Fishermen of the fog: The Changos and their ancestors-2008
Presentation
This exhibit brings together for the first time pieces from the collections of twelve different museums in Chile to explore the ingenuity of the ancient inhabitants of the country’s northern desert coast and their later descendants, the Changos, who were looked down upon by Europeans and usually omitted or marginalized in exhibits that focused on northern Chile. The display emphasized how these groups represented the final step in one of the most remarkable processes of coastal adaptation and ocean mastery that began with shellfish gathering on the coast and culminated in navigation on the high seas. The exhibit illustrated the domestic life of the Changos and their ancestors, their rich spiritual traditions, and varied funerary customs. It also highlighted the historic continuity of their technologies, which are still used today by small scale fishermen living along the same coast.