Guayupe people
Landscape in Acacías, terrain of the Guayupe
|
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 250,000 (1537) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
Meta,  Colombia
|
|
| Languages | |
| Arawakan, Colombian Spanish | |
| Religion | |
| Traditional religion, Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Guahibo, Muisca, Sutagao, Tegua, U'wa |
The Guayupe are an Arawak-speakingindigenous group of people in modern-day Colombia. They inhabit the westernmost parts of the department of Meta. At the time of the Spanish conquest, more than 250,000 Guayupe were living in large parts of Meta.
The territories of the Guayupe stretched from the neighbouring Guahibo terrains to the east and north and the Muisca territories to the east over an area of 22,000 square kilometres (8,500 sq mi).
Knowledge of the Guayupe has been provided by Pedro de Aguado and others.
The territory of the Guayupe before the Spanish conquest stretched from the rivers Upía and Guayabero to the peaks of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. Their area covered around 22,000 square kilometres (8,500 sq mi). The Guayupe lived mostly around the Ariari River.
The Guayupe are a tribe of farmers living in the tropical mountain forests of the Eastern Ranges and the Llanos of Meta, Colombia. In pre-Columbian times they constructed pallisades around their villages consisting of houses around a central square with a ceremonial building in the middle. The Guayupe were an agricultural society with yuca one of their main crops. The Guayupe people went naked, only ornamented with gold, feathers and shells.
The Guayupe society was organised around the caciques; chiefs of the community. The cacique was regarded as an important person who lived by strict norms in the ceremonial activities; births, marriages and burials. When a cacique of the Guayupe died, the body was cremated and his successor had to drink his ash mixed with chicha. The society of the Guayupe was egalitarian; caciques only had the use of stools and more feathers on their blankets. At every marriage, half of the bride treasure was going to the cacique.
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Wikipedia