Tallán (or ''Tacllán'', after the use of the taclla, a farming tool) was a conglomerate of ethnic groups with a common origin that settled in the plains of north-western

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, an ethnos with a

matriarchal Matriarchy is a social system in which positions of power and privilege are held by women. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege, and control of property. While those definitions apply in general English, ...

system. (Due to their possible kinship, the tumpis, who settled in the current

Department of Tumbes Tumbes () is a coastal department and region in northwestern Peru bordering Ecuador. Due to the region's location near the Equator it has a warm climate, with beaches that are considered among the finest in Peru. Despite its small area, the re ...

, are widely considered one of these ethnic groups.) They had migrated to the coastal plains from the Sierra. In the beginning the Tallán lived in ''behetrias'', which were simple settlements without a head or an organization, in which all its members were engaged in the same and unique activity, mainly

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

. Then through

barter In trade, barter (derived from ''bareter'') is a system of exchange (economics), exchange in which participants in a financial transaction, transaction directly exchange good (economics), goods or service (economics), services for other goods ...

with the neighboring partialities they obtained what was necessary to live. This need for others to subsist allowed the Chimúes first and then the

Incas The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fr ...

to impose their dominion over them. Although due to the short time that elapsed between the Inca conquest (c. 1470) and the arrival of the Spanish (1532) they were not completely assimilated into the empire. Narihualá (17 km south of

Piura Piura is a city in northwestern Peru, located north of the Sechura Desert along the Piura River. It is the capital of the Piura Region and the Piura Province. Its population was 484,475 as of 2017 and it is the 7th most populous city in Peru. ...

) is considered the capital of the Tallán Nation and is the most important architectural evidence of a great monument, both in its size and the prominent platforms of two pyramids. The Narihualá Temple was built as a sanctuary in the honour of the Tacllán god Walac. Huaca El Loro, near Chiclayo, Peru is a Tallán archaeological site, where a 1000-year-old mummy of a nobleman was discovered."Tallán mummy found at Huaca El Loro sheds light on Sican contact with other ethnic groups."
''Peruvian Times.'' 11 Dec 2008 (retrieved 3 May 2011)

Notes

Andean civilizations {{SouthAm-ethno-group-stub