Native Americans of Middle and South America

Article Outline

Introduction; Culture Areas; History; Native Americans Today

Post-Contact History

In 1492 the Spanish, led by Christopher Columbus, arrived on a small island in the Bahamas, where they encountered the Taíno. During the same expedition Columbus and his crew explored parts of Cuba and Hispaniola. Although initial relations between native peoples and the Spanish were friendly, relations deteriorated when, in subsequent expeditions to the Americas, Columbus enslaved indigenous peoples as laborers and Spanish settlers raided their villages in search of gold and other riches.

Drawn by reports of gold and wealth, Spaniards flocked to the Caribbean. Although they themselves were fierce warriors, the Spaniards were horrified by the cannibalism of the native inhabitants, and they regarded their religious practices as heathen and uncivilized. The Spaniards thus found ample justification to enslave them, kill them, and stamp out their religions and cultures. For example, after their first landing in 1514 along the northern coast of Colombia, the Spaniards proceeded to burn most of the Tairona towns and kill many of their inhabitants. Even the native people who escaped this onslaught were not free from disaster, as immense numbers of them died from diseases introduced by the Europeans, such as smallpox. After a few decades, there were so few native people left that the Spanish began to import slaves from Africa. Although most of the indigenous groups of the Caribbean are now extinct, many Central American and Northern Andean indigenous groups—especially smaller-scale societies such as the Miskito of Nicaragua and the Colorado of Ecuador—have survived and prospered to modern times.

Central and Southern Andes

Land and Habitat

The Central and Southern Andes culture area extends from northernmost Peru down to south central Chile. Except for the narrow shore that lies along its entire western coast, most of the area is dominated by the high peaks of the Andes. In western Peru and Bolivia these peaks run in two great chains, or cordilleras, that are situated roughly 200 km (120 mi) apart. The highest peaks soar more than 6,100 m (20,000 ft) above sea level. Between the two cordilleras lies a series of high plains at elevations of 3,600 to 4,000 m (12,000 to 13,000 ft) that is known as the puna in Peru and the Altiplano in Bolivia. In Peru three major rivers—the Marañón, the Mantaro, and the Urubamba—cross through the mountains before descending into the Amazon Basin. Farther to the south, the Andean chains come closer together as they extend down into Chile and the westernmost edge of Argentina.

Composed primarily of recently eroded materials, the soils of the puna and river basins of highland Peru are rich, and rainfall here is moderate. The adjacent coast, on the other hand, receives almost no rain at all and is one of the driest deserts in the world. However, human habitation was possible here, in a series of some 50 narrow river valleys whose headwaters are in the nearby Andes. An even more hostile place for human habitation was the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, which receives rainfall only two to four times a century.

People and Languages

The central Andes were home to some of the greatest civilizations in South America. In northern Peru between 1000 bc and ad 1532, a series of spectacularly accomplished cultures developed, including the Chavín (see Chavín de Huantar), Vicús, Moche (Mochica), Recuay, and Chimú. Farther south in Peru and Bolivia, during the same period, the equally impressive Paracas, Nazca, Huari (Wari), and Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) cultures developed. Beginning in the mid-1400s, the Incas built a powerful empire of extraordinary wealth and complexity, which spanned a vast region from Chile to Ecuador (see Inca Empire). Important groups in the southern Andes prior to European contact included the Atacameños, Diaguitas, and Araucanians (Mapuche, Huilliche, and Picunche). Major language groups in Peru were Quechua (the official language of the Inca), Aymaran, Muchic, and Uru, while those of Chile included Atacama, Diaguita, and Araucanian. Today, Quechua and Aymará are still widely spoken; indigenous people who speak these languages are called Quechua and Aymara Indians, respectively.

Early Peoples

The archaeological site of Monte Verde in southern Chile, dating to 12,500 years ago, is the earliest well-documented site of human settlement in the Americas. Buried under sediments by the boggy conditions along a creek bed, this small settlement was home to perhaps 20 to 30 people. Archaeologists excavating the site found the preserved remains of a great variety of plants (both food and medicinal), the wood foundations of what appeared to be permanent dwellings, wooden implements of various kinds, stone tools, hearths, and a human footprint. Although animal remains at the site indicate that the inhabitants hunted mastodon and prehistoric llamas, the people of Monte Verde appear to have relied more heavily on plants that were gathered during various seasons of the year from places as far as 65 km (40 mi) away.

There are many other important sites of early human habitation in this culture area. Among them are Tagua-Tagua on the coast of Chile, Viscachani in highland Bolivia, and Quebrada Jaguay, Pachamachay Cave, Lauricocha Cave, and Guitarrero Cave in the Peruvian Andes. At the Guitarrero Cave site, archaeologists have found some of the oldest evidence of cultivated plants anywhere in the Americas. The remains of these plants, dated to as early as 7,000 years ago, include several Andean tubers and fruits such as oca, ulluco, pacae, and lucuma, as well as two varieties of beans and the chili pepper.

Diet and Subsistence

The people of the Central and Southern Andes culture area ate a rich variety of domesticated plant foods. On the Andean coast, these included maize, beans, squash, chili peppers, peanuts, sweet potatoes, manioc, avocados, and papayas, as well as lesser-known plants such as achira, cherimoya, guava, guanábana, pacay, and algarroba bean. The domesticated crops of the Andean highlands included quinoa, a high-protein grain, and a host of tubers, or root crops, such as potato, oca, ulluco, maca, and mashua, all of which grow well at higher elevations. Aside from North American groups that domesticated the wild turkey, the people of the central and southern Andes were the only Native Americans to domesticate animals before European contact. They used the llama for transportation, the alpaca for meat and wool, and the cuy, or guinea pig, for meat. The manure of llamas, alpacas, and birds was used for fertilizer.

On the steep-sided slopes of Andean river basins, the Inca and their predecessors constructed flat, rock-faced terraces to extend the area available to grow crops. There was not always enough rainfall to water the crops, however, so the Inca engineered canals to bring water to fields that were often far above the river valley bottoms. Irrigation and farming were much easier to accomplish in the low valleys of the Peruvian coast. There, the remains of canal systems and ancient field lines indicate that the prehistoric inhabitants of this area farmed every irrigable part of the valley floor, as well as flatter parts of the adjacent desert areas, to support their burgeoning populations.