Indigenous equestrian cultures of South America

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Tehuelche Indians from Patagonia on horseback hunting with bola "sling balls"

The indigenous equestrian cultures of South America were indigenous societies in certain South American cultural areas , whose way of life changed greatly between the mid-16th to the end of the 18th century when the horse was adopted by the Spaniards and was shaped by horse keeping and use.

The equestrian cultures include peoples in the southern cone of the continent ( Araucania and Patagonia in the central south of Chile and Argentina as well as in the Gran Chaco ), the Charrúa in Uruguay and in the south of Brazil and various peoples of the Circum-Caribbean in the north of the continent who use horses spread across the Caribbean steppes and tropical savannas of Colombia and Venezuela .

Main features

Picunche Mapuche Huilliche Cuncos Tehuelche Pehuenche Rankülche Puelche Het Charrúa Sanavirones Abipones Tonocoté Mocovi Toba Mbayá Kadiweu Terena nur zeitweilig oder geringfügig berittene Stämme
The spread of wild horses and cattle as a prerequisite for the development of the South American equestrian cultures in the cultural areas "Chaco" and "Patagonia" (move the mouse over the framed tribal territories to see the - linked - names of the peoples)

Very early in the Arauko War in Chile , the Mapuche captured horses from Spanish soldiers and quickly learned how to keep and use them in combat. The famous war chiefs Lautaro and Caupolicán were already on horseback in the 1550s . Here taking over the horse led to a certain balance of the balance of power: mounted Araucans were practically equal to the Spanish opponents (also often outnumbered) in the often impassable landscape, which was unsuitable for major battle maneuvers. The Mapuche developed an almost mystical relationship with their horses and gave them religious significance.

The main impetus for the emergence of equestrian cultures in the great South American plains on the east side of the Andes was the availability of feral cattle and horses - the so-called " Cimarrones ". The Spaniards apparently paid less attention to the control of their horse stocks than the Anglo-Americans, and cattle were introduced much earlier than in North America, so that it was easy for the indigenous people in most regions to get hold of the animals.

Occasionally, the equestrian peoples were joined by mestizos , runaway black African slaves or Europeans who avoided contact with the Spanish authorities for various reasons. In addition, captured women and children were often integrated into the tribes. This also contributed to the cultural exchange and imparted relevant skills and information to the Indians. In Argentina, the Indian riding peoples were of great importance for the culture of the gauchos that arose under their influence .

The Gran Chaco took a special development in northern Argentina, where horses were only taken over in the southern half. In the Chaco the vegetation becomes more and more dense towards the north, so that horses here no longer offered any advantages for hunting. The main use of the horse, similar to the early days in Chile, was its use for war purposes. In comparison, however, the Chaco region stands out due to the particularly large variety of development strategies that different peoples have associated with keeping horses: The possibilities of existence as a horse keeper ranged from the feared robber to the cattle breeder to the successful trader.

Different reactions to the presence of the horse can also be observed in the north of the continent in the dry savannahs on the edge of the Caribbean basin. Here, the Wayuu (span. Guajiro ), who were at home in the semi-arid climate of the Guajira Peninsula , managed to develop into a highly mobile and efficient traders and smugglers nation by adopting the horse and the associated economic methods, which maintained their independence to over was able to preserve the end of the Spanish colonial era. The peoples living in the southern plains of Greater Colombia, on the other hand, used the horse far less, although the prerequisites for this were basically also given here.

While the progressive adoption of the horse by native peoples in North America - especially among the prairie Indians - has been extensively studied, the state of research for the indigenous equestrian cultures of South America has long been poor.

Individual habitats

Equestrian warriors ( Llanero ) as they lived until the middle of the 19th century on the dry plains of the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia and Venezuela

“Horse and Foot Indians” in the Chaco

In the north of Argentina - starting from Asunción (today Paraguay) - various Spanish settlements arose as early as the middle of the 16th century, from which the colonists in the dry steppes of the northern pampas and the light tropical dry forests of the southern Gran Chaco raised cattle. In the process, animals kept escaping, which the local Indian tribes quickly took advantage of.

South Chaco

From the outset, the art of war on horseback - the defense of the traditional residential areas against invaders - played the most important role in cultural change in the Chaco . With the exception of the Lule Vilela tribes and the Chiriguano , all the peoples of the southern Chaco (see map) became feared equestrian warriors from the middle of the 17th century, and they expanded significantly (the most famous example are the Abipones ).

