The Chibchas: A History and Re-Evaluation

Author(s): Martin Glassner

Reviewed work(s):
Source: The Americas, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Jan., 1970), pp. 302-327
Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History
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THE CHIBCHAS: A HISTORY AND
RE-EVALUATION
CONFLICTING EVALUATIONS OF THE CHIBCHAS
OST diverse are the evaluations of the Chibchas and their civilization
and even the
descriptions
of that civilization.' Steward and
Faron,
for
example,
call it "The Greatest Chiefdom" of South
America,
while Kroeber calls it a
"realm,"
Oberg
calls it a "Feudal
Type
State" and
others use the word
"Kingdoms."
At
any
rate,
a review of some evaluations will
illustrate the confusion about the stature of the Chibchas
among
the
aborigines
of the New World and at the same time serve as an introduction to their
civilization.
The
great majority
of commentators rate the Chibchas
very high,
but Kroeber
is less enthusiastic:
The Chibcha culture is one of the most famous in South America. In
fact,
it is often
spoken
of as
representing
one of the culminations of native civiliza-
tion in the
Americas,
equal
to,
or
only just
behind,
that of the
Aztec-Maya
and
Inca. But the Chibcha left no historic
impress,
no
persisting
influence on the
modern life in their former area.
They
have also left
surprisingly
few
physical
monuments. Their
archaeology
is
meager,
even their
speech
died out
long ago.2
Kroeber attributes their success in
achieving
states in
large part
to a dense
population,
due to a favorable environment. He
goes
on to
explain
that the
Chibchas did not have a
calendar,
astronomy,
an elaborate
system
of
cults,
stone
buildings
or
very
well
developed
arts and
crafts,
and
then,
'The
Chibchas,
like the
Aztecs, Incas,
Araucanians and other
major
Indian
groups
of Latin
America,
are
commonly
known now
by
names which
they
never
applied
to themselves. In the
case of the
Chibchas,
it would be well to clear
up
this matter before
proceeding
to a discussion of
their civilization.
It is
argued by many writers, including contemporary ones,
that the Chibchas should
properly
be called Muiscas as the word "Chibcha" refers to the
language spoken by
these
people
or to the
language family
which includes various
languages spoken
from Mexico to Ecuador. There
may
be
some
validity
in this
argument,
since
many
of the earlier records use the term "Muisca" or some
variation thereof in
preference
to
Chibeha.
Among
these variations are
Mwiska, Muiska, Mozca,
Mosca, Moxca, Muexca,
Muxca and
Muysca.
Nevertheless,
"Chibcha" has been chosen
arbitrarily
for
general
use in this article because it is the
appellation
most familiar to North Americans. No other claim is made for its
suitability.
2A. L. Kroeber,
"The Chibcha" in
Julian
H. Steward
(ed.),
Handbook of South American Indians
(Washington:
Smithsonian Institution, 1944),
Vol 2, p.
887.
302
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MARTIN GLASSNER 303
Compared
with both
[Incas
and
Aztecs],
the ancient Colombians were
well behind in all
aspects;
and from the
general
mass of the
Colombians,
the
Chibchas stood
out,
primarily,
in
socio-political development
alone.3
One of the finest histories of Latin
America,
in
discussing
the
Chibchas,
says,
"When the
Spaniards
found them
they
were
apparently developing
what
might
have become an
empire
similar to that of the Toltecs . . . ." 4
Perhaps
the most enthusiastic admirer of the Chibchas is Sir Clements Mark-
ham,
the well-known
English geographer
and
historian,
whose
history
of the
Conquest
is so
very
colorful and
romantic,
if not
always truly
accurate. Here
is a
sample
of his
story:
It
will,
I
think,
be seen that there is reason to
conclude,
from all that is
known of the Chibcha
language, religion
and
calendar,
that
their civilisation
will bear
comparison
with that of the
Aztecs,
and of the earlier
period
of the
Incas before their
great conquests
were commenced.5
When the
cataclysm [of
the
Conquest] destroyed
them
they
had
just
reached the
stage
which the Incas
occupied previous
to the Chanca War. But
hard work
alone,
industry
alone,
had not raised them to the
point they
had
attained,
nor would
industry
alone have taken them further. It was their care
for their ancient
traditions,
their devoted
loyalty
to their
rulers,
their
patriotic
fervour in
defending
their
country against
invaders,
their zeal in
extending
the dominion of their
Kings
which,
combined with habits
acquired by long
ages
of
industry,
would have led them on to
empire.
. .6
After this
glowing appraisal,
it seems in order to look at two
quite opposite
viewpoints.
Back from the Colombian coast was an advanced
nation,
the
Chibcha,
who have been treated too
generously by
writers who rank them almost with
the Inca and Aztecs. It is true that
they
were in the
process
of
consolidating
into two
states,
one ruled
by
a
Zipa
and the other
by
a
Zaque,
but their
political system
was still
very primitive.
Their
agriculture
was
reasonably
advanced in the cool
highlands
of central
Colombia,
but their
buildings
and
works of art were not notable. Their
greatest
fame
lay
in the
legend
of El
Dorado...7
l"Ibid,
p.
888.
4Williams,
Bartlett and
Miller, The
People
and Politics
of
Latin America
(Boston:
Ginn and
Company, 1958), p.
47.
'Clements
Markham,
The
Conquest of
New Granada
(London: Smith,
Elder and
Co., 1912), p.
39.
(Ibid.,
p.
20.
'John
Edwin
Fagg,
Latin America: A General
History (New
York: The MacMillan
Company,
1963), p.
43.
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304 THE CHIBCHAS
Much less
important
in
pre-Hispanic
America at this time were the
petty
Chibcha
Kingdoms
at
Bogota, Tunja,
Guatabita and Iraca
which,
if the
Spanish
Conquest
had not
occurred,
might
well have
gravitated
into the orbit of the
Inca,
whose influence
already
extended as far north as
Popayin
in Colombia.8
But on the other
hand,
The cultural
importance
of Colombia has
undoubtedly
been under-rated.
One of the chief reasons for
relegating
the ancient cultures of Colombia to an
inferior
position
is that
they
did not
employ
stone
structurally.
Is this not a
case of
judging by archaeological
standards? . . . In
choosing
the thatched
temple,
the Colombians did not build for
posterity; they
built for their own
comfort.
Had no advanced culture existed in
Colombia as a link between North
and South
America,
the cultures of Peru and Central America would have
been
measurably poorer.
This
applies particularly
to Central America . .9
The writer of this comment
goes
on to
opine
that the failure of the
Zipa
to
create an
empire
like that of the Inca was due not to lack of
political organ-
izing ability,
but to
inability
to
conquer
the
Zaque
and the fierce
neighboring
tribe,
the Panche. Another
opinion-
It seems
very likely
that,
had the
Spaniards
not arrived on the scene when
they
did,
the entire Muisca area would
shortly
have been unified into a
single
political
unit
by
force of arms of the
Zipa.
The next
step might
well have
been the
conquest
of the chiefdoms of the Cauca
Valley.
In
fact,
it is
probably
not too fanciful to
suppose
that had the
Spanish conquest
been
delayed
a
century
or
two,
a
single large
state,
almost
comparable
to that of the
Inca,
might
have exercised its rule over much of
Colombia.10
All of the
foregoing
comments are based on casual observation or on
preceding
writings
and
may
therefore be of
questionable
value.
Recently,
however,
some
scientific
investigations
in the former Chibcha
territory provide
evidence for
more rational
interpretations
of the Chibcha culture. An
archaeological survey
was carried out in the area in 1949-50. Evaluation of the
diggings
there
has led to conclusions which are somewhat
contrary
to
accepted opinions
of
Chibcha
greatness
...
'Mariano Picon-Salas,
A Cultural
History of Spanish
America, translated by Irving
A.
Leonard,
(Berkeley: University
of California
Press, 1963), p.
6.
9J.
Eric
Thompson, Archaeology of
South America
(Chicago:
Field Museum of Natural
History,
1936), pp.
145-6.
"oRobert L.
Carneiro,
"The
Aboriginal
Cultures of Colombia,"
in A. Curtis
Wilgus (ed.),
The
Caribbean:
Contemporary
Colombia
(Gainesville: University
of Florida Press, 1962), p.
33.
