Althouse: "The name Patagonia comes from the word patagón used by Magellan to describe the native people whom his expedition thought to be giants."

February 7, 2013

"The name Patagonia comes from the word patagón used by Magellan to describe the native people whom his expedition thought to be giants."

"It is now believed the Patagons were actually Tehuelches with an average height of 1.80 m (~5′11″) compared to the 1.55 m (~5′1″) average for Spaniards of the time."

In Chile, today's "History of" country.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...: After the Central African Republic and Chad, it's a relief to finally get to a decent country.

Snowfall report: Chile gets snow in the Andes and in its southernmost regions. Snow is very rare but not unheard-of in Santiago.

Peter; 2/7/13, 8:23 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Tomorrow: China!; 2/7/13, 8:27 PM
edutcher said...: Interesting in that the height of the average Spaniard was about the same as it had been 1500 years earlier. Public sanitation and a little better nutrition did wonders for the human race.

Ann Althouse said...

Tomorrow: China!

I was getting tired of paper plates.; 2/7/13, 8:30 PM
pm317 said...: Fantastic Patagonia time lapse video

I have been wanting to go there for couple of years now..; 2/7/13, 9:07 PM
pm317 said...: OMG, look at this pic: trekking in Patagonia; 2/7/13, 9:24 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: "12,000 B.P." I had never heard of that til now? Seems it means 12,000 years Before Present where present = 1950 and arose from the use of carbon dating. So I learned something new today.; 2/7/13, 9:27 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Can't we work the Patagonian Toothfish in here somewhere?; 2/7/13, 11:08 PM
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Mitch H. said...: Never heard of the Mapuche before. Apparently there was an independent, indigenous tribal confederation of some sort in the middle of the Chilean coast throughout the colonial period and well into the late 19th century, finally conquered by the post-colonial Chilean republic, which was strikingly expansive and aggressive. Central North America was full of confederations like the Mapuche - the Apache, Comanche, Utes, Kiowas and so forth - nominally under the control of the viceroys, but in practice totally outside of the Spanish imperial system. I'm just surprised to find one sitting right there on the Pacific coast, next door to a relatively well-organized colonial heartland.

Sounds like they're partially Catholicized today, which means that the Jesuits were at them.; 2/8/13, 8:59 AM
Methadras said...: People of that period and prior were small and short and that was due to their diets. 5' 1" for an average spaniard is nearly a dwarf. I could have ruled them as a giant at 6' 0".; 2/8/13, 2:13 PM
Chris said...: I just finished the very excellent The Barbarous Years, and I was also surprised to learn that the native inhabitants of the Atlantic Coast were much larger than the European settlers.; 2/10/13, 12:55 AM
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