Abstract
This introductory chapter presents a broad overview of Chiloé today and its history over the past 500 years. I draw from historical documents, interviews, and participant observation research to describe how the archipelago’s natural environment has shaped the subsistence livelihoods and traditions of Chilotes over the centuries. I emphasize Chono and Huilliche traditions, the impact of Spanish settlers in the 1500s, and the significant changes Chiloé’s social landscape and ecology have undergone since the mid-twentieth century, including threats to the ocean ecosystem—islanders’ primary source of livelihoods today—and the archipelago-wide protests of May 2016. In framing the central questions posed throughout this book, the chapter introduces readers to the defining human-biota relationships in this region of Chile.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Greigia sphacelata
- 2.
Ulex europaeus
- 3.
The most common species of trees in Chiloé’s old growth forests are Metrosideros stipularis (a type of myrtle tree known locally as tepú ), Nothofagus dombeyi (called coigüe), Aextoxicon punctatum (olvillo or tique), and Luma apiculata ( arrayán ).
- 4.
Based on Chile’s 2017 census.
- 5.
Two letters from 1567 describe this dramatic crossing to Chiloé’s Isla Grande: a May 12 letter from the cabildo of Osorno and a November 20 letter written by officials in Concepción (see Colección de documentos inéditos, segunda serie, tomo I, 1558–1572 [Santiago : Fondo Histórico y Bibliográfico J.T. Medina] 1956, p.92 and p.104). Most historians who have written on the subject accept the figure of 300 as the number of horses that swam across the channel; however, Diego Barros Arana (Historia general, tomo II [Santiago: Rafael Jover] 1884 p.369, f15) claims that only 15 horses were brought to Chiloé on the expedition. Alonso de Góngora Marmolejo, writing in the 1570s, also describes the event (in Historia de Chile desde su descubrimiento hasta el año 1575 [Santiago : Editorial Universitaria, S.A.] 1969 [c1575], p.98).
- 6.
“...pellejos de carnero y trapos viejos...”
- 7.
“...cuyo humo que deben sufrir a costas de infinitas incomodidades...”
- 8.
“Luego que se entra del umbral de la puerta para adentro, está a la vista toda la casa con cuanto en ella tienen, y allí se hallan también las gallinas y otros animales domésticos.”
- 9.
All varieties of potatoes found throughout the world today originated from two places: Andean South America (Peru and Bolivia) and Chiloé. See Chap. 4 of this volume.
- 10.
“Y así prosiguen todo el terreno con una bárbara fatiga.”
- 11.
Interview with Juan Carlos Cárdenas, Santiago , March 2004.
- 12.
This is based on the population numbers of Ancud , Castro , and Quellón in the 2012 census. It is worth noting that the methodology of the census was challenged and the results declared ineligible. However, they are the most recent counts of the population of those cities (the 2017 census gave total population at the national, regional, and communal levels only).
- 13.
A curanto is a traditional meal of fish, shellfish, potato patties, and chicken, layered by nalca leaves and cooked—in a pot or in a pit in the earth—for several hours. Curanto meals are often big social occasions in which neighbors and extended family gather to help prepare the food (see Chap. 4 of this volume).
- 14.
Phone interview with Daniela Leviñanco, April 15, 2016.
- 15.
Richard Vercoe, living on Chiloé’s big island during the crisis, described these rallies in a phone interview on May 11, 2016.
- 16.
Quoted in Daughters 2016a.
References
Álvarez Abel, Ricardo. 2012. Prácticas Rituales Asociadas a Tierra y Mar: Quepucas y Treputo. In Chiloé: Historia del Contacto. Gráfica LOM: Santiago de Chile.
Alvial, Adolfo, Frederick Kibenge, John Forster, José M. Burgos, Rolando Ibarra, and Sophie St-Hilaire. 2012. The Recovery of the Chilean Salmon Industry: The ISA crisis, its consequences and lessons. Puerto Montt: Global Aquaculture Alliance Feb. 23. https://www.aquaculturealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/goal11-adolfoalvial.pdf.
Barton, Jonathan, and Arnt Fløysand. 2010. The political ecology of Chilean Salmon aquaculture, 1982-2010: A trajectory from economic development to global sustainability. Global Environmental Change 20 (4): 739–752.
Basulto, del Campo Sergio. 2003. El largo viaje de los salmones: una crónica olvidada. In Propagación y cultivo de especies acuáticas en Chile. Editorial Maval: Santiago de Chile.
Buschmann, Alejandro, Verónica A. Riquelme, María C. Hernández-González, Daniel Varela, Jaime E. Jiménez, Luis A. Henríquez, Pedro A. Vergara, Ricardo Guíñez, and Luis Filún. 2006. A review of the impacts of salmonid farming on marine coastal ecosystems in the Southeast Pacific. ICES Journal of Marine Science 63 (7): 1338–1345 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icesjms.2006.04.021.
Byron, John. 1983. In The Narrative of the Honorable John Byron (1768), ed. Christopher Hibbert. London: The Folio Society.
Carlos de Beranger. 1893 [1773]. Relación geográfica de la provincia de Chiloé. Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes.
Cárdenas, Álvarez Renato, Montiel Vera Dante, and Grace Hall Catherine. 1991. Los Chonos y los Veliche de Chiloé. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Olimpho.
