PANEL 04: The Chibchan Peoples

PANEL 04: The Chibchan Peoples

SALSA XII Sesquiannual Conference – Vienna, 2019

Organizers:
Manuel Lizarralde, Connecticut College, USA
Juan Camilo Niño Vargas, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia
Stephen Beckerman, Universidad de los Andes, Colombia

Chair: Juan Camilo Niño Vargas

Abstract: At contact, the Chibchan speaking peoples inhabited a compact zone stretching from southeastern Central America to far northwestern South America. Although the linguistic and genetic similarity of these peoples is well documented, they manifested considerable differences in other anthropological dimensions. They inhabited both montane and lowland environments. They ranged in social organization from robustly egalitarian tribal groups to the paramount chiefdom (or perhaps proto-state) of the Muiscas, the most accomplished gold workers in the New World. Their kin terminological systems were diverse, comprising Hawaiian, Dravidian and Iroquois terminologies. Their religious practices ranged from an egalitarian shamanism to a specialized and highly trained priesthood. Although some traits have been suggested as common to all or almost all the Chibchan peoples—e.g. an absence of internal warfare, a set of cosmological principles that contrasted with those of the surrounding peoples—it remains in dispute as to whether one can speak of a common core of Chibchan culture. In the last decade a good deal of research has been done among the twenty odd surviving Chibchan peoples, and this work is continuing. This symposium brings together Chibchan researchers of various orientations—ethnographers, ethno-historians, linguists, geneticists, archaeologists—to share their findings and cross-fertilize their research programs. The papers to be presented here offer ethnographic, archaeological, linguistic and genetic data intended to address the question of just how similar the Chibchan peoples were and are, an inquiry that addresses such important issues as cultural inheritance and the origins and maintenance of ethnicity.

Panel Schedule