Aymaras: Who They Are, History And Characteristics Of This Culture
The Aymaras are one of the most famous Amerindian peoples worldwide They are one of the few whose language has more than a million speakers, in addition to being well known for the use they make of the coca plant and raising alpacas and llamas.
They live in the high Andes, wear colorful clothes with their characteristic hat and have a fascinating history and culture that has survived not only the Spanish conquest but also a previous one, that of the Incas.
Next we are going to delve deeper into the Aymaras as an ethnic group, we will discover their history, their cultural elements, their language and their particular conception of time.
The Aymaras, also written “Aymara”, are a group of indigenous people who live mostly in the Andean highlands of Bolivia and Peru, found especially near Lake Titicaca They have inhabited this region since pre-Columbian times, currently extending between western Bolivia, northwest Argentina, southeast Peru and northern Chile. They are also called “collas” although this name should not be confused with the ethnic group of the same name that lives in the north of Chile and northwest of Argentina.
This ethnic group has had a history marked by constant changes due to dominant peoples, among the most important the conquest by the Incas in 1430 and the subsequent Spanish colonization. Before these events, they were divided into several independent states that were mainly concentrated in the current republics of Peru and Bolivia.
Although it is not known exactly which was the oldest Aymara country itself, It is suspected that its predecessor, the Tiahuanaco civilization, inhabited the region around 2000 BC. c, being considered the first Aymara state or “protoaimaras”. However, throughout most of their history the Aymara have lived in twelve separate kingdoms, a weak point that was strategically exploited by the Incas and which caused them to end up being their subjects. The last independent Aymara nation was Lupacas in 1400.
Upon being incorporated into the Inca Empire, these peoples went through a strong degree of acculturation, something much later and intense than the Spanish conquest of 1535 However, with the arrival of the Europeans they would go through another acculturation, which occurred in colonial times. With the subsequent independence of Latin American countries, the Aymara have been under the jurisdiction of the modern republics of Peru and Bolivia, as well as part of Chile and Argentina, being under political regimes that have treated them very differently.
The origin of his name
The term “Aymara” appears during colonial times and is of very uncertain origin. In fact, The ancestors of the current Aymaras never called themselves this way and the Incas called them “collas”
It was not until 1559 that Juan Polo de Ondegardo y Zárate, a Spanish viceregal chronicler, called them “Aymaras” based on linguistic information collected in the Collao region. By extension, their language ended up being called “Aymara” as well, although they themselves called it “jaqi aru” (literally “humanity” and “language”).
His story
It is believed that the current Aymara people as an ethnic group are more or less self-conscious and have an identity that has survived to this day. It has its origins in what has been called the Aymara Lordships or the Twelve Kingdoms which existed around 1200 and 1400 AD However, we could go back even further, between 500 and 1000 AD, when a culture called Wari existed, although it is also suspected that the Tiahuanaco culture of 2,000 BC is related to this town.
These kingdoms spread throughout the Andes, expanding their radius of influence and doing so more or less independently. As they did not respond to a centralized political power and they all wanted to obtain dominance in the region, the conflicts between them, despite being culturally brothers, were constant.
Time of splendor
The period of splendor of the Aymaras as citizens of independent states was very brief because in a very short time they were invaded by their neighbors the Incas. The Aymaras were in full expansion in 1450 when the Incas began to create the “Tawantin suyu”, that is, the Inca Empire Given the great power of the Incas, who built a very well-organized empire with an overwhelming military structure, the Aymaras ended up being swallowed up and their kingdoms became just a few more links in the long and extensive Inca state organization.
Decay
Together with the Inca domination, less than a century later the European conquest would be added, accelerating the decline of the Aymaras. In 1532 several Spanish invaders led by Francisco Pizarro arrived in the lands of the then Inca Atahualpa. This event marked the beginning of the end of the empire and, in turn, the decline of the Aymara culture, which became dominated by a distant European state with which they could do almost nothing.
The Spanish settlers settled in the lowlands of present-day Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Argentina, more fertile and suitable places for their crops, displacing the Aymara to the highlands and foothills areas. Although with the passage of centuries they would regain influence in lands they had previously inhabited, It would not be until the 20th century when they would once again have real weight in their native lands, especially thanks to their recognition as an ethnic group to be protected and promote in Bolivia and Peru.
Cultural elements
Aymara culture has kept alive many pre-Columbian traits, combined with Spanish characters Their case is quite peculiar because, because they ended up living in the highest parts of the Andes and had relative cultural isolation, their most purely indigenous features survived the 500 years after the conquest, in addition to the fact that their language has remained quite alive although minorized.
Rituals
As we mentioned, the Aymara have very well preserved customs of pre-Columbian origin which, in turn, they have combined with the Catholic doctrine of the Spanish colonizers. They have kept alive a native substratum by incorporating a Christian layer, forming a very interesting Catholic and indigenous Christian worldview that makes their religious rituals something unique and particular.
The indigenous traits are expressed very clearly in patron saint festivities such as the celebration of Holy Week and the Day of the Dead, Christian-based festivals but to which very purely Aymara elements have been incorporated. All these community festivals are celebrated in the Christian temple and in the cemetery, being led by the Catholic priest. As with the rest of Latin Americans, baptism, marriage and extreme unction are essential.