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MARTIN GLASSNER 305
A
plea
for a re-evaluation of the Chibcha is based on the belief that:
a)
most written sources
give exaggerated
accounts;
b)
Chibcha habitat
imposed
certain limitations on food
production,
hence on
population density
and
cultural
achievement,
by
shallow
soil,
extensive marshlands on the savannah
floors which now
appear
to have been ideal for
agriculture,
soil deficiencies
and
length
of the
growing
seasons at elevations over
8,000
feet above sea
level;
c) population
estimates
ranging
from
1,000,000
to
120,000
are much
too
high,
even the conservative
figure,
when measured
against
the
archaeological
residue
expectable
from a
sedentary agricultural people; d) nothing
was seen
in the
altiplano
which could warrant the conclusions that this culture had a
long history."
A later
study by
a
geographer,
however,
resulted in
quite
the
opposite
con-
clusion:
Investigation
of written
sources,
both
Spanish
and
English,
and extensive
field work in the area reveal in detail the
extraordinary
close
relationship
between Chibcha tribes and the
highland
basins in Colombia . . . In land use
it is shown that a much more
productive system
was worked out
by
these
Indians than
by any
others in northern South America. The Chibchas lived in
well-organized
states,
each with distinctive
political
leaders
supported by
the
people.
Indeed,
they
built a
highland
basin civilization in some
respects equiva-
lent to that of the
Incas,
and in what
appears
to have been much less time.
Moreover,
their racial
traits,
and their achievements in
agriculture,
in
locating
urban
communities,
and in
devising political
boundaries have all
played
an
important
role in the modern
development
of Colombia.2
Since
many
of these assessments
depend
to a
large
extent on the Chibchas'
adaptations
to their environment
(Indeed,
Markham attributes their success
"entirely to their
geographical environment."
a13),
it seems
appropriate
to review
some of the more
important
characteristics of this environment before
pro-
ceeding
further.
"Emil W.
Haury
and
Julio
Cesar
Cubillos, Investigaciones Arqueoldgicas
en la Sabana de
Bogotd,
Colombia
(Cultura Chibcha) (Tucson: University
of
Arizona, 1953), p.
8.
Throughout
this
report
the authors
carefully
label their discoveries as
fragmentary
and their conclusions as tentative.
They
were
reinvestigated
and
confirmed, however, by Sylvia
Broadbent and
they
and her own new
findings
are summarized in her
article, "Agricultural
Terraces in Chibcha
Territory, Colombia,"
American
Antiquity (April, 1964), pp.
501-504.
12Robert C. Eidt, "Aboriginal Chibcha Settlement in
Colombia,"
Annals
of
the Association
of
American
Geographers (December, 1959), pp.
374-75. This is a fine
example
of the value of an
expert
from another
discipline using
his
background
and tools to focus on a
problem
of an anthro-
pological-archaeological
nature. While
occasionally reaching beyond
his evidence for
conclusions,
Eidt has made a most useful contribution to our
understanding
of the Chibchas.
13Markham, p.
19
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306 THE CHIBCHAS
GEOGRAPHY OF THE CHIBCHA AREA
The
accompanying map
is one of the best available of the
original
Chibcha
area,
though
it differs in
many
details from
previously published
ones. The
principal
differences are in the northward extent of the Chibcha
country
and
in the number of intermont basins in the
area."4
These
basins,
of which Eidt
counted
17,
are the beds of former Pleistocene lakes which
apparently
are still
in a
relatively early stage
of evolution.
Locally, they
are referred to as
"sabanas,"
though
Eidt calls them
"altiplanos."
Geologists
and
early
historians have
agreed
that a
large portion
of the central
plateaus
inhabited
by
the Chibcha was a
marshy
or
readily
floodable
area,
not
apt
for
cultivation;
even the
Choconti
basin is believed to have been a lake
that drained
through
the Suesca
canyon
...
.5
Many
other marshes and lakes
apparently
existed at the time of the
Conquest
which have since dried
up,
but most authorities seem to
agree
that the land was
suitable for self-sufficient and
sedentary agriculture, though
the Chibchas did
not
produce large
food
surpluses.
Although
much smaller than their
counterparts
in
Peru,
the northern
altiplanos
were favored in their own
way.
Because of the more moderate
elevation
[Most
of the Chibchas lived between 8500' and 8800' above sea
level,
though
Hunsa
(now Tunja)
is at
9,252'
and
Sugamuxi (now Sogamoso)
at
8,320'],
Colombian basins had a cool
healthy
climate which was less
rigorous
than that in the south. In
addition,
due to a
peculiar
local
situation,
they
enjoyed
four seasons" a
year
in
spite
of
equatorial
latitudes . . . . The
occurrence of two wet seasons
separated by
two
dry periods
made it
necessary
for the inhabitants to work out a
well-planned agricultural program.
Further-
more,
the
highland
basins were
centrally
located in
Colombia,
an
important
crossroads
area;
they
were treeless and free from dense
grass
cover;
they
had
relatively
fertile soils and
possessed important
minerals,
such as
salt,
clay
and sandstone
-
factors which
played
an
increasingly
vital role in the lives
of the Chibchas after
they
arrived on the
altiplanos.16
'Eidt, pp. 377-78, explains
his
map
in this
way:
"Political boundaries marked
by early
historians of the Chibcha civilization were not
always
in
agreement. Although
most selected a frontier which was near
Fusagasugi
at the southern limit
of the
altiplanos,
few concurred on the northern extent. . . . It is evident from the
gradual
increase in
knowledge
about the Chibchas that
succeeding
authorities discovered closer ties
with the
north,
until limits became more or less
accepted
at what we can see
[on
the
map]."
Other
useful
maps appear
in
Markham, Kroeber,
Perez de Barradas and
Haury
and Cubillos.
"5Orlando Fals-Borda,
Peasant
Society
in the Colombian Andes: A
Sociological Study of
Saucio
(Gainesville: University
of Florida
Press, 1962), p.
86.
Extensively documented,
this
early
team
study
of a
peasant society
in a "western"
country
contains much valuable information on Colombia
past
and
present.
'6Eidt, p.
375.
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THE
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308 THE CHIBCHAS
As
might
be
expected,
estimates of the extent of the Chibcha
territory vary.
Haury
and
Cubillos,
for
example,
estimate it at about
35,000
square
kilometers,
but Eidt has calculated that
the
greatest probable
area embraced
by
the Chibcha Indians was
approximately
26,000
sq.
km. Of
these,
about
3,000
sq.
km.,
or
only 12%
of the total amount
of
land,
pertains
to the level-surfaced
altiplano.
Yet,
as is
brought
out
below,
nearly
half of the Chibchas
may
have inhabited the small amount of land
in these fertile basins.t7
He
goes
on to estimate the
population
of the Chibcha
territory
at the time of
the
conquest, taking
into consideration
many
historical
accounts,
the
physical
geography, agricultural practices,
etc.,
and concludes that the
population
was
about
643,000,
an estimate
roughly midway
between the
highest
and lowest es-
timates of earlier writers."
HISTORY OF THE CHIBCHAS THROUGH THE SPANISH
CONQUEST
The
pre-Columbian history
of the Chibchas is not known with
any certainty.
They kept
no written
records,
they
had no
memory
of their
origins
or even of
their
family
or
dynastic
histories further back than two
generations,
and their
myths
and
legends
fail to
give any
solid clues as to their
origin,
as do those of
other American
aboriginal groups. Perhaps they
had
simply
not had time to
manufacture a
history
for themselves as the Incas did. At
any
rate,
despite
Eidt's conclusion that the Chibchas were recent arrivals in their basins in the
Cordillera
Oriental,
and
many speculations
about their
origins,
the fact remains
"Tbid., p. 378.
"Eidt's
figures
for the five Chibcha states are:
Area, sq.
km.
Population
Zipa
10,000 217,000
Zaque
6,000 174,000
Guane' 6,000 150,000
Sogamoso
1,500 52,000
Tundama 2,000 50,000
TOTAL 25,500 643,000
He discusses modern and ancient
agricultural
methods and the
probable
area under cultivation
and
concludes,
"An
inspection
of modern
crop yields
in the Chibcha homeland shows that suf-
ficient food
staple (potatoes)
could have been
produced
to
support
an estimated
population
of
about
600,000." Ibid., p.
380. It is
interesting
to note that the census of 1919 in what was
the Chibcha domain shows a
population
of
just
over
700,000
Indians and mestizos in a total
population
of
just
over
1,100,000.
Details on the
census, good maps,
and much additional in-
formation
may
be found in
Jose
Perez de
Barradas,
Los Muiscas Antes de la
Conquista (Madrid:
Consejo Superior
de
Investigaciones Cientificas,
Instituto Bernardino de
Sahagtin, 1950).
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MARTIN GLASSNER 309
that there is no real evidence that the Chibchas had ever lived
anywhere
other
than where the
Spaniards
found them in 1537.1'
Among
all the Chibcha
groups, only
those
living
in the territories ruled
by
the
Zipa
and the
Zaque
had
any
sort of
non-supernatural history,
and that of
the
Zaque
was so
vague
that few details survive.
