Indigenous people in Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

(pueblos indígenas in Spanish) comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country's present territory prior to its discovery by Europeans around 1500. The first Spanish explorers called them índios ("Indians"), a name that is still used today.

Indigenous people in Peru form about 45% of the total population

Demographics of Peru

This article is about the demographic features of the population of Peru, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population....

 (14 million). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Peru)

The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established in 2001 after the fall of president Alberto Fujimori, to examine abuses committed during the 1980s and 1990s, when Peru was plagued by the worst political violence in the history of the republic...

 (2001–2003) estimated the proportion of indigenous in the overall population as 31%.

At the time of the Spanish invasion, the indigenous people of the Amazon Basin

Amazon Basin

The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...

 were mostly semi-nomadic tribes who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. Those in the Andes and to the west were dominated by the Inca, who had a complex, hierarchical civilization that built many cities and major temples and monuments with highly skilled stonemasonry. Many of the estimated 2000 nations and tribes present in 1500 died out as a consequence of the Spanish conquest

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...

, especially because of associated infectious diseases, and many survivors were assimilated into the general mestizo

Mestizo

Mestizo is a term traditionally used in Latin America, Philippines and Spain for people of mixed European and Native American heritage or descent...

(mixed-race) Peruvian population. Most of the surviving indigenous groups, such as the Urarina

Urarina

The Urarina are an indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon Basin who inhabit the Chambira, Urituyacu, and Corrientes Rivers. According to both archaeological and historical sources, they have resided in the Chambira Basin of contemporary northeastern Peru for centuries. The Urarina refer to...

, have changed their ways of life to some extent, e.g. by using firearms and other manufactured items, and trading goods with mainstream national Peruvian society. Only a few indigenous groups (such as the Matsés

Matsés

The Matsés or Mayoruna are an indigenous tribe of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon. The tribe's ancestral lands are currently threatened by illegal logging practices and poaching. These homelands are located between the Javari and Galvez rivers...

, Matis

Matis

The Matis is an indigenous people of Brazil living in 2 separate villages with total population of roughly 290. They live in the far west of Brazil, in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Park, an area covering . They practice both hunting and agriculture...

, and Korubo

Korubo

Korubo or Korubu is the name given to a tribe of indigenous people living in the Javari Valley, in the Western Amazon Basin. The group calls themselves 'Dslala', and in Portuguese they are referred to as caceteiros...

) still live isolated in remote areas of the Amazon Rainforest

Amazon Rainforest

The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...

 and cling to aspects of their traditional culture.

The AIDESEP is the premier indigenous rights organization in Peru defending the interests of indigenous people in Peru. Its current president is Alberto Pizango

Alberto Pizango

Alberto Pizango Chota is the current president of AIDESEP, the premier indigenous rights organization in Peru. He is part of the people. Pizango has been actively resisting the government of Peru's selling of petroleum concessions to foreign companies on lands legally titled to indigenous...

.

Origins

Anthropological

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 and genetic

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 evidence indicates that most of the original population of the Americas descended from migrants from North Asia

North Asia

North Asia or Northern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the Asian portion of Russia.The Phillips Illustrated Atlas of the World 1988 defines it as being most of the former USSR, the part that is to the east of the Ural Mountains...

 (Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

) who entered North America across the Bering Strait

Bering Strait

The Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...

 in at least three separate waves. DNA analysis has shown that most of those resident in Peru in 1500 were descended from the first wave of Asian migrants, who are believed to have crossed the so-called Bering Land Bridge

Bering land bridge

The Bering land bridge was a land bridge roughly 1,000 miles wide at its greatest extent, which joined present-day Alaska and eastern Siberia at various times during the Pleistocene ice ages. Like most of Siberia and all of Manchuria, Beringia was not glaciated because snowfall was extremely light...

 at the end of the last ice age, around 9000 BC.

Migrants from that first wave around 9000 BC are thought to have reached Peru around 6000 BC, probably entering the Amazon River

Amazon River

The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...

 basin from the northwest. (People of the second and third migratory waves from Siberia, who are thought to have been ancestors of the Athabaskan and Inuit

Inuit

The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...

 people, apparently did not travel further than the southern United States and Canada, respectively.)

During the pre-Columbian period, the three main linguistic groups that dominated the territory now known as Peru were the Quechua

Quechuas

Quechuas is the collective term for several indigenous ethnic groups in South America who speak a Quechua language , belonging to several ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia and Argentina.The Quechuas of Ecuador call themselves as well as their...

, Jivaro and the Pano

Pano

Pano may refer to:*Panorama*Panoan languages*Panosteitis, a common bone disease in dogs....