CORFO/IFOP. 1991. Diagnóstico de las principales pesquerías nacionales: estado de situación y perspectivas del recurso pesquerías demersales ‘peces’ zona sur austral, 1990. Santiago de Chile: CORFO/IFOP.
de Cisneros, Agustín. 1956. Declaración del licenciado Agustín de Cisneros sobre el monto de los diezmos del obispado de la Imperial, September 1, 1571. In Colección de documentos inéditos, segunda serie, tomo I, 1558–1572. Santiago: Fondo Histórico y Bibliográfico J.T. Medina.
de Goicueta, Miguel. 1880. Viaje del Capitán Juan Ladrillero (1557-1558) al Descubrimiento del Estrecho de Magallanes. Anuario Hidrográfico de la Marina de Chile 6: 482–520.
Darwin, Charles. 1998. Chiloé. Santiago de Chile: Editorial Universitaria.
Daughters, Anton. 2016a. Fish kills and protests on the islands of Chiloé. Anthropology News 57: 61–66.
———. 2016b. Southern Chile’s Archipelago of Chiloé: Shifting identities in a new economy. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 21 (2): 317–335.
———. 2014. Of Chicha, Majas, and Mingas: Hard apple cider and local solidarity in twenty-first century Rural Southern Chile. In Alcohol in Latin America: A Social and Cultural History. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Esposito, Anthony. 2016. Chile’s Salmon Farms Losing up to $800 Million from Algal Bloom. Reuters. March 9.
Franklin, Jonathan. 2016. Toxic red tide in Chile prompts investigation of salmon farming. The Guardian. May 17. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/17/chile-red-tide-salmon-farming-neurotoxin
González de Agueros, Pedro. 1791. Descripción historial de la provincia y archipielago de Chiloé. Santiago: Imprenta don Benito Cano.
Gosford, Robert. 2013. Fifty Years in the Desert – The Ethnobiological Life of Amadeo Rea. Crikey. Feb. 1. https://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2013/02/01/fifty-years-in-the-desert-the-ethnobiological-life-of-amadeo-rea/.
Hanisch, Walter. 1982. Noticia breve y moderna del Archipielago de Chiloé, escrita por un misionero de aquellas islas en el año 1769 y 70. La Isla de Chiloé, capitana de rutas australes. Santiago de Chile: Academia Superior de Ciencias Pedagógicas de Santiago.
Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas n.d.. Censos de Población Históricos. http://historico.ine.cl/canales/usuarios/censos_digitalizados.php.
Jiménez, Miguel. 2009. Castro, Chiloé: Relatos de mi Niñez y Otros Escritos. Santiago de Chile: Imprenta El Sur.
Klubock, Thomas Miller. 2014. La Frontera: Forests and Ecological Conflict in Chile’s Frontier Territory. Durham: Duke University Press.
Laffoley, Daniel D’A., and J.M. Baxter. 2016. Explaining Ocean Warming: Causes, scale, effects, and consequences. Gland: IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/46254.
Miller, Jacob C. 2016. Consumption, Dispersed: Techno-Malls and Embodied Assemblages at Chiloé Island, Chile. University of Arizona. Unpublished dissertation.
Minnis, Paul E. 2016. Foreword. In Ethnobiology of the Future, edited by Gary Paul Nabhan. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Nabhan, Gary Paul, ed. 2016. Ethnobiology for the Future: Linking Cultural and Ecological Diversity. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Pitchon, Ana. 2015. Large-scale aquaculture and coastal resource-dependent communities: Tradition in transition on Chiloé Island, Chile. Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology 20 (2): 343–358.
Pfeiffer, Evelyn. 2016. Chile’s Record Toxic Tides May Have Roots in Dirty Fish Farming. National Geographic. May 17.
Revista Salmonicultura. 2006. Cifras de la industria acuícola. Revista Salmonicultura 8 (78): 19.
Schurman, Rachel A. 2003. Fish and flexibility: Working in the New Chile. NACLA Report on the Americas 37 (1): 36–41.
———. 1996. Snails, southern hake, and sustainability: Neoliberalism and natural resource exports in Chile. World Development 24 (11): 1696–1709.
Sellner, Kevin G., Gregory J. Doucette, and Gary J. Kirkpatrick. 2003. Harmful algal blooms; causes, impacts, and detection. Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology 30 (7): 383–406.
Soberanes, Rodrigo and Andrés Pérez. 2016. The Salmon Crisis on Chile’s Chiloé Island. Mongabay. October 5. https://news.mongabay.com/2016/10/the-salmon-crisis-in-chiles-chiloe-island/.
United Nations. 2006. A Case Study of the Salmon Industry in Chile. New York/Geneva: United Nations Publications.
Urbina Burgos, Rodolfo. 2004. Población Indígena, Encomienda, y Tributo en Chiloé, 1567–1813. Valparaíso, Chile: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valaparaíso.
Wallace, Tim. 2016. Oceans Are Absorbing Almost All of the Globe’s Excess Heat. The New York Times. September 12.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Daughters, A. (2018). Chiloé Today and Over the Centuries. In: Daughters, A., Pitchon, A. (eds) Chiloé. Ethnobiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91983-6_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91983-6_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91982-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91983-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)