Despite
the doubtful
accuracy
of the
Zipa history,
it seems worth
retelling
here,
as reconstructed from several
sources,
because of the
insights
it
gives
us into the nature of the Chibcha states.
The earliest
Zipa
of whom we have
knowledge
was
Saguanmachica,
who
began
his
reign
about the
year
1470. He
kept
under submission a number of
usaques,
or
provincial
chieftains
(whom
the
Spaniards
were later to call caci-
ques),
defended his
territory against
the
Panches,
who were
continually raiding
from the
west,
and
conquered
the
Sutagaos,
who lived in the fertile
valley
of
Fusagasugai
to the south. He then turned north and east and attacked the
Zaque
Michua. He took some
territory
from the
Zaque
before Michua
could
organize
defenses.
Finally,
a showdown battle was
fought
at
Choconti,
about
1490,
in which both
sovereigns
were killed. Both armies then retired.
The successor to
Saguanmachica
was his
nephew Nemequene. Nemequene
subdued a rebellion of the
Sutagaos
and then
conquered
the
high
and fertile
valley
of Guatavita. He then annexed the whole
valley
east of
Ciqueza (now
Bogoti)
and once
again
attacked the
Zaque. They fought
another fierce battle
at
Choconti
but this time the
Zipa
was wounded
badly
and carried from the
field and the
Zaque
won. The
Zaque,
however,
in
typical
Chibcha
fashion,
did
not follow
up
his
victory,
but rather returned to his
capital
at Hunsa
(Tunja).
The
Zipa Nemequene,
however,
died from his wounds in his own
capital
at
Muequeti,
and was succeeded
by
his
nephew Thisquezuza.
The influence of the
Iraca,
named
Nompaneme [a religious
leader who
controlled some
territory
north of the
Zaque
with his
capital
at
Suamo,
now
Sogamoso],
secured a
peace,
or at least a truce of
twenty
months,
which
might
lead to
peace,
between the
Zipa
and the
Zaque.
This was an
example
of the
influence that could be used for
good by
the official
peacemaker
and mediator
of the Chibcha nation.20
"Several
writers, including Paravey
and
Zerda,
theorize that the Chibchas came from
Japan,
basing
their theories on studies of their
language; others,
such as
Posnansky
and
Marquez,
that
they
came from the Lake Titicaca area because of similarities between the Tiahuanacu culture
and
theirs;
Triana theorizes about their
origin
in the Orinoco basin because of certain
physical
characteristics;
and Steward and
Faron, Haury
and
Cubillos, J.
Eric
Thompson,
and Eidt all
speculate
with
varying degrees
of documentation and
uncertainty
that
they
came from the
north,
perhaps
from as far as
Mexico, though
all
but
Eidt add that the cultural similarities
they
found
between the Chibchas and the civilizations of Mexico and Central America could
just
as well
have traveled from south to north.
20Markham, p.
46.
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310 THE CHIBCHAS
The
Zipa,
however,
continued
expanding
his
domain,
largely
at the
expense
of
the
Zaque,
until the
arrival
of the
Spaniards.21
Meanwhile,
the
Spaniards
had
begun exploring
the coast of Colombia as
early
as 1501 and in the
ensuing years Spanish
and German
expeditions
ex-
plored
further and further
inland, establishing
colonies in Colombia and Vene-
zuela. In
December, 1535,
Gonzalo
Jimenez
de
Quesada,
a
lawyer
turned
soldier,
arrived at Santa Marta and within a few months was
leading
an
expedition up
the
Magdalena
River. He found no
gold
and much
hardship.
The first clue he
or
any
white men received about the existence of the Chibchas was some bars
of salt and some emeralds found
among
some of the tribes in the
upper Magda-
lena
valley.
Determined to seek out their
source,
he left the
valley,
surmounted
the
Opon
Mountains,
and in
April,
1537,
with 166
surviving
men and 59
horses,
looked down
upon
the
country
of the Chibchas.
Quesada
marched
through many
Chibcha settlements with little or no
opposi-
tion until he
approached
the
major
salt mine at Nemoc6n. There the
Zipa
Thisquezuza
met him with 600
lightly
armed
soldiers,
but was unable to
stop
the
Spaniards.
The
Zipa
fled to his
capital
at
Muequeti,
some
twenty
miles
west of where
Bogoti
now stands. As the
Spaniards approached
he fled to a
stronghold
in a forest near
Facatativai,
but his followers defended
Muequeti.
The
Spaniards
won the
battle,
took the town and
began moving
northward to
search for
gold
and emeralds.
They
marched
through
Guatavita and Choconti
and into the
Zaque territory
to
Turmeque,
meanwhile
sending
a small force
to take the emerald mine at Samondoco.
Quesada
invaded the
palace
of the
Zaque
Quemuchatocha
in
Hunsa,
captured
him and sacked the town. The old
Zaque
soon died and was
replaced by Aquimin,
who was to be the last
Zaque.
Quesada
continued on to
Suamo,
the seat of the
Iraca,
but an old
priest
set fire
to the Iraca's
temple just
as the
Spaniards approached
the
door, destroying
it
and its treasures of
gold
and emeralds. In
October, 1537,
the
Spaniards
were met
by
the forces of the
Tundama,
leader of a smaller Chibcha
state,
in a fierce
battle near
Duitama,
which ended in a
draw,
but
Quesada
turned westward
toward the Neiva
valley, supposedly
a land rich in
gold.
He failed to find
any
and returned in
January,
1538,
to find and
capture
the
Zipa
in his hidden fortress.
The
Zipa
died and was
replaced by Sagipa,
who continued
fighting, forcing
the
Spaniards
to abandon
Muequeti.
The
Chibchas, however,
were attacked
by
the Panches and called
upon
Que-
"Ezequiel Uricoechea,
in
Antigiiedades Neogranadinas, (2nd ed.; Bogoti:
Ministerio de Educa-
ci6n
Nacional, 1936),
attributes the
Zipa's continuing
success to his
experience
in
fighting
the
Panches and to
superior knowledge
of the
country.
He
says,
"Without the arrival of the
Spaniards,
it is
probable
that the
Zipa
would have
gained
control of all the
territory
of the
Chibchas," pp.
46-47. Based
largely
on
secondary
sources and
tending
toward the fanciful
at
times,
this is still
a useful source.
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MARTIN GLASSNER 311
sada for aid. The combined
army
met and defeated the Panches at Tocarema.
One source
says
the Chibcha
army
at that battle numbered
12,000 men,
which
seems reasonable in
light
of other accounts of Chibcha armies.22
Quesada
then
performed
the
only
act of deliberate
treachery
and
cruelty
known to have been
committed
by
an otherwise
relatively
humane and
enlightened conqueror.
He
captured,
tortured and killed
Sagipa
in a vain
attempt
to find his
allegedly
hid-
den
gold.
After
this,
the
Spaniards
went on to take the remainder of the Chibcha
territories,
though
not without some
sharp skirmishing
in the north.
Quesada
founded the
city
of Santa F6 de
Bogotai
on 6
August,
1538,
called the
whole
country
the New
Kingdom
of
Granada,
organized
its
administration,
and returned to
Spain
to secure
royal authority
and honors. He left the
country
in
charge
of his
brother,
Hernin
Jimenez
de
Quesada,
who was most unlike
his brother. Hernain initiated the encomienda
system,
treated the Indians
cruelly,
and murdered
Aquimin,
the
young Zaque,
the chiefs of
Samaca,
Turmequ6,
and
Boyacai,
and other leaders.
It was a
calamity
from an historical
point
of view because the murdered
chiefs were those who knew all the traditions of their race.
They
were the men
of
learning,
who could have handed down the full
story
of a
people,
fast ad-
vancing
in
civilization,
to
posterity.
Now it is
nearly
all lost to us.23
Hernin then left on the first of
many expeditions
to find El Dorado. While he
was
away,
the Indians rebelled
against oppression,
led first
by
the chief of Guata-
vita and then
by
the Tundama of Duitama. Other
uprisings
occurred and
guer-
rilla
fighting
continued
through
1541. One
by
one each Indian
group
was
defeated and each defeat was followed
by
a horrible massacre. "After
this,"
according
to
Markham,
"the Chibchas seem to have
submitted,
sinking
into
slavery
and black
despair."24
This
gloomy
ending
to the Chibcha
story
is related
by many
other
writers,
few of whom feel that the Chibchas
put up
more than token resistance to the
Spaniards.