North Chaco

The situation was different in the northern Gran Chaco (today northwest Paraguay and southeast Bolivia), where the trees are growing thicker towards the Amazon. Many more tribes “foot Indians” remained here, such as the ethnic groups of the Mascoi languages , the Wichí (Mataco), Aché , Tapieté, various Guaraní groups, Ayoreo and Chiquitanos . Many of them lived from farming and the colonial pressure remained rather low for a long time, so that the horse would have brought only minor advantages. It was not until the second half of the 17th and 18th centuries that some of them (such as the Zamuco-Chamacoco) acquired horses irregularly, temporarily or in small numbers.

The northeastern Guaycurú ethnic groups of the Mbyá-Kadiweu and their neighbors, the Terena (see map) , however, became fully equestrian warriors like the tribes of the south.

Pampas, Araucania and Patagonia

Catching a horse with the help of the bolas

South of the Gran Chaco - in the huge grassy and dry steppes, savannas and semi-deserts - the “Cimarrones” spread rapidly. Already 44 years after the first founding of Buenos Aires (1536) feral horses were sighted on the Strait of Magellan in front of Tierra del Fuego . The emergence of equestrian cultures among the peoples of this area took place here in three differentiated, but closely communicating and networked areas: west of the Andes in Araucania ( western Patagonia); in the Pampas region south of Buenos Aires and in southern (eastern) Patagonia.

Pampas Indians

Pampas Indians in Buenos Aires in front of a shop for riding accessories (around 1820)

In the pampas around the Río de la Plata , the ethnic groups there came into conflict with the Spanish conquistadors of the La Plata colony at the beginning of the 16th century . They were hunters and gatherers who hunted guanacos and rheas , among others , as well as sea fishermen and shell collectors on the coasts. Probably the Het and the Charrúa learned to ride east of Uruguay as early as the end of the 16th century. In particular, the use of the bola ("sling ball") by mounted hunters and warriors proved to be extremely effective.

In the La Plata region, in addition to the Het and Charrúa, there were originally many small hunting tribes such as the Minuané, Yaró, Timbú, Corondá, Colastiné, Quiloazá and others. However, their small group sizes and the lack of ruling structures (→ acephaly ) led to the genocide of the original Pampas Indians by the Spaniards within only around 100 years . Those who remained either merged into the mestizo population or formed new peoples. For example, from parts of the Het and residents of the Monte-Dornsavanne in the Sierras Pampeanas, the Rankülche (Spanish: Ranqueles ) was formed.

Other remnants of the Het joined the Gennakenk- Tehuelche from North Patagonia at the beginning of the 17th century , who had taken over the equestrian culture from the Mapuche since around 1600. This cultural transfer is often understood as the beginning of the so-called " Araucanization " of the Pampas and Patagonia. The “new” ethnic group, expanding north-east into the previously almost uninhabited pampas and soon dominating the entire area, was called Puelche . Breeding horses, hunting cattle and wild animals and participating in the exchange or sale of stolen goods were their subsistence basis . With the money acquired in this way, European goods quickly found their way into the indigenous cultures, which often developed into tightly organized Kazikentümern (Kazike = "chief"). At the beginning of the 18th century, these new peoples had established themselves and controlled the economic exchange in the border area between Chile and Argentina. Some groups specialized: The Pehuenche , originally mountain Indians who ruled the Andean crossings, formed a new "ethnic group" with Tehuelche and Mapuche groups and became middlemen for cattle, salt and other raw materials and above all ponchos ; others committed raids (so-called malones ) on trading stations or trading trains or levied charges at long-distance trading hubs.

Since the 17th century the pressure from the Creole colonists concentrated in the province of Buenos Aires has increased steadily, among other things, previously unknown diseases occurred among the indigenous people. In the 18th century, the pampas were also subject to increasing Araucanization by migrating Mapuche groups, largely adopted the Mapudungun language and mixed with them to form hybrid clans. This development reached its climax and end during the South American Wars of Independence .

In the context of the Indian wars waged by the armed forces of Argentina and Chile in the last third of the 19th century, ethnocide (forced integration) or genocide (extermination) of the Indian peoples there occurred everywhere in the plains . Remnants of the Pampas Indians, who, with the exception of the ragulche, Pehuenche and Mapuche-Tehuelche, often hardly maintain their indigenous ethnic identity, live mainly as gauchos and campesinos. The Indian languages ​​originally spoken in the area - collectively called Puelche in Araucanian - have been extinct as a result of Araucanization since 1934.

