In the farthest reach of the southern cone of South America, along the wind-and-rain-whipped coast of Tierra Del Fuego, the Yaghan people have a story

Why local legends about birds matter - BBC Future

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2021-07-17 05:00:06

In the farthest reach of the southern cone of South America, along the wind-and-rain-whipped coast of Tierra Del Fuego, the Yaghan people have a story about the Magellanic woodpecker, a big showy bird they call lana.

A boy and his sister were picking red berries away from their village. Attracted to each other, they finally gave in to their desires.

That story was told by Christina Calderon, a 94-year-old woman who is one of 1,600 Yaghan people, but is also the last person for whom Yaghan is their first language.

One effort to preserve her native tongue, and with it the Yaghan perspective on the natural world, is the curation of Calderon's traditional stories about birds, which offer a glimpse into a very different way of living. In this case it was lesson about a taboo, which could reduce genetic fitness.

"To the Yaghan the birds are companions and teachers," says Ricardo Rozzi, an ecologist at the University of North Texas and the author of A Multi Ethnic Bird of Sub Antarctic Forests of South America, a combination of scientific data alongside Yaghan bird names and stories. "When you see animals as fellow beings it changes the ethical relationship with the world."