. They possessed different organizational structures and distinct languages and cultures.

The origins of these indigenous people are still a matter of dispute. The traditional view, which traces them to Siberia

Siberia

Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...

n migration to America at the end of the last ice age

Wisconsin glaciation

The last glacial period was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age occurring during the last years of the Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years ago....

, has been increasingly challenged by South American archaeologists.

Demographic

There are 8,793,395 in Peru according to the 1993 census, thus the indigenous people represent about 45% of Peru's population. 97.8% are Andean and 2.1%, Amazonian. However, other sources say the indigenous people comprise 31% of the total population. In the Amazonian region, there are 16 language families and more than 65 ethnic groups. After Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 and New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

, Peru is believed to have the highest number of uncontacted tribes in the world.

After the Spanish conquest

Before the arrival of Spanish soldiers in Peru, local people began dying in great number from Eurasia

Eurasia

Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...

n infectious diseases brought by the invaders and which spread across the New World ahead of the invaders—diseases against which they had no natural immunity

Immune system

An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...

. Later more people died because of the harsh treatment of the conquerors: they were killed in battle, forced from their lands, or died from the ill-treatment of forced labor. Many indigenous people refused to be enslaved, receding into the backlands, or if captured, committing suicide

Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...

.

Major ethnic groups

Political organization

Individual indigenous groups have a variety of governance structures. MATSES

Matsés

The Matsés or Mayoruna are an indigenous tribe of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon. The tribe's ancestral lands are currently threatened by illegal logging practices and poaching. These homelands are located between the Javari and Galvez rivers...

, the Movement in the Amazon for Tribal Subsistence and Economic Sustainability, is an indigenous people rights organization that is working for the cultural survival of indigenous people in Peru.

Territories

Indigenous people hold title to substantial portions of Peru, primarily in the form of communal reserves . The largest indigenous communal reserve in Peru belongs to the Matsés

Matsés

The Matsés or Mayoruna are an indigenous tribe of the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon. The tribe's ancestral lands are currently threatened by illegal logging practices and poaching. These homelands are located between the Javari and Galvez rivers...

 tribe and is located on the Peruvian border with Brazil on the Yavari (or Jahvari) River.

Laws and institutions

Peru is a signatory of the ILO Convention 169

Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989

Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 is an International Labour Organization Convention, also known as ILO-convention 169, or C169. It is the major binding international convention concerning indigenous peoples, and a forerunner of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.It...

. In 1994, Peru signed and ratified the current international law concerning indigenous people, the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989

Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989

Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 is an International Labour Organization Convention, also known as ILO-convention 169, or C169. It is the major binding international convention concerning indigenous peoples, and a forerunner of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.It...

. The laws made to protect the indigenous people are not always respected by the Peruvian government or the companies, such as Perenco

Perenco

Perenco is an independent Anglo-French oil and gas company with a headquarters in London. It has exploration and production activities in 16 countries across the globe .Perenco is involved in operations both...

, Repsol YPF

Repsol YPF

Repsol YPF, S.A. is an integrated Spanish oil and gas company with operations in 29 countries...

, and Petrobras

Petrobras

Petróleo Brasileiro or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in Latin America by market capitalization and revenue, and the largest company headquartered in the Southern Hemisphere by market...

, who seek to explore the natural resources of their land.

Institutions

There is an institution for Andean, Amazonian and Afro-Peruvian People called the INDEPA. It is an autonomous ministerial-level
decentralized public body that reported directly to the Presidency of
the Council of Ministers, and was created by a law issued to the Congress of the Republic. On 23 February 2007, the government decided to abolish the authority and make it a Native People' Department within the MIMDES, without consulting the indigenous people. But, on 6 December, Congress passed a law cancelling the executive decree.

Conflicts

In health care, discrimination against indigenous people exists. Peru has one of the highest maternal death rates of the Americas.

Territorial rights of the communities

The draft law 1770, presented by the government, wanted to formalise and title rural plots, peasant and native communities that may suspend the regulations protecting communal such as Law 22175 on native communities and Law 24657 on the Demarcation and Titling of Peasant Community Lands. It would supersede the property titles of communities registered in the Community Lands Register and revise the community property titles according to the new law.
The draft law 1900, of the Peruvian Aprista Party, proposes to authorise the COFOPRI to return lands not cultivated by the communities to the state, so they may be sold in a public auction

Public auction

A public auction is an auction held on behalf of a government in which the property to be auctioned is either property owned by the government, or property which is sold under the authority of a court of law or a government agency with similar authority....

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See also

• Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest
• Q'ewar Project

External links

• Camino Inca: Inca Trail to Machu Picchu