Patagonians

Depiction from 1602: a giant Patagonian swallows an arrow to cure his stomach ache

Patagonian (from Spanish patagón , about big feet ) is a collective term for the South American Indian tribes of the Chon languages ( Tehuelche , Selk'nam , Haush ), who live in the area of Patagonia east of the Andes (today mainly Argentina , in the south a little Chile ) .

The name comes from Magellan , who called it that in 1520 because of its large footprints. This quickly led to the myth of a giant people. In fact, it was because of the oversized rawhide footwear stuffed with straw that people wore. For more than 200 years, the Patagonians were considered giants. In such descriptions they were ascribed a height of up to three and a half meters. In fact, the Patagonians were unusually tall for the 16th century at 175–180 cm.

The southern group of them who on the island of Tierra del Fuego will live, even Fuegians or Tierra del Fuego Indians called and were divided into the tribes Halakwúlup , Selknam and Yamana .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jorge Fondebrider: chapter 1 (Ámbitos y voces) . In: Versiones de la Patagonia ( Spanish ), 1st. Edition, Emecé Editores SA, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2003, ISBN 950-04-2498-3 , p. 29.
2. ↑ Göran Burenhult (ed.): Illustrated history of mankind. Volume: Primitive people today. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-0745-8 (Original: Traditional Peoples Today , Harpercollins 1994). P. 196.
3. ↑ Willi Stegner (Ed.): Pocket Atlas Völker und Sprachen. 1st edition, Klett-Perthes, Gotha 2006, ISBN 978-3-12-828123-0 . P. 261.
4. ↑ Christina Hofmann-Randall: The Tierra del Fuego Indians. Anthropological description of the first discoverers. In: Würzburger medical history reports 11, 1993, pp. 261–272.
5. ^ Waldemar Stöhr: Lexicon of peoples and cultures. Westermann, Braunschweig 1972, ISBN 3-499-16160-5 . Pp. 21-22.
6. ↑ Search term: Patagonians . In: Wissen.de, accessed on January 9, 2016.
7. ↑ Christina Hofmann-Randall (1993), p. 261.