Despite
the scale of their
political organization,
the Chibcha were
easily
conquered by
a
very
small number of
Spanish troops.
The unstable alliance
of their
political
divisions
prevented
their
offering
a solid front
against
the
22Jesis Maria Henao and Gerardo
Arrubla, History of Colombia,
translated and edited
by
J.
Fred
Rippy (Chapel
Hill:
University
of North Carolina
Press, 1938).
This is
perhaps
the
finest
history
of
Colombia,
written
by
two
highly respected
Colombian historians.
23Markham, p.
150.
"Ibid., p.
156.
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312 THE CHIBCHAS
invader,
and each division
fought separately
in defense of its own
territory
. .
."25
They
seem to have
fought
better in the three or four
years
after their realms
were broken than in
defending
them . . . After 1541 there was never even
an
attempt
at rebellion. The culture faded out
rapidly
under
Spanish
rule,
and
even the
language
became extinct in the 18th
century.26
An evaluation of the
military conquest
of the Chibchas is
beyond
the
scope
of this
article,
though
one cannot avoid
observing
that in
denigrating
Chibcha
resistance,
most writers
conveniently forget
the relative ease with which the
Spaniards conquered
the
very
much
larger
and
stronger
Aztec and Inca
empires.
(The
terrain in
Colombia, moreover,
was
exceptionally
suitable for
cavalry,
and
the
Spaniards
took full
advantage
of
it.)
Whether the Chibcha
people
and their
culture
actually
were
destroyed
in 1541 is another
matter, however,
and will be
discussed
presently.
First we shall examine those elements of the Chibcha culture
which lead some to rank it so
highly among
the cultures of the New World.
THE CHIBCHA CIVILIZATION
The Chibchas'
primary
claim to
fame,
as indicated
by
the
quotations
in the
introductory paragraphs,
was the
degree
of
socio-political organization they
had
achieved and the economic
system
which was
necessary
for its
support.
Neither
their art nor their
religion
was
very highly developed,
and,
while their
language
was rather
sophisticated,
their number
system, technology,
and means of record-
ing
information were
rudimentary
in
comparison
with those of various other
American
aboriginal groups.27
Markham credits them with
having
had a com-
plex
lunar
calendar,
primarily
connected with
agriculture,
which would seem to
have been
required
if Eidt's
descriptions
of the climate and
crop systems
is ac-
curate,
but there is little evidence of the actual existence of such a calendar.
Kroeber calls Chibcha
mythology
"confused,"
and the
only noteworthy
charac-
25Julian H. Steward and Louis C.
Faron,
Native
Peoples of
South America
(New
York:
McGraw-
Hill Book
Company,
Inc., 1959), p.
214.
2"Kroeber, p.
897.
'Because of a
great many
contradictions
among
the various
printed
accounts of the
Chibchas,
it is
very
difficult to obtain a clear
picture
of what their civilization was
actually
like. Ac-
cordingly,
this
description
of the Chibcha civilization is reconstructed from
fragments
of
many
sources and does not resemble
any
one in detail. Two
especially
useful
sources,
in addition to
those cited elsewhere in this
article,
are
Miguel Triana,
La Civilizacion Chibcha
(Bogoti:
Escuela
Tipogrifica
Salesiana, 1922)
and Guillermo Hernindez
Rodriguez,
De Los Chibchas a la Colonia
a la
Repulblica
(Bogoti:
Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 1949).
The former is a brief and
somewhat
poetic
account,
while the latter is a sizeable
compendium
of information on
nearly
everything
about the
subject,
somewhat
interpretive
but more
scholarly
and less
imaginative
than
some other sources cited here.
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MARTIN GLASSNER 313
teristics of their
religion
were the seminaries in which
priests
were trained for
twelve
years,
after which
they
were
assigned
to
temples throughout
the
area,
and the
legend
of El Dorado.
This
legend
was,
in
fact,
a
Spanish legend
and not an Indian one. Its
origin
lay
in the annual Chibcha
ceremony
at Lake
Guatavita,
neutral
ground
for all
Chibcha factions and their holiest
place.
In this
ceremony,
the chief of
Guatavita,
naked,
was covered with
gold
dust and set adrift on a raft laden with
gold
or-
naments and other
gifts
for the
mystical beings
in the lake. After
dropping
them
overboard the chief himself dove in and returned to shore. It was
many years
before the
Spaniards
learned the whole truth of the
matter,
and meanwhile
they
searched the Orinoco and Amazon basins and elsewhere and drained several
lakes in futile
attempts
to find the treasure of The Gilded One.
The Chibchas also
practiced
ritual human
sacrifice,
but the victims were
usually captured
enemies,
slaves or small
children,
all of whom were treated with
great
care and
respect
before
being
sacrificed,
as the role was
quite
an honorable
one.
Some of the more distinctive features of the Chibcha
technology
will be dis-
cussed in the section on their
economy,
since few are
noteworthy
in themselves.
SOCIO-POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS
When the
Spaniards
arrived,
they
found the Chibchas
organized
into five
separate political units,
much like the
petty
feudal states of
Europe
and with
about as
many
differences
among
them. The differences were
largely political,
however,
and to some extent social and
religious. Generally,
all Chibchas
spoke
the same
language
and shared the same
mythology, religion,
and other
aspects
of culture.
They
all
participated
in the annual "El Dorado"
ceremony
at the lake
of Guatavita and in the
great regional
markets,
or fairs. At
times,
apparently,
they
also united to
fight
common
enemies,
but
rarely
more than two or three of
the states at once. The Chibchas were
truly
one
people
and this should not be
forgotten
even
though
it is
necessary
to examine each state in turn. Of the five
states,
it seems that
only
those ruled
by
the
Zipa
and the
Zaque
deserved to be
called
kingdoms,
while that of the Iraca was a
theocracy
and those of the Tun-
dama and Guan6
probably
more in the nature of
large
chiefdoms. The
Zipa
kingdom
was not
only
the most
powerful
of the
five,
it also had the most com-
plex organization.
The other states emulated the
Zipa
in
varying degrees
and
much of what is said about that
kingdom applies
to some extent to the other
states.
The
Zipa
was a
despotic
and
all-powerful
monarch who ruled his domains
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314 THE CHIBCHAS
by
decree. Over the
years, though,
these decrees had become formalized and
provided
a code of laws within which each
succeeding Zipa
functioned. Great
deference was
paid
to him and he had a
great many privileges, including
a
harem of several hundred women. There are
many descriptions
of the
bowing
and
scraping
before
him,
his ornate sedan
chair,
his
gold
ornaments,
fine
clothes,
etc.
Evidently
he lived in
great splendor.
His
capital
was
Muequetai,
but he also had
retreats,
or
"pleasure
houses,"
at various other
places,
the most
important
of them at Facatativai. At these recreation sites
great
festivals were
held. The
Zipa
served not
only
as
lawgiver,
but also as chief
judge, military
commander and
religious
leader.
The
Zipa
had an
organized
tax
system,
with tax collectors and an
interesting
penalty
for a
subject
who refused to
pay
his taxes
-
he had a wildcat or bear
quartered
with him until he decided to
pay.
There were also
heralds, judges,
messengers,
and a
variety
of other
government employees.
Besides the
Zipa
and the
usaques
who served under
him,
the
priests
formed
a
privileged
class,
but
they
had no real
authority
of their own.
They
were sub-
ject
to the civil authorities and the
Zipa kingdom
was
definitely
a secular state.
There was also a class of
professional military
leaders who served as cadres
around whom armies were built
up
whenever
necessary.
These warriors were
called
guechas.
The Chibchas had
slaves,
but
they
were not
literally
slaves.
They
were
mostly captured
enemies or
kidnapped foreign
women who had
most of the
rights
of citizens. The men were often used for
religious purposes,
including
sacrifice,
but also as assistants to
priests,
and the women were often
concubines for nobles.
Succession to the
Zipa generally passed
to the eldest son of his eldest
sister,
though
there were variations on this
pattern.
If there were no
eligible
heir,
the
Zipa
chose his successor from
among
the bravest and best of the
guechas.
The
heir
apparent
was trained from the
age
of sixteen
by priests
and elders in the
town of
Chia,
a little north of Facatativai. He also ruled over the district as
usaque
until the
Zipa
died and he was called to the throne at
Muequetai.
As the
early Zipas conquered
one district after
another,
their rulers were
forced to
pay
him tribute but were
permitted
to continue
ruling
their territories
as
usaques subject
to his
pleasure.
If an
usaque
died without an
heir,
the
Zipa
appointed one, usually
a
guecha.
