Atacameño

The Atacameños (also called Atacamas or Likan-antay) are a Native American people who inhabited the Andean portion of the Atacama Desert, mainly in what is today Chile's Antofagasta Region. Their language is known as Kunza.

The most ancient people of the Atacama desert were nomadic hunters that followed herds of wild camelids. Later, the existence of vast herds of camelids and the better knowledge of primitive agricultural methods contributed to the development of a semi-sedentary lifestyle with seasonal movements.^[1]

Around 2000-1000 B.C., Atacameño people fully adopted the sedentary culture. At this stage, they had an economy mainly based on llama breeding and maize agriculture.^[1]

Between 400 B.C and 100 A.D., Atacameño farming reached a peak in its development, mainly in the oases of Lasana, Chiu-Chiu, Calama, San Pedro de Atacama, Peine, Tilomonte, Toconao.^[2]

About 2,000 Atacameño people remain today although none known continue to speak the Kunza language and the language is thought to have been extinct since the 1950s.

References

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