The Lule people, or Lules, are an
indigenous people
Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. They were originally encountered in the area that is now the
Salta Province
Salta () is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa, Chaco, Santiago del Estero, Tucumán and Catamarca. It also surrounds Jujuy. To the north it borders Boliv ...
of Argentina, as well as in nearby areas of modern-day
Bolivia
, image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg
, flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center
, flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...
and
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
. They were later displaced by the
Wichí
The Wichí are an indigenous people of South America. They are a large group of tribes ranging about the headwaters of the Bermejo River and the Pilcomayo River, in Argentina and Bolivia.
Notes on designation
This ethnic group was named by the En ...
toward the south of Salta Province, the north-east of
Santiago del Estero Province
Santiago del Estero (), also known simply as Santiago, is a province in the north of Argentina. Neighboring provinces, clockwise from the north, are Salta, Chaco, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Catamarca and Tucumán.
History
The indigenous inhabitant ...
, and eastern
Tucumán Province
Tucumán () is the most densely populated, and the second-smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina.
Located in the northwest of the country, the province has the capital of San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neigh ...
. The
Lule language
Lule is an indigenous language of northern Argentina.
Lule may be extinct today. Campbell (1997) writes that in 1981 there was an unconfirmed report that Lule is still spoken by 5 families in Resistencia in east-central Chaco Province
Chac ...
is distantly related to the
Vilela language
Vilela (''Uakambalelté, Atalalá, Chulupí~Chunupí'')Not to be confused with Niwaklé, which is also called Chulupí~Chunupí. is an extinct language last spoken in the Resistencia area of Argentina and in the eastern Chaco near the Paragua ...
, and together they form the
Lule-Vilela language family. Today, 3,721 people in Argentina claim Lule ethnic affiliation, according to the 2010 census.
History
The Lules lived in the same region as the
Vilela, and shared many cultural characteristics despite linguistic differences. They also had relationships with the
Tonocoté and the
Mataraes. The Lule people were made up of the following groups: Esistiné, Tokistiné, Oristiné, Axostiné, Tamboriné, Guaxastiné, and Casutiné.
The Lules were generally
hunter-gatherer
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
s and therefore lived a
nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the popu ...
ic lifestyle. However, they also cultivated a wide variety of plants for food, including
maize
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 ...
,
calabaza
Calabaza is the generic name in the Spanish language for any type of winter squash. Within an English-language context it specifically refers to what is also known as the West Indian pumpkin, a winter squash typically grown in the West Indies, t ...
,
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
, and
quinoa
Quinoa (''Chenopodium quinoa''; , from Quechua ' or ') is a flowering plant in the amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds; the seeds are rich in protein, dietary fiber, B vitamins, and ...
. Sedentary populations settled down on the western edges of the modern-day city of
Salta
Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Argentine province of the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the 7th most-populous city in Argentina. The city serves as the cultural and economic ce ...
. In these settlements, a clear
Andean
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...
influence on their culture and way of life can be established. One major example of this Andean cultural influence is the domestication of animals in the
lamini
Lamini (members are called ''laminoids'') is a tribe of the subfamily Camelinae. It contains one extant genus with four species, all exclusively from South America: llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, and guanacos. The former two are domesticated specie ...
family for use as pack animals and for the production of wool and meat.
In order to convert them to Christianity, the
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
founded a
mission
Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to:
Organised activities Religion
*Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity
*Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
near
San Isidro de Lules
San Isidro de Lules, or, ''Lules'', as the town is colloquially known, is a settlement in Tucumán Province in northern Argentina, and the seat of the department (county) of the same name.
Lules was founded by the parish priest of Famaillá, Dr. ...
in Tucumán province in 1670. This mission remained active until 1768, when the Jesuits were expelled. During the mission's existence, it often traded and sold the Lule and
Diaguita
The Diaguita people are a group of South American indigenous people native to the Chilean Norte Chico and the Argentine Northwest. Western or Chilean Diaguitas lived mainly in the Transverse Valleys which incised in a semi-arid environment. Ea ...
indigenous population of the area to members of the landed oligarchy, plantations, and colonial workshops.
In 1708,
Esteban de Urízar Esteban () is a Spanish male given name, derived from Greek Στέφανος (Stéphanos) and related to the English names Steven and Stephen. Although in its original pronunciation the accent is on the penultimate syllable, English-speakers tend t ...
, the governor of Tucumán, carried out a punitive campaign against the indigenous peoples of the
Gran Chaco
The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Gro ...
, including the Lules. Following that campaign, Jesuits from Salta established a mission, San Juan Bautista de Balbuena, next to Fort Balbuena. The mission was home to 400 Lules, primarily from the Esistiné and Tokistiné groups. On August 7, 1715, Father Antonio Machoni moved the mission to Fort Miraflores, establishing the mission of San Esteban de Miraflores on the banks of the
Salado River. Thirteen years later, in 1728, natives destroyed the mission in a rebellion; the Lules left the mission and dispersed throughout the land. In 1752, the mission was restored but in a different location, to the south-east of the city of Salta.
After the Jesuits were expelled in 1768, the mission passed into
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
control, but it became permanently abandoned by the turn of the nineteenth century.
Today
The descendants of the Lules have partly, but incompletely, mixed and acculturated into the
predominantly white population and culture of Argentina. In the following settlements, there are a number of residents who identify themselves as belonging to the Lule people:
[Comunidades Indígenas de Tucumán](_blank)
/ref>
*Las Costas, Salta Province (250 families)
*El Retiro, Santiago del Estero Province
*El Nogalito, Lules Department
Leales Department is a department in Tucumán Province, Argentina. It has a population of 57,235 (2001) and an area of 540 km². The seat of the department is in Lules.
Municipalities and communes
*El Manantial
*Lules
San Isidro de Lules, or, ...
, Tucumán Province (80 families)
*Mala Mala, Lules Department, Tucumán Province (25 families)
*El Siambón, Tafí Viejo Department, Tucumán Province (45 families)
*La Oyada, Tafí Viejo Department, Tucumán Province (15 families)
The 2004-2005 Complementary Indigenous Survey identified 854 Argentines of first-generation Lule descent.[Información Estadística](_blank)
/ref> The 2010 Argentine Census identified 3,721 individuals who identified as being of Lule ethnicity.
References
{{Reflist
Indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco