Clash of Civilizations: The True History of the Selk’nam People

This summary was translated from Portuguese. To read the original story in full, visit Folha De S.Paulo. This report can also be found in Radar Magazine (Italy) and Público (Portugal).

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Just over 500 years ago, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan discovered a sea passage in the south of the planet, a region unknown to Europeans, who called it Terra Australis Incognita. This discovery united the world in the first globalization of modern society. The pass became known as the Strait of Magellan.

In the wake of Magellan came the European farmers, who had already domesticated plants and animals and, upon reaching the now-named Tierra del Fuego, found hunter-gatherers who were living there over 10,000 years, as a result of the great adventure of man’s migration throughout the planet. Among the tribes there was an ethnic group that would be known as Selk’nam. The meeting between European farmers and hunter-gatherers meant the death sentence of the latter. A tragedy still to be discussed. Considered extinct in the history books and laws written by the victors, the survivors claim to be alive. And now they are fighting for recognition.

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