Amerindians
According to the data of genetic research made in the University of Michigan, the ancestors of modern Amerindians and Eskimos migrated to America from South-Eastern Asia. The migration is considered to take place via Beringia, a land bridge which connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait but which vanished more than12,000 years ago. These early Indians soon spread throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes.
The first ancient civilization in South America was Inca Empire. At first it was an Amerindian tribe that spoke Quechua language, located in 11-13 centuries in the territory of modern-day Peru; later it became dominant and superior in the Tawantinsuyu, empire that it formed in 15 century. The Incas did not discover the wheel but even in spite of this fact they reached the well-developed social structure. They had an incredible system of roads which helped maintaining the connection between the different parts of their large territory. The Incas performed successful surgeries, practiced mummification. The also built mortarless stone constructions which could stand the most destructive earthquakes that crushed the later Spanish constructions. Nevertheless, their powerful centralized state was later conquered by a bunch of Spaniards.
The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives, bloodlines and cultures of the peoples of the continent. Many tribes were wiped out, while only the small part of Amerindians managed to preserve their cultures and customs in the deep forests of the Amazon River basin.
Today there are 216 officially registered tribes living in the deep rainforests of the Amazon. The most known one is the formerly two groups of Shipibo-Conibo tribe, now having around 30,000 members or more. They are famous among the other tribes for their shamans, for example, an acclaimed Peruvian artist Pablo Amaringo. Filmmaker and producer Jan Kounen made a movie about Shipibo-Conibo shamanism called D'autres mondes (Other Worlds).However, besides the wildly-known tribes, there are some that are considered uncontacted. Their existence is only proved by aerial photography and their traces in the jungles. These indigenous Amazonian people voluntarily live in isolation from the rest of the world, moving deeper into the forest and carrying with them the memory of how we all begun.
The territory our expedition is heading to (south of Ecuador, north-west of Peru) is mainly inhabited by the people of Jíbaro language family.
Among the Amerindians of this group are the Shuar people, notorious for being “headshrinkers”, Huambisa (equally dangerous), Achuar.
Exclusive information!
Our site has posted a rare book On a visit to the Amerindians of the upper Amazon. Journey and adventures of Updegraf by S. Vladimirov. (1928 edition!) Updegraf went along the Santiago River and wrote a detailed description of his experiences in those lands, including the encounter with the headshrinkers, Huambisa.
For those who are interested in more detailed information about the population of the upper Amazon’s area that we’re heading to, check out
our blog.
.
Interesting fact!
Chicha, Peru
Chicha was used for Inca’s ritual purposes and religious festivals. Even now it’s produced traditionally: women chew maize and spit the flesh into the jars with warm water where it ferments. This milky pale straw color drink is served in cups (pilche) made of pumpkins. In some regions chicha is also made with yucca, plantains and pineapples.
You can find chicha in chicherias in Cuzco and Lima. You can also try it in villages in the Ands. Red or white flag on the door of the house means that here you can get fresh chicha.