There are many Aymara legends and they reflect the rich oral tradition of this people, being transmitted orally from parents and grandparents to children and grandchildren. References to wildlife and landscapes are common in these narratives, intermingling with common life, giving foundation to the concepts of duality, complementarity and reciprocity seen as the ordering principles of the Aymara cosmos.
The Aymara worldview can be understood from one idea: the adaptation and understanding of the nature of the Andes They make the natural environment something sacred and see everything as something dual: male and female, day and night, up and down… but these concepts are not opposites in the sense that they fight among themselves to seek hegemony, but rather they are part of a whole, they complement each other and one cannot exist without the other. In fact, although their vision is dual, these opposites form a tripartite range of possibilities: e.g. e.g., male, female and male with female.
All opposites combine and form a third alternative. In this way, the Aymara conceive in their worldview the existence of three spaces.
A fundamental idea in the Aymara worldview is that of Pachamama, Mother Earth The Aymara priests perform rituals and thank Pachamama for his blessing, which is understood as the starting point of everything together with the god Tata-Inti. When rituals are performed to this deity, one usually looks towards the Sun or upward, understanding that from above, that is, the sky, come the mystical powers of the gods and spirits that, introduced into the Christian faith, continue to be important for the Aymara culture.
Feeding
Since time immemorial, the diet of the Aymara has been made up of products from the land, since Its main economic activity has been agriculture They include tubers such as potatoes and cassava, grains such as corn and quinoa, legumes such as beans and broad beans, as well as a wide variety of other products such as garlic, chili, peanuts, paprika and pumpkin.
They also feed on derivatives of their crops, including chuño, a food that is made from dehydrated potatoes in the particular climatic conditions of the Andean highlands.
They collect and grow herbs with which they make infusions, many of which they attribute medicinal properties to. Among these herbs is the well-known coca plant (Erythroxylum coca) with which they practice acullico, that is, consuming this vegetable in a sacred way and also used for altitude sickness. Being a sacred vegetable in Inca times, its use was restricted to the high elites of the empire and its consumption was punishable by death for the rest of the social hierarchy.
The Aymaras They are also known for breeding llamas and alpacas, camelids very characteristic of the Andean landscape These animals are raised for their nutritious meat, which is consumed in the form of charqui, thin pieces of meat salted and dried in the sun and that can be preserved for a long time, ideal for long trips through the Andes mountain ranges.
The Wiphala
The Wiphala is the name by which the characteristic Aymara seven-color quadrangular flag is known This banner has become one of the national symbols of Bolivia and is believed to have originated from the ancestral Aymara, although this remains an open debate. In fact, many Aymara organizations and various social movements use the Wiphala in political demonstrations and demands, in addition to being used in religious and cultural ceremonies.
One of the most striking aspects of the Aymara language is its peculiar conception of time when describing it, which contrasts with the Spanish that both Aymaras and other citizens of the Andes speak.
In most Indo-European languages, time is treated as something that goes from back to front, that is, we imagine the past behind us, the present in ourselves and the future in front of us. Instead, In the Aymara language it happens the other way around, with the future being placed behind them and the past and present in front For them, the future is something that they do not yet know, which is behind them, something that they cannot see, while the past and present, as they have experienced it, they put in front of them, “seeing” it. It is also worth noting that in their language time is divided into two, not three, that is, they have “future” and “non-future”, with the past and present falling into this last category.
Aymara language
The language of this town is Aymara, the most spoken language of the Aymaraic or Jaqi language family along with Jacaru and Cauqui This language has various variants between Peru, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia, in the latter country being the majority Amerindian language spoken by 18% of its population. It is a language with many speakers, reaching 2 million. However, despite several efforts being made to give it strength and vitality, it is considered to be in a vulnerable situation for the future.
Currently, The largest Aymara populations are found in the Bolivian departments of La Paz and Oruro and with a presence in the north of the department of Potosí There are some populations in Cochabamba and Chuquisaca. In Chile it is spoken in the Norte Grande, in areas of Arica, Parinacota and Tarapacá. In Peru it is concentrated in the areas near Lake Titicaca, in the department of Puno, and also in the departments of Moquegua and Tacna. In Argentina it is spoken in the province of Jujuy and parts of Salta.
Vocabulary and expressions in Aymara
Like all Amerindian languages, Aymara is a language rich in vocabulary and expressions but has received multiple influences from Spanish Below we will see a few words and expressions in Aymara, both purely pre-Columbian and of European origin:
Buechler, Hans C. (1980) The Masked Media: Aymara Fiestas and Social Interaction in the Bolivian Highlands. Approaches to Semiotics, 59. The Hague: Mouton. ISBN 90-279-7777-1
Buechler, Hans C., and Judith-Maria Buechler (1971). The Bolivian Aymara. Case studies in cultural anthropology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN 0-03-081380-8
Eagen, James (2002) The Aymara of South America, First peoples. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Co. ISBN 0-8225-4174-2
Miles, Lynden & Nind, Louise & Macrae, C. (2010). Moving Through Time. Psychological science. 21. 222-3. 10.1177/0956797609359333.
