The Huarpes or Warpes are an
Indigenous people
There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...
of
Argentina
Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
, living in the
Cuyo region. Some scholars assume that in the
Huarpe language, this word means "sandy ground,"
but according to ''Arte y Vocabulario de la lengua general del Reino de Chile'', written by
Andrés Febrés in Lima in 1765, the word ''Cuyo'' comes from
Araucanian ''cuyum puulli'', meaning "sandy land" or "desert country".
History
Huarpe people settled in permanent villages beginning in the 5th century CE. About 50 to 100 people lived in a village, making them smaller than
Diaguita settlements. They were agrarian people who grew corn (''
Zea mays
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...
''), beans, squash, and quinoa (''
Chenopodium quinoa'').
[Lewis 18] Towards the 15th century, Huarpe territory expanded into the current Argentinian provinces of
San Luis,
Mendoza and
San Juan and even on the north of the
Neuquen Province. They inhabited between the
Jáchal River at north, to the
Diamante River at south and between the
Andes
The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...
and
Conlara Valley on San Luis.
They were never fully part of the
Incan Empire, but were influenced by Inca culture and adopted llama ranching and the
Quechua language
Quechua (, ), also called (, 'people's language') in Southern Quechua, is an Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous language family that originated in central Peru and thereafter spread to other countries of the Andes. Derived from ...
after 1480.
[
Chilean encomenderos who had ]encomienda
The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish Labour (human activity), labour system that rewarded Conquistador, conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. In theory, the conquerors provided the labourers with benefits, including mil ...
s in Cuyo introduced to Chile Indigenous Huarpes, whom they hired to other Spaniards without encomiendas.[ Villalobos, Sergio; Silva, Osvaldo; Silva, Fernando and Estelle, Patricio. 1974. ''Historia De Chile''. Editorial Universitaria, Chile. p 166–170.]
Notes
References
*Lewis, Daniel K
''The History of Argentina.''
New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2001. .
External links
Huarpe People – Encyclopædia Britannica
Discovery of a Fragment of the Printed Copy of the Work on the Millcayac ...
by Rodolfo R. Schuller
Millcayac y Allentiac: Los dialectos del idioma Huarpe
By Catalina Teresa Michieli – 1990
*
Information about the Huarpe culture
*
Web site about the Huarpe culture
*
Map of the Huarpes territory.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huarpe People
Indigenous peoples of the Southern Cone
Indigenous peoples in Argentina
Indigenous peoples in Chile
Pre-Columbian cultures