Chango

The Changos were a loose group of fishing peoples who lived along the Pacific coast from southern Peru to north-central Chile, in the desert country of Atacama. Highlanders called the coastal fog camanchaca, which gave the Camanchacos their name, and the Spaniards later called them Changos. They hunted sea lions and fished from rafts of sea-lion hide, and their way of life grew out of the old Chinchorro tradition.

Their beliefs are known only in outline. The sea was revered as Mama Cocha, and the dead were buried with their fishing and hunting gear, which suggests a firm belief in a life after death.