Charrúa
The Charrúa belonged to the indigenous peoples of South America , who lived mainly in the borders of today's Uruguay , as well as in northeastern Argentina and southern Brazil . They were nomadic hunters and gatherers (big game, vegetables, fish) who lived in tents. Already since the beginning of the Conquista in the 16th century they made use of the feral horses and cattle of the Spaniards - Cimarrones - and developed into feared equestrian warriors. If they previously lived under constant pressure from the Guarani - who lived on the coasts of Uruguay and the great rivers - this now turned in their favor. The people were exterminated in the 19th century.
General history
It is estimated that the fertile areas of present-day Uruguay have been around since around 7000 BC. Were settled by people who lived nomadically in small groups. The settlement was very thin due to the climatic conditions.
History of the Charrúas
The first people to emerge as such were the Charrúa. The first traces, however, were only found from a later more advanced culture which, in addition to fishing, already operated (to a small extent) agriculture and also knew ceramics . Since the Scriptures were unknown to this people, almost nothing is known of the Charrúas today. When the Europeans arrived, the Charrúas were a small people threatened by the Guaraní . The Charrúas fought fiercely against the invading Spaniards , so that the discoverer, Juan Díaz de Solís and with him 50 or 60 men - depending on the source - his team in the same year from the native Indian tribe across from the island of Martín García , on the soil of what is today State of Uruguay, were killed.
Presumably, the Charrúas learned to ride as early as the end of the 16th century and became a feared South American equestrian culture . In particular, the combination of their "slingshot balls" - the bolas - with the cavalry proved to be extremely effective in the hunt for the "Cimarrones" and in defense.
In the course of the 19th century at the latest, the Charrúas disappeared completely due to centuries of persecution by the Europeans. In 1831 the Salsipuedes massacre occurred , in which 40 charrúas were killed and 300 captured. The Spaniards transferred three charrúas to the Iberian Peninsula and mummified them. Today these mummies can be viewed in a Spanish museum.
On July 21, 2002, the skeleton of the last chief of the Charrúas indigenous tribe, Vaimacá Pirú, was returned from Paris to Montevideo . It was exhibited in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris for 169 years . The chief was abducted to France as an "exhibit" by an entrepreneur in 1833 - together with three of his subjects, including a pregnant woman who gave birth to a daughter in Paris. Two of the four Indians died in an " anthropological garden" because they refused to eat. The entrepreneur sold the other “attractions” to a circus.
Charrúas today
The descendants of the Charrúas living today are completely absorbed by the other peoples of the Pampas Indians and the Euro-Americans ( mestizos ). In addition to La celeste (German: "The Sky Blue"), "Charrúas" is a frequently used nickname for the Uruguayan national soccer team .
Web links
- Historia de los charrúas (in Spanish)
- Uruguay: los primeros desaparecidos (in Spanish)
- Renzo Pi Hugarte : El Uruguay indígena . Nuestra Tierra. 1969. Retrieved May 12, 2015.
literature
- Siegfried Huber: Entdecker und Eroberer - German conquistadors in South America , Walter Verlag, Olten and Freiburg im Br. 1966 pp. 24–26
- Antonio Pagafetta: With Magellan around the earth , Edition Erdmann, ISBN 978-3-86539-811-6 , p. 88
Individual evidence
- ^ Waldemar Stöhr: Lexicon of peoples and cultures. Vol. 1, Westermann, Braunschweig 1972, ISBN 3-499-16158-3 . P. 81.
- ↑ Paideuma: Mitteilungen zur Kulturkunde, Volume 8. 1962. P. 99.
- ^ Uruguay - From pre-Columbian times to the conquest. Retrieved January 26, 2016, from countrystudies.us, US Library of Congress
- ^ Jan Onofrio: Dictionary of Indian Tribes of the Americas, Volume 1. American Indian Publishers, Newport Beach (USA) 1993, ISBN 0-937862-28-2 , p. 335.
- ↑ Angelika Kitzmantel: The Jesuit missionaries Martin Dobrizhoffer and Florian Paucke and their contributions to the ethnography of the Gran Chaco in the 18th century. ( pdf version ), Vienna 2004. p. 34.
- ↑ Hartmut Motz: Languages and Peoples of the Earth - Linguistic-Ethnographic Lexicon. 1st edition, Volume 1, Projekt-Verlag Cornelius, Halle 2007, ISBN 978-3-86634-368-9 , pp. 213-214.