South American mummies: culture and disease

Abstract

Many scholars have emphasized that the preceramic Chinchorro fishers of southern Peru and northern Chile had the oldest system of artificial mummification in the world (Bittmann and Munizaga 1976; Allison et al. 1984; Arriaza 1995a). Although this is interesting, the anthropological significance of the Chinchorro society and its mummies has greater relevance.