dalca
{{Short description|Type of canoe}}
File:Dalca (reconstrucción).JPG.]]
The dalca or piragua is a type of canoe employed by the Chonos, a nomadic indigenous people of southern Chile, and Huilliche people living in Chiloé archipelago. It was a light boat and ideal for navigating local waterways, including between islands of the Chiloé Archipelago, through the Chacao Channel to mainland Chile, and along the coast of the Gulf of Penas.{{Cite journal |last1=Reyes |first1=Omar |last2=Méndez |first2=César |last3=San Román |first3=Manuel |last4=Belmar |first4=Carolina |last5=Nuevo-Delaunay |first5=Amalia |date=2022-08-16 |title=Biogeographic barriers in the circulation and interaction of hunter-gatherer marine fishers: The role of the Taitao Peninsula and the Gulf of Penas (∼ 47°S) in the differentiation of the cultural trajectories of West Patagonia |journal=Frontiers in Earth Science |language=English |volume=10 |doi=10.3389/feart.2022.946732 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2022FrEaS..10.6732R |issn=2296-6463}} Spanish chronicles called it best-suited for those waters{{according to whom? |date=November 2023}}, far superior to ships of the conquistadores.{{fact|date=May 2021}}
The dalca was essential for many activities in Chiloé Archipelago including the logging of alerce wood, the Circular Mission system, and the various expeditions to Nahuel Huapi Lake and the channels of Patagonia.{{cite book |last=Hanisch |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Hanisch |date=1982 |title=La isla de Chiloé, Capitana de Rutas Australes |location=Santiago, Chile |publisher=Academia Superior de Ciencias Pedagógicas de Santiago |page=23 |language=es}} By 1886 dalcas had been replaced by other boat types and were not longer in use in Chiloé.{{Cite book|title=Anuario Hidrográfico de la Marina de Chile|year=1886|location=Valparaíso|chapter=Expedición de Antonio de Vea|author-last=de Vea|author-first=Antonio|chapter-url=http://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/visor/BND:74532|language=es|page=579}}
According to archaeologist José Miguel Ramírez, only full non-reconstructed dalcas remaining were collected by Swedish explorer Carl Skottsberg and are at the Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm and the Museum of World Culture, Gothenburg.{{Cite journal |title=The Polynesian-Mapuche connection: Soft and Hard Evidence and New Ideas |journal=Rapa Nui Journal |last=Ramírez-Aliaga |first=José-Miguel |year=2010 |volume=24 |pages=29–33 |issue=1|url=https://islandheritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/RNJ_24_1_Ramirez_Aliaga.pdf}}
See also
References
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Further reading
- Garcia, Jose (1889). "Travel Diary i navigation made by Father José Garcia of the Company of Jesus from its mission of Cailã n, in Chiloe, toward the south, in the years 1766-1767 ".
- Hydrographic Yearbook of the Chilean Navy. Took 14 Valparaiso : Hydrographic Institute of the Chilean Navy. pp. 3–42.
- Cárdenas, Renato. Dante Montiel and Catherine Hall (1991). The Chono and the regattas of Chiloé. Santiago, Chile: Olimpho.
- Edwards, Clinton R (1965) "Aboriginal Watercraft on the Pacific Coast of South America." University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.
{{Chiloe Archipelago}}