Indigenous peoples in Ecuador
The Indigenous peoples in Ecuador or Native Ecuadorians are the groups of people who were present in what became Ecuador before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The term also includes their descendants from the time of the Spanish conquest to the present. Their history, which encompasses the last 11,000 years, reaches into the present; 7 percent of Ecuador's population is of Indigenous heritage, while another 70 percent are Mestizos of mixed Indigenous and European heritage. Genetic analysis indicates that Ecuadorian Mestizos are of three-hybrid genetic ancestry.
Archaeological periods
While archaeologists have proposed different temporal models at different times, the schematic currently in use divides prehistoric Ecuador into five major time periods: Lithic, Archaic, Formative, Regional Development, and Integration. These time periods are determined by the cultural development of groups being studied, and are not directly linked to specific dates, e.g. through carbon dating.The Lithic period encompasses the earliest stages of development, beginning with the culture that migrated into the American continents and continuing until the Late Pleistocene or Early Holocene. The people of this culture are known as Paleo-Indians, and the end of their era is marked by the extinction of the megafauna they hunted.
The Archaic period is defined as "the stage of migratory hunting and gathering cultures continuing into the environmental conditions approximating those of the present." During this period, hunters began to subsist on a wider variety of smaller game and increased their gathering activities. They also began domesticating plants such as maize and squash, probably at "dooryard gardens." In the Andean highlands, this period lasted from 7000-3500 BP.
The Formative Period is characterized by "the presence of agriculture, or any other subsistence economy of comparable effectiveness, and by the successful integration of such an economy into well-established, sedentary village life." In Ecuador, this period is also marked by the establishment of trade networks and the spread of different styles of pottery. It began in about 3500 and ended around 2200 BP.
Regional Development is the period, dating roughly 2200-1300 BP, of the civilizations of the Sierra, described as "localized but interacting states with complex ideologies, symbol systems, and social forms." The people of this period practiced metallurgy, weaving, and ceramics.
The Integration Period "is characterized by great cultural uniformity, the development of urban centres, class-based social stratification, and intensive agriculture." The Integration Period ends and the historic era begins with the Inca conquest.
Paleo-Indians
The oldest artifacts discovered in Ecuador are stone implements discovered at 32 Cotton Pre-ceramic archaeological sites in the Santa Elena Peninsula. They indicate a hunting and gathering economy, and date from the Late Pleistocene epoch, or about 11,000 years ago. These Paleo-Indians subsisted on the megafauna that inhabited the Americas at the time, which they hunted and processed with stone tools of their own manufacture.Evidence of Paleoindian hunter-gatherer material culture in other parts of coastal Ecuador is isolated and scattered. Such artifacts have been found in the provinces of Carchi, Imbabura, Pichincha, Cotopaxi, Azuay, and Loja.
Despite the existence of these early coastal settlements, the majority of human settlement occurred in the Sierra region, which was quickly populated. One such settlement, remains of which were found at the archaeological site El Inga, was centered at the eastern base of Mount Ilaló, where two basalt flows are located. Due to agricultural disturbances of archaeological remains, it has been difficult to establish a consistent timeline for this site. The oldest artifacts there discovered, however, date to 9,750 BP.
In the South, archaeological discoveries include stone artifacts and animal remains found in the Cave of Chobshi, located in the cantón of Sigsig, which date between 10,010 and 7,535 BP. Chobshi also provides evidence of the domestication of the dog. Another site, Cubilán, rests on the border between Azuay and Loja provinces. Scrapers, projectile points, and awls discovered there date between 9,060 and 9,100 BP, while vegetable remains are up to a thousand years older.
In the Oriente, human settlements have since at least 2450 BP. Settlements that probably date from this period have been found in the provinces of Napo, Pastaza, Sucumbíos, and Orellana. However, most of the evidence recovered in the Oriente suggest a date of settlement later than in the Sierra or the Coast.
Origins of agriculture
The end of the Ice Age brought changes to the flora and fauna, which led to the extinction of the large game hunted by Paleo-Indians, such as giant sloth, mammoth, and other Pleistocene megafauna. Humans adapted to the new conditions by relying more heavily on farming. The adoption of agriculture as the primary mode of subsistence was gradual, taking up most of the Archaic period. It was accompanied by cultural changes in burial practices, art, and tools.The first evidence of agriculture dates anywhere from the Preboreal Holocene to the Atlantic Holocene.
