Ethnic groups and indigenous cultures in South America

1
Ethnic groups and indigenous cultures in South
America

• 28.1.2004

2
Readings

• Fagg, (1977 1963) Ancient South America. (in
  Latin America A General History)
• Wagley and Harris (1974 1955) A Typology of
  Latin American Subcultures. (in Heath)

3
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.

4
Topics of discussion

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

5
Early speculations on origin

• Discovery of America first speculations
• a theological rather than a scientific problem
• had to go with the Biblical world-picture
• Various speculations
• Biblia Poliglota (1569-73)
• Descendants from 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 Creation / the Garden of
  Eden in the New World.
• Antonio de León Pinelo (17th c.)
• El Paraiso en el Nuevo Mundo
• Genesis took in the province of Mojos (Eastern
  Bolivia)
• Emeterio Villamil de Rada (19th c.)
• La Lengua de Adan
• Aymara - the original language of mankind
• human race originated in Sorata (Bolivian Andes)
• Florentine Amegiño (1880)
• Argentinian palaeontologist
• palaeontological evidence of ancient man in South
  America
• not necessarily the original progenitors of all
  mankind

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Migration from elsewhere?

• trans-Pacific migrations from China, Indonesia
  and elsewhere?
• Inca legends recorded by Spanish chroniclers
• Today's consensus
• transoceanic contacts cannot be denied
• but exerted no important impact on South American
  culture

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Migration to elsewhere?

• Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002)
• Theories about migration patterns of ancient
  peoples
• Native South Americans Pacific islands
• Kon-Tiki (1947)
• Peru Tuamotu Archipelago of Polynesia
• the Galápagos Islands (1954)
• Easter Island and the East Pacific (1955-56)
• Egyptians South America
• founded the Aztec and Inca cultures 4000 years
  ago
• Ra I (1969) Ra II (1970)

9
Ethnohistory of SA culture areas

• Northern South America and the Caribbean  
• The Tropical Forest  
• Southernmost South America  
• Central and Southern Andes

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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 (a tropical tuber) in Venezuela
• pottery making flourished
• 500 BC
• distinctive sculpture and metalwork
• Small, independent states
• Chibcha kingdoms of Colombia
• Culturally resembled the Inca state
• Miskito, Cuna, Arawak and Carib (simpler)

11
Tropical Forest  

• Inhabited after 3000 BC
• Population
• relatively sparse
• clustered along riverbanks
• fishing rather than hunting
• no large towns

12
Southernmost South America  

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

13
Central and Southern Andes I

• 11,000 BC
• Earliest human occupation
• excavation in Monte Verde (southern Chile)
• 2000 BC central Peru
• first stone buildings
• 900-300 BC
• Chavín (Central Peru)
• religious center
• similar to Olmec religious symbolism
• 300 BC 600 AD
• Moche (northern coast of Peru)
• Nazca (southern coast of Peru)
• Irrigation, temples, ceramics

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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
• ca1463 1533
• 9 million people
• the most complex political organization in SA

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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
• 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 of indigenous resistance

• Túpac Amaru
• the last emperor of the Incas (1571-1572)
• Túpac Amaru II
• Peruvian rebel José Gabriel Condorcanqui
• two-year rebellion in the 1780s against Spanish
  colonial rule.
• Tupamaros
• Uruguayan revolutionary group of 1960s and 1970s
• Successful bank robberies and kidnappings 1968-72
• Since 1985 a political party
• Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement
• Moviemiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru (MRTA)
• Peruvian guerrilla group since 1980s
• Inspiration from Cuba and Castro
• linked with the Sandinistas and armed
  revolutionary groups in Colombia
• Not as influential as Sendero Luminoso
• Took control of the Japanese Embassy in Lima
  (1997)

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Contemporary ethnic groups

• Ethnic and racial diversity
• Native American, European, African heritage
• mestizos, mulattos, zambos
• Geographical variations
• Native Americans - highlands of the central
  Andean republics
• Spanish descent - Argentina and Uruguay
• Potugueses descent Brazil
• Black and mulatto - Brazil, the Guyanas and
  coastal Colombia and Ecuador
• Italians (late 19th century and 1930s)
• Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay.
• Germans
• south central Chile, Paraguay
• Syrians and Lebanese
• Paraguay
• Indians, Indonesias, and Chinese (late 19th c.)
• British Guiana and Dutch Guiana
• Japanese
• southeastern Brazil ( Paraguay, Bolivia)

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Native languages in South America  

• 1500 separate languages
• Over 100 distinct families/stocks
• Eight major language groups
• Chibchan
• Cariban
• Gê
• Quechua
• Aymara
• Araucanian
• Arawakan
• Tupí-Guaraní
• Guarani official language in Paraguay
• Quechua official language in Peru (1975)

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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
• 17th / 18th centuries
• Roman alphabet Catholic Church
• 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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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

21
Tupí-Guaraní

• Tupi branch
• 30 languages
• spoken in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia,
  Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela
• Tupi lingua franca in indigenous Brazil
• Guaraní branch
• 9 languages
• Paraguay, Argentina, Bolivia, and 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)
• Communal villages reducciones
• organized by Jesuit missionaries

22
Chibchan languages

• From northern South America to Central America.
  
• Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Colombia
• Muisca (or Chibcha)
• the language of Chibcha civilization
• Now extinct

23
Cariban languages

• Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam,
  Venezuela
• Caribbean islands
• Noted for ferocity
• Caniba or Canima
• Arawak term for the Carib tribes
• cannibal
• Barbecue, canoe, maize, caiman

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Araucanian languages

• Central and southern Chile and western Argentina
• Mapuche, Huilliche, and Picunche
• Considered the fiercest of the Native South
  Americans
• Constant revolts against Spanish rule
• Totally submitted in 1881
• Chile, poncho

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Other

• Gê
• about 50 live languages
• Brazil
• Pano-Tacanan languages
• Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru Ge languages of
  Brazil
• Jivaroan languages
• Ecuador and Peru