COOPER] BIBLIOGEAPHY OF TRIBES OF TIEKEA DEL FUEGO 55 



C. CTJLTURAL EVIDENCE 



In the field of culture the Onas have much m common with the 

 Yahgans and Alacaluf, partly as a result of mutual borrowing, but 

 also much that distinguishes them from the other Fuegian tribes. 

 Among these distinctive cultural elements are some which they share 

 with the Tehuelches. Such are the use of the child's cradle and the 

 custom of arm tattooing — neither found among the Yahgans or 

 Alacaluf. The Ona skin garments are much longer and more elabo- 

 rate than the other Fuegians' and are very like the Tehuelches' in 

 length, shape, and number. The Onas, like the Tehuelches, do not go 

 nude — as do the other Fuegians so commonly — except when hunting, 

 wrestling, etc. The Ona skin windshield contrasts structurally with 

 the other Fuegians' beehive wigwam and bears a suggestive resem- 

 blance in structure to the more elaborate Tehuelche skin tent. The 

 Tehuelches call their tents Icau (Lehmann-Nitsche, d, 256), the Onas 

 their huts taki (Gallardo, 365, southern Onas, 243), Mai {=kau + tai 

 = wigwam + small, Beauvoir, b, 48), fi'i (Furlong, Jc), but also kau or 

 Jcaw or Tcauwy or kauydni (Beauvoir, h, 39-40), Icaue or Icauyani (Gal- 

 lardo, 365, northern Onas, 243), Icauw (Segers, 69), Jcau (Lista, h, 145) 

 cow'ie ( = house, Furlong, Jc). The Ona bow and arrow shows consid- 

 erable affinity with the earlier Tehuelchean.^ 



Dr. Gallardo (104-105) calls attention to certain cultural differ- 

 ences between the Onas and Tehuelches. He instances: (1) The 

 Tehuelche skin garments worn with the fur inside and ornamented 

 with polychrome designs as against the Ona skin robe worn with the 

 fur outside and colored red without designs; (2) the Tehuelche 

 women's tresses contrasting with the Ona women's bangs; (3) the 

 Tehuelche flexed burial versus the Ona supine posture. The list 

 could be much extended, as, for instance, the Tehuelche fire drill 

 versus the Ona flint and pyrites. 



Such cultural divergences, however, would be expected where, as 

 the linguistic evidence shows, the two peoples if once united have 

 been apart for many generations and perhaps many centuries. More- 

 over, while the culture of the Onas has undoubtedly been to some ex- 

 tent modified through their contact and intermarriage with the Yah- 

 gans and Alacaluf, that of the southern Patagonians has been pro- 

 foundly modified, especially since the middle of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, by Puelchean and Araucanian cultural influences (Outes, a, 

 271, 427, 429, 476, and passim). 



The cultural differences between the Onas and Tehuelches are 

 neither few nor slight, but the chasm was much narrower in the 

 days of Magellan and Ladrillero, and it seems not too rash to inter- 

 pret the identities above noted as survivals from an earlier common 



' For further details on each of the cultural features just enumerated see Subject Bibliography, under 

 Culture. 



64028°— Bull. 63—17 5 



