Indigenous Peoples in Argentina - History

History

By the year 1500, there were many different indigenous communities in what is now modern Argentina. They were not a unified group but many different ones, with varied languages, degrees of development and relations with each other. As a result, they did not face the arrival of the Spanish colonization as a single block, and had varied reactions toward the Europeans. The Spanish people looked greatly down to the indigenous population, to the point that they held in doubt whether they had souls, following the general thought in Europe. For this reason, they kept very little historical information about them.

In the 19th century major population movements altered the original Patagonian demography. Between 1820 and 1850 the original Tehuelche people were conquered and expelled from their territories by invading Mapuche armies. By 1870 most of northern Patagonia and the south east Pampas were Araucanized. During the Generation of 1880, European immigration was strongly encouraged as a way of occupying an empty territory, configuring the national population and, through their colonizing effort, gradually incorporating the nation into the world market. These changes were perhaps best summarized by the anthropological metaphor which states that “Argentines descend from ships.” The expansion of European immigrant communities and the railways westward into the Pampas and south into Patagonia was met with Malón raids by displaced tribes. This led to the Conquest of the Desert in the 1870s, which resulted in over 1,300 indigenous dead. Indigenous cultures in Argentina were consequently affected by a process of invisibilization, promoted by the government during the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th.

The extensive explorations, research and writing by Juan Bautista Ambrosetti and other ethnographers during the 20th century encouraged wider interest in indigenous people in Argentina, and their contributions to the nation's culture were further underscored during the administration of President Juan Perón in the 1940s and 1950s as part of the rustic criollo culture and values exalted by Perón during that era. Discriminatory policies toward these people and other minorities officially ended, moreover, with the August 3, 1988, enactment of the Antidiscrimination Law (Law 23.592) by President Raúl Alfonsín, and were countered further with the establishment of a government bureau, the National Institute Against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI), in 1995. Corrientes Province, in 2004, became the first in the nation to award an indigenous language (Guaraní) with co-official status, and all 35 native peoples were recognized by both the 2004 Indigenous Peoples Census and by their inclusion as self-descriptive categories in the 2010 census; indigenous communities and Afro-Argentines thus became the only groups accorded any recognition as ethnic categories by the 2010 census.

In addition to the indigenous population in Argentina, most Argentinians are descended from indigenous peoples or have some indigenous ancestry. Many genetic studies have shown that Argentina's genetic footprint is not overwhelmingly European. In one of the most comprehensive genetic studies involving the population of Argentina, 441 Argentinians from across the North East, North West, Southern, and Central provinces (especially the urban conglomeration of Buenos Aires) of the country, it was observed that the Argentinian population comprised on average of 65% European, followed by 31% Amerindian, and finally 4% of African ancestry. It was also found there were great differences in the ancestry amongst Argentinians as one traveled across the country.

For example, the population in the North West provinces of Argentina (includes the province of Salta) were on average of 66% Amerindian, 33% European, and 1% of African ancestry. The European immigration to this North West part of the country was limited and the original Amerindian population largely thrived after their initial decline owing to the introduction of European diseases and colonization.

Similarly, the study also showed that the population in the North Eastern provinces of Argentina (for example, Misiones, Chaco, Corrientes, and Formosa) were on average 43% of Amerindian, 54% European, and 3% of African ancestry. The population of the Southern provinces of Argentina, such as Rio Negro and Nequen, were on average 40% of Amerindian, 54% European, and 6% of African ancestry. Finally, only in areas of massive historical European immigration in Argentina, namely the Central provinces, Buenos Aires and the surrounding urban areas, were Argentinians of overwhelmingly European ancestry, with the average person having 17% Amerindian, 76% European, and 7% of African ancestry.

In another study, that was titled the Regional pattern of genetic admixture in South America, the researchers included results from the genetic study of several hundreds of Argentinians from all across the country. The study indicated that Argentinians were as a whole made up of 38% Amerindian, 58.9% of European, and 3.1% of African ancestry. Again, there were huge difference in the genetic ancestry from across the various regions of the country. For example, Argentines who hailed from Patagonia were 45% Amerindian and 55% of European ancestry . The population in the North West part of the country were made up of 69% of Amerindian, 23% of European, and 8% of African ancestry. The population in the Gran Chaco part of the country were 38% of Amerindian, 53% of European, and 9% of African ancestry. The population in the Mesopotamian part of the country were 31% of Amerindian, 63% of European, and only 6.4% of African ancestry. Finally, the population in the Pampa region of the country were 22% of Amerindian, 68% of European, and only 10% of African ancestry.

Finally in another study involving the North Western provinces of the country, a total of 1293 individuals from Jujuy, Salta, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, Catamarca and La Rioja were used. This study showed that the Spanish contribution (50%) predominated in Argentina's North West, followed by the American Indian (40%) and African (10%) contributions. According to this study, Argentinians from Jujuy were 53% Amerindian, 47% European, and 0.1% African ancestry. Argentinians from Salta were 41% of Amerindian, 56% of European, and 3.1% of African ancestry. Those from Catamarca were 37% of Amerindian, 53% of European, and 10% of African ancestry. Those from La Rioja were on average 31% Amerindian, 50% European, and 19% African ancestry. The inhabitants of Santiago del Estero were on average 30% Amerindian, 46% European, and 24% African ancestry. The inhabitants of Tucuman were on average 24% Amerindian, 67% European, and 9% African ancestry.