The ''Capayán'' were an Indigenous people, now extinct, that lived in Argentine territory.

Description

Their geographical area was parts of the Argentine provinces of

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous communities in Spain, autonomous community and provinces of Spain, province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other List of municipalities in La Rioja, cities and towns in the ...

, Catamarca,

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John (disambiguation), Saint John, most commonly refers to: * San Juan, Puerto Rico * San Juan, Argentina * San Juan, Metro Manila, a highly urbanized city in the Philippines San Juan may also refer to: Places Arge ...

, from the mountainous zone comprising the limit of La Rioja with Catamarca on the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

and the environs of the Jáchal River-Zanjón, in San Juan, including the Andes on the west, up to the Velasco ranges, where they were mixed with the

Diaguita The Diaguita people are a group of South American Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people native to the Chilean Norte Chico, Chile, Norte Chico and the Argentine Northwest. Western or Chilean Diaguitas lived mainly in the Transvers ...

s. They occupied the fertile valleys of Famatina, Sanagasta, Yacampis, Guandacol and Jáchal. They had as neighbors in the northern part the Diaguitas and in the southern part the

Huarpe The Huarpes or Warpes are an Indigenous people of Argentina, living in the Cuyo region. Some scholars assume that in the Huarpe language, this word means "sandy ground," but according to ''Arte y Vocabulario de la lengua general del Reino de C ...

Language

They shared with the Diaguitas or Paziocas the Kakán language, or a derivation of it. Vestiges of their language are in word endings as bis, pebble or small stone, for example: Yacampis, Quilmebis, Guanchina, etc.

Technology

The Capayán had spinning technology, and spun the wool of

guanaco The guanaco ( ; ''Lama guanicoe'') is a camelid native to South America, closely related to the llama. Guanacos are one of two wild South American camelids; the other species is the vicuña, which lives at higher elevations. Etymology The gua ...

and

llama The llama (; or ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with ...

s. They also knew

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

metallurgy. They built canals and irrigation ditches to water their farmlands. Their cultivars were

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

pumpkin A pumpkin is a cultivar, cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many dif ...

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

and

quinoa Quinoa (''Chenopodium quinoa''; , from Quechuan languages, Quechua ' or ') is a flowering plant in the Amaranthaceae, amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a crop primarily for its edible seeds; the seeds are high in prote ...

. They used ceramics widely, principally in the production of funeral urns, decorated geometrically with the colors black, red and white, known as Sanagasta or Angualasto style. Their houses were of

mud Mud (, or Middle Dutch) is loam, silt or clay mixed with water. Mud is usually formed after rainfall or near water sources. Ancient mud deposits hardened over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone (generally cal ...

and

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

and were sometimes built at the foot of a great tree used as a roof. This technology of construction still lasts in the Riojan zone of Vinchina.

Decline

About 1480, the Inca invaded the region of the Diaguitas and Capayanes, incorporating their territories into the

Inca Empire The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The History of the Incas, Inca ...

. From 1607, the

Spanish conquest The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It ...

resulted in their dispersion and later extinction at the end of the 18th century. The Capayanes took part in an uprising in 1632 together with the and other Diaguitas. Today a department of Catamarca takes their name (the Capayán Department).

Etymology and ethnic filiation

The etymology of the name started to this people seems to be the Runa simi (Quechua) word Qhapak ñan (''Great road''), that is to say the so-called "Inca Highway". The explanation for this would be in that the territory that they were living age sedates of a knot of communications very importantly in the south of the ''Tawantinsuyu''. The majority of the authors consider the Capayán as part of the Pazioca ("Diaguitas") due to the cultural common features (for example the use of the language Kakán), the same as the

Calchaquí The Calchaquí or Kalchakí were a tribe of South American Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indians of the Diaguita group, now extinct, who formerly occupied northern Argentina. Stone and other remains prove them to have reached a high degree ...

es, Olongastas,

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...

, though they would have differed because of the genetic and cultural influence of their neighboring

s and after 1480 for the presence of Mitmakuna persons deported to this region by the Incas. Many of such Mitimaes would have traded and manufactured "

chicha ''Chicha'' is a Fermentation, fermented (alcoholic) or non-fermented beverage of Latin America, emerging from the Andes and Amazonia regions. In both the pre- and post-Spanish conquest of Peru, Spanish conquest periods, corn beer (''chicha de jo ...

", an alcoholic maize drink, and churumata.

References

Sources

External links

Capayanes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Capayan Indigenous peoples in Argentina Pre-Columbian cultures Inca Indigenous peoples in Chile Ethnic groups in Chile Extinct Indigenous peoples of the Americas