Session 9

I want to write a bit about the Selk´nam culture because I find it interesting.

The Selk'nam were indigenous people that inhabited in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, they were nomadic, hunters and gatherers. The basis of organization them was the family (father, mother, children and other relatives who occupied the same territory). They were "clans" of 40 to 120 members, were patriarchal and outbred. The men of clans were engaged in hunting and make weapons, were excellent hunters and their principal tool was the bow and arrow. Women were engaged in housework, childcare, transporting and installing housing.

The Selk'nam celebrated a male initiation rite called hain, in which young men or klóeketen had to perform hard physical endurance tests to become men. In this celebration they used painted bodies, masks and the wise and shamans revealed the secrets of the tribe about ancient female domination in Hoowin (age of myths).

the arrival of the settlers to the area produced the extermination of the Selk'nam because owners of cattle ranches offered big rewards for each person killed Selk'nam. European foreign groups were formed called Indian hunters who performed extermination expeditions. Others Selk´man people were taken human zoos or died from diseases transmitted by settlers. In twenty years was destroyed a culture that lived for more than ten thousand years.

In April this year I read the news that a group of historians asked the government to recognize the genocide Selk'nam.