Abipón

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Main other {{#invoke:infobox|infoboxTemplate | bodyclass = vcard

| titleclass = fn org | title = {{#if:Abipón|Abipón|Template:PAGENAMEBASE}}

| aboveclass = nickname | abovestyle = font-size:115%; font-weight:normal;

| above = {{#if: |

{{{native_name}}}

}}

| image1 = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage |upright=|image=|alt=|border={{#ifeq:no|||yes}}}} | caption1 =

| image2 = {{#invoke:InfoboxImage|InfoboxImage |upright=|alt=|image={{#if:|{{{rawimage}}}|Dobrizhoffer soldiers (cropped).jpg }} }} | caption2 = Abipón warriors

| headerstyle = background-color:#b0c4de; color:inherit; | labelstyle = font-weight:normal;

| header1 = {{#if:extinct as a people<ref name=EB>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
unknown no. of descendants |Total population}}

| data2 = extinct as a people<ref name=EB>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
unknown no. of descendants {{#if:|(Template:Comma separated entries)}} {{#if: | (including those of ancestral descent)}} | label3 = {{#switch: |census = (census) |estimate|est = (est.) }} | data3 = | label4 = {{#switch: |census = (census) |estimate|est = (est.) }} | data4 = | label5 = {{#switch: |census = (census) |estimate|est = (est.) }} | data5 =

| header6 = {{#if: |Regions with significant populations}} | data7 = | header8 = | data9 =

| label11 = | data11 = | label12 = | data12 = | label13 = | data13 = | label14 = | data14 = | label15 = | data15 = | label16 = | data16 = | label17 = | data17 = | label18 = | data18 = | label19 = | data19 = | label20 = | data20 = | label21 = | data21 = | label22 = | data22 = | label23 = | data23 = | label24 = | data24 = | label25 = | data25 = | label26 = | data26 = | label27 = | data27 = | label28 = | data28 = | label29 = | data29 = | label30 = | data30 = | label31 = | data31 = | label32 = | data32 = | label33 = | data33 = | label34 = | data34 = | label35 = | data35 = | label36 = | data36 = | label37 = | data37 = | label38 = | data38 = | label39 = | data39 = | label40 = | data40 = | label41 = | data41 = | label42 = | data42 = | label43 = | data43 = | label44 = | data44 = | label45 = | data45 = | label46 = | data46 = | label47 = | data47 = | label48 = | data48 = | label49 = | data49 = | label50 = | data50 = | label51 = | data51 = | label52 = | data52 = | label53 = | data53 = | label54 = | data54 = | label55 = | data55 = | label56 = | data56 = | label57 = | data57 = | label58 = | data58 = | label59 = | data59 = | label60 = | data60 = | header61 = {{#if:Abipón (Callaga)<ref name=EB/> |Languages}} | data62 = Abipón (Callaga)<ref name=EB/> | header63 = {{#if:Animism, Shamanism, later Christianity |Religion}} | data64 = Animism, Shamanism, later Christianity | header65 = {{#if:Toba, Pilagá, Mocoví, other Guaycurú peoples |Related ethnic groups}} | data66 = {{#if:Toba, Pilagá, Mocoví, other Guaycurú peoples |Toba, Pilagá, Mocoví, other Guaycurú peoples Template:Main other }}

| belowstyle = padding-top:0.5em;text-align:left;

| below = {{#if: |

---

{{{footnotes}}} }}

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox ethnic group with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y | caption | flag |flag_alt | flag_border | flag_caption | flag_upright | footnotes | genealogy | group | image |image_alt | image_caption | image_upright | langs | languages | native_name | native_name_lang | pop | pop_embed | pop1 | pop10 | pop11 | pop12 | pop13 | pop14 | pop15 | pop16 | pop17 | pop18 | pop19 | pop2 | pop20 | pop21 | pop22 | pop23 | pop24 | pop25 | pop26 | pop27 | pop28 | pop29 | pop3 | pop30 | pop31 | pop32 | pop33 | pop34 | pop35 | pop36 | pop37 | pop38 | pop39 | pop4 | pop40 | pop41 | pop42 | pop43 | pop44 | pop45 | pop46 | pop47 | pop48 | pop49 | pop5 | pop50 | pop6 | pop7 | pop8 | pop9 | popplace | population | rawimage | ref1 | ref10 | ref11 | ref12 | ref13 | ref14 | ref15 | ref16 | ref17 | ref18 | ref19 | ref2 | ref20 | ref21 | ref22 | ref23 | ref24 | ref25 | ref26 | ref27 | ref28 | ref29 | ref3 | ref30 | ref31 | ref32 | ref33 | ref34 | ref35 | ref36 | ref37 | ref38 | ref39 | ref4 | ref40 | ref41 | ref42 | ref43 | ref44 | ref45 | ref46 | ref47 | ref48 | ref49 | ref5 | ref50 | ref6 | ref7 | ref8 | ref9 | region1 | region10 | region11 | region12 | region13 | region14 | region15 | region16 | region17 | region18 | region19 | region2 | region20 | region21 | region22 | region23 | region24 | region25 | region26 | region27 | region28 | region29 | region3 | region30 | region31 | region32 | region33 | region34 | region35 | region36 | region37 | region38 | region39 | region4 | region40 | region41 | region42 | region43 | region44 | region45 | region46 | region47 | region48 | region49 | region5 | region50 | region6 | region7 | region8 | region9 | regions | related | related_groups | related-c | religions | rels | tablehdr | total | total_ref | total_source | total_year | total1 | total1_ref | total1_source | total1_year | total2 | total2_ref | total2_source | total2_year | total3 | total3_ref | total3_source | total3_year }}Template:Main other