Since a
person
from
any
social class could
become a
guecha,
it is evident that there was some social
mobility among
the
Chibchas. At the time of the
Spanish conquest,
the
Zipa kingdom
had about six
of these
districts,
each ruled
by
an
usaque, among
which the most
important
was
probably
Bacatfi,
from which the name of the
present capital
of Colombia
is
derived. The actual domain of each of these vassals of the
Zipa
is not
known,
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MARTIN GLASSNER 315
but
apparently they
were absolute rulers of their
domains,
owing allegiance
only
to the
Zipa.
Within the
villages
there were
groups
about which little is known with cer-
tainty. They
are referred to
variously
as
"parcialidades," "capitanias,"
or
"partes," though
these terms
may possibly
refer to
completely
different
things.
The term
"parte,"
however,
seems to be most
appropriate
and shall be used
henceforth.28 The
parte
was
probably
some kind of clan
group
headed
by
a
hereditary capitdan
who was
responsible
to the
usaque.
Since it was used
mostly
as an administrative
unit, however,
it
appears
to have resembled the Inca
ayllu
more than a true clan.
Despite
the
seemingly
elaborate
political
structure
just
described and the
fact that the heart of the Chibcha
country
was tied
together
with a network of
proper
roads,
including
a cobblestone road built and maintained
by
the
Zipas
from
Muequetai
to their frontier near
Chocontai,
there is no reason to believe
that there was
any
kind of
compulsory government
service or that
any
social
unit other than the
family
served as the basis of
society. Haury
and
Cubillos,
who discovered a number of
agricultural
terraces at various
places
in the Chib-
cha
country, comment,
Our
opinion
is that the construction of terraces of the
type
observed in
the Chibcha
territory
did not
require
a social
system
with
rigid
control or
strong
direction. There is no
necessity
for
imagining large groups
of workers
employed
and directed
by
the State. The Chibcha
archaeology
does not reveal
great
urban centers
comparable
with those of Central America or
Peru,
in
which the command of men made them
possible.
On the
contrary,
the Chibcha
culture can be
catalogued
as
rural,
where the
responsibility
for the
preparation
of the fields fell on each
family
as the most
populous
social unit. It is reasonable
to believe that one
family,
in the course of a few
years,
could have made terraces
in
parcels
of its
property. Putting
the terraces
together
with those of his
neighbors,
it is
possible
that
they
could have
grown eventually
to the
large
proportions preserved
down to
today.29
The State
was, nevertheless,
important
to the
Chibchas,
and all
subjects
of a
ruler were
quite
conscious of their role. Travel was
easy throughout
the Chib-
cha
territory
and there was much
coming
and
going
both in war and
peace,
with a continual
interchange
of both ideas and items of commerce. This con-
trasts
sharply
with the situation in both the Aztec and Inca
empires,
where
28All of the material on the Parte comes from
Sylvia
M.
Broadbent,
Los Chibchas:
Organizacidn
Socio-Politica
(Bogoti:
Universidad Nacional de
Colombia, 1964).
This is an excellent com-
pilation
of ideas and comments on the Chibchas. It also contains considerable new material
gleaned
from Church records and other archives and is
extensively
documented.
'Haury
and
Cubillos, p.
86.
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316 THE CHIBCHAS
little
traveling
was done
except
on State business. If
anything,
the
average
Chibcha
may
have been less isolated and
parochial
than his
counterpart
in Peru
or Mexico.
The
kingdom
of the
Zaque apparently
differed from that of the
Zipa
in
several
ways.
In the first
place,
it
appears
that
religion played
a much
greater
role
here,
and one writer even
goes
so far as to
say
that "The
authority
of the
Zaque
was
subject
to the moral
authority
of the
High
Priest of Iraca" and that
he advised the
Zaque
on
important
matters.30 This is
doubtful,
but the
Zaque
and the Iraca
apparently
did have close relations. Some sources even assert that
the
Zaque
included the Iraca's
territory
within his
kingdom,
but the consensus
seems to be that the Iraca was
independent.
Whether because of distance from the Chibcha frontiers and relative
safety
from
foreign
invaders,
or the
religious
influence,
or some other
factor,
the
Zaques appeared
to have been much less
aggressive
than the
Zipas
and had
lost considerable
territory
to them
by
the time the
Spaniards
arrived.
They
did,
however,
have several
usaques tributary
to
them,
possibly
even
including
some
outside their
kingdom proper.
These
usaques,
it
seems,
were not as
tightly
controlled as those of the
Zipa
and at times asserted their
independence.
The
Zaque apparently
did not live in
quite
the
splendor
that the
Zipa
did,
but he
still led
quite
a
royal
and civilized
life,
to
judge by vague
accounts.
The Iraca is a rather
ambiguous figure.
Markham,
as we have
seen,
extolls
him as the
great
arbiter and
peacemaker
of the Chibchas and feels that he had
become a
unique
institution and one
worthy
of emulation. After
describing
the
death of the last
Iraca,
he
says,
"So
perished
an institution which
gave
the Chib-
chas their
highest
claim to be considered a civilized
community."'31
Other
writers, however,
have considered the Iraca less
important.
He was
unique,
though,
for the method of his selection. He was chosen
by
four
neighboring
usaques, apparently
sometimes
including
the
Tundama,
from
among
the
people
of two
villages,
Tabaza and
Firavitoba, alternately.
Much less is known about the Tundama and the Guand. The last Tundama
is considered to be a hero of the Chibchas for his stout resistance
against
the
Spaniards,
but aside from this
episode
and
vague
and
ambiguous
references to
his relations with the
Zaque,
he is little mentioned in the literature. The Guane
is mentioned even
less, except
as ruler of a frontier
group having
close ties with
neighboring
tribes to the north. Some writers even doubt that
they
were Chib-
chas, though
there seems to be
enough
evidence to include them in this
group.
'Heriberto Martinez Miranda,
Aminrica
India:
(Estudio Etnogrdfico)
(Bogota:
Editorial Aguila,
[1938]), p.
179. This is an
admittedly
embellished history
and the factual material must be
carefully
extracted from the
speculation
and romantic color.
'3Markham, p.
136.
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MARTIN GLASSNER
317
In
any
case,
they
did serve as a buffer between the tribes of the north and the
rich and
densely populated
heart of the Chibcha
country.
ECONOMIC SYSTEM
The
economy
of the Chibchas was based on
sedentary agriculture
and on
trading.
There is considerable
disagreement
over their settlement
pattern.
Basically they appear
to have lived on
dispersed
farmsteads,
but there were
numerous hamlets of about four to six houses. There were also
many larger
settlements which could be ranked as
villages
and some which seem to have
been
proper
towns. There
were,
most
certainly,
no
large
cities.
They
had a
variety
of house
types, including
some circular
varieties,
but most were built
of adobe and bamboo or similar materials with roofs of thatch. Even their
temples
and
palaces
were but
larger
and more elaborate versions of these houses.
Some stone foundations and circular stone columns have been found in Chibcha
country,
but their
origin
and function have not
yet
been determined. Some of
their
palaces
and towns were surrounded
by palisades
and at least one rather
elaborate fortress of wood has been described.
"Apparently
the
(late)
Chibcha
civilization had either not
quite
achieved full-scale construction of stone build-
ings
or had
rejected
them because of
earthquakes
. . ."2 There is also much
controversy
over whether the Chibchas had communal or
private ownership
of land. There seems to be
ample
evidence to indicate that
they
had both and
that some land was also reserved for the exclusive use of the nobles.
Chibcha
agriculture
was
relatively simple,
but
highly productive. They
culti-
vated
maize,
potatoes,
beans and other
typical
Andean
crops
and seemed to
have had at least small
surpluses
of
everything
for use in
paying
taxes and in
commerce.
They
also
grew
some
cotton,
but most of their cotton had to be
imported.
Although
their concern for
drainage
led to
specialized
land
preparation,
the Chibchas
evidently
were not concerned about erosion. This
again suggests
that there was still
plenty
of farm land available at the time of the
conquest.
On hillsides the Indians laid out rows of mounds at
right angles
to the
contours,
just
as modern farmers do.
In Guan6
territory,
where the
dry
seasons were more
pronounced, irriga-
tion ditches were led from rivers to the field. It is
possible
that
irrigation
was
used in other Chibcha areas . .. No fertilizers were used in
preparing
the
land,
insofar as we know...
Sometime after the Chibchas had begun to rely more on altiplano
agri-
culture, they learned the advantages of growing surplus food for the
dwindling
32Eidt, p.
383.
