Fuegian Monster Sculpture by the Chonos (?) in the 1820s

William Low is mentioned by FitzRoy his account of the voyages of the ships Adventure and Beagle (1826 and 1836). Low was a British sealer and ship captain who shared information with FitzRoy when they met in the Falkland / Malvinas Islands in 1833.

Low provided FitzRoy with plenty of useful tips on the Patagonian natives, Southern Chile, and the geography, weather, culture, etc. Of interest is what FitzRoy wrote in his book about a "sculpture" done by the Chono people (See p. 194).

He says that Low took a young boy, who spoke English, on board his ship, the Adeona. The child acted as pilot and interpreter during the 18 months Low surveyed the area. He was named Bob by the sealers that hunted in the region. FitzRoy says he was "one of the Chonos tribe ... Niqueaccas".

The wooden effigy of an evil spirit is mentioned in the underlined text in the quote below:

"The boy Bob had been taken on board the Adeona, in consequence of some dispute with the natives, who had stolen things from the vessel. Mr. Low intended to keep him as a hostage until the missing property should be restored; but the tribe decamped, and as Low was obliged to sail, he carried the boy away with him. At the return of the vessel, about eight months afterwards, the boy saw something on shore, at the entrance of the harbour, which he looked at for some time very earnestly, and then gave Mr. Low to understand that the natives had declared war against him and his ship, and intended to attack her at her return. No natives being visible, Low went ashore with the boy, to see what it was that had attracted his attention, and found a number of spears, arrows, and clubs, roughly cut out of wood, painted red, and stuck into the ground, across a point of the island, and having in the middle a large block of wood, roughly carved into a strange figure (said by the boy to be that of their evil spirit) curiously painted, with long red teeth, and having a short halter of hide (seal-skin) round the part intended to represent a neck. Notwithstanding this outward demonstration of anger and intent to revenge, not a native was seen in the neighbourhood during the many months which Low passed there, and in consequence he had no opportunity of restoring the boy to his own tribe; but he was afterwards kindly received, and treated as Low's son, among the Patagonians of Gregory Bay"

This is the first reference of a wood sculpture among Southern Patagonian tribes. I wonder, which is this animal depicted by the wood block, the "strange figure... evil spirit... curiously painted, with long red teeth, and... short halter of hide... round the neck"?

This is the first description of the image of a demon or spirit in Southern Patagonia. The artistic expressions of the Patagonian natives were painting on their guanaco hides, or quillangos, and the rock art of the ancient Paleoindians. They seldom carved stone other than for utilitarian purposes, and the use of wood for making whittled effigies is unheard of. In 2014 I posted about some "sculptures" done by Fuegian natives, none resemble the one described above. Below is an example found in a museum.

Kaweskar (Alakaluf) mask. See the 3-D version online at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Chile

Was it a mythical beast, or a depiction of some real creature. As you can see in the image above, the Alakaluf boat people made wooden masks, they were coarse, but perhaps colored with white (ash) and red (ochre) like the ones used by the Selk'nam Fuegians in their Hain initiation ceremonies (see a colored postage stamp series below based on real black and white photos taken by Father M. Gusinde in the early 1900s).

I have read many articles and books, and this is a first. This is different from the Rewe or wooden totems of the Mapuche, who lived 1,600 km (1,000 mi.) further north, and were more civilized than the Chono people (living in houses, farmers, with domesticated llamas -chilihueque). The Chono were canoe people, who were hunter-gatherers and lived on the edge of the Ocean in a rainy region, with coarse tents made of seal skin. Not one reference mentions their art or sculpted wood.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

The Genetics of Southern Patagonia

The genetics of the Southern Patagonian natives is more complex than expected. A paper published in Nature on Aug. 3, 2020 (Nakatsuka, N., Luisi, P., Motti, J.M.B. et al. Ancient genomes in South Patagonia reveal population movements associated with technological shifts and geography. Nat Commun 11, 3868 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17656-w) explains the possible admixtures that led to the native populations in Tierra del Fuego and the Southern continental tip of Patagonia.

The authors noted that the natives that adapted to a seafaring life (marine adaptation) either "adopted the technology or invented it independently", they didn't find support that a there was a "large-scale immigration into South Patagonia of people from the north" who were already skilled in living off the sea.

Instead they found that a group of people came from the Northwest (along the Chilean Pacific Ocean coast) after the initial colonization event, around 5000 years ago (as characterized by the remains found at Ayayema ~4700 BP) these people had adopted a maritime economy and replaced the original people that had settled in this area. These latecomers:

"replac[ed] the lineages related to Punta Santa Ana (~6600 bp) and La Arcillosa2 (~5800 bp) that were previously established in South Patagonia itself. The arrival of this new stream of people could be related to the change in lithic technology between ~5500 and 3100 bp, characterized by the interruption of green obsidian use and the introduction of large biface projectile points in the Western Archipelago and Beagle Channel regions."

Archaeologists had noticed that green obsidian, a sharp volcanic glass that had been used in this region 6700 to 6300 years BP vanished, and later (5500 to 3100 BP) stone tools were made from other materials.

There was a simultaneous change in stone tools at that time.

The authors point out that "The disruption in green obsidian use has been hypothesized to reflect a loss of cultural knowledge about the location of the source of this raw material, potentially due to arrival of new people unfamiliar with the landscape."

There was another migration from the Chilean region, characterized by remains found in Central Chile. (Perhaps these people moved pushed by the migration that brought the Mapuche people into Chile?). This final group brought new genetic traits and spread between 4700 and 2000 BP. The authors wonder if the "shared linguistic family between North, Central, and South Patagonia groups in historical and modern times could be related to this signal." I assume they refer to the language of the tehuelche people, known as chon

Mapuche: Late Arrival

I have posted about the Mapuche-Guaraní link in the past. Now I have included more information on this matter in my book's second edition, a brief snippet is shown below:

Dillehay in 2007,(1) noting the similar cultural traits (ceramic, funeral practices), language similarities, and genetics, suggested an association between the Mapuche and the Amazonian natives.
A study published in 2022 analyzed ancient human DNA from the cement attaching head lice nits and found that they support a “major migration wave, occurring around 2,000 years BP from the ancient Proto Tupí/Tupí of the Amazonian lowlands (northwest Amazon) toward south Amazonia and the east Coast, spanning ∼4,000 km.”(2) The expansion continued across Argentina and reached the Andes.
This migration was probably caused by a growing population requiring new lands for farming or, as a response to a drier climate at that time. The authors concluded that “The three Calingasta [San Juan province, Argentina] ancient mummies analyzed in this study show for the first time that the original peoples of San Juan, Calingasta, came from Amazonia about 2,000 years BP… help[ing] decipher a piece of the puzzle of pre-Columbian ancient migrations within South America, of an impressive move spanning 5,000-6,500 km. [3,100-4,040 mi.]” Interestingly, Calingasta is only 160 km (100 mi.) to the east of the Mapuche homeland in Central Chile. Another study from 2023 pointed out that “the fact that together, regional varieties of Mapudungun [Mapuche language] still form a coherent single language is consistent with a relatively recent common origin, followed by geographical expansion and divergence over a timescale of the order of many centuries, but not millennia.”(3)

(1) Pedersen MW, Antunes C, De Cahsan B, et al., (2022). Ancient Human Genomes and Environmental DNA from the Cement Attaching 2,000-Year-Old Head Lice Nits. Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol. 39, Issue 2, February 2022, msab351.
(2) Arango-Isaza E., Capodiferro MR., et al., (2023), The genetic history of the Southern Andes from present-day Mapuche ancestry. Current Biology, Vol 33:13, pp. 2602-2615.e5.
(3) Dillehay T.D. et al., (2007). Cultivated wetlands and emerging complexity in south-central Chile and long distance effects of climate change. Antiquity. 949–6.

The timing of this Out-Of-Amazon migration seems to coincide with the displacement of people into Patagonia from Central Chile

My next post will look into the Kofkeche myth, and its relation to the arrival of the Mapuche in Chile.

CAPTION HERE. Copyright © 2025 by Austin Whittall

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025by Austin Whittall © 

Yamana sculpture

During the long process of writing my book on Patagonian "Monsters", I read many papers, articles and books (especially books) written by explorers, missionaries and scientists who visited Patagonia between the 1500s and the early 1900s. In one of those books, I came across the image shown below, with the Spanish caption: "Ensayo de escultura, fueguino (on-asciaga) de Tierra del Fuego", which can be translated as: "attempt at a sculpture; Fueguian (on-asicaga) Tierra del Fuego" [1]:

Yaghan sculpture From [1].

The image was published in a book that described the scientific expedition undertaken by the Italian captain Giacomo Bove, sponsored by the Argentine government, in 1881-1882. His was an expedition to Southern Patagonia, the Beagle Channel and Tierra del Fuego.

