Moxo people

Moxo

Moxeno chief at a festival in Bolivia
Total population
(20,805 (2000))
Regions with significant populations
Bolivia ( Beni)
Languages
Ignaciano, Spanish
Religion
Roman Catholicism
Related ethnic groups
Trinitario

The Moxo, also known as Moxeños, Moxos, or Mojos, are an indigenous people of Bolivia. They lived in south central Beni Department, living around the head-waters of the Madeira River in northern Bolivia, particularly on both banks of the Mamore River.

The Moxo were traditionally hunter-gatherers, as well as farmers and pastoralists. They submitted to Inca domination, but in 1564 repulsed the Spaniards. A century later, however, the Jesuit missionaries contacted the Moxos, and the Moxos became Roman Catholic. They numbered some 30,000 in the first decade of the 20th century. Moxeño ethnic identification derives from the combination of different pre-existing ethnic groups in this mission environment, and includes peoples associated with several different missions: Mojeño-Trinitarios (Trinidad mission), Mojeño-Loretanos (Loreto mission), Mojeño-Javerianos, and Mojeño-Ignacianos (San Ignacio de Moxos mission). Many Moxos are affiliated with the Central de Pueblos Indígenas del Beni and/or the Central de Pueblos Étnicos Mojeños del Beni.

Moxo people speak the Ignaciano language, which is a Southern Maipuran language, belonging to the Arawakan language family. The language is used in daily life and taught in beginning primary school grades. A dictionary in Moxo has been published, and the New Testament was translated into the language in 1980.

They are also known as Mojos or Mojeños.

The previous inhabitants of the region, which before the independence of Bolivia was a single territory called Mojos, were the aboriginal Itonama, Cayuvava, Canichana, Tacanam and Movima. Afterwards, the Moxos or the Moxeños arrived. The Moxos were from the Arawak ethnic group, an ethnic group which developed a more complex culture between the Amazon rainforest and Los Llanos (South America).