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318 THE CHIBCHAS
supply
of red deer in their realm. Once Indian leaders
began
to
protect
the
animals for state
purposes,
the herds must have increased.33
Wild
game supplemented
the diet of the Chibchas and all
hunting
was
regu-
lated
by
the State.
Apparently many
deer were
tamed,
but
only
as
pets.
Some
fishing
was
apparently
also done in the lakes and
streams,
but few details are
known of the
techniques.
The Chibchas carried on a
thriving
commerce,
both domestic and
foreign.
Merchants and artisans were
high
in the class
structure,
and
merchants,
like
royal messengers,
had
immunity
whenever
they
left their own states. Markets
were held
every
four
days
in the
principal
towns,
such as
Bacati,
Zipaquiri,
Turmeque
and
Tunja. Originally, according
to Perez de
Barradas,
the ex-
changes
of
goods
were
merely
ceremonial but later
developed
a commercial
basis,
and the markets
became,
in
addition, important
social occasions.
Trading
was done
quietly,
with few words
spoken
and little
bargaining.
Whether or not
money
was used as a medium of
exchange
is a moot
point.
There are
reports
of small
clay
tiles or tokens and of unmarked
gold
discs of various sizes
being
used,
and some of these have been found in
digging,
but their exact value and
even use is not known for certain.34
Some artisans became
manufacturers,
making
articles
especially
for trade.
The most
important specialties
of the Chibchas were
salt,
woven cotton
mantles,
and emeralds. The salt was boiled down in
hemispherical clay
vases,
which
served as molds. If the salt were to be used
locally,
the vases were
broken;
if it
were to be
traded,
it was left in the vases. Both vase makers and the salt makers
were
specialists.
So also were the
goldsmiths,
who
produced jewelry
and deco-
rations for the civil and
religious
leaders,
their
palaces
and
temples.3
Emeralds
were mined
only
in the
rainy
season,
when the rain washed the soil
away
and
permitted
the
Chibchas,
with their crude wooden
hoes,
to
dig
out the
gems.
They
were astonished when the
Spaniards dug
out
large quantities
during
the
dry
season.
Although
the use of coal
by
the Chibchas does not seem to have been
general,
there is evidence that
suggests
its restricted
employment
by special
'Ibid., pp.
386-87.
3"Henao
and
Arrubla,
in the
original Spanish
version of their
History of Colombia, assert that
the
gold
coins were not
only
used in the markets,
but also to
pay
tribute to the Zipa
and Zaque.
No confirmation of this has been found
by
this writer.
3"Castellanos reported
that
goldsmiths
from Guatavita who did roving
work in the Zipa's
territory paid
no
taxes,
and as a
consequence
the Guatavita chief was obliged
to support
two
of the
Zipa's subjects
for each
goldsmith
hired out. This went on until the
Zipa
had sent 'more
than 2,000
loafers' to the chief." Eidt, p.
385.
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MARTIN GLASSNER 319
groups.
Coal is abundant and
easily picked
out of
exposed
veins in several
places
on the
altiplano.36
FOREIGN RELATIONS
The Chibchas
apparently
had
good
relations with their
neighbors
on the
north,
such as the
Agataes
and
Laches,
and with those on the
east,
such as the
Morcote and Tunebo. These
groups
were all less well
organized
and more
"backward" than the
Chibchas,
but shared some cultural traits with them.
There even seems to have been some
intermarriage
with northern tribes. On
the
south,
the
Sutagaos
had been subdued
earlier,
but continued as a mild
threat. Most of the Chibcha's troubles came from the
west,
even before the
Spaniards
came from that direction.
The Panches were their
principal enemy,
and the Muzos and Colimas
(who
might
have been
part
of one tribal
grouping)
also made raids on the Chibcha
territory. Vizquez
de
Espinosa
called these tribes "cannibals and fierce warriors
and
thieves,"
though
it is doubtful that
any
of these
groups
were
customarily
cannibals.
They
lived
tribally
in small settlements on the western
slopes
of the
Cordillera Oriental down to the
Magdalena
River.
They continually fought
one another and the Chibchas. The frontier between the Chibchas and the
other
groups
was a
largely geographic
one and seems to have been stabilized
for some
time,
neither side
being
able to
expand
at the
expense
of the other.
The Chibchas maintained
fixed,
permanent garrisons, usually
built on hill-
tops, along
their frontiers. These were commanded
by guechas,
their
well-paid
and
privileged
elite
professional
soldiers.
They
also had armories and store-
houses and a strict
military
code with
punishments
for
cowardice, desertion,
etc.
Their wars were
fought formally,
with heralds
announcing
the declaration of
war to the
enemy.
These were followed
by spies
and fifth columnists who
operated
behind the
enemy
lines. The Chibchas mustered sizeable
armies,
fre-
quently
between
10,000
and
20,000 men,
and
perhaps
even
larger.
In
battle,
the
camps
of the
usaques
were marked
by insignia
of different colors.
They
marched
into battle led
by
musicians and
by
the mummies of former
usaques
which
were carried aloft for all to see. Their
weapons
consisted
mostly
of
spear
throwers,
clubs and
slings.
Kroeber
says, "They occasionally
hired archers from
their
enemies,
the Panche and
Muzo,"'3
who used
poisoned
arrows.
There is
disagreement
about their battlefield tactics. Henao and Arrubla
say
that the Chibchas
fought
individually
and their battles were bitter and
bloody.
Carniero
says,
"Armies marched and attacked in
formation,
and
military
tactics
'Eidt, p.
389.
*7Kroeber, p.
904.
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320 THE CHIBCHAS
and
stratagems
were
employed. Engagements
were not
simply
skirmishes but
often
pitched
battles in which
many
warriors were killed on both sides.""
Ghisletti,
on the other
hand,
says they
used little in the
way
of battlefield tactics
and both sides
fought defensively
and
ceremonially,
so that there were few
casualties. No
prisoners
were taken
during
the
battle,
and after it was over the
defeated side retired from the field. But
they
returned later with
prisoners
and
gifts
for the victors. The losers became vassals of the
victors,
but
rarely
was
their
property destroyed
or their land
occupied.
It is
very likely
that all these
methods were used
by
the
Chibchas,
the ceremonial
variety among
themselves
and the more
bloody variety against foreign
enemies.
The Chibchas
may
or
may
not have been
great fighters,
but
they
were un-
doubtedly
shrewd and enthusiastic traders. Besides their domestic
markets, they
attended
regional
markets. The
greatest
of all was held
every eight days
at
Sorocoti,
near the modern
city
of Velez in the
department
of Santander. It was
held on a
great
rock near the Rio
Suairez.
There the Chibchas
exchanged
their
salt, emeralds,
woven mantles and blankets for raw
cotton,
parrots,
sea
shells,
fruits,
and timber. Another was held at Covaima on the Rio
Saldafia,
far to the
south in what is now the
Department
of Tolima. There
they
obtained silver
and coca. A third was held even farther south on the Rio
Magdalena, perhaps
at
Aipe,
and another further
north,
also on the Rio
Magdalena.
The
principal
commodity
the Chibchas
sought
was
gold,
for there was none in their
territory.
Next to
gold,
cotton was
probably
their most
important import.
Since
they
had
no beasts of
burden,
the Chibchas carried all their
goods
on their own
backs,
even to these distant markets.
Commerce,
like
religion,
was for the Chibchas above
politics,
and
they
traded
with one another and even with their bitter
enemies,
the Panches and
Muzos,
between battles.
They may
even have traded with the Muzos for better
quality
emeralds than could be obtained in their own
country.
The
regularity
and
im-
portance
of their
foreign
trade was
certainly
one of the
distinguishing
char-
acteristics of the Chibchas. This
trade,
like
many
other
aspects
of their culture,
was shattered
by
the
Spanish conquest,
but the Chibcha nation was not
com-
pletely
destroyed.
THE CHIBCHAS SINCE THE
CONQUEST
The Colonial Period
After
subduing
the last of the Chibcha revolts in
1541,
the
Spaniards
set
about
organizing
their new
province
and
reducing
the Indians therein to
virtual
slavery.
One of the methods first used was the encomienda system,
which
was
aCarneiro, p.
32.
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MARTIN GLASSNER 321
very
soon
replaced by
the reduccio'n. This was
essentially
a
policy
of
gathering
the Indians from their scattered farmsteads into settlements in or near the towns.
But
apparently
the Chocontaes were not too
prone
to move
-
the Chib-
cha
proved
to be adamant
against
removal from their scattered huts.
By
remain-
ing
within their
possessions,
the Chocontaes defied the
Spanish
lords. Then
these,
set in their
purpose
of
gathering
the local
population together
-
one
leader
[the political authorities]
with the desire to secure more
land,
the
other
[the clergy]
with the laudable
purpose
of
saving
souls
-
apparently
took extreme measures. Fire was a
handy
element of
compulsion,
often used
by
the
Spaniards against
Indians who were
unwilling
to move where
they
were
ordered to.39
This
process
continued
slowly,
even into the 19th
century,
but about 1548 or
1549 it was modified into a kind of reservation
system.
These
reservations,
or
resguardos,
were of a communal or
quasicommunal nature,
much like Mexican
ejidos.
This
system applied
in the Choconti
area,
but it is not known how much
of New Granada was covered
by
it. The Indians of this
area,
at
any
rate,
re-
tained title to their land and remained on it all
through
the colonial and re-
publican periods
until the
present.40
In 1549 the Audiencia of Santa Fe was created with
jurisdiction
over Santa
Fe
[de Bogoti], Tunja, Popayain,
Santa Marta and
Cartagena.
The
Spaniards
settled down to a routine colonial
life;
the Chibchas withdrew from the
Span-
iards and
resigned
themselves to their fate.
But,
"From its
early days
the audien-
cia had trouble
subjugating
various Indian tribes. The
Saboyaes
had revolted
and were
threatening
the
City
of
Velez;
the Muzos invaded the
plateau, cap-
turing many Chibchas;
and the
Pojaos
attacked
Ibagu."'41
As administration
improved
and time
passed,
the Indians
rapidly
acculturated.
"Changes
came fast and the
Chocontaies,
in
spite
of their
apparent
cultural te-
nacity,
felt the
urge
to
stop
to admire the new ....
"42
New
crops
and do-
mestic animals were
introduced,
along
with the
tanning
of
leather,
the use of
iron hoes to mine emeralds even
during
the
dry season,
wheeled
vehicles,
etc.
Life became settled and
peaceful
and dull. But the Indians
still,
despite
much
8"Fals-Borda, p.
91. The
Choconties
are the residents of the area around
Choconti,
of which
Saucio,
the
community
he
studied,
is a
neighborhood.
40*Of all the documents examined in Choconti and
elsewhere,
none
gave
the
slightest
indication
that Saucio ever
belonged
to a
Spaniard.
On the
contrary,
as shown
by
the historical
evidence,
the Indians of Saucio
appear
to have remained undisturbed on their
land,
and
they
even formed
a
pueblo,
or hamlet . . . .
Thus,
to
summarize,
it
appears
that the Indians of Saucio held on to
their land and were
given
title as communal
owners,
and that their
rights
were
upheld by
the
authorities and
respected by
the
Spanish neighbors." Fals-Borda, pp.
93-94.
"Henao and
Arrubla, p.
93.
aFals-Borda, p.
11.
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322 THE CHIBCHAS
intermarriage
with
Spaniards
and
rapid acculturation,
retained their sense of
nationhood and their distinctiveness. After
nearly
a
century
of
Spanish
rule,
Vizquez
de
Espinosa
was still able to
record,
The New
Kingdom
is level land with
many valleys,
in which are
popula-
tions of the Moxca nation and
everywhere
walled-in fields of the Panche
nation. The land of the Panches is all
warm,
and that of the
Moxcas,
which
is the district of
Bogotai,
and
Tunja
almost
springtime
weather . . .
.43
He went on to describe the dress of the
people,
their
crops,
customs, etc.,
and
it would seem that
they
were
largely hispanicized by
then,
especially
when he
concludes that "all are docile
people,
and
good Christians."44 Pehaps,
but there
is evidence to the
contrary.
Many
Chibchas resisted cultural assimilation from the start. Most withdrew
into themselves and made no
open
show of resistance. Some fled to the north
or
east,
and some committed suicide.
It was not until the
1590's
that the
development
of the cult of Our
Lady
of
Chiquinquira
started to break local barriers and to attract
pilgrims,
those
who had been accustomed to
going
to Guatavita
before,
from all over the land
of the Chibcha. The Chocontaies who remained on the Saucio
plains
had little
choice but to be tied down to the
plots
of earth that were
recognized
as theirs
...
[but]
. . . Even those who chose to
stay
on the land of their
ancestors,
though physically
enslaved,
seemed to be
spiritually haughty.
It was not
easy
to eradicate the
pagan gods,
for instance.
Many religious
values were transfer-
red from the cult of Bochica to
Christianity.
The
Moja
children were no
longer
taken on the suna
[the
cobblestone road from
Muequetai
to
Chocontai]
as
presents
to the
sun,
but sacred Indian
objects
were carried with
equal
fruition to the
image
of St. Isidore.45
During
the colonial
period
also,
many cofradias,
or
religious
societies,
were
formed,
some of them
by
Indians,
which retained
many
elements of the
pagan
religion. They
survived into the
republican period.
Other survivals of the ancient
culture were the inheritance and
political systems.
The
Spaniards
tried
diligently
to
stamp
out the
matrilineality
of the Indians.
Somehow the
Indians,
despite
the
adoption
of
Spanish
surnames,
managed
to
conceal inheritance in the female line from both
religious
and civil authorities
all
through
the colonial
period.
"3Antonio
Vizquez
de
Espinosa, Compendio
y
Descripci6n
de las Indias Occidentales
(Washington:
Smithsonian Institution, 1948), p.
300.
44"Ibid., p.
3 01.
"Fals-Borda, pp.
16-17.
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MARTIN GLASSNER 323
The institutions of the
Zipa
and the
Zaque,
the Iraca and other Chibcha
leaders were
wiped
out,
but much of the
political
administration
they
had cre-
ated was retained
by
the
Spaniards.
It is to be noted that the
boundary
lines
separating
these five
regions [the
Chibcha
states]
were later
closely approximated
in the
Spanish political
division
of the land. This is true both for
departmental (state)
and for
municipal
boundaries.
Headquarters
sites like
Bogotai
and
Tunja
were made over into
country
and
departmental capitals, respectively.
The Chibcha talent for
regional
organization
was
outstanding
and the
Spanish
soon
recognized
its worth.46
Not
only
boundaries and
capitals,
but other administrative devices were re-
tained. The
usaques
continued
functioning
as the immediate
political
leaders
of the
Indians,
responsible
now to the
Spaniards
rather than to the
Zipa
or other
Indian lord. The
Spaniards
called them
by
the Haitian word
cacique
and this
term continues in use in
many parts
of Latin America
today.
They
also retained the
parte,
but converted it into an administrative unit for
tax
collection,
recruiting
of workers for the
mita,
which the
Spaniards
had in-
troduced from the
Incas,
and similar
operations.
"The survival of the
partes
is due
primarily
to their
utility
for the
conquerors;
but that of the
system
of
inheritance seems to show a
capacity
of the Chibchas much
stronger
than what
has been believed to resist cultural
change."47
By
the 18th
century,
resentment
against
the
poverty
and
misery
of their lives
began
to build once
again among
the
peasants
of New Granada. In
1781,
a
group
of them rebelled over the taxes
they
had to
pay. They
were called
comuneros.
They
were
joined
in their rebellion
by
Ambrosio
Pisco,
a descen-
dant of the
Zipa,
who was
proclaimed
Lord of Chia and
King
of
Bogotai.
He
gathered
a force of Chibchas and with the comuneros wrested some tax conces-
sions from the authorities. The rebellion was
quickly
crushed, however, by
the
traditional concert of the
political
and
religious
authorities. Pisco was
jailed
and the concessions withdrawn.
During
the
rebellion,
the Indian salt miners
at Nemoc6n burned the administration house and claimed sole
ownership
of
the mines
by right
of their Chibcha ancestors.
They fought fiercely
to defend
the mines until
they
were routed out
by
soldiers
brought
from
Cartagena.
Those Indians from
Chocontai
who had
participated
in the revolt returned
home after its failure
to their docile and
resigned
attitude. Two hundred
years
of
peace,
toil and
ignorance
under
Spanish
domination had
successfully
conditioned them to
46Eidt, pp.
3 89-90.
47Broadbent, p.
3 8.
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324 THE CHIBCHAS
the
passive
and
unproductive
life,
to the will of the
political
masters,
and to
the will of the
priests.
This abortive
experience
of 1781
-
the first concerted
attempt
at
opposition
since 1540
-
seemed to confirm fatalism as the easiest
way
out of the
problems
of
life.48
The
Republican
Period
The
process
of acculturation continued.
"Although
the rural
people
of this
area
[Choconti]
continued to call themselves Indians until the latter
part
of
the 19th
century
. . . the advanced cultural and racial mixture attained
by
1810 does not seem to
justify
the use of the word 'Indian' in the cultural
sense."49 The
process
had not
gone
so
far,
though,
that these
people
were
fully
integrated
into the
society
of New Granada.
