Memories of Earth and Sea

An Ethnographic History of the Islands of Chiloé

Anton Daughters

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9780816557059
  9780816540006
• eBook ISBN:
  9780816540617
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History
• Index: Social Sciences

Memories of Earth and Sea recounts the history of more than two dozen islands clustered along the Patagonian flank of South America. Settled over the centuries by nomadic seafarers, indigenous farmers, and Spanish explorers, southern Chile's Archipelago of Chiloé remained until recently a rural outpost resistant to cultural pressures from the mainland. Islanders developed a way of life heavily dependent on marine resources, native crops like the potato, and the cooperative labor practice known as the minga.
 
Staring in the 1980s, Chiloé was thrust into the global economy when major companies moved into the region to extract wild stocks of fish and to grow salmon and shellfish for export. The archipelago's economy shifted abruptly from one of subsistence farming and fishing to wage labor in export industries. Local knowledge, traditions, memories, and identities similarly shifted, with young islanders expressing a more critical view of the rural past than their elders.
 
This book highlights the region's unique past, emphasizing the generational tensions, disconnects, and continuities of the last half century. Drawing on interviews, field observations, and historical documents, Anton Daughters brings to life one of South America's most culturally distinct regions.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. Indigenous Origins: Chonos and Huilliches
• 2. Colonial Years and Beyond: The Emergence of Chilote
• 3. Rural Livelihoods and Mingas: The Memories of Older Islanders
• 4. Dictatorship, Neoliberalism, and the New Economy of Chiloé
• 5. Wage Labor and the New Mingas: Memories of Younger Chilotes
• 6. Identity Pushback: The Case of Llingua
• 7. Challenges Ahead: Confronting Globalization
• Conclusion: Observations on Identity
• Notes
• References
• Index
• About the Author