Los Comechingones

Book Description

Cordoba (Argentina) Universidad de la Universidad Cordoba 1945 g 8vo. 372pp. Original wrappers with blue and red lettering front wrapper and spine. Foxing, staining and browning to wrappers and spine. Head and tail of spine as well as corners bumped and rubbed. All page edges untrimmed. Some staining to page edges. Ex-libris plate to inside of front wrapper. Ex-libris stamp and owner's inscription to title page. Paste-on newspaper clippings on the book to page following title page, not affecting text. Hinges starting. Foxing alongside spine to title page. Welling to pages leading up to prologue. Illustrated title page. Fascinating work on the extinct Argentinian indigenous group of Comechingon. Beautifully illustrated throughout with b/w maps, photographs and sketches. In Spanish. Binding in fair, book in good condition. ComechingÛn (plural Comechingones) is the common denomination for a currently extinct group of aboriginals native to the Argentine provinces of CÛrdoba and San Luis. They were thoroughly displaced or exterminated by the Spanish conquistadores by the end of the 17th century.The main two ComechingÛn groups called themselves Henia (at the north) and Kamiare (at the south) respectively, subdivided each in a dozen or so tribes. The name comechingÛn expression is a deformation of the pejorative term kamichingan used by the tribe of the Sanavirones, which means "cave inhabitants".They were sedentaries, practiced agriculture yet collected wild fruits, and raised animals for wool, meat and eggs. Their culture was heavily influenced by that of the Andes.Several aspects seams to differentiate the Henia-Kamiare from other inhabitants of nