Aymara people

The Aymara ( Aymara also ) are an indigenous people of South America. They live in the Andes on the Altiplano in Bolivia ( about 30-40% of the population) in southern Peru ( about 5 % of the population ) and ( in lesser numbers, about 0.3 % of the population ) in northern Chile. Sometimes also ( loosely with ) the designation Colla used for them, going back to a previous native population. An extremely low incidence is found also in Ecuador - Spanish Zwangsumsiedelungen in the colonial era are responsible for this, the purpose of which was to prevent a " we-feeling " of indigenous peoples, from the resistance against the colonial masters would have been able to form.

Origin

About the origin of the Aymara there are various theories.

Indigenous authors mainly support the thesis that the culture of the Aymara of the Andean Tiwanaku civilization ( 1580 BC to 1172 AD) is derived: The former imperial territory roughly corresponds with the present-day language area of the Aymara. Located at 3600 m capital of Tiwanakureiches had in the 12th century probably about 40,000 inhabitants; this culture is one of the first companies in South America at all, who built with stone. Although archaeologists this site have been exposed only to one-sixth, it is already regarded sometimes as the main attraction of South America.

Just because the cultural achievements of the Tiwanakukultur were so outstanding, some historians suspect the indigenous historiography of mythmaking. They rather assume that the Aymara were responsible for the downfall of the Tiwanaku and so the old settlement area of ​​the Tiwanaku was gradually dominated by the Aymara language. On this view, the Aymara are a people originally from Coquimbo in Chile that have come in a northward migration.

This is contradicted by language researchers who suspect the origin of the Aymara in northern parts of the Andes, mainly in Peru. The dialects there would be gradually extended to the south in the Bolivian Altiplano and were later eventually influenced mainly by the Incas.

One further argument, according to the ethnic group of Aymara has only emerged with the Spanish conquest, were forcibly merged as different ethnic groups of the Spanish conquerors and subordinate as " Indios ". This common fate had led to a sense of connectedness and belonging.

Culture

Culturally share the Aymara much with other peoples of the Andes, for example, the Quechua-speaking ethnic groups. This also applies to the Andean religion, of which many elements have survived to this day, although the Aymara nominally almost all are Catholic. It has come to the fusion of indigenous and Christian ideas ( syncretism ). To date, the Aymara adore as the Mother Earth ( Pachamama ) and bring their offerings;

Their language, Aymara, is one of the official languages ​​in Bolivia and Peru.

Known Aymara

Evo Morales Ayma is since January 22, 2006 President of Bolivia. He comes from a family of Aymara locality Orinoca ( Urinuqa ).

Felipe Quispe is the leader of the Movimiento Indígena Pachakuti, a predominantly supported by Aymara Bolivian party.