The Aymara or Aimara (, ) people are an Indigenous people in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America. Approximately 2.3 million Aymara live in northwest Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru.
The Aymara have lived in the region for over 7,250 years. In the late 15th century or early 16th century, Aymaras came under the rule of the Inca Empire and later of the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. Following the Spanish American wars of independence (1810–1825), the Aymara became subjects to the new nations of Bolivia and Peru. After the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), Chile annexed territory inhabited by the Aymara population.
Etymology The name of the Aymara people stems from the word Ayma-ra-mi meaning "a place with many communally owned farms". The word "Aymara" also refers to a group of language dialects of which the origin, spread and time-frame are debated.
History Early history According to research by the Max Planck Institute, the ancestors of the Aymara people have a continuous genetic heritage in the Andean highlands dating back at least 8,750 years to around 6750 BCE, the Late Mesolithic / Early Neolithic, showing close ties to the region's earliest settlers and adaptations to the high-altitude environment. While genetics supports Aymara's deep human roots in the region, linguistic evidence suggests the modern Aymara language developed later.
The early history of the Aymara people is uncertain. Various hypotheses have been voiced. Archeological data of the Titicaca basin in the Altiplano (high plain) comes from the site of the ancient city of Tiwanaku. A radiocarbon dating study suggests the ancient city was founded in about 110 AD. Origin legends of the Aymara people in terms of time frame seem inconsistent to archeologists. Archeologist Carlos Mamani Condori suggests this is because the Aymara tradition may see the passage of time as a continuum rather than in terms of prehistory and history. The Aymara may have been settlers from elsewhere rather than the builders of the ancient city. Pedro Cieza de León (1518–1554), the Spanish chronicler of Peru, wrote that the Aymara people he met did not know who had built the ancient city.
Inca era Kingdom of Cusco
When Inca migrants first arrived at the traditional lands of the Aymara people, some Aymara people and other ethnic groups were living side by side in the village of Acamaca. Acamaca, located to the north of Lake Titicaca, would grow to be the site of the later Kingdom of Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire and the current day city of Cusco. The Inca arrived not as an army but as migrants searching for agricultural land.
The Aymara people of the Altiplano, the Titicaca basin, and the ancient city of Tiwanaku to the south of Lake Titicaca, also encountered the Inca civilisation prior to the rise of the Inca Empire. One of the Inca origin stories tells of Manco Capac and Mama Occlo being brought up from the waters of Lake Titicaca by the Sun God to create an Inca dynasty.
The rulers of the Kingdom of Cusco were obligated to travel regularly to the Isla del Sol (Sun Island), a rocky island in the southern part of Lake Titicaca, for ritual worship of the Sun God. Charles Stanish writes:
In 1438, Aymara warriors were, be it as mercenaries, volunteers or conscripts, present in the army of the Inca ruler, Pachacuti in the defense of Cusco during the Chanka–Inca War.
Inca empire
The date of Inca conquest of the Altiplano is uncertain beyond that, it began later than 1438 and was well completed by 1500.
The often quoted Spanish conquistador and chronicler, Pedro Cieza de León travelled through the Altiplano in 1548. He gives the ruler, Viracocha Inca (–1438) as the first to expand Inca territory south from the Kingdom of Cusco but that he was unsuccessful in securing the area. Again, de León records Viracocha's successor, Pachacuti (–1471) as the leader who succeeded in bringing the area under Inca control, effected by his son, Yupanqui (–1493). This chronology has been used widely by historians and archeologists in this field following the seminal work of John Howland Rowe.
However, more recent historians warn that the chronology of the spread of the Inca empire from Cusco, south to the Altiplano, may be more complex. For example, the names of Incan leaders are variable and may have been used across generations; there were revolts amongst the elite of the Inca Kingdom of Cusco itself; and the history given by the Inca to the Spanish chroniclers was given as part mythology. Furthermore, the dating of the conquest of the Incas by the finding of certain ceramics in archeological strata is, in this area, unreliable.
Inca subjugation of the Aymara
Rather than one ethnically homogenous group, the Aymara consisted of sometimes warring clans of differing dialects, traditions and geographic distribution. Among them were the Huamallas, Hatuncollas, Chuquitos and Azángaros, and the Lupaqa and Colla. Their loyalty remained to their village and their local chiefs.
Unlike the many groups of Indigenous peoples who lost every vestige of their cultures under Inca rule, the Aymara civilisation survived, at least partially. The Aymara insurrections were violent but also organised and persistent (one of twelve years duration). In the end, though, the Aymara were unsuccessful in throwing off the Inca. The outcome was harsh retribution in the form of executions or exile.
In addition to this direct punishment, the Aymara were increasingly subjugated by the building of civil, military, agricultural and religious infrastructure through their lands, removal of their sons to Cusco for education, taxation in the form of relinquishing sacred objects to the Inca. The Aymara were also required to give labour and military service to the Inca.
Moreover, groups of Aymara were removed from their village to work in other parts of the Empire, the number of Aymara living in Cusco itself was limited and colonists from elsewhere in the Empire were settled in the region.
