'Indigenous Chile' reveals a close link with Asia

By Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): Running along the southwest coast of South America to the tip of the continent facing Antarctica, Chile is a remote country for most Asians.

But the general assumption of its remoteness would probably be inaccurate if one visits the National Museum in Jakarta to see a rare exhibition of Chilean archaeological and art collections.

The Indigenous Chile exhibition, which started from Oct. 11 and runs until Oct. 29, uncovers a great variety of the country's rich cultural legacy belonging to its Indian ancestors who inhabited North and South America thousands of years ago.

The exhibition, opened by the Minister of Education and Culture Juwono Sudarsono, is part of the celebrations of the arrival of the Spaniards in America 500 years ago.

It is jointly organized by the Chilean Embassy and the National Museum in an attempt to enhance and promote the indigenous cultures of ancient Chilean natives.

Republic of Chile Ambassador to Indonesia Hernan Tassara said, "The event is intended to show the world, and people in Asia in particular, that Chile has a close cultural connection with Asians.

"We are living far apart, but there are a lot of similarities between the indigenous Chileans and the Asians," the ambassador said.

Suhardini, the head of the National Museum's anthropology department, agreed that some cultural items like ceramic ornaments and statues were similar with those in eastern Indonesian regions.

"We have wooden and stone statues, decorations and ornaments of pottery and textiles in Irian Jaya, Kalimantan, Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara that are identical to those made by the Eastern Island natives in Chile," she said.

The traveling exhibition, which was displayed in a large number of cities throughout Europe, Asia and New Zealand, covers 14,000 years of history from the first human arrival to Chile's present territorial groups of hunters and gatherers evolving through specific cultures, which developed in the areas until the last group, the Inca Empire, prior to the Spanish conquest in l536.

Archaeological evidence shows that the first inhabitants of America came from the Asian continent by crossing the Bering Strait in Alaska.

This might be one of the reasons why the majority of the 190 exhibited items, belonging to the Archaeological Museum of Santiago, underlines the closeness between Asian and Chilean cultures, particularly in the costumes and traditions.

Among the displayed items are bone, stone and silver ornaments in the form of jewelry, artifacts, potteries, textiles, statues, musical instruments and assorted art collections from Chilean pre-Hispanic civilizations of the Aymaras, Mapuches, Pascuenses and the virtually extinct Fuegian, who made up the ancient Chilean population.

For these communities, ornamental products reflected various aspects of personal aesthetic values, social status and religious functions.

For instance, an earring could be considered by certain Chilean communities as an ornament as well as a charm or a distinctive object that shows the wearers' social condition and status.

Other important items shown at the exhibition are textiles and garments. The importance of woven materials in the Andean world goes back to pre-Hispanic times. In Chile, the first evidence of fibers spun to make a continuous yarn and woven to form a flat and flexible structure came from the coast in 3000 B.C.

Textiles had functions which went beyond clothing and ornamental use. They also played an important role in the social, economical, political and religious spheres.

Textiles also fulfilled a function in the religious and ritual life of the Andeans; certain garments were manufactured to be used in ceremonies with the individual's vital cycle or to form a part of the funeral offerings.

Textile products comprise blankets, clothing and other items.

The exhibition also displays the Diaguita culture, now extinct, which developed in the semiarid north of the country from 1000 to 1536. The Diaguita reached a high level of cultural development expressed in successful farming in all the valleys of the area, in complex funeral rites and mainly in various objects of great artistic value, such as bone, ceramic and stone ornaments.

Diaguita ceramics reflected cultural changes before arriving to their own expressions of great beauty and perfection between 1200 and 1470.

The pottery on display includes clay and ceramic dishes, urns, and bowls.

With the Inca's arrival in 1470 and up until 1536, pottery somehow reflected the changes in sociopolitical order given the internality of this ethnic group. Diaguita potters adopted and integrated local forms and decorations from Peru in a balanced and harmonious way.

With the arrival of the Spaniards in 1536, the Diaguita civilization gradually became extinct.

Another interesting subject is the replication of mummies.

There are still a large number of mummies in Chile. Almost all are naturally preserved by the aridity in the desert or by the low temperatures in the high Andes mountains.

On the coasts in the extreme north of Chile, especially at the beginning of the lluta and Azapa valleys, interesting funeral practices had developed. The mummification of human bodies was far superior to the technique applied to the oldest known mummies discovered in Egypt.

A group of people called the Chinchorro, who were estimated to have lived 7,000 years ago, mummified their dead by taking off the viscera, stripping the bones of flesh and fastening the skeleton with a wooden frame.

This elaborate practice leads many archaeologists to think that this group had a complex social organization.

This practice allows us to learn about the rich American cultural past with its artistic and spiritual heritage. The mummies were not only preserved with their rich apparel, but also allowed people to learn a great variety of aspects about their biological and cultural lives.

The present exhibition, which will continue in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, wishes to give testimony to the cultural richness of some of the Indian groups which once inhabited, and which some are still present, and provide proof to the continental theory of the link between ancient Americans and Asians.