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| Promaucaes | |
|---|---|
| Group | Promaucaes |
| Regions | Chile |
| Languages | Mapudungun? Mapudungun language Mapuche |
| Religions | Animism Catholic Church |
| Related | Mapuche Diaguita Huilliche Pehuenche |
Promaucaes were an indigenous people of central Chile encountered by Inca Empire and Spanish Empire chroniclers during the 16th century. European accounts by figures associated with the Conquest of Chile placed them between the Maule River and the Itata River, describing distinctive social, military, and material practices. Later historiography by scholars linked them to broader cultural networks that include Mapuche and Diaguita communities, while modern archaeology has reassessed their identity through artifacts from sites near Santiago, Chile and Talca.
Early sources used forms recorded in documents by Pedro de Valdivia, Juan Ignacio Molina, and Diego de Rosales, producing variant spellings such as "Promaucaes," "Pró-maucaes," and "Promaucas" in chronicles of the Conquista del Perú and the Colonial Chile era. Spanish-era lexicons and maps by Jerónimo de Vivar, Alonso de Góngora Marmolejo, and Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas also preserved the ethnonym, while later ethnographers like Diego Barros Arana, Rodolfo Philippi, and Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna debated linguistic derivations. Comparative analyses referenced toponymy studies involving the Maule Region, the Itata Province, and placenames in the Central Valley by cartographers such as Alexander von Humboldt and Ignacio Domeyko informed proposals linking the name to words in Mapudungun language and related languages studied by scholars like Claude Lévi-Strauss and Alfred Métraux.
Archaeological frameworks situate the Promaucaes within sequences defined by researchers at institutions such as the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, the Universidad de Chile, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Fieldwork associated with projects funded by agencies like the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico and museums directed by figures including Gonzalo Figueroa traced cultural continuities from Late Holocene hunter-gatherers into agro-sedentary groups contemporaneous with the Inca expansion. Comparative studies referenced material culture from sites studied by teams led by Tom Dillehay, C. Michael Barton, and Mark Aldenderfer and compared them to ceramics from the Diaguita area, lithic assemblages reported in publications by Jorge Lobos and faunal analyses by Moisés Mamani.
Ethnographic reconstructions drew on 16th- and 17th-century reports by chroniclers like Alonso de Ercilla, García Hurtado de Mendoza, and Juan de la Jaraquemada and later analyses by anthropologists such as Omar Cáceres and Marta Brunet. Social organization was interpreted through analogies with Mapuche social structures described by Claude Lévi-Strauss-influenced researchers, and with kinship patterns examined by scholars at the Universidad Austral de Chile and Universidad de Concepción. Ritual life and belief systems were compared with practices recorded among the Huilliche and Pehuenche in ethnographies by Maximiliano Pavez and missionary accounts from the Society of Jesus. Material culture reconstructions relied on typologies developed by curators at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Chile and reports by archaeologists such as Juan Soler.
Subsistence strategies inferred from archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological remains at sites studied by teams from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the Universidad de Chile indicate horticulture of cultigens introduced prior to the Inca expansion, supplemented by terrestrial hunting and marine exploitation along the Pacific Ocean coast near Talcahuano and riverine fishing near the Maule River. Ethnohistoric sources from administrators like Francisco de Aguirre and Bartolomé de Escobar mention exchanges of maize, tubers, and camelid fiber, a pattern analyzed in regional economic syntheses produced by historians such as José Toribio Medina and Ricardo E. L..
Accounts of military encounters appear in letters and chronicles by conquistadors including Pedro de Valdivia and military governors like García Hurtado de Mendoza, who documented skirmishes in the contexts of the Arauco War and the Inca–Spanish conflicts. Descriptions of fortification, raid tactics, and alliances were later discussed in military histories by Diego Barros Arana and comparative works by Lewis Hanke. Colonial records from the Real Audiencia of Santiago and administrative dispatches archived in collections associated with Archivo General de Indias and the Archivo Nacional de Chile provide documentary bases for analyses by legal historians like Enrique Campino.
Key archaeological localities associated with the group include middens, forts, and habitation sites excavated near Santiago de Chile, Maule, and the coastal sectors studied by teams led by Tom Dillehay, Juan Albarracín, and Patricio Bustos. Ceramic styles catalogued in museum collections at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino and the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, Chile show traits compared to assemblages documented by Gonzalo Rubio, José Saavedra, and Manuel Agustín Mena. Radiocarbon chronologies produced with laboratories at Universidad de Chile and international collaborations with institutions like the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Cambridge refined occupation sequences cited in publications by Christopher Miller and María Ximena Prieto.
Modern recognition of the group's heritage appears in scholarship by Diego Barros Arana, Samuel Ramírez, and contemporary researchers affiliated with CONICYT projects and university departments across Chile. Public history initiatives at institutions such as the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Museo Histórico Nacional (Chile), and municipal programs in Talca and Curicó have incorporated exhibits and educational materials. Debates in cultural heritage policy featuring actors like the Consejo de Monumentos Nacionales and NGOs such as Indian Rights Association-style organizations informed recent efforts to integrate indigenous histories into national narratives, as discussed by academics including Ximena Urbina and Patricio Escobar.