Mapuche Resilience and Adaptation to Arid Uplands in NW Patagonia, Argentina

The Mapuche communities of the Argentinean extra-Andean Patagonia overcome extreme living conditions by applying subsistence strategy based on the utilization of different ethno-ecological units corresponding with different altitudinal gradients. Summer cattle transhumance, known locally as “veranada,” a seasonal movement of people and animals to the pre-Andean forest, serves as an example of Mapuche specialized adaptation to arid conditions, which helps them to cope with this hostile living environment in the lowlands This chapter demonstrates quantitatively how populations living in arid environments are at less risk of losing their capacity for alimentary self-sufficiency if they do not abandon their traditional ways of using the environment. Fil: Ladio, Ana Haydee. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universidad Bariloche. Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Comahue. Centro Regional Universitario Bariloche. Laboratorio de Ecotono; Argentina