According to the evangelical fundamentalist conversion network Joshua Project , 23,000 people still feel they are Pampas Indians today. Of these, 65 percent profess Catholicism and allegedly 35 percent still belong to traditional religions . Due to the almost complete assimilation into the majority society, however, these can only be remnants of traditional rituals that are syncretistically mixed with the Christian faith.

Araucans

The Araucans or Mapuche are considered to be the first equestrian nation in the region and had a decisive influence on the emergence of equestrian cultures in the Pampas and Patagonia.

The Araukans living in central Chile - a collective term to which, in addition to the Picunche in the north, especially the closely related peoples of the Pehuenche in the mountains, the Mapuche in the center and the Huilliche in the south - were already engaged in agriculture when the Spaniards first reached it in 1536. The Mapuche very quickly took over the horse through systematic theft and learned to ride and breed animals in order to effectively defend themselves against the invaders' advance. Within a few decades they developed a tightly militarily organized equestrian culture that established itself as an anti-colonial counter-state that existed for centuries. In later times, the Araucans moved more and more frequently across the Andes to the east to keep large herds of cattle, horses and sheep there.

In the wars of independence , Chile explicitly recognized the independence of the Mapuche in 1825, on the other hand, many Mapuche fought with the last royalists against the new state. In the context of 1861 proclaimed campaign to "pacify" ( pacification ) Araucania, in truth an expansive Vernichtungskrieg, the Mapuche area was forcibly attached to Chile and finally subjected to 1883rd Subsequently, the south of Chile, and thus the areas previously inhabited by Mapuche and Huilliche, were massively settled by new immigrants from Europe, most of whom came from German-speaking countries. The end of the independent equestrian nation was sealed and the remaining Mapuche had to leave large parts of their traditional settlement areas and were concentrated in relatively small reserves , where they often could not make a living due to the limited space. Impoverishment, crime , social conflicts with the European resettlers and finally emigration to the cities were the result.

Tehuelche

When a boy was born at Puelche and Tehuelche, a mare was slaughtered and the newborn was held in her open breast. It was believed that the child would become a good rider.
Greetings between allies Mapuche and Tehuelche

By 1560 at the latest, the first feral horses appeared in Patagonia among the tribes of the southern Tehuelche , who lived there in small communities from hunting and gathering. However, there was no colonial pressure there, so that in northern Patagonia they only served as an additional source of food for at least 100 years and in the extreme south for well over 200 years. In addition, the number of cattle and horses there was significantly lower than in the pampas due to the semi-desert vegetation.

While the northern Tehuelche were already in close contact with the Araucans and Mapuche at the beginning of the 17th century and absorbed their influences (→ Pampas Indians ) , they only spread in the southern heartland of Patagonia after 1670 and the people living there now also joined in familiar with the use of the horse as a riding and pack animal. Since then, there have often been alliances between Araucanian groups and Tehuelche, whose social structures have converged and, as with their northern neighbors, tended to change from non-domineering structures to what some researchers call cacik rule.

