Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
established encampments on the Peruvian coast and in Chile. Separate
peoples crossed the Andes, slowly occupying the Amazon Basin, from
which they moved north and settled the Caribbean Islands. Farther
south, the migrants fanned out thinly over the Pampas and Patagonia
of present-day Argentina. In the time of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt,
approximately 1,000 b . c ., the Mesoamericans of lowland Mexico were
developing agriculture around the cultivation of maize or corn. The
fisher peoples of coastal Peru adopted the cultivation of maize, while
the highland Andeans of Peru subsequently perfected the cultivation
of several varieties of potato. These hearty Andean peoples also nur-
tured the only domestic livestock known in the Americas, the llamas
and alpacas. Some of these Andean developments reached the peoples
of Chile and northwest Argentina. Indigenous influences from the
area of modern-day Brazil, in the meantime, had spread into the area
of modern-day Paraguay. There the GuaranĂ­ cultivated cassava (also
known as yuca or manioc) as their basic food product. The rest of
the indigenous peoples of the lower ParanĂ¡ River basin, the Pampas,
and Patagonia remained hunters of game and gatherers of fruits and
berries. (See map on page 11.)
The Diaguita
The peoples of northwest Argentina, particularly in the Salta and Jujuy
regions, reflected the Andean culture they shared with the Inca peoples
of highland Peru. Our knowledge of them comes from the evidence of
early archaeological sites and the information gathered by the earliest
Spanish priests and settlers.
The Diaguita were agriculturists who used the digging stick as their
principal tool and cultivated corn, beans, and peppers. Potatoes did
not grow well in the lower altitudes. Similarly, they herded llamas and
alpacas as sources of protein and of wool for making clothing. The
Diaguita lived in houses of stone masonry like other highland peoples.
They arranged their modest family-sized dwellings along the streams
and fields with pathways between them. They did not build great cities,
as were found elsewhere among the various pre-Columbian peoples of
the Andes.
The early inhabitants of northwest Argentina shared a semiarid land-
scape dominated by high plateaus suitable for grazing, valleys suitable
for tilling, and mountain peaks that rose above the snowline. Snowmelt
represented the zone's water resource that these peoples harnessed for
irrigation. The original peoples made coiled basketry, wove ponchos
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