Chachapoya culture: Difference between revisions

This article is about the pre-Columbian civilization. For the contemporary city, see Chachapoyas, Peru.

The Chachapoyas, also called the Warriors of the Clouds, were an Andean people living in the cloud forests of the Amazonas region of present-day Peru. The Incas conquered their civilization shortly before the arrival of the Spanish in Peru. When the Spanish arrived in Peru in the XVI century, the Chachapoyas were one of the many nations ruled by the Inca Empire. Their incorporation to the Inca Empire had not been easy, due to their constant resistance to the Inca troops. The name Chachapoya is in fact the name that was given to this culture by the Inca; the name that these people may have actually used to refer to themselves is not known.

Since the Incas and the Spanish conquistadors were the principal sources of information on the Chachapoyas, unbiased first-hand knowledge of the Chachapoyas remains scarce. Writings by the major chroniclers of the time, such as El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, were based on fragmentary second-hand accounts. Much of what we do know about the Chachapoyas culture is based on archaeological evidence from ruins, pottery, and other artifacts.

The chronicler Pedro Cieza de León offers some picturesque notes about the Chachapoyas:

"They are the whitest and most handsome of all the people that I have seen in Indies, and their wives were so beautiful that because of their gentleness, many of them deserved to be the Incas' wives and to also be taken to the Sun Temple (...) The women and their husbands always dressed in woolen clothes and in their heads they wear their llautos, which are a sign they wear to be known everywhere."

Cieza adds that, after their annexation to the Inca Empire, they adopted the customs imposed by the people from the department of Cuzco.

The meaning of the word Chachapoyas is unknown. It may have been derived from sacha-p-collas, the equivalent of "colla people who live in the woods" (sacha = wild p = of the colla = nation in which Aymara is spoken). Some believe the word is a variant of the Quechua construction sacha puya, or people of the clouds.

Geography

Valley of the Marañón between Chachapoyas (Leymebamba) and Celendín

The Chachapoyas' territory was very extensive. They were located in the northern regions of the Andes in present-day Peru. It included the triangular space formed by the confluence of the rivers Marañón and Utcubamba in the zone of Bagua, up to the basin of the Abiseo river. The ruins of Pajatén are located here. This territory also included land to the south up to the Chontayacu river. In this way it exceeded, in a southerly direction, the limits of the current department of Amazonas. But the center of the Chachapoyas culture was the basin of the Utcubamba river. Due to the great size of the Marañón river and the surrounding mountainous terrain, the region was relatively isolated from the coast and other areas of Peru, although there is archaeological evidence of some interaction between the Chachapoyas and other cultures.

The contemporary Peruvian city of Chachapoyas derives its name from the word for this ancient culture as does the defined architectural style. Garcilazo de la Vega noted that the Chachapoyas' territory was so extensive that,

"We could easily call it a kingdom because it has more than fifty leagues long per twenty leagues wide, without counting the way up to Muyupampa, thirty leagues long more (...)"

The league was a measurement of about 5 kilometers.

The area of the Chachapoyas corresponds to a region that, being part of a mountain range because of its land, was characterized for being covered by dense tropical woods. Thus, it came to be referred to as the Amazonian Andes.

As fast as the population was growing, the forests of the Amazonian Andes were felled in order to expand agriculture. Tropical forests were thereby diminished drastically and the soil eroded, no longer being protected by its ancient green mantle. Nowadays, the Amazonian Andes resembles the barren landscape of the Andean moorlands.

The Amazonian Andes constitute the eastern flank of the Andes, which were once covered by dense Amazon vegetation. the region extended from the cordillera spurs up to altitudes where the forests have not been felled, usually above 3500 m.

The cultural realm of the Amazonian Andes occupied land situated between 2000 and 3000 m altitude. This means that they are limited to the altitude occupied by the Chachapoyas, attested to by the location of architectural remains.

Chachapoyas' Origin

According to the analysis of the Chachapoyas's objects made by the Antisuyo expeditions of Amazon Archaeology Institute, the Chachapoyas do not exhibit Amazon cultural tradition. Their cultural goods have Andean roots. Although in certain cases they present a particular physiognomy, the investigations show that it is only a question of forms that suffered modifications due to geographical factors and a probable relative isolation.