"On-asciaga" is the native Yaghan (also known as Yamana) name for the Beagle Channel [2]. This Channel lies on the southern shores of the Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego Island, and marks the border between Argentina (north) and Chile (south). By the way, in 1978, both countries almost went to war over three islands located on the eastern mouth of the Channel (Picton, Lennox and Nueva). War was averted and the dispute was settled peacefully (the islands are now Chilean).

These Yaghans (also known as Yamanas) were "canoe people" who moved about in their bark canoes (yes, they were made out of the bark of the Southern Beeches -Nothofagus sp. trees). They lived a nomadic life in the Fuegian channels and islands. They spent some time on land, in simple huts made from branches, and hunted the local seals or ate the mussels and crabs that were abundant in the Fuegian coastal waters.

The Yaghans were actually the southernmost people in the whole world.

Their closest neighbors were the Alakaluf (or Kawesqar) who lived in the islands of southwestern Patagonia to the north and west of the Yaghans. Both had a similar lifestyle differing only in their languages, they were usually fighting each other.

On the Isla Grande's mainland, there were two other groups of natives, one in the southeastern forests were the Haush (or Haus) the others lived in the grasslands of the North (the Selk'nam or Ona).

I was surprised because neither the Bridges (Thomas or Lucas), [*] who were the first Europeans to live in the region as from 1870, nor any other later (or earlier) explorer mentioned any Yamaná sculptures! or any artistic production beyond their tools or some body painting and ceremonial masks. [3]

[*] Thomas Bridges, (1842–1898). English Anglican minister who from 1869 until he retired in 1887 headed the mission among the Yagans, founding what is now the town of Ushuaia. He later obtained a land grant from the Argentine government close to the town, and set up his estancia (sheep ranch) at Harberton. He also wrote a very complete Yagan language dictionary.
Stephen Lucas Bridges, (1874-1949) was the third son of English Anglican missionary Thomas Bridges. Lucas was the first European to be born in Tierra del Fuego. He grew up among the Yagans and learnt their language and customs. He moved from Ushuaia to Harberton in 1887, where his father established a ranch ("estancia") after retiring from mission work. In 1902 he set up his own ranch at Viamonte, where he would meet and befriend the Selk'nam. His autobiographic book Uttermost Part of the Earth (1948) is a valuable source on Fuegian anthropology.

The Yaghan Mask

The Yamana used bark masks in their ceremonies (they are often refered to as hílix, but that is their word for quiver -to hold arrows, not for "mask"), some images are shown below [6] (see Another photograph):

The neighboring Kawésqar (or Alacaluf) canoe people used masks [4]:

The image above is a photograph by Martin Guisinde (1923), showing a phallic "Yinchiahua" mask used during the male puberty initiation ceremonies.

The Fuegian native ceremonies invoked evil spirits and the men got dressed up to represent them. The best known is the Selk'nam's "Hain" ceremony, which was witnessed by Europeans in the late 1800s (Lucas Bridges). The Yaghans also had a similar rite, "Chiejaus" which was studied much later in the 1920s, when they had lost nearly all of their ancient customs and had already been absorbed into Western "civilization".

Fuegian males -of all groups- had a fixation with women’s freedom and they went to extremes to subjugate them. Their myths indicate that in the past men were under female domination until they revolted and adopted initiation rites in which they donned costumes and masks and impersonated evil spirits to instill fear and keep their women subdued. This may explain why females are associated with evil monsters in their culture.

The Patagonian indians in general and the Fuegians in particular did not sculpt stone. They fashioned their spears and tools from bone or stone, wove baskets, braided leather or used rounded stones for their "boleadoras" to capture the local guanaco camelids (or ñandú or rhea "ostriches" on the American mainland).

The few examples of engraved stones, supposedly of a Phoenician origin are an exception (see also alleged Hebrew engraved stones), but are clearly not of the Native American style which are less elaborate (see Genuine Native stone implements).

The stark and simple masks contrast with those elaborate "Middle Eastern" engravings, and also with the strange "Yamana sculpture"; the object does not seem to be a native handicraft.

This strange Yamana sculpture showing a person (with a hat? and a coat?) was probably the outcome of contact with Bridges' mission or maybe it was crafted as part of the activities at the misison. Thomas Bridges does not tell us what sort of work the natives did at the Ushuaia mission (we do know that the crowded settlement and the interaction with the Europeans which began arriving in the early 1880s decimated the canoe people with measles, tuberculosis and flu).