Some of the first farmers in Ecuador were the Las Vegas culture of the Santa Elena Peninsula/, who, in addition to making use of the abundant piscine resources, also contributed to the domestication of several beneficial plant species, including squash. They engaged in ritual burial and intensive gardening.
The Valdivia culture, an outgrowth of the Las Vegas culture, was an important early civilization. While archaeological finds in Brazil and elsewhere have supplanted those at Valdivia as the earliest-known ceramics in the Americas, the culture retains its importance due to its formative role in Amerindian civilization in South America, which is analogous to the role of the Olmeca in Mexico. Most of the ceramic shards from the Early Valdivia date to about 4,450 BP, with artifacts from the later period of the civilization dating from about 3,750 BP. Ceramics were utilitarian, but also produced pieces of very original art, like the small feminine figures referred to as "Venuses."
The Valdivia people farmed maize, a large bean of the Canavalia family, cotton, and achira. Indirect evidence suggests that maté, coca, and manioc were also cultivated. They also consumed substantial amounts of fish. Archaeological evidence from the Late Valdivia shows a decline in life expectancy to approximately 21 years. This decline is attributed to an increase in infectious disease, accumulation of waste, water pollution, and a deterioration in diet, all of which are associated with agriculture itself.
In the Sierra, people cultivated locally developed crops, including tree bean Erythrina edulis, potatoes, quinoa, and tarwi. They also farmed crops that originated in the coastal regions and in the North, including ají, peanuts, beans, and maize. Animal husbandry kept pace with agricultural development, with the domestication of the local animals llama, alpaca, and the guinea pig, as well as the coastal Muscovy duck. The domestication of camelids during this period laid the basis for the pastoral tradition that continues to this day.
In the Oriente, evidence of maize cultivation discovered at Lake Ayauchi dates from 6250 BP. In Morona-Santiago province, evidence of Regional Development period culture was discovered at the Upano Valley sites of Faldas de Sangay, also known as the Sangay Complex or Huapula, as well as at other nearby sites. These people created ceramics, farmed, and hunted and gathered. They also built large earthen mounds, the smallest of which were used for agriculture or housing, and the largest of which had ceremonial functions. The hundreds of mounds spread over a twelve square kilometer area at Sangay demonstrate that the Oriente was capable of supporting large populations. The lack of evidence of kings or "principal" chiefs and also challenges the notion that cultural creations such as monuments require centralized authority.
Development of metallurgy
The period from 2450 BP—1450 BP is known as the "Regional Development" period, and is marked by the development of metalworking skills. The artisans of La Tolita, an island in the estuary of the Santiago River, made alloys of platinum and gold, fashioning the material into miniatures and masks. The Jama-Coaque, Bahía, Guangala, and Jambalí also practiced metalwork in other areas of the Ecuadorian coast. These goods were traded though mercantile networks.Pre-Inca era
Prior to the invasion of the Inca, the Indigenous societies of Ecuador had complex and diverse social, cultural, and economic systems. The ethnic groups of the central Sierra were generally more advanced in organizing farming and commercial activities, and the peoples of the Coast and the Oriente generally followed their lead, coming to specialize in processing local materials into goods for trade.The coastal peoples continued the traditions of their predecessors on the Santa Elena peninsula. They include the Machalilla, and later the Chorrera, who refined the ceramicism of the Valdivia culture.
The economy of the peoples of the Oriente was essentially silvicultural, although horticulture was practiced. They extracted dyes from the achiote plant for face paint, and curare poisons for blowgun darts from various other plants. Complex religious systems developed, many of which incorporated the use of hallucinogenic plants such as Datura and Banisteriopsis. They also made coil ceramics.
In the Sierra, the most important groups were the Pasto, the Caras, the Panzaleo, the Puruhá, the Cañari, and the Palta. They lived on hillsides, terrace farming maize, quinoa, beans, potatoes and squash, and developed systems of irrigation. Their political organization was a dual system: one of chieftains, the other, a land-holding system called curacazgo, that regulated the planting and harvesting of multiple cycles of crops. While some historians have referred to this system as the "Kingdom of Quito", it did not approach the level of political organization of the state.