The anthropomorphous sarcofagi do not seem to be another thing than the imitation of funeral bundles provided with a wooden mask proper of the so-called Horizonte medio, when it reigned culturally on the coast and the highlands what is known as Tiahuanaco-Huari or Wari culture. The "mausoleums" are equally modified expressions from the chullpa or pucullo, architectural element of funeral character that has a big diffusion in Peru and also inserted in the cultural frame Tiahuanaco-Huari.

If we look for an answer to the question: why people who live in the mountain range of the Andes occupied zones of the Amazonian Andes, the reason will be that such occupation was an answer to the need of extending the agrarian border. This need can only have its explanation in the geographical enviroment, not only from the Andes but also from the coast, characterized by its extensest desert areas that are translated in suitable soils for agriculture, limited and insufficient to sustain a population like the ancestral Peruvian people. People dedicated, for three thousand years, to the intensive growing of the land and, for this reason, had supporting a increasing demographic rate.

This dissertation has received the epithet of "serranización of the rainforest", that is seen in both: the geographical part and in the cultural one. On one hand, when the scenery of the Amazonian Andes changed, after the fell of the tropical forests, into a barren one that resembles the mountain range of the Andes; and, on the other hand, when the Andean people carried their cultural Andean baggage to places that were originally filled with Amazon verdant grove. This phenomenon, which is still current, repeated itself in the southern Amazonian Andes in times of the Inca Empire, with the mountain projection to the zone of Vilcabamba that raised haughty Inca architecture exponents like Machu Picchu.

Incorporation to the Inca Empire

The conquest of the chachapoyas by the Incas took place, according to Garcilazo, during the government of Tupac Inca Yupanqui in the second half of the 15th century.

He recounts that the warlike actions began in the slope of Pias. If this is true, it was to the south-west of the Gran Pajáten, from what it is deduced that the area of Pias was already considered as a chachapoyas' territory.

About the resistance that the chachapoyas put up against the Inca's penetration in times of Tupac Inca Yupanqui, there is abundant historical information, especially in the chronicle of Cieza.

During the sovereign Huayna Capac's government, the chachapoyas rebelled:

"They had killed the Inca's governors and captains (...) and (...) soldiers (...) and many others were imprisoned, they had the intention to make them their slaves."

As an answer, Huayna Capac, who was in the Ecuadorian cañaris land and while he was gathering his troops, sent messengers to negotiate peace. But again, the chachapoyas "punished the messengers (...) and threatened them with death".

Then Huayna Capac ordered to attack them. He crossed the Marañon river over a bridge of wooden rafts that he ordered to be built probably in the surroundings of Balsas, next to Celendín.

From here, the Inca's troops went to Cajamarquilla (Bolivar), with the intention of destroying this town that was "one of the principal towns" of the chachapoyas. From Cajamarquilla, an embassy integrated by women went out to meet them. In front of them there was a matron, who was an ancient concubine of Tupac Inca Yupanqui. They were asking for mercy and forgiveness, that the Inca granted them. In memory of this event of peace consecration, the place where the negotiation had taken place was declared sacred and closed so from now on "(...) neither men nor animals, nor even birds, if it was possible, would put their feet in it."

To assure the pacification of the chachapoyas, the Incas installed garrisons in the region. They also arranged the transfer of groups of villagers under the system of mitmac, or change of territories of human groups:

"(...) it gave them grounds to work and places for houses not much far from a hill that is next to the city (Cuzco) called Carmenga."

Of the inca presence in the territory of Chachapoyas remain the architectural rests of Cochabamba, placed in the outskirts of Utcubamba in the current district of Leimebamba.

Characteristics

The architectural model of the chachapoyas is defined by the circular tendency of their constructions and the masonry of regular stones. Their constructions are also characterized for being raised on platforms that were constructed in slopes. Their walls are, in certain cases, decorated with symbolic figures. It is necessary to add the colossal character of some monuments such as Cuélap and other numerous enclosures, like Olán.

It might indicate that the chachapoyas constructions date back to the IX or X century, and that their architectural tradition was still current until the arrival of the Spanish to their territory in the second third of the XVI century. The exceptions were those constructions that were erected by the Incas using their own style, such is the case of the ruins of Cochabamba in the district of Leimebamba.

