Aymara

Aymara
Aymaran, adj.
/uy'mah rah"/, n., pl. Aymaras, (esp. collectively) Aymara for 1.
1. a member of an Indian people living in the mountainous regions around Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru.
2. the language of the Aymara people.
[1855-60]

* * *

Large South American Indian group living on the Titicaca plateau of the central Andes Mountains in present-day Peru and Bolivia.

The Aymara were conquered by the Inca and the Spanish, though they rebelled against both. Traditional Aymara now live in an area of poor soil and harsh climate, where they herd llamas and alpacas, grow crops, and fish using boats made of large reeds. Poverty rates within the group are among the highest in the hemisphere.

* * *

people
 large South American Indian group living on the Altiplano—a vast windy plateau of the central Andes in Peru and Bolivia—with smaller numbers in Argentina and Chile. Their language is also called Aymara (Aymaran languages). In colonial times the Aymara tribes were the Canchi, Colla, Lupaca, Collagua, Ubina, Pacasa, Caranga, Charca, Quillaca, Omasuyo, and Collahuaya. The Aymara numbered about three million in the early 21st century.

 Basically agriculturalists and herders, the Aymara live in an area of poor soil and harsh climate. Coarse grass gives pasturage for llama and alpaca herds. Staple crops include potatoes, oca (Oxalis tuberosa), ullucu (Ullucus tuberosus), quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), corn (maize), beans, barley, and wheat. Fishing is done from rowboats and totora-reed rafts.

      Before they were conquered by the Incas (Inca), the Aymara had a number of independent states, the most important being those of the Colla and the Lupaca. About 1430 the Inca emperor Viracocha began conquests southward from his capital at Cuzco. Aymara territories ultimately formed a major part of the Inca empire, against which the Aymara continually revolted.

      The Spanish conquest, beginning in 1535, brought seekers of gold and Indian labour, followed by Dominican and Jesuit friars in search of converts. The colonial agrarian economy was based on the systematic exploitation of the Aymara in agriculture, in the mines, as household servants, and on the coca plantations in the jungles. A period of rebellion began in 1780, during which the Indians killed large numbers of Spaniards, and continued until Peruvian (Peru) independence from the Spanish crown was proclaimed in 1821.

      The Aymara have passed through several stages of acculturation, first under the Incas, then under the Spaniards, and subsequently in the course of modernization. The Inca strengthened local Aymara dynasties as part of their imperial system and introduced new religious cults and myths, a greater variety of foods, and new art styles. The Spaniards introduced new domesticated animals and plants, plow agriculture, and iron tools. They suppressed native religious institutions but effected only a superficial conversion to Christianity. Today the Aymara maintain their beliefs in a multispirit world, have many categories of magicians, diviners, medicine men, and witches, but are Christian in their beliefs about the afterworld. Independence and economic development brought changes in social organization and a decline in traditional arts and crafts.

      Aymara clothing copies in crude homespun earlier Spanish colonial models. Men wear conical, ear-flapped, knit wool gorros; women wear round, native-made wool derbies, with wool wimples in cold weather. The single-room, rectangular, gabled Aymara house, about 8 by 10 feet (2.5 by 3 metres) in size, is made of turf, thatched with wild grass over pole rafters; it contains a family sleeping platform of mud at one end and a clay stove near the door.

      The basic social unit is the extended family, consisting of a man and his brothers, their wives, sons, and unmarried daughters, living in a cluster of houses within a compound. This structure is changing as many Aymara seek wages in urban settings. The political unit is the ayllu, or comunidad, composed of several extended families. It has little resemblance to the aboriginal ayllu.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Aymará — Aymará …   Deutsch Wörterbuch

  • Aymará — Aymara Aymara aymar aru Parlée au  Pérou,  Bolivie …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Aymará — Aymara Frau Die Aymara (auch Aimara) sind ein indigenes Volk Südamerikas. Sie leben im Andenraum auf dem Altiplano in Bolivien (ca. 30–40 % der Bevölkerung) im Süden Perus (ca. 5 % der Bevölkerung) und (in geringerer Anzahl, ca. 0,3 % der… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Aymará — • Tribe of sedentary Indians inhabiting the northern sections of Bolivia Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Aymara     Aymará     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • aymara — ● aymara nom masculin Famille de langues indiennes d Amérique du Sud, parlées par les Aymaras. (L aymara a sans doute des liens génétiques avec le quechua, devant lequel il a reculé.) ● aymara adjectif Déformation aymara, déformation… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Aymara — o aymará adj. y n. Variantes ortográficas de «aimara» o «aimará». * * * El término aymara se aplica a las siguientes acepciones: 1. Pueblo amerindio que habita la meseta del Lago Titicaca desde tiempos precolombinos y del incanato, repartiéndose… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Aymara — [ī΄mə rä′] n. [AmSp, prob. < Quechua ] 1. pl. Aymaras or Aymara a member of a South American Indian people living mainly in Bolivia and Peru and believed to have been the builders of a great ancient culture that was later supplanted by that of …   English World dictionary

  • Aymará — Aymará, Stamm der Quichua Indianer in Südamerika auf dem Hochplateau der Andes zwischen 15. und 20.° südl. Br. Ihre Zahl, früher sehr bedeutend, wird auf 400,000 geschätzt, wozu noch 200,000 Mischlinge kommen. Von kleiner Statur (ca. 1,60 m), mit …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Aymará — Aymará, Indianervolk auf dem Kordillerenhochland vom Titicacasee bis Oruro, 7.500.000 Köpfe …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • aymara — ⊕ aymara → aimara …   Diccionario panhispánico de dudas

  • Aymara — La sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel des communautés Aymara de la Bolivie, du Chili et du Pérou * …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”