Alternative methods in the traditional construction of riverbank carpenters in southern Chile. Memory of a practice

Abstract

The Seaside carpentry is a craft who passes through a visible state of agony and decadence, where the lost of its traditional craftsmen has missed the knowledge chain of its long-established methods and haptic memories which have underpinned the heritage of this profession. The develop of traditional technics that are able to assume the lackness and poverty as unavoidable realities, elude the problem that their illiteracy means, with strategies that work even closer with the material the way to operate with it. This study was completed by the observation and craftsmanship within Astilleros de San Juan, Chiloe; where the effort focused in understanding the logics that sustain the construction of a craft, using it as a case of study. The evident dependence of its own historical develop allows to conclude that to reach the complex components that generate a ship, it is necessary to be enriched by a continued trial and error process, finishing from these iterative operation specific Material memory and Haptic immaterial knowledge.