Tairona Heritage Studies Centre South American Indigenous History to Invasion It is generally agreed that South American indigenes, who numbered 14 m. at the time of the Spanish Conquest, are derived from Mongoloid expansion, mainly hunters and gatherers, via the Bering Straits about 20,000 years ago. Rapid development was initiated around 2,600 years ago by the growth of agriculture. 'The greatest cultural development occurred in the central Andes with the Inca Empire, which at its height encompassed about 1,000,000 square miles and had a population of about 6,000,000. The Chibcha in Colombia were probably the next most developed culture' (NEB. 1991. Micropaedia. vol. 11: 37). Steward's classification of South American cultures to Invasion Julian Steward's classification is presented in his article 'American Culture History in the Light of South America' in Patricia Lyon's Native South Americans - Ethnology of the Least Known Continent (Little, Brown and Co.. Boston/Toronto. 1974). Patricia Lyon prefaces this article by pointing out its deficiencies. 'Steward's approach... thus oversimplifies an extremely complex situation, obscuring differences which may be of considerable importance.' (Lyon 1974: 3). However, Steward's piece represents an improvement on the earlier 1940's work of Cooper. Steward postulates a Formative Period of American cultural development, during which 'the highland areas from Mexico to Bolivia acquired dense populations, large and stable communities, a class-structured society and a priest-temple-idol cult. In the material arts, it produced basketry, ceramics, metallurgy, weaving, stone working, building arts,aesthetic expressions in art forms, and water transportation.' (Steward in Lyon 1974: 19). This period predated Christ by some time, for 'the essential patterns of New World civilisations were established in Mexico and Yucatan at least by the beginning of the Christian era. In the Andes they can be no less old, for maize, a basic crop, probably originated in South America.' (Steward in Lyon 1974: 10). | |
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