Paisajes culturales de Cobija, Costa de Antofagasta, Chile

This paper deals with the different perceptions of Chilean northern landscapes that arecommonly refered to as the Atacama Desert. The present aboriginal descendants of thepeoples that inhabited these lands throughout millennia conceive and live in this partof the country in different ways as the europeans that first explored these territories,and the modern immigrants, today engaged in the extractive industrial activities that are making the northern cities grow faster than ever. We are interested especially in thelocal peoples that had and have taken the best advantage of the poor natural resourcesin this territory. In this occasion, we will focus our interest on the coastal territories ofAntofagasta Region, characterized by its extreme dryness, with no permanent sources offresh water, in contrast with a great richness of its maritime resources.