Brrr . . .
/The Fuegian's had apparently mastered fire. They hadn't mastered much else.
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Ferdinand Magellan's first word after stepping from cabin to deck was probably - brrr . . . Tierra del Fuego is cold all year long; spring, summer, winter, and fall, nearly indistinguishable winter temperature soar to as high as 48° Fahrenheit. Summer temperatures drop all the way to 36° Fahrenheit.
Local weather-reports of temperature could be standardized: "42° Fahrenheit, more-or-less, rain, snow, and violent winds expected". The forecast rarely varies: cold, wet, stormy and overcast. Yearly rainfall, 70". Average humidity, 74%.
What a pleasant place.
Given the conditions, Magellan must have been very surprised to see stark-naked natives diving in freezing seas for shellfish. I certainly was when I read about it. I still wonder about it from time to time.
It seems impossible.
Magellan says the natives did occasionally wrap themselves in raw sealskins, but not while diving.
What a people!
What might their DNA reveal. I guess we'll never know. They were mostly extinct long before DNA was discovered.
Magellan discovered this foreboding archipelago in 1520 while searching for a quicker sea passage to the Spice Isles than sailing around Africa. Magellan named the place, Tierra del Fuego, or in English, Land of Fire.
That's a weirdly warm name for such a cold place. He got the idea because when he looked inland he saw hundreds of burning campfires.
The Fuegian's had apparently mastered fire. They hadn't mastered much else. They were the most primitive humans ever seen. They weren't even a tribe. They had no social order larger than small family groups, no clothing, no houses, and nothing but fire-making to establish them as human - except for two important markers - religion & language.
"The Fuegian religion was based on belief in an almighty supreme god, master and owner of all the things; he has no body and is very kind, guarding the moral law that punished evil and rewarded good. Between the supreme god and the humans there are a lot of spirits, good & evil, which can be dominated only by a shaman via magical rites". - Stefan Anitei, (Softpedia)
That sounds very human.
They also had orally preserved myths. Their myth about a seal who had a human wife reminded me of stories told in the Orkney Isles about Silkies. Silkies could change form from human to seal at will, they also took human wives.
Hmm? The concordance between the Fuegian myth and Orkney tales of Silkies might be more than curious coincidence.
Tierra del Fuego and the Orkney Isles occupy similar territory at opposite poles. The land, sea, and climate are mirror images. Distinguishing Orkney from Tierra del Fuego requires more than just looking around.
The Arctic current chills Orkney.
The Antarctic current chills Tierra del Fuego.
The animal life, principally the seals, is thoroughly interwoven with the life of humans in both places.
It's perfectly natural, yet somehow remarkable.
I don't think Magellan knew about the Orkney Isles when he discovered Tierra del Fuego. I wonder what he might have made of the similarities. Likely not much. He was too busy with circumnavigating the globe.
I'm not busy. I have lots of time to wonder about strangeness.
So I do.
Brrr. . . The strangeness of naked people diving in icy water makes me cold.
By K. L. Shipley
Website: https://www.eclecticessays.com