Patagonia: Natural History, Prehistory and Ethnography at the Uttermost End of the Earth

Edited by:
  • Colin McEwan,
  • Luis A. Borrero &
  • Alfredo Prieto
British Museum Press, $29.95, £14.99 (pbk)
The Selk'nam men of Patagonia disguised themselves as vengeful spirits to scare women from trying to seize power. In the event, of course, that was done by European colonists, who put a price on the heads of the native peoples, paying extra for the ears and fetuses of pregnant women. Ten thousand years ago the ancestors of the Selk'nam and other tribes left delicate hand outlines on cave walls. A gripping read and lavishly illustrated