| 1843 print MONOLITHIC GATEWAY OF KALASASAYA, TIHUANACO, BOLIVIA, #3 |
Print from steel engraving titled Portique monolithe d'un Temple Aimara, a Tiguanaco, published in a volume of L'Univers, Histoire et description de tous les peuples, Paris, approx. page size 2.5 x 14 cm, approx. image size 14.5 x 9 cm.
Tiahuanaco
also spelled Tiwanaku, or Tiwanacu, major pre-Columbian civilization known from ruins of the same name that are situated near the southern shore of Lake Titicaca, near the modern town of Tiahuanacu (local official spelling) in Bolivia. Some scholars date the earliest remains found at the site to the early part of the Early Intermediate period (c. 200 BC–AD 200); others suggest that the culture is evident in artifacts from the second millennium BC. Probably much of the site, including many of the major buildings, dates from the latter half of the Early Intermediate period (AD 200–600); some construction, however, must have continued into the Middle Horizon (AD 600–1000), for during this period Tiahuanaco influences are seen at Huari and elsewhere in the central and southern Andes.
The principal buildings of Tiahuanaco include the Akapana Pyramid, a huge platform mound or stepped pyramid of earth faced with cut andesite; a rectangular enclosure known as the Kalasasaya, constructed of alternating tall stone columns and smaller rectangular blocks; and another enclosure known as the Palacio. A notable feature of the Kalasasaya is a monolithic gateway adorned with the carved central figure of a staff-carrying Doorway God and other subsidiary figures, sometimes referred to as winged messengers (see photograph). A great number of freestanding carved stone figures have also been found at the site. Characteristic pottery is a flared beaker (or kero) form, painted with black, white, and light red designs of pumas, condors, and other creatures on a dark red ground colour. It has been speculated that the people who built the splendid Tiahuanaco complex, whose culture had vanished by AD 1200, were the ancestors of the present-day Aymara Indians of highland Bolivia, who are among the poorest peoples in the Western Hemisphere.
In the late 20th century, archaeologists discovered new information concerning the Tiahuanaco site. Formerly thought to have been largely a ceremonial site, the area has been revealed as a once-bustling metropolis, the capital of one of the greatest and most enduring of ancient empires. Its influence was in great measure a result of its remarkable agricultural system. This farming method, known as the raised-field system, consisted of raised planting surfaces separated by small irrigation ditches, or canals. This system was designed in such a way that the canals retained the heat of the intense sunlight during frosty nights on the Altiplano and thus kept the crops from freezing. Algae and aquatic plants that accumulated in the canals were used as organic fertilizer on the raised fields. The resulting agricultural abundance enabled conquest, and, during the height of its power, the Tiahuanaco empire covered large portions of what are now the states of eastern and southern Bolivia, northwestern Argentina, northern Chile, and southern Peru. The revived use of the raised-field system by some Bolivian farmers in the late 20th century resulted in greatly increased agricultural production.
Aymara
large South American Indian group living in the vast windy Titicaca plateau of the central Andes in modern Peru and Bolivia. They speak languages of the Aymaran group. In colonial times the Aymara tribes were the Canchi, Colla, Lupaca, Collagua, Ubina, Pacasa, Caranga, Charca, Quillaca, Omasuyo, and Collahuaya. In addition, the Aymaran language was anciently spoken in portions of southern Bolivia, northern Chile, and southern Peru. The modern Aymara of Peru, Bolivia, and neighbouring sections of Argentina, numbered 1,500,000—2,000,000 in the late 20th century.
Basically agriculturalists and herders, the Aymara live in an area of poor soil and harsh climate. Coarse grass gives pasturage for llama and alpaca herds. Staple crops include potatoes, oca (Oxalis tuberosa), ullucu (Ullucus tuberosus), quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa), corn (maize), beans, barley, and wheat. Fishing is done from rowboats and totora-reed rafts.
Before they were conquered by the Incas, the Aymara had a number of independent states, the most important being those of the Colla and the Lupaca. About 1430 the Inca emperor Viracocha Inca began conquests southward from his capital at Cuzco. Aymara territories ultimately formed a major part of the Inca Empire, against which the Aymara continually revolted.
The Spanish conquest, beginning in 1535, brought seekers of gold and Indian labour, followed by Dominican and Jesuit friars in search of converts. The colonial agrarian economy was based on the systematic exploitation of the Aymara in agriculture, in the mines, as household servants, and on the coca plantations in the jungles. A period of rebellion began in 1780, during which the Indians killed large numbers of Spaniards, and continued until Peruvian independence from the Spanish crown was proclaimed in 1821.
The Aymara have passed through several stages of acculturation, first under the Incas, then under the Spaniards, and subsequently in the course of modernization. The Inca strengthened local Aymara dynasties as part of their imperial system and introduced new religious cults and myths, a greater variety of foods, and new art styles. The Spaniards introduced new domesticated animals and plants, plow agriculture, and iron tools. They suppressed native religious institutions but effected only a superficial conversion to Christianity. Today, the Aymara maintain their beliefs in a multi-spirit world, have many categories of magicians, diviners, medicine men, and witches, but are Christian in their beliefs about the afterworld. Independence and economic development brought changes in social organization and a decline in traditional arts and crafts.
Aymara clothing copies in crude homespun earlier Spanish colonial models. Men wear conical, ear-flapped, knit wool gorros; women wear round, native-made wool derbies, with wool wimples in cold weather. The single-room, rectangular, gabled Aymara house, about 8 by 10 feet (2.5 by 3 metres) in size, is made of turf, thatched with wild grass over pole rafters; it contains a family sleeping platform of mud at one end and a clay stove near the door.
The basic social unit is the extended family, consisting of a man and his brothers, their wives, sons, and unmarried daughters, living in a cluster of houses within a compound. The political unit is the ayllu, or comunidad, composed of several extended families. It has little resemblance to the aboriginal ayllu.