Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño (11 December 1890 – 17 August 1950) was an

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

ian historian, archeologist, and politician. He was the mayor of the city of Quito (the capital of Ecuador) from 1946 to 1948. He was a member of the Ecuadorian parliament and a candidate for the presidency of Ecuador. He published several works about the pre-Hispanic history of cultures in Ecuador.

Early life and education

Jijón y Caamaño was born in

Quito Quito (; ), officially San Francisco de Quito, is the capital city, capital and second-largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its metropolitan area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha Province, P ...

in 1890 to Don Manuel Jijón Larrea and Doña Dolores Caamaño y Almada. He attended school in the city, where he was taught by Archbishop Federico González Suárez. In 1912, he and his mother traveled with a fellow pupil, Carlos Manuel Larrea, to Europe. There, Jijón y Caamaño developed his interest in the sciences, and learned English, French, and

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

. Having also collected numerous books, he returned to Ecuador where he began to use his money to support his studies of pre-Hispanic settlements in the area.Arqueólogo Jacinto Jijón y Caamaño (1890-1950)
. Accessed 1 April 2010.

Career

As an

archeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeol ...

, Jijón y Caamaño surveyed pre-Hispanic settlement near the town of Manta, mapping the largest structures. He was the first to use the term " Manteño" to describe such early coastal settlements. He believed that the Manteños had a culture that was more of a trading ring than a kingdom or empire. He drew parallels between their network and the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

of Europe. He wrote several works, including ''Quito y la independencia de America: discurso leido en la sesion solemne celebrada por la Academia Nacional de Historia ... en conmemoracion del I centenario de la batalla de Pichincha'' ("Quito and the independence of America: Address delivered at the solemn session held by the National Academy of History ... in commemoration of the centenary of the Battle of Pichincha", referring to

, capital of Ecuador, and the Battle of Pichincha). He also wrote books on archaeological topics, such as the ''Antropología prehispánica del Ecuador'' ("Pre-Hispanic Anthropology of Ecuador"). In addition to his archeological studies, Jijón y Caamaño became politically active. He was elected and served as mayor of Quito for a two-year term, from 1946 to 1948. He also was elected to the Ecuadorian parliament. In 1940, he ran as a candidate for the presidency of Ecuador.

Bibliography

*Jijón y Caamaño, Jacinto. 1940–1945. ''El Ecuador interandino y occidental antes de la conquista castellana'' (Inter-Andean and Western Ecuador before the Castilian Conquest). Quito: Editorial Ecuatoriana.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jijon Y Caamano, Jacinto 1890 births 1950 deaths Mayors of Quito People from Quito Archaeology of Ecuador Members of the National Congress (Ecuador) Historiography of Ecuador 20th-century archaeologists Linguists of indigenous languages of South America