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Mapuche Resilience and Adaptation to Arid Uplands in NW Patagonia, Argentina

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Continuity and Change in Cultural Adaptation to Mountain Environments

Part of the book series: Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation ((STHE,volume 7))

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Abstract

The Mapuche communities of the Argentinean extra-Andean Patagonia overcome extreme living conditions by applying subsistence strategy based on the utilization of different ethno-ecological units corresponding with different altitudinal gradients. Summer cattle transhumance, known locally as “veranada,” a seasonal movement of people and animals to the pre-Andean forest, serves as an example of Mapuche specialized adaptation to arid conditions, which helps them to cope with this hostile living environment in the lowlands This chapter demonstrates quantitatively how populations living in arid environments are at less risk of losing their capacity for alimentary self-sufficiency if they do not abandon their traditional ways of using the environment.

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Acknowledgments

I gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, and FONCYT (grant PICT 07–02289). Special gratitude is expressed to the families of Rams, Cayulef, and Paineo for their kind hospitality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INIBIOMA-Laboratorio Ecotono, Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Bariloche-Río Negro, Argentina

    Ana H. Ladio

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  1. Ana H. Ladio
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Correspondence to Ana H. Ladio .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hunter College, Park Ave. 695, NEW YORK, 10021, New York, USA

    Ludomir R. Lozny

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Ladio, A.H. (2013). Mapuche Resilience and Adaptation to Arid Uplands in NW Patagonia, Argentina. In: Lozny, L. (eds) Continuity and Change in Cultural Adaptation to Mountain Environments. Studies in Human Ecology and Adaptation, vol 7. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5702-2_10

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