They
were,
for
example,
not
active in the rebellion
against Spain, though they
did tend to side with the
pa-
triots
against Spain.
They were, however,
caught up
in it
willy-nilly,
and were
raided and drafted
by
both sides and
by roving
bandits who owed
allegiance
to
neither. Some even
fought
with Bolivar in Peru and Bolivia.
With
republican government
came
humanitarian,
democratic and
egalitarian
ideals which moved the new leaders of the
country
to institute reforms which
greatly
affected the Indians
(or
largely-Indian mestizos).
The
resguardos,
or
Indian
reservations,
were broken
up, beginning
in 1821 and
ending
in
1839,
and the land distributed to the
occupants.
This had
unexpected
results,
how-
ever,
for it led to minifundia and widened the
gap
between the
peasant
small-
holders and the
big
landowners.
During
this same
period
of the 1830's and
1840's other traditional institutions
disappeared.
The
partes,
with their heredi-
tary
officials,
died out in
Gachancipai
about
1833,
in Guatavita about 1835 and
in Choconti about 1843. The
cofradias
also died out and the loss of these two
types
of
organizations deprived
the
people
of stable
neighborhood groups
in
which
they
had confidence. The
cofradia
has since been
revived,
but the
parte,
the last survivor of Chibcha
institutions,
never has.
One final outburst of
peasant
discontent in the heart of the Chibcha
country
took
place
in
November, 1835,
when "about
3,000
peasants
rioted in the streets
of Choconti . . . . The riot was not
brought
under control until the Domin-
ican fathers
personally intervened.""5
From then
on,
the
history
of the descen-
dants of the Chibchas is
simply
that of
Colombia,
with all the
modernization,
urbanization and
intermingling
with other Colombians
experienced by
the
descendants of other Indian
groups.
48Fals-Borda, p.
23 8.
4"Ibid.,
footnote
45, p.
19.
"Ibid., p.
21.
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MARTIN GLASSNER 325
From the Indian era to the
present
time,
the
people
of this
neighborhood
[Saucio]
have been
subjected
to a
process
of cultural
change,
more notable
than in those areas
nearby
where isolation has created virtual
stagnation.51
One of the
prime
instruments of this cultural
change
was the use of the
Span-
ish
language,
which obliterated the native
language
in a
relatively
short time.
Even as careful a student of the
language
as Ghisletti was forced to
conclude,
after
unsuccessfully searching
two decades
ago
for some small
group
that was
still
speaking
it in one of those isolated areas referred to
by
Fals-Borda near
Viracachai
(Boyacai),
that "Mwiska is a dead
language."52
The
Chibchas,
according
to
Fals-Borda,
learned
Spanish readily
and
by
1598
were
using
it
regularly, though they
never received formal instruction in the
language.
Other sources indicate that the Chibchas had also learned the lan-
guages
of other native
groups
with whom
they
came in
contact, largely through
trade and
war,
but that few
outsiders,
including
the
Spaniards,
could master the
Chibcha
language.
The
Spanish language
learned
by
the Chibchas facilitated other accultura-
tive
processes, especially
those in which the Indians were most
selfishly
interested. But the
Indians,
of
course,
kept many
terms from their own
language
.
Chibcha
phonemes
thus
lingered through
the
years,
and can still be
detected in the
speech
of the Saucio
peasants
.... Most of the words
preserved
from the Chibcha refer to traits and artifacts not known to the
Spaniards
or
are
toponyms.53
The mixture of
Spanish
and Chibcha was flavored
by many Quechua
words
brought by
Peruvian Indians
serving
the
conquerors,
and
by
words of
many
origins
which the
Spaniards brought
from
Haiti, Cuba, Panamai,
Mexico and
Venezuela.
Thus it
may
be observed that the
speech
of Saucio farmers had evolved
in a world of its own . . . . Their
speech
is a trademark and a
password
to
the
mentality
and
style
of
living
of the Saucites. Their old-fashioned
language
is the result of the cultural and educational isolation in which the
peasants
have been
kept by
the better educated and unconcerned elites.54
Many
other culture traits survive from Chibcha times. Folk
beliefs,
musical
instruments,
drunken revels after church services and on saints'
days
which are
51Ibid., p.
25.
52Louis V.
Ghisletti, Los
Mwiskas; Una Gran
Civtilizaci6n
Precolombina
(Bogota:
Ministerio de
Educaci6n
Nacional, 1954),
Vol.
I, p.
209.
53Fals-Borda, p.
175-76. He lists twelve Chibcha words still in common
use,
and of course
most of the
place
names in central Colombia are Chibcha.
5"Ibid., p.
179.
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326 THE CHIBCHAS
holdovers from Chibcha ritual
drunkenness, tools,
nonuse of
pack
animals,
cer-
tain
occupations,
house
building styles
and
methods,
cooking
utensils,
and so
on.
Many
of the distinctive
physical
features of the Chibchas are still evident
among
the
peasants,
and the women of Guant are still noted for their
beauty.
Essentially, though,
the Chibchas have been
thoroughly
assimilated,
as have
most of the other Indians of
highland
Colombia.
Why
is this
so,
and
why
were
the Chibchas
exposed
so
thoroughly
to the
Spanish language,
when it has not
happened
to the same
degree
in other
parts
of the Andes? Eidt offers the ex-
planation,
from a
geographer's viewpoint,
that the
Spaniards
were able to
control all of the Colombian basins and all of the Chibchas
easily,
for there
was no
place
to
hide,
no Machu Picchu or Vilcabamba.
It is not
surprising,
therefore,
that Colombia has a uniform mestizo
population
today,
whereas Peru and
Bolivia,
which had much
larger altiplanos
with
enormous mineral wealth
nearby,
still have two
separate populations,
with
important physical
and cultural differences.
EVALUATION OF THE CHIBCHAS
After
considering
all the available
evidence,
one must conclude that the Chib-
chas
had, indeed,
achieved a level of
civilization,
highlighted by
a
complex
economy
and advanced
political organization,
far
superior
to that of
any
other
American Indian
group
with the
exception
of the
Aztecs,
Incas and
Mayas.56
The detractors of the Chibchas seem to
rely chiefly
on criticisms of their
art,
construction and
religion
as
very primitive
and on the
general agreement
that
they
had
developed
no
calendar, astronomy,
or
writing system.
It must be ob-
served,
though,
that none of the three
"higher
civilizations" was
equally
ad-
vanced in all of these
aspects
of
culture,
and each is renowned for
only
a few
of them.
Moreover,
even the weaker
aspects
of Chibcha culture would bear
favorable
comparison
with similar
aspects
of other
aboriginal groups.
Haury
and
Cubillos,
whose
archeological investigations
led them to conclude
that the Chibchas were not as
great
or numerous or skilled as
they
had been
claimed to
be,
had to admit that their conclusion was
only
tentative.
They
point
out that their choice of
digging
sites was restricted
by shortage
of time
and
money
and
by
bandit
activity
in
many
areas.
They
also remark on the scant
amount of
really
scientific
archaeology
which had been done in the Chibcha
area.
Moreover,
the acid soil and other natural factors have led to
removal,
de-
struction or
decomposition
of
many
artifacts. Eidt refers to the "sustained
grave
plundering"
of the
Spaniards
which has
deprived
us of
potentially
rich sources
55Eidt, p.
391.
'In the area of
political organization, objective study may
reveal that the
Iroquois
Confedera-
tion was
superior
to all the others,
with the
possible exception
of the Incas.
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MARTIN GLASSNER 327
of
evidence, and,
as mentioned
before,
considers the Chibchas to have been
relatively
recent
immigrants
who had not had time to
develop very
much be-
fore the
Spaniards
arrived.
What
might
have
happened
to the Chibchas had
Europeans
not arrived for
another
century
or
two, is,
of
course,
impossible
to
say. Certainly they
had
many
of the. material and cultural
requisites
for
building
a
truly great
civiliza-
tion. In
any
case,
what
they
had achieved in what
appears
to have been a rela-
tively
short time is
truly
remarkable,
and much of their culture survived cen-
turies of acculturation.
Certainly
the life of the
average
Chibcha must have been
infinitely
more
pleasant
and
satisfying
than that of the
average subject
of the
Aztec,
Maya
and Inca
empires.
And
this,
rather than stone
temples,
elaborate
art work or
great military conquests,
seems to this observer to be the
principal
criterion of what we are
pleased
to call "civilization."
MARTIN GLASSNER
Southern Connecticut State
College,
New
Haven,
Connecticut
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