Patagonia: Natural History, Prehistory and Ethnography at the Uttermost End of the Earth (Princeton Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Colin McEwan (Editor), Luis Alberto Borrero (Editor), Alfredo Prieto (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Princeton Paperbacks | Publication Date: January 1998

Some fourteen to ten thousand years ago, as ice-caps shrank and glaciers retreated, the first bands of hunter-gatherers began to colonize the continental extremity of South America -- "the uttermost end of the earth". Their arrival marked the culmination of humankind's epic journey to people the globe. Now they are extinct. This book tells their story.

The book describes how these intrepid nomads confronted a hostile climate every bit as forbidding as iceage Europe as they penetrated and settled the wilds of Fuego-Patagonia. Much later, sixteenth-century European voyagers encountered their descendants: the Aonikenk (southern Tehuelche), Selk'nam (Ona), Yamana (Yahgan), and Kawashekar (Alacaluf), living, as the Europeans saw it, in a state of savagery. The first contacts led to tales of a race of giants and, ever since, Patagonia has exerted a special hold on the European imagination. Tragically, by the mid-twentieth century, the last remnants of the indigenous way of life had disappeared for ever. The essays in this volume trace a largely unwritten history of human adaptation, survival, and eventual extinction. Accompanied by 110 striking photographs, they are published to accompany a major exhibition on Fuego-Patagonia at the Museum of Mankind, London.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (January 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691058490
• ISBN-13: 978-0691058498
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,948,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for anyone interested in the peopling of the Americas, September 14, 2011

By 

D. Noble (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Patagonia: Natural History, Prehistory and Ethnography at the Uttermost End of the Earth (Princeton Paperbacks) (Paperback)

This book is wonderful presentations of a little know part of the peopling of the Americas. The story and illustrations are fantastic and it's an easy read. It provides a concise overview the history of the land and its people. A facinating look into the people Darwin met while on the Beagle. This book should be in every school library.

1 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Got a good review in _Nature_, October 24, 1997

By 

music fan (Austin,TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Patagonia: Natural History, Prehistory and Ethnography at the Uttermost End of the Earth (Princeton Paperbacks) (Paperback)

A short review in the magazine _Nature_ (9 Oct 97, p 557) has a cool picture and says "gripping read and lavishly illustrated." END