Comechingón is the common name for a group of people indigenous to the Argentine

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 provinces

Provinces of Argentina

Argentina is subdivided into twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city...

 of Córdoba

Córdoba Province (Argentina)

Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...

 and San Luis

San Luis Province

San Luis is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country . Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.-History:...

. They were thoroughly displaced or exterminated by the Spanish

Spanish colonization of the Americas

Colonial expansion under the Spanish Empire was initiated by the Spanish conquistadores and developed by the Monarchy of Spain through its administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous conversions...

 conquistador

Conquistador

Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...

es by the end of the 17th Century.

The two main Comechingón groups called themselves Henia (in the north) and Kamiare (in the south), each subdivided into a dozen or so tribes. The name comechingón is a deformation of the pejorative term kamichingan—"cave dwellers"—used by the Sanavirón tribe.

They were sedentary, practiced agriculture yet gathered wild fruits, and raised animals for wool, meat and eggs. Their culture was heavily influenced by that of the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

.

Several aspects seem to differentiate the Henia-Kamiare from inhabitants of nearby areas. They had a rather Caucasian appearance, with beards and supposedly a minority with greenish eyes. Another distinctive aspect was their communal stone houses, half buried in the ground to endure the cold, wind and snow of the winter.

Their language was lost when Spanish politicies favoured Quechua

Quechua languages

Quechua is a Native South American language family and dialect cluster spoken primarily in the Andes of South America, derived from an original common ancestor language, Proto-Quechua. It is the most widely spoken language family of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a total of probably...

. Nevertheless, they left a rich pictography and abstract petroglyphs.

A cultural contribution is the vowel extension in the Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 of the present inhabitants of Córdoba, but also not uncommon in San Luis and other neighbouring provinces.

It is claimed that there are still six Comechingón families in Córdoba in the barrio Alto alberdi. Information is available from direction de cultura Córdoba.

Division

• Kamiare (mainly north of San Luis Province
  San Luis Province
  San Luis is a province of Argentina located near the geographical center of the country . Neighboring provinces are, from the north clockwise, La Rioja, Córdoba, La Pampa, Mendoza and San Juan.-History:...
  
  )
  • Saleta (western Sierra de Comechingones and Villa de Merlo
    Villa de Merlo
    Villa de Merlo lies 796 meters above sea level at 32° 36' 00" South, 66° 07' 60" West, in the Department of Junín, Province of San Luis, Argentina, a small city administered by an intendant, presently Sergio Luis Guardia, FJpSL. The demotic for Merlo is "merlino".Merlo is the principal tourist’s...
    
    )
  • Nogolma (west of the Saletas, Valle de Conlara)
  • Michilingüe (the best-known within San Luis; west and south of the previous groups)
• Hênia (mainly the Sierras of the Córdoba Province
  Córdoba Province (Argentina)
  Córdoba is a province of Argentina, located in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are : Santiago del Estero, Santa Fe, Buenos Aires, La Pampa, San Luis, La Rioja and Catamarca...
  
  )
  • Mogas (Sierras de Ambargasta)
  • Caminigas (south of the Mogas)
  • Gualas or Guachas (south of Caminigas)
  • Chine (west of Gualas)
  • Sitón (Valle de Punilla, eastern Sierra Chica)
  • Aluleta (western Sierra Chica, Valle de Paravachasca, and southern Valle de Punilla)
  • Naure (southern and central Valle de Traslasierra; north of Saleta and Nogolma)
  • Macaclita (Valle de Calamuchita, eastern Sierras de Comechingones down to Río Cuarto
    Río Cuarto
    Rio Cuarto may refer to:*Río Cuarto, Córdoba*Cuarto River*Rio Cuarto craters...
    
    )

See also

• Indigenous peoples of Argentina