The presence of two funeral patterns are also typical from the Chachapoyas culture. One of them is represented by sarcophagi, placed vertically and located in caves that were excavated in the highest place of the precipices. The other funeral pattern was groups of mausoleums; that is to say "mansions for deceased people". They were constructed like tiny houses and were located in caves worked in cliffs.

The chachapoyas' ceramics did not reach the handmade level of the Mochica's or Nazca's. Their small pitchers are frequently decorated by cordoned motives. As for the textile art, cloths were generally colored in red. A monumental textile, proceeding from the precincts of Pajatén, showed that had been painted by figures of birds. The chachapoyas also used to paint their walls, since a haughty present sample in San Antonio, province of Luya, reveals. These walls stages a ritual dance of couples that were held by the hands.

History

Although there is archaeological evidence that people began settling this geographical area as early as 200 C.E. or before, the Chachapoyas culture is thought to have developed around 800 C.E. The major urban centers, such as Kuélap and Gran Pajaten, may have developed as a defensive measure against the Huari, a Middle Horizon culture that covered much of the coast and highlands.

In the fifteenth century, the Inca empire expanded to incorporate the Chachapoyas region. Although fortifications such as the citadel at Kuélap may have been an adequate defense against the invading Inca, it is possible that by this time the Chachapoyas settlements had become decentralized and fragmented after the threat of Huari invasion had dissipated. The Chachapoyas were conquered by Inca ruler Tupac Inca Yupanqui around 1475 C.E. The defeat of the Chachapoyas was fairly swift; however, smaller rebellions continued for many years. Using the mitamaq system of ethnic dispersion, the Inca attempted to quell these rebellions by forcing large numbers of Chachapoya people to resettle in remote locations of the empire.

When civil war broke out within the Inca empire, the Chachapoyas were located on middle ground between the northern capital at Quito, ruled by the Inca Atahualpa, and the southern capital at Cuzco, ruled by Atahualpa's brother Huascar. Many of the Chachapoyas were conscripted into Huascar's army, and heavy casualties ensued. After Atahualpa's eventual victory, many more of the Chachapoyas were executed or deported due to their former allegiance with Huascar.

It was due to the harsh treatment of the Chachapoyas during the years of subjugation that many of the Chachapoyas initially chose to side with the Spanish colonialists when they arrived in Peru. Guaman, a local ruler from Cochabamba, pledged his allegiance to the conquistador Francisco Pizarro after the capture of Atahualpa in Cajamarca. The Spanish moved in and occupied Cochabamba, extorting what riches they could find from the local inhabitants.

During Inca Manco Capac's rebellion against the Spanish, his emmissaries enlisted the help of a group of Chachapoyas. However, Guaman's supporters remained loyal to the Spanish. By 1547, a large faction of Spanish soldiers arrived in the city of Chachapoyas, effectively ending the Chachapoyas independence. Residents were relocated to Spanish-style towns, often with members of several different ayllu occupying the same settlement. Disease, poverty, and attrition led to severe decreases in population; by some accounts the population of the Chachapoyas region decreased by 90% over the course of 200 years after the arrival of the Spanish.

Archaeological Sites

The Chachapoyas people built the great fortress of Kuélap, with more than four hundred buildings and massive exterior stone walls, possibly to defend against the Huari around 800 C.E. Referred to as the 'Machu Picchu of the north,' Kuélap receives few visitors due to its remote location.

Other archaeological sites in the region include the settlement of Gran Pajáten, Gran Saposoa, the tombs at Revash, and the burial site at Laguna de los Condores (Lake of the Condors), among many others.

References

• von Hagen, Adriana. An Overview of Chachapoya Archaeology and History from the Museo Leymebamba website.
• Hemming, John. Conquest of the Incas. Harcourt, 1970.
• Muscutt, Keith. Warriors of the Clouds. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1998.
• Savoy, Gene. Antisuyo: The Search for the Lost Cities of the Andes. Simon & Schuster, 1970.

More Info

• [1] Ethnography and Archaeology of Chachapoyas PDF
• [2] Archaeological conservation dilemmas in Chachapoyas PDF
• [3] Peru North map including Chachapoyas
• [4] Incas in Chachapoyas