A Change of Latitude

In yesterday’s repost, Give Me Some Latitude, I noted how the northwest coasts of both North America and Europe were similar due to ocean currents, and how that probably led to their similarity in having barefoot cultures.

But there are more ocean currents, and at least one other place in a similar situation.

First, let’s take a look at the ocean currents of the world.

Ocean Currents

Clearly, they’re affected by the positioning of the continents. But they also have common features. In the northern hemisphere, they rotate clockwise, and in the southern hemisphere, counter-clockwise.

There’s a simple explanation for those rotations (and you can skip this and the next paragraph if you wish without losing the gist of this article). Because it is a globe, a particle on the equator moving with the earth going directly east to west has to travel faster than one moving east to west at a more northern latitude. So, if that particle tries, for whatever reason, to move south at the same altitude, it’s not moving as fast as the particles it joins, so it tends to bend to the right (west). Similarly, a particle that tries to move north ends up going a little bit faster than the particles it joins, so it also tends to turn right (in this case, east). Thus we get a clockwise rotation. The same analysis leads to a counter-clockwise rotation in the southern hemisphere. These then become writ large in the major ocean currents.

But looking at that map again and thinking southern hemisphere, we can easily see another part of the globe that ought to be quite similar to the northwest American continent. And that’s of course the southern archipeligo of South America: Chile.

If you look at the part of Chile around Puerto Montt you’d really expect all sorts of similarities with, let’s say, the area around Vancouver Island, and you’d get them. It’s not just the ocean currents providing a similar climate, you also have oceanic plates diving beneath their respective continents and volcanic activity.

Even the plants are similar. The northwest has Sequoias. The southern Chilean coast has the closely related Fitzroy Cypress (or Patagonian cypress). Oooh. Cypresses, my favorite tree. Sure would be nice to go see them . . .

Anyways, here’s a picture of a bunch of them at the Parque Nacional Alerce Andino (Alerce Andino National Park), which is just east of Puerto Montt.

The Patagonian Cypress

But what about the indigenous peoples? Did they also go barefoot? Here’s a map of where the various peoples were located, from Wikipedia.

The Indigenous Peoples of Chile

[Click for larger version; North is to the right.]

Puerto Montt is in the area of the Cuncos and the Chonos, and we can get an idea of what they wore from the children’s book Origen y Actualidad de los Pueblos Indígenas de Chile.

The Cuncos and Chonos

[Picture from here.]

I also came across this drawing of a Chono spearfishing.

A Chono Spearfishing

I am struck with its similarity with this photograph of a Nootka (around Vancouver) fishing with a bow and arrow.

The Bowman (Nootka)

[Photograph from Volume 11 of “The North American Indian”, by Edward S. Curtis.]

Similar climates — similar responses.

As you get farther north, you get more of an Andean influence (and of course it also depends on whether it is summer or winter). Here is a Huilliche, barefoot.

Huilliche

There was also a game called “Mapuche hockey” (chueca or palin). In this drawing we can see that not only are the participants barefoot, but so are the spectators (including those on horseback).

Mapuche hockey

[Click for larger version.]

Bare feet were just natural. Here’s another picture, an 1848 painting by Claudio Gay, of a Mapuche family.

A Machupe Family

Bare feet were just standard. They fit the environment.

Just as they fit the environment of the Pacific Northwest and the British Isles. Similar environments engender similar indigenous responses.

It’s “civilization” that somehow seems to strive to homogenize everybody into one global mode regardless.