The Huarpes or Warpes are an
indigenous people of
Argentina, living in the
Cuyo region. Some scholars assume that in the
Huarpe language
Huarpe (''Warpe'') was a small language family of central Argentina (historic Cuyo Province) that consisted of two closely related languages. They are traditionally considered dialects, and include Allentiac (Alyentiyak, Huarpe) and Millcayac ...
, this word means "sandy ground,"
but according to ''Arte y Vocabulario de la lengua general del Reino de Chile'', written by
Andrés Febrés Andrés Febrés was 18th-century Spanish Jesuit active in Colonial Chile. He is best known for his book
In his writings he supported the incorporation of the lands of the independent Cunco and Huilliche, the Futahuillimapu, into the Spanish Emp ...
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'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
''), beans, squash, and quinoa (''
Chenopodium quinoa'').
[Lewis 18] Towards the 15th century, Huarpe territory expanded into the current Argentinian provinces of
San Luis San Luis (Spanish for "Saint Louis") may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Luis Province
* San Luis, Argentina, capital of San Luis Province Belize
* San Luis, Belize, in Orange Walk District Colombia
* San Luis, Antioquia, a town and municipality ...
,
Mendoza and
San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Juan Province, Argentina
* San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province
* San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province
* San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...
and even on the north of the
Neuquen Province. They inhabited between the
Jáchal River
The Jáchal River is a river in the province of San Juan, Argentina. It is part of the Desaguadero River basin, and one of the most important permanent watercourses in the province, with an average flow of . It is born from the confluence of th ...
at north, to the
Diamante River
The Diamante River is a river in the Argentine province of Mendoza. It is born from glaciers on the Maipo, a volcano in the Andes range in the Argentine–Chilean border, and flows east until emptying in the Desaguadero River. Its drainage bas ...
at south and between the
Andes 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 after 1480.
[
Chilean encomenderos who had ]encomienda
The ''encomienda'' () was a Spanish labour system that rewarded conquerors with the labour of conquered non-Christian peoples. The labourers, in theory, were provided with benefits by the conquerors for whom they laboured, including military ...
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 Editorial Universitaria is Chilean university press based in Santiago. It was established in 1947 with funds from private people and from the University of Chile. During its existence, it has published the works of generations influential Chilean sc ...
, 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