I resist the temptation to suggest that the sculpture depicts some mythical being (a Fuegian dwarf or ogre), because there is no context in which to insert it. Just a photograph in a book with a non descript caption. Such was the work of the anthropologists of the late 1800s!!

Later scholars had the knowledge and the know-how but lacked the subjects: disease had wiped out most of the Yaghans, Alakaluf and also the Selk'nam (or Ona) pedestrian natives that lived inland (actually these had also fallen under the bullets shot at them by the local gold-panners and European sheep farmers: the natives took to hunting sheep, far more easy preys than the guanaco).

Early 1900s postcard depicting a "Fuegian Indian" (No indication is given about the group he belonged to), both he and the Yaghan pictured further down have a certain "Australian" look don't they?

Below is a Yamana native (in mourning), from the French "Mission Scientifique du Cap Horn" (1882-1883) under captain Ferdinand Martial [7]:

Sources

[1] Giacomo Bove, Domenico Lovisato, Expedición a la Patagonia: un viaje a las tierras y mares australes (1881-1882). Ediciones Continente, 2005, pp. 146.
[2] Guillermo Lagos Carmona Los títulos historicos Andres Bello, 1985 - Chile pp. 34
[3] Orquera, L. and Piana, E., (1999). La vida material y social de los Yámana. B. Aires: Eudeba
[4] Claudio Pulgar Pinaud, (2007). Vivienda Indigena, Participación y desarrollo social. El caso de la Comunidad Indigena Kawesqar de Puerto Eden. Revista invi Nº 60, Agosto 2007, Vol. 22: 59 -100
[5] Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian.
[6] Cristopher Agostino, (2011)Masks from here Bark Masks and Bodypainting of the Yamana (or Yaghan) and the Selk’nam (or Ona) of Tierra Del Fuego
[7] Martial, L., (2005). Mision al Cabo de Hornos, la expedición científica francesa en la Romanche Julio de 1882 a setiembre de 1883.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2014 by Austin Whittall © 

On Phoenicians and Fuegians

 

A comment posted by one of my readers put forth an interesting suggestion (thank you Linda Zambanini), which I copy below:

I was just reading your excellent blog about Phoenicians in South America after searching for more info about the Paraibo stone. I was fascinated by the horned Halaháches creature which was painted with broad red and white stripes. It came to my mind that the Phoenician sails were composed of broad red and white stripes. (The stripes were vertical but it would be difficult to paint a person with broad red and white stripes). Could it be that they were emulating the sails that they saw on Phoenician ships? Just a thought. Not sure if their “horned fish” it this conjectured to have been based on had red and white stripes.
Linda Zambanini

Halahaches or Kotaix, a Selknam creature. Black and white image from the Internet colored red by A. Whittall

Striped sails, true or false?

So I wondered: do we know if Phoenician sails were striped red and white? So... I did a bit of reading and I did not manage to find anything mentioning red and white striped sails. But, I did find some other remarks about Phoenician sails:

Phoenician ship. From the Internet

"The sails were made of strips of woven flax or of papyrus, bound at the edges with strips of raw hide”[1]

So perhaps "white" (is flax or papyrus white? or brown?) in strips with their edges of a reddish brown color (raw hide). So this could be taken for red and white stripes. But there is more:

The Holy Bible [2] mentions the Phoenician city of Tyre and her riches, and talks about;

“Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; 'blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee

It seems that the Egyptian linen, embroidered, would be too luxurious or maybe even too heavy to be used as a sail, so some Bible translations (i.e. Vulgate) interpret this not as sails but instead, as flags.

However this description seems to refer to the luxury boats of the nobles of Tyre and not the usual run of the mill commercial ships. But, if the snobs used embroidered sails, could the traders have used sails with red and white stripes?

The reference to "blue and purple" from the isles of Elisha may sound mysterious, but actually Elisha was one of the sons of Javan (which means Greece) so Elisha is a part of Greece. And, the purple from Laconia (where Sparta used to be) was a very fine dye, nearly as good as the Phoenician dye but cheaper and thus used to cover the awnings of their ships.

The biblical text is:



So, maybe they had colorful sails, blue, purple or flax and raw hide. But I have not found any reference to red and white sails (though, if you google images of "phoenician sails" the boats depicted have red and white sails!

Why? I will keep on reading.

Sources
[1] Astley John Hilary, (1937). Communication has been established Author Goodwin Publisher Methuen, pp. 135.
[2] Ezequiel XVII : 7. The Bible.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia

2011 International Year of Forests Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall ©