Native Americans of Middle and South America

Article Outline

Introduction; Culture Areas; History; Native Americans Today

Religious Beliefs and Practices

The Ona and Yahgan oriented their religion principally around shamans who played roles both as bewitchers of enemy individuals and curers of their own people. To weaken their enemies, the shamans hurled invisible magic darts (called kwáke by the Ona and yéku by the Yahgan) intended to cause illness and death. Because enemy shamans engaged in the same hostile behavior, local shamans sought to cure ill members of their band by magically sucking the invisible darts out of their bodies and hurling them into the air away from camp. The Puelche of the pampas believed in two spiritual beings, one of whom caused illness, death, and storms, and the other of whom was benign. Little is known about the religion of other peoples in the culture area.

Post-Contact History

The first European explorer to arrive in Southern South America was the Spanish navigator Juan Díaz de Solís. In 1516 he sailed into the Río de la Plata, a large estuary between present-day Uruguay and Argentina. Solis claimed the region for Spain, but he and his landing party were killed by the Charrúa. In 1520 Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, navigating through what is now the Strait of Magellan, encountered the Tehuelche of Patagonia. In 1526 Italian navigator Sebastian Cabot visited the Río de la Plata, traveling up the Paraná River as far as the area of modern Asunción in Paraguay. But conquest and colonization of the region did not begin until 1536, when a large expedition led by Spanish soldier Pedro de Mendoza founded Buenos Aires.

The native peoples of Southern South America suffered greatly from diseases brought by the Europeans. Indigenous groups in the central and northern parts of the region, who lived closest to European colonies in Uruguay and Argentina, quickly died out or were assimilated into European society. In contrast, the Chono, Alacaluf, Ona, Aush, and Yahgan survived in significant numbers until the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless, in the face of the European expansion into the Chilean archipelago and Tierra del Fuego in the early 20th century, all of these groups were extinct by the 1950s.

The introduction and the Culture Areas section of this article were contributed by David J. Wilson.

History

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The Historical Record

Determining the history of human settlement and cultural development in the central and southern portion of the Western Hemisphere (or Middle and South America) is an exercise in reconstructing the past. Scholars use many types of evidence and methods to reconstruct the histories of the cultures that existed in the Americas before the late 15th century, when Europeans began their conquest of what they called the New World. Well before then, indigenous peoples had developed advanced civilizations. These civilizations were centered in the most densely settled areas of Middle America (Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies) and the Andean region of western South America. When Europeans arrived, the Aztec Empire ruled over central Mexico and the Inca Empire dominated the Andean region. Most historical research has focused on these areas.

Archaeology, the examination of surviving physical remains, has been conducted throughout the Americas. This method uncovers information that can help to reconstruct the broad structures and textures of cultures. The layout of communities and architecture of buildings provide a fundamental understanding of the people who created and lived in these places. The designs and patterns found on textiles and pottery also provide important clues to their ways of life. However, archaeology rarely illuminates the dynamics behind changes through time. Also, the quality and quantity of existing physical remains differs considerably from one area to another. The archaeological record remains incomplete for the early indigenous cultures of the Americas. Most evidence is from the larger civilizations, which constructed stone edifices. These ruins provide a more durable record than the dwellings made of wood or other perishable materials that were built by many smaller societies. In addition, the physical record has been altered by the impact of human-induced destruction and variations in climate. Technological advances in radiocarbon dating methods and DNA studies, both of which are used in the scientific evaluation of archaeological evidence, can help scholars formulate more accurate conclusions from surviving remains.

Other types of evidence are based on human memory and record keeping. Native American testimonies survive from many early encounters with Europeans. Although these records are invaluable, they are often shaped by the European recorders’ understanding of Native American languages and by their subjective interpretations. In Middle America and the Andean region, where the most advanced indigenous civilizations thrived, native scholars and officials wrote histories of their cultures and communities in the decades following European conquest. This substantial body of writings is highly informative and quite reliable, especially when the individual works are evaluated against each other and against other sources. In Middle America many native peoples became literate in their own languages using the Roman alphabet and recorded land-ownership transactions, minutes from meetings, and other important events. The enormous volume of such documents affords a detailed and intimate view of native life and culture after European contact, and sometimes even before the first encounters. Present-day native rituals, dances, and oral histories also provide important information through the retelling and reenactment of legends and myths. However, these forms often relate an idealized and selective reconstruction of events, rather than an exact account of what may have actually happened.

The Maya of the Yucatán Peninsula and Guatemala and the various native peoples of central Mexico had developed writing, as well as highly accurate mathematical systems and calendars, hundreds of years before Europeans arrived. Writing was a skill restricted to official scribes, who enjoyed high status. They created thousands of codices, which were folding books made from tree bark and animal skins. The codices recorded religious systems, political dynasties, military victories, and other matters of high importance. However, the Spanish destroyed almost all of the codices, in the belief they were a hindrance to the smooth conversion of Native Americans to Christianity. The ability to read classical Mayan was lost for centuries. Scholars finally learned to read the language during the second half of the 20th century, giving new significance to the many inscriptions found on surviving Maya structures, monuments, and ornaments. Other indigenous societies, especially in the Andean region, used knotted cords called quipus to keep accurate counts of population, animals, and products. Some of these have survived, providing another source of information.

Early Migration Patterns

It remains unknown precisely when humans first appeared in the Western Hemisphere. The first inhabitants most likely migrated from northeastern Asia to what is now Alaska by crossing over a land bridge, known as Beringia. This land bridge was exposed from about 25,000 years to 10,000 years ago, during the final glacial stage of the Pleistocene Epoch (1.6 million years to 10,000 years before present). At that time ocean levels were lower because more of Earth’s water was frozen in glaciers. Migratory and herd animals such as mastodons, horses, mammoths, camelids, bison, elk, and moose also crossed the land bridge. Some of these large Pleistocene mammals, including the horse, became extinct in the Americas by 7000 bc. When the Pleistocene Epoch ended, water completely covered Beringia, effectively closing off this early migration route. By then humans had migrated throughout the Americas. They reached the southern cone of South America, as evidenced by the archaeological site of Monte Verde, at least 12,500 years ago. Some early southward migrations may have taken place in boats. See also Migration to the Americas.

Early Settlement and Way of Life

The early inhabitants of the Americas existed by hunting, gathering, and fishing. They adjusted their diet to what was seasonally available in their environment, gathering wild edible plants and insects as well as hunting and fishing all sorts of wild animals. This early diet permitted substantial population growth. Population density remained low, however, and people mostly lived in bands of 50 or fewer members. Populations also increased because most epidemic diseases common to Europe, such as smallpox and measles, did not exist in the Americas.

By 7,000 years ago people in Middle and South America were cultivating edible plants. Permanent agricultural settlements emerged about 4,000 years ago. Peoples of the temperate highlands, specifically south central and northeastern Mexico and coastal Peru, began to cultivate maize around this time. During the next several hundred years, the populations of these areas became much larger. The local societies organized into distinct states, with royal families, governmental bureaucracies, and legal and judicial systems.