Indians who belong to a particular race Americanoid is a native population of America.They inhabited the territory of all the New World from the beginning of times and lived there until now.Despite countless genocides, colonization and other persecutions against them, which were produced by Europeans, they occupy a very important place in each of the states in this part of the world.The following article, we will look at what is and in what numbers estimated indigenous population of America.Photos of various sub-races and representatives of various tribes will more clearly understand the subject.
Habitat and number
Natives of the New World lived here in prehistoric times, but in our days, in fact, little has changed for them.They are combined into a single community, continue to preach their religious dogma and follow the traditions of their ancestors.Some representatives of the native race Americanoid assimilated with the Europeans and fully adopt their way of life.Thus, to meet the pure Indian or mestizo can be anywhere in the northern, southern and central part of the New Earth.Total "Indian" population of America is 48 million people.Of these, 14 million live in Peru, 10.1 million in Mexico, 6 million in Bolivia.The following countries are Guatemala and Ecuador - 5.4 and 3.4 million, respectively.2.5 million Indians can be found in the United States, but in Canada of less than half - 1.2 million. Ironically, the vast Brazil and Argentina, as huge powers, the Indians survived not so much.Native Americans in these places is calculated and already thousands of 700 000 and 600 000 respectively.
story of tribes
According to scientists, representatives Americanoid race, despite all their differences from any other known to us, moved to their continent of Eurasia with it.For many thousands of years (approximately 70-12 millennium BC. E.) Indians came to the New World in the so-called Bering Bridge, the site of which is now the Bering Strait.Then have not Native Americans gradually master a new continent, ranging from Alaska and ending with the southern shores of present-day Argentina.Once America was mastered by them, every single tribe began to develop in a different direction.General trends were observed they were following.Indians of South America honored matrilineal clan.Residents of the northern part of the continent were content with patriarchy.The tribes of the Caribbean tended to go to a class society.
few words about the biology
From a genetic point of view, the indigenous population of America, as mentioned above, those of these lands is not at all.The ancestral home of Indian scientists believe Altai, where they went out in their colonies far-distant past, in order to acquire new land.The fact that 25 thousand years ago from Siberia to America could be reached overland way, in fact, probably all of these people believed the earth united continent.So the inhabitants of our parts are gradually settled on the northern part of Eurasia, and then moved in the Western Hemisphere, where the Indians have become.That is the conclusion the researchers came because the natives of Altai type of Y-chromosome is identical in its chromosome mutations with American Indians.
northern tribes
Tribes Aleuts and Eskimos, who occupied subarctic zone of the continent, we will not touch, because it is a different racial family.The indigenous population of North America occupied the territory of present Canada with the United States, from the eternal ice and ending with the Gulf of Mexico.It has developed a variety of different cultures, which we now enumerate:
- Northern Indians who inhabited the upper part of Canada - is Algonquian and Athapaskan tribes.They hunted caribou, as well as engaged in fishing.
- Northwest tribes - the Tlingit, Haida, Salish Wakashe.Engaged in fishing and seal hunting.
- California Indians - known collectors of acorns.Also involved are hunted and fished.
- Woodland Indians occupied the entire eastern part of the modern United States.Native American tribes were represented here screaming, Algonquin, Iroquois.These people hunted settled agriculture.
- Indians of the Great Plains - known hunters of wild bison.There are countless tribes, among which we name just a few: Caddo, Crow, Osage, mandala Arikara, Kiowa, Apache, Wichita and many others.
- the south of the North American tribes lived Pueblo, Navajo and Pima.These lands were considered the most developed, because the natives here were engaged in agriculture, applying the method of irrigation and part-bred livestock.