Spanish colonial era Conquistadors Christopher Colombus set sail from Castile, Spain, in August 1492 to find a western sea passage to the spice rich East Indies. In 1513, Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama into the Pacific Ocean. Twenty-nine years later, on 16 November 1532, the explorer and conquistador Francisco Pizarro travelled south from La Isla Gorgona lured by stories of silver, gold and precious gems. On reaching Cajamarca, a town about 2000km north of Cusco, Pizarro met and captured Atahualpa. Atahualpa, known for his tyrannical rule, was executed in July 1533.
Pizarro reached Cusco by 1534. Some Native groups saw the Spaniards as liberators and lent support to Pizarro. Pizarro also secured a lineage of Inca puppet rulers, including Manco Inca Yupanqui. Manco Inca Yupanqui was ill treated by Pizarro's men. He escaped then returned with tens of thousands warriors, forcing Cusco into siege. After ten months, and the arrival of Spanish reinforcements, Manco Inca Yupanqui withdrew.
Having secured Cusco, Pizarro continued south with the resources, wealth and infrastructure of the Inca and Native labour. He benefited from the lack of cohesion between the Altiplano ethnic groups. In 1542, Spain created the Viceroyalty of Peru.
Encomenderos In the new viceroyalty, explorers, conquistadors, governors and generals were given encomiendas. These grants from Spain gave the encomenderos the right to demand taxes and labour from the Indigenous people in return for military protection and religious instruction. They were a sign of an elite status in society.
Indigenous men between the ages of 18 and 50 were taxed in money and labour. Tax was collected by the village chiefs. One-sixth of taxable men were already assigned to encomenderos who collected the taxes. Twenty percent of the monies went to the crown. In practice, the responsibilities of the encomiendas were applied partially or not at all, while the taxes were.
In 1870, David Forbes, Mineralogist and voyager, wrote to the Ethnological Society of London, of his observations in Bolivia and Peru:
Whatever may have been the condition of the Aymaras under the Incas, it became infinitely worse after the Spanish conquest; it is all but impossible to convey in words a true picture of the barbarous treatment which they, as well as the neighbouring Indian tribes, experienced at the hands of the Spaniards. Treated infinitely worse than slaves, they were torn from their homes and families to be driven like cattle either to the Coca plantations and Gold washings in the Yungas, or hot unhealthy valleys to the east of the high Andes (where they rapidly fell victims to a climate altogether unsuited to their constitution), or to the Silver mines of Potosí, Chayanta, Oruro (where from forced labour, ill-treatment, and insufficient food, they succumbed equally fast, only to be replaced by fresh supplies similarly obtained).
New Laws In 1542, the Dominican friar, Bartolomé de las Casas published his testimony of the abuse of the Aymara by the Spanish in his book, A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indians. On 20 November 1542, in response to criticism, King Charles I of Spain issued the New Laws (Ordenanzas de Barcelona or Leyes Nuevas).
Indigenous people could no longer be slaves. They could not be sent to the mines without cause. Clergy and Civil servants had to give up their encomiendas to the crown. New grants could not be given and importantly, an encomienda could not be an inheritable property.
Among the approximate 500 encomiendas in the viceroyalty of Peru, there were cases of corruption and circumvention of the new laws. There were skirmishes between Royalist soldiers and groups of encomenderos, culminating in the death of many encomenderos in an insurrection led by Gonzalo Pizarro in 1548.
The new laws started to streamline the encomienda system but Aymara numbers continued to fall. Furthermore, the Indigenous labour force was redistributed causing forced and permanent displacement to cities, factories, or mines. For example, in 1573, the Indigenous population of labourers at the Potosí silver mines was 11,000. By 1673, the same population numbered 1,600.
Viceroy Francisco de Toledo In 1569, Francisco de Toledo was appointed fifth viceroy of Peru by Philip II of Spain. Toledo served in this role until 1581. He made Lima the administrative capital of the viceroyalty. He was tasked with creating a successful system of governance throughout the viceroyalty. To this end, Toledo created provinces and aligned the population with them into new, concentrated settlements called "reductions" (reducciones de indios). This involved forced resettlement which caused disruption to aspects of life of the Indigenous people such as importance of the extended family clan (ayllu), authority of the clan and regional chiefs (curacas), land ownership, farming, language, rituals and sacred life (for example, sacred places known as huacas).
Evangelisation Toledo was also asked to consider the legitimacy of the Spanish conquest. Toledo concluded that the conquistadors were no more legitimate in their rule than the Inca. However, the viceroyalty of Peru was legitimate on the basis of the Spanish bringing Catholic Christianity to the Indigenous people.
Toledo instructed the secular clergy and the leaders of the monastic orders to begin the evangelisation of the viceroyalty. This was not an easy task due to a lack of clergy, lack of experience of the monastic orders in evangelising and the language barrier between the Spanish and the Indigenous groups who spoke, for the most part, dialects of Aymaran or Quechuan.