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Indigenous people influenced greatly the way Latin America developed. Among those groups it should be pointed three main ones, such as Maya, Arawaks and Mapuche. Maya indigenous people occupied an area comprising the Yucatan peninsula and much of the present state of Chiapas, Mexico; Guatemala and Belize. By a demographic collapse at the end of 1100 the population had been lost close to 90 %. Throughout Maya history, population and agriculture, correlatively, became more intensive. Linked with this process, social organization became increasingly hierarchical, with increasing differentiations of wealth and status.
It was shown primarily in the differential size and elaborateness of both residences and public buildings. Settlements in civic centres showed buildings made of cut stone masonry, sculptured and stuccoed decorations, corbel-vault stone roofs, and paved plazas. Such groupings in small, poor rural settlements involve buildings of largely perishable materials and small size. Most of the elaborate carvings, relief and full-round, and the paintings, mural and ceramic, which are the hallmarks of Classic Maya art, come from the civic centres. Small settlements were characterized by its own internal differentiation of status and power. The higher-status individuals were more probably heads of patrilineages, and that much of the religious complex was cantered on ancestor worship rather than on universal gods.
By the time of Spanish conquest, most Mayan populations were cantered around small villages. Administrative centres, inhabited largely by Spaniards, were established in the 16 th cent. For the most part, the Maya region was peripheral to the Spanish American colonies because the lack of mineral wealth, the relatively sparse population, and the lack of land suitable for the cultivation of export crops. Taxes were collected through church tithes and through the encomium system. Though Maya lived relatively autonomous lives.
The Arawaks were the first settled on the borderland between Bolivia, Peru and the forests between the Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. They migrated northeast to Venezuela and Guyana. They usually settled on the first island they came to and after a few years they would move again. The reason for this is still somewhat of a mystery today. A sound reason for this sort of 'behaviour' was that the coast and islands gave rise to a much easier life in comparison with the harsh jungle climate and equally dangerous animals. The soils may have been easier to cultivate and maybe because the population was growing, more land was needed to farm, hunt and fish.
The Arawaks were subsistence farmers, growing food mainly for their own needs and with a little left over for trade. Arawak tribes were aware of more advanced farming techniques. The Arawak society was hierarchical and pacific. Each Arawak village was the home of related people who obeyed a hereditary headman or chieftain. The family life was reflected in daily village life. The basis for the Arawak religion was a mixture of Zemism and spiritualism with emphasis on nature worship, ancestor worship and protective magic.
The Arawaks must have led very happy lives before the coming of the Spaniards. By the time Columbus arrived in the west, the island Arawaks were divided into several groups. Mapuche are the Pre-Hispanic Amerindian inhabitants of Central and Southern Chile and Southern Argentina. In the Spanish language they are also known as araucania (Araucanians). The Mapuche had an economy based on agriculture. Their social organisation consisted of extended families.
The Mapuche are a wide ranging ethnicity composed of various groups which shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Mapuche's successfully resisted attempts by the Inca Empire to subjugate them, in spite of lacking a nationwide organization. The Mapuche fought against the Spaniards. Their culture and customs had great influence on people. Even nowadays indigenous people make up a large and distinct portion of Latin America's population. In some countries, the majority of the population is indigenous even now, though it is well known that indigenous people are in an inferior economic and social position.
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Research essay sample on Latin America Indigenous People