Caribbean
customary to assume that the indigenous people of Central America was the most developed.It is in this part of the continent to develop complex at the time slash and burn agriculture, and irrigated systems.Of course, the tribes of the region's irrigation is widely used, allowing them to be satisfied with not just a grain crops, fruits and plants such as maize, beans, sunflower, pumpkin, agave, cocoa and cotton.There also grew tobacco.The indigenous population of Latin America on these lands and pastoralists (similar to the Indians living in the Andes).In the course there were mostly Lama.Also note that there began to develop metallurgy and primitive communal system goes on to class, he turned into a slave state.Among the tribes who lived in the Caribbean, it can be called Aztec, Mixtec, Maya, Purépecha, Totonac and Zapotec.
South America
Compared with the tribes Aztec, Totonac, and others, the indigenous people of South America was not so highly developed.An exception can only make the Inca Empire, which was located in the Andes, and was inhabited by Indians of the same name.On the territory of modern Brazil is home to the tribes, who were engaged in the type of hoe agriculture, but also preyed on native birds, mammals.Among them are the Arawak, Tupi-Guarani.Argentine territory occupied by horse hunters guanacos.In Tierra del Fuego tribes lived Yamana, she alakaluf.They led a nomadic life, rather primitive compared to their relatives, and were engaged in fishing.
Inca Empire
This is the greatest union of the Indians, which existed in the 11-13 th centuries on the territory of present Colombia, Peru and Chile.Before the arrival of Europeans the locals already had its administrative division.Empire consisted of four parts - Chinchaysuyu, Kolasuyu, Antisuyu and Kuntisuyu, and each of them in turn, divided into provinces.Inca Empire had its statehood and the laws that were mainly presented as a punishment for certain crimes.The system of governance they had, most likely, despotic, totalitarian.In this state, as was the army, there was a certain social order, the lower layers of which was made control.The main achievement of the Incas considered their huge line.Roads built on the slopes of the Andes, reached a length of 25,000 kilometers.To move them using llamas as pack animals.
Traditions and cultural development
culture of Native Americans - is mainly their language of communication, many of whom are still fully decrypt is not possible.The fact that each tribe was not just a dialect, and its autonomous language that sounded only in speech, had no written language at the same time.The first alphabet in America appeared only in 1826 under the leadership of the leader of the Cherokee Nation, Indian Sequoia.Until that moment, the natives of the continent used pictographic signs, and if you had to communicate with the other settlements, then the gestures, body movements and facial expressions.
Divinity Indians
Despite the huge number of tribes who lived in different climates and regions, the beliefs of Native Americans were very simple, and you can combine them into one.Most of the tribes of North America believed that the deity - a certain plane, which is far away in the ocean.According to their legend, their ancestors lived on this plane.And those who have committed a sin, or showed negligence, dumped her with a gaping void.In Central America, the gods gave the animal species, most of the birds.Wise Inca tribes often believed their gods prototypes of the people who created the world and everything in it.
Modern religious beliefs Indians
Today, the indigenous inhabitants of the American continent is no longer adhere to the religious traditions that have been characterized by their ancestors.Most of the population of North America today profess Protestantism and its variants.Indians and mestizos who live in Mexico and the southern part of the continent, almost all adhere to the strict Catholicism.Some of them are Jews.Only a few are still based on the views of their ancestors, and they keep this knowledge in a huge secret from the white population.
mythological aspect
Initially, all fairy tales, legends, and other people's works, which belonged to the Indians could tell us about their lives, about life, about how to get food.These people sang birds, wild mammals and predators, his brothers and parents.A little later mythology acquired a somewhat different character.The Indians were myths about the creation of the world which are very similar to our Bible.It is noteworthy that in many of the stories of the American indigenous peoples present a deity - A woman with braids.She is also the personification of life and death, war and food, land and water.It has no name, but mention of its power are found in nearly all ancient Indian sources.
Conclusion We have already mentioned above, the so-called American Indian population is 48 million, according to official data.These are the people who are registered in their country, which belong to the colonial society.If we take into account those Indians who still live in tribes, the figure would be much higher.According to unofficial data, in America, home to more than 60,000 representatives of native Americanoid races that occur in Alaska and Tierra del Fuego.
