2018, No. (11), Cultural History of Knowledge

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Andrzej Karwowski
Andean lexical borrowings in Beni River basin languages (Bolivian Amazon) in the light of archaeological, historical, and ethnographical data

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Keywords: Tacanan languages, Andean cultures, lexical borrowings, Inca state

Abstract:
The Beni River basin is located in the southwestern Amazon, from the cultural and historical viewpoint, in the borderland of two different worlds: Andean civilizations and “barbaric” Amazonian cultures. It is inhabited mainly by groups of the Tacanan linguistic family (but also Arawacan Apolistas, and isolated Chimanes and Mosetenes) who have been in contact with Indians from the mountains for centuries, especially with Quechua and Aymara. This article addresses the linguistic traces (borrowings mainly in Tacanan languages) as well as archaeological, historical, and ethnographical evidence of these contacts in the past. There are many indications that culturally important terms, such as mara, “year”, yanacona, “shaman”, huaca, “holy place” or quirica, “paper, book” are of Andean origins. The original meaning of part of borrowed words has been changed; some of them have been assimilated during the Inca Period, others in the Colonial Period. On the other hand, evidence of the presence of the Quechua Indians in this region in pre-Conquest times, apart from historical reports on the conquest of the Incas in this part of the continent, are the remains of Inca buildings and fortresses in Ixiamas, at the foothills of the Andes, and in Las Piedras, near the mouth of the Madre de Dios River flowing into the Beni River.

About Author:
ANDRZEJ KARWOWSKI - archaeologist, independent researcher. E-mail: ackarwow@gmail.com. ORCID 0000-0002-3948-5960.