Indigenous groups and cultures in South America

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Indigenous groups and cultures in South America

• 26.1.2006

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Readings

• Fagg (1977 1963) Ancient South America. (in
  Latin America A General History)
• Steward (1970) Cultural Evolution in South
  America (in Goldschmidt and Hoijer The Social
  Anthropology of Latin America. Los Angeles U of
  California Press)

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Literature on native peoples in SA

• Karsten, R. 1926. The Civilization of South
  American Indians With Special Reference to Magic
  and Religion
• Radin, P. 1942. Indians of South America.
• Steward, J. 1946. Handbook of South American
  Indians (6 Vols)
• Steward, J., and L. Faron 1959. Native Peoples of
  South America. New York McGraw-Hill.
• Osborne, H. 1968. South American Mythology.
• Gross, D. R. 1973. People and Cultures of Native
  South America An Anthropological Reader.

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Topics of discussion

• Theories of origin
• Ethnohistory of South American culture areas
• Northern South America and the Caribbean  
• The Tropical Forest  
• Southernmost South America  
• Northern and Central Andes
• Contemporary ethnic groups and languages
• Video Noë

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Early speculations on origin

• Discovery of America first speculations
• a theological rather than a scientific problem
• had to conform with the Biblical worldview
• Various speculations
• Biblia Poliglota (1569-73)
• Descendants of Shem, son of Noah
• Tribes of Israel, dispersed by the Assyrians
• From lost continents
• Mu in the Pacific
• Atlantis in the Atlantic

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Nativist speculations

• Locating the Biblical Garden of Eden in the New
  World
• Antonio de León Pinelo (17th c.)
• El Paraiso en el Nuevo Mundo (1653)
• Genesis took place in the province of Mojos
  (Eastern Bolivia)
• Emeterio Villamil de Rada (19th c.)
• La Lengua de Adan (1860)
• Aymara - the original language of mankind
• human race originated in Sorata (Bolivian Andes)

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Contemporary theory

• Native Americans descendants of Asian peoples
• Migration across the Bering Strait
• northeastern Siberia Alaska
• the last phases of the final glacial period
  (Pleistocene)
• 20,000 B.C.
• the sea level 90 m lower than at present

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Contemporary theory

• Gradual migration towards South
• Further development endemic
• E.g. 4,000 - 3,000 B.C.
• cultivation of plants
• maize, beans and squash
• Domestication of animals
• llama, alpaca and guinea-pig

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Migration from elsewhere?

• Trans-Pacific migrations
• from China, Indonesia and elsewhere?
• Inca legends recorded by Spanish chroniclers
• Trans-Atlantic migrations
• Egyptians South America
• founded the Aztec and Inca cultures 4000 years
  ago
• Heyerdahl Ra (1969) Ra II (1970)
• Today's consensus
• transoceanic contacts cannot be denied
• had no important impact on South American culture

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Migration to elsewhere?

• Trans-Pacific migrations
• Native South Americans Pacific/Polynesian
  islands
• Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002)
• Cultural diffusionism
• Various theories of migration patterns of ancient
  peoples
• Kon-Tiki (1947)
• From Peru
• Tuamotu Archipelago of Polynesia

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Ethnohistory of SA culture areas

• Northern South America ( Caribbean and Panama)
• Northern and Central Andes
• Tropical Forest ( Eastern SA)
• Southern third of SA (the Cone)

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Northern South America and the Caribbean  

• Earliest habitation
• Continental regions
• 9,000 BC? / 18,000 BC ?
• Caribbean islands
• 3000 BC
• 3000 BC
• cultivation of maize in Ecuador
• manioc in Venezuela
• Flourishing of pottery

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Northern South America and the Caribbean  

• 500 BC
• distinctive sculpture and metalwork
• Small, independent states
• Chibcha (Muisca) kingdoms of N-Colombia (13-16
  c.)
• Culturally resembled the Inca state
• The legend of El Dorado
• Miskito, Cuna, Arawak and Carib (simpler)

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Tropical Forest  

• Inhabited after 3000 BC (?)
• Few archaeological remains
• Population
• relatively sparse
• clustered along riverbanks
• fishing rather than hunting
• No large towns
• Politically simple
• Rich cosmologies

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Southernmost South America  

• 7,000 BC
• Earliest habitation
• Varied subsistence activities
• North - agriculture
• Center - hunting (pampas)
• South - fishing

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Northern and Central Andes

• 11,000 BC
• Earliest human occupation
• 2000 BC
• first stone buildings (central Peru)
• 900-300 BC
• Chavín (Central Peru)
• religious center (Chavin de Huantar)
• similar to Olmec religious symbolism

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Northern and Central Andes

• 300 BC 600 AD
• Irrigation, temples, ceramics
• Moche (northern coast of Peru)
• Nazca (southern coast of Peru)

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Northern and Central Andes

• 600 1000
• Huari/Wari (central Peru)
• Tiahuanacu/Tiwanaku (by Lake Titicaca, 300-900)
• the highest city in the ancient world (3800 ms)
• 1000
• Chimú (northern coast of Peru)
• 1200 1530s
• Cusco Quechua state Inca Empire

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Inca Empire

• Inca
• "prince" or "king" in Quechua
• supreme ruler of that empire
• all subject peoples of the Inca Empire
• Inca Empire
• 1463 1533
• 9 million people
• the most complex political organization in SA

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Socio-cultural features of the Inca Empire

• Adminsitratively complex society
• four regions (suyus)
• Tahuantinsuyu
• "Land of the Four Quarters" (in Quechua)
• Strict political hierarchy
• Aristocracy
• descended from the sun god, Inti
• Incestuous marriages
• Well-developed agriculture
• Terraces
• Irrigations systems

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Socio-cultural features of the Inca Empire

• No written language
• Quipu
• Quipucamayo memory expert
• No wheel
• Pyramids, suspension bridges
• Earthquake-resistant construction style

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Spanish conquest of the Incas

• 1493-1525
• internal conflicts between center and provinces
• 1527 1532
• political struggles
• Emperor Huayna Capac dies
• Huáscar vs Atahualpa (1532)
• 1532
• Francisco Pizarro with 180 Spanish soldiers
• taken for the creator god Viracocha

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Spanish conquest of the Incas

• 1533
• Atahualpa executed
• Inca puppet-state
• Manco Capac II
• 1536
• Manco Capac's revolt against the Spanish rule
• The Inca kingdom at Vilcabamba northwest of Cusco
  
• 1572
• the Spanish destroy Vilcabamba and kill Túpac
  Amaru

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Túpac Amaru as a symbol

• Túpac Amaru
• the last emperor of the Incas (1571-1572)
• Túpac Amaru II
• Peruvian rebel José Gabriel Condorcanqui
• rebellion in the 1780s against colonial rule
• Tupamaros
• Uruguayan revolutionary group of 1960s and 1970s
• Since 1985 a political party
• Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
• Moviemiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (MRTA)
• Peruvian guerrilla group since 1980s

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Contemporary ethnic groups

• Ethnic and racial diversity
• Native American, European, African heritage
• mestizos, mulattos, zambos
• Geographical variations
• Native Americans
• Amazon, highlands of the central Andean republics
• Spanish descent
• Chile, Argentina and Uruguay
• Potuguese descent
• Brazil
• Black and mulatto
• Brazil, the Guyanas and coastal Colombia and
  Ecuador

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Native languages in South America  

• 1500 separate languages
• Over 100 distinct families/stocks
• 8 major language groups
• Quechua
• Tupí-Guaraní
• Aymara
• Chibchan
• Cariban
• Gê
• Araucanian
• Arawakan
• Guarani official language in Paraguay
• Quechua official language in Peru

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Quechuan languages

• Quichua (Ecuador)
• Biggest number of speakers
• 8-10 million
• Peru 4-5 million
• Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Argentina
• Language of Incas
• But used as a lingua franca already before the
  Incas
• Quechua words in English coca, condor, pampa,
  puma, quinine, guano etc

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Quechuan languages

• 17th / 18th centuries
• Christianization alphabetization
• Rise of fiction in Quechuan
• Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala
• chronicle of Quechua folkways and history
• Contemporary revitalization in Ecuador, Bolivia
• Increase of Quechua solidarity across national
  boundaries

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Tupí-Guaraní languages

• Guaraní branch
• 9 languages
• Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil
• Guaraní
• the most used language throughout the Amazon
  region
• 4-5 million speakers in Paraguay (3/4 of
  population bilingual)
• various words in Spanish/English (eg. jaguar)
• Tupi branch
• 30 languages
• Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay,
  Peru, Venezuela
• Tupi lingua franca in indigenous Brazil

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Aymaran languages

• Third largest group
• Aymara
• dominant language of the group
• 1.5 million speakers in Bolivia, Chile, and
  Argentina.
• Lake Titicaca area
• Tiahuanacu
• AD 300-900

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Video Noë

• Uros islands floating islands
• Made of tortora reeds
• occupation for 500 years
• escape from expanding Inca empire
• Nowadays
• 40 islands
• 300 inhabitants
• descendants of Uros Indians
• Aymara influence and language
• tourism and overcommercialization