to mitigate the conflicts, but nevertheless there were frequent hostilities (Orquera and Piana MS).

Conversely, the Haush skies, were the north, the east and the south (Chapman 1982: 50). D ue to their position in the island during the contact period, the Selk ’nam lacked the east because it w as occupied by the Haush, and the Haush lacked the w est sky because it was occupied by the Selk ’nam (ibid).

P late 2 .1 6 . S e lk ’nam w o m e n carrying ten ts ( D e A g o stin i in P rieto and C ard en as 1 9 9 7 ).

2.4.10. Social relations.

When walking, the men only carried their cloaks and the bows and arrows, since they were supposed to have freedom o f movement to hunt. Women carried the window shelters, bags, other objects and their babies. The role o f the wife was subordinated to that o f the husband in the economic and social aspects, and the Selk’nam society was clearly patriarchal (Chapman 1982: 40).

There were no social differences due to birth or to wealth, nor were any chiefs or council o f elders (ibid). A role of particular importance was that o f the xo^/shaman. Men and women could be xons (ibid: 51), although I have found no visual records o f female xons,

which may indicate that such role was either declining in the early XX century or hidden from the westerners. The most powerful ‘top rank shamans’ were nevertheless mostly men (ibid). The xons were supposed to have power over the weather, hunting, war and health, and could make predictions (Bridges 1951). Other roles which involved some differential status were those o f the sages, prophets, warriors, hunters, archers, runners, wrestlers, artisans and cormorant hunters^^, all o f which were played by men, while very few women could only be prophets and artisans (Chapman 1982: 51). A beautiful and well-built body, termed

hauwitpin, was celebrated as a very positive feature; mostly men and very few women were

considered hauwitpin (ibid). This feature is quite important in relation to ceremonial body painting, for it was a criterion by which men were selected to represent some spirits.

The Selk'nam did not express their feelings openly; they exercised a rigorous self- control. They did not show surprise or thankfulness. They had to be initially indifferent to food (even if hungry) or to presents, and should resist without complaining cold, tiredness, hunger and thirst (L. Bridges 1951).

Group gathering occurred due to many circumstances, such as the beaching o f a whale, collective hunting, the celebration o f a hain ceremony, sport competitions, etc. (L. Bridges 1951, Gusinde 1982). The intra-soeiety relations were regulated with norms which pursued both courtesy and security, such as not entering a camp but waiting at a distance until being invited. In spite o f such norms, the Selk’nam could be irritable, aggressive and vindictive.

In relation to the inter-society relations, there were a few mixed marriages between Selk'nam and people o f Haush or Alacaluf origin (Orquera and Piana 1999b).

Specific terms were used to refer to these statuses.

Chapter 3.