The Abipones (Template:Langx, singular {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) were an Indigenous people of Argentina's Gran Chaco region, speakers of one of the Guaicuruan languages.<ref name=EB/> They ceased to exist as an independent ethnic group in the early 19th century.<ref name=mac>Template:Cite book</ref> A small number of survivors assimilated into Argentine society.<ref name=EB/>

History

The Abipones originally occupied the Gran Chaco of Argentina, in the lower portions of the Bermejo River.<ref name=EB/> They were originally a seasonally mobile people of hunters, gatherers, fishers and to a limited extent farmers.<ref name=mac/>

By 1641, the Abipones had already obtained the horse from the Spanish settlers and abandoned farming for cattle and horse raiding. By that time they still lived north of the Bermejo River<ref name=cath/> They became feared by their neighbours and the Spanish farmers, and even threatened major cities.<ref name=mac/><ref name=cath/>

It is likely they were driven south of their original range by the SpaniardsTemplate:Sfn and other native tribes, such as the Tobas.<ref name=cath/> They were finally concentrated in the Argentinian territory lying between Santa Fe and Santiago del Estero, between the Rio Bermejo on the north and the Salado River on the south.<ref name="cath"/>

Before the introduction of the horse in the region, they subsisted by hunting, fishing, food gathering and only a limited amount of agriculture.<ref name=EB/> With the horse, came a change in the regional and in particular the Abipon's way of surviving. They shifted away from agriculture and towards hunting from horseback, wild cattle, rhea, guanaco, deer, and peccary. The horses also lead them to raid the Spanish ranches and even the cities of Asuncion and Corrientes.<ref name=EB/>

From 1710, a major military effort by the Spanish began gradually to impose authority on the Abipones.<ref name="mac"/> By 1750 Jesuit missions had been established among them (chiefly by Martin Dobrizhoffer, who had been a missionary in Paraguay for eighteen years<ref name="cath"/>), and they had been largely Christianized<ref name="cath"/> and turned sedentary.<ref name="mac"/> The colonies had incessant trouble with Spanish settlers, and were often raided by the Tobas and the Mocovís, hostile Guaycuru peoples. <ref name="cath">Template:CathEncy</ref>

By 1768, over half of the Abipones had succumbed to disease<ref name="mac"/> and they numbered not more than 5,000.<ref name="dobr">Template:Cite book</ref> The expulsion of the Jesuits by the Spaniards in that year was fatal for the Abipones. When they attempted to resume their former lifestyles, they found their traditional lands occupied by settlers and other Indigenous nations.<ref name="mac"/> The Tobas and Mocovís, aided by disease, destroyed them as a nation in the course of less than half a century.<ref name="cath"/> The survivors assimilated into the general Argentinian population.<ref name="mac"/> They learned to speak Spanish, and abandoned their old customs.

The last speaker of the Abipón language is believed to have died in the 19th century.<ref name="mac"/>

File:Dobrizhoffer women (cropped).jpg

Abipón facial tattooing.

Appearance and customs

According to Martin Dobrizhoffer, who lived among them for a period of seven years, the Abipones were a group of tall, well-formed, handsome people, with black eyes, aquiline noses and thick black hair, which they plucked out from the forehead to the crown as a tribal mark.<ref name="EB1911">{{#if: |

   |{{#ifeq: Abipones |
                |{{#ifeq: |
                             |
                             |
                           }}
                |
               }}
  }}{{#ifeq:  |
   |{{#ifeq: 1 |
                                    |This article
                                    |One or more of the preceding sentences
                                   }} incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 
  }}{{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite EB1911
   |_exclude=footnote, inline, noicon, no-icon, noprescript, no-prescript, _debug

   | noicon=1
  }}{{#ifeq:  ||}}</ref> The faces, breasts and arms of the women were tattooed with black figures of various designs according to their age and social status, and the lips and ears of both sexes were pierced.<ref name="dobr" />

The men were brave fighters, their chief weapons being the bow and arrow, the spear and the club –all of which were carved out of a local hardwood tree known to them as netergé–, as well as the boleadoras.<ref name="dobr" /> In battle, they wore an armour fashioned out of a tapir's hide, over which a jaguar's skin was sewn.<ref name="dobr" /> Even Abipón women were reputedly aggressive and held considerable power in their people's religious rites.<ref name="mac" />

The Abipones were good swimmers and horsemen. During the five-month-long flood season, they lived on islands or even in shelters built in the trees.<ref name="dobr" />

They shared most of the customs of the Guaycurú, including the couvade.<ref name="cath" /> They seldom married before the age of thirty, and were singularly chaste.<ref name="dobr" /> Charles Darwin reported that "With the Abipones when a man chooses a wife, he bargains with the parents about the price. But it frequently happens that the girl rescinds what has been agreed upon between the parents and bridegroom, obstinately rejecting the very mention of marriage. She often runs away and hides herself, and thus eludes the bridegroom."<ref name="darw">Template:Cite book</ref> Infanticide was common, never more than two children being reared in one family. The young were suckled for two years.<ref name="EB1911" />