See also

literature

  • Peter Mitchell: Horse Nations. The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 2015, ISBN 978-0-19-870383-9 .
    Especially chap. 7 ( South America I: Caribbean Deserts and Tropical Savannahs ) and Chap. 8 ( South America II: The Southern Cone ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d Helmut Schindler: Equestrian and Non-Equestrian Indians of the Gran Chaco during the Colonial Period. In: Indiana. No. 10, Gebr. Mann 1985. ISSN  0341-8642 . Pp. 451-464.
  2. ^ A b Peter Mitchell: Horse Nations. The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492. Oxford 2015, pp. 258, 260.
  3. ↑ a b c Michael Riekenberg : Small history of Argentina. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58516-6 . Pp. 13-15.
  4. ↑ Helmut Schindler: The equestrian tribes of the Gran Chaco. (Ethnological treatises). Reimer, 1983, ISBN 978-3-496-00532-2 . P. 80.
  5. ^ A b Peter Mitchell: Horse Nations. The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492. Oxford 2015, p. 19 f.
  6. ↑ a b c Ludwig Kersten: The Indian tribes of the Gran Chaco up to the end of the 18th century. A contribution to the historical ethnography of South America. International Archives for Ethnography, Volume XVII, Leiden (NL) 1905. pp. 17–19.
  7. ↑ Göran Burenhult (ed.): Illustrated history of mankind. Volume: Primitive people today. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-0745-8 (Original: Traditional Peoples Today , Harpercollins 1994). P. 198.
  8. ↑ Walter Regehr: The living space situation of the Indians in the Paraguayan Chaco: human geographic-ethnological study of the subsistence basis and the form of settlement of acculturated Chaco peoples. Wepf 1979. p. 56.
  9. ↑ Erick D. Langer: Indigenous Peoples and the Chaco War: Power and Acquiescence in Bolivia, Paraguqy, and Argentina. In: Bridget Maria Chesterton (Ed.): The Chaco War: Environment, Ethnicity, and Nationalism. Bloomsbury Publishing 2016, ISBN 978-1-4742-4889-1 . Cape. 6th
  10. ↑ Manuel Llarás Samitier: Origen del Caballo en la . In: historiaybiografias.com, based on Revista Patagónica No. 19/1984, accessed on January 22, 2016.
  11. ^ A b Waldemar Stöhr: Lexicon of peoples and cultures. Volume 1, Westermann, Braunschweig 1972, ISBN 3-499-16158-3 . Pp. 41-42, 81.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ Hartmut Motz: Languages ​​and Peoples of the Earth - Linguistic-Ethnographic Lexicon. 1st edition, Volume 3, Projekt-Verlag Cornelius, Halle 2007, ISBN 978-3-86634-368-9 , pp. 213-214.
  15. ↑ a b Evaristo Aguirre: Los Querandíes: Nuestro pueblo originario . In: museolosdesmochados.com.ar (Museo Particular de Antropología e Historia Natural “Los Desmochados”), Casilda (Arg), accessed on January 18, 2016.
  16. ↑ Wolfgang Lindig et al. Mark Münzel: The Indians. Cultures and history of the Indians of North, Central and South America. dtv, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-423-04317-X p. 127.
  17. ^ A b Martha Bechis: The last step in the Process of “Araucanization of the Pampa”, 1810–1880: Attempts of Ethnic Ideologization and “Nationalism” among the Mapuche and Araucanized Pampean Aborigines. In: Claudia Briones, José Luis Lanata: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on the Native Peoples of Pampa, Patagonia, and Tierra del Fuego to the Nineteenth Century. Bergin & Garvey, London 2002, pp. 121-131 (here: 121 f.).
  18. ↑ Willi Stegner (Ed.): Pocket Atlas Völker und Sprachen. 1st edition, Klett-Perthes, Gotha 2006, ISBN 978-3-12-828123-0 . P. 261.
  19. ↑ Ethnological information according to ISO language code 639-3: pue on ethnologue.com. SIL International , accessed January 9, 2016.
  20. ↑ Joshua Project: Argentina ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Pampas). Retrieved January 18, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / legacy.unreachedresources.org
  21. ↑ Hartmut Motz: Languages ​​and Peoples of the Earth - Linguistic-Ethnographic Lexicon. Volume 2, Projekt-Verlag Cornelius, Halle 2007, ISBN 978-3-86634-368-9 . Pp. 230-232.
  22. ↑ Mirco Lomoth: Mapuche, forest company and state: a dispute from today's Chile. Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3-86583-173-6 . P. 49.
  23. ^ Austin Whittall: Monsters of Patagonia. Cape. Southern South American Natives. Zagier & Urruty, Buenos Aires (Arg). 2014.
  24. ↑ Manuel Llarás Samitier: Origen del Caballo en la Patagonia. In: historiaybiografias.com, based on Revista Patagónica No. 19/1984, accessed on January 22, 2016.
  25. ↑ Miguel Angel Palermo: La Innovacion agropecuaria entre los indígenas pampeano-patagónigos. Genesis y Procesos. In: Anuario del IEHS, Vol. III, Tandil, Buenos Aires (Arg) 1988 ( pdf version ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original - and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). Pp. 45, 58-59. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.unicen.edu.ar
  26. ^ Hugo Adolf Bernatzik: America. Volume 3 of The New Great Ethnology: Peoples and Cultures of the Earth in Word and Image, Herkul, 1954. P. 217, 292.
  27. ^ Peter Mitchell: Horse Nations. The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492. Oxford 2015, p. 272.