I.

Introduction

Native Americans of Middle and South America, indigenous peoples of Middle America (Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies) and South America. Native Americans were the first humans to inhabit these regions, arriving thousands of years before European explorers laid claim to the “New World.”

The story of Native Americans begins in the ancient past. Scientists believe that the first human settlers of the Americas migrated from northeastern Asia during the last ice age, which ended 10,000 years ago. Whereas today the waters of the Bering Strait separate Asia and North America, during the ice age sea levels were much lower, and a wide land bridge, called Beringia, connected the continents. Anthropologists believe one or more waves of people crossed this bridge to North America, and through countless generations, eventually made their way down to Central America and across the Isthmus of Panama into South America.

In what in evolutionary terms was a brief flash of time, the descendants of those first migrants adapted to nearly every environment throughout Middle and South America, from the temperate highlands of Mexico and tropical rain forest of the Amazon Basin to the grassy pampas of Argentina and frigid islands of southernmost Chile. In Middle America and in the Andes mountains of South America, Native Americans began to grow maize (corn), beans, squash, and many other crops. As agriculture and food production intensified, populations soared, eventually developing into great states and empires of immense size, wealth, and complexity. The largest and best known of these were the Maya civilization, the Aztec Empire, and the Inca Empire. Other important civilizations included the Olmec, Teotihuacán, Toltec, and Zapotec cultures of Middle America; and the Chavín, Moche, Nazca, Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco), and Chimú cultures of the Andes.

When Italian-Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas in 1492, he thought he had reached islands off the eastern coast of Asia, which was then known as the Indies. Perhaps because of this belief, he called the villagers who greeted him indios, which later became the English word Indian. During the colonial period in Spanish-speaking Middle and South America, many indigenous peoples came to detest the name indio because it was accompanied by their subjugation and maltreatment at the hands of European conquerors. Although the use of indio persists to the present, anthropologists today generally use the term indigenous peoples when referring to the native inhabitants of Latin America and their ancestors; some also use the English terms Indian or Native American in scholarly writing. Like their counterparts in North America, the indigenous peoples themselves prefer to be identified by their specific tribal name, such as Huichol, Maya, Ynomamö, or Aymara. This article uses the terms Native Americans, indigenous peoples, and native peoples interchangeably when referring generally to the indigenous inhabitants of Middle and South America.

Intermarriage between Native Americans and Europeans began almost immediately from the time of European conquest. The children of these unions became known as mestizos. Mestizos now constitute a large proportion of the population in many Latin American countries, including Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. It is often very difficult to distinguish people who are of pure indigenous ancestry from those who are mestizo. In fact, the classification of people as indigenous is usually more of a cultural distinction than a biological one, counting only those people who have not yet abandoned their indigenous ways of life. Today, the majority of indigenous people in Middle and South America live in villages away from urban areas.

This article divides its discussion of Native Americans into three main parts. The Culture Areas section describes indigenous cultures and ways of life, primarily as they existed before European contact, in seven geographic regions. The History section chronicles the earliest migrations to Middle and South America, the rise of civilizations, the European conquests, and the modern history of indigenous groups. The Native Americans Today section discusses many of the political, social, and cultural issues that indigenous people face in contemporary Middle and South America.

For a discussion of the indigenous peoples of North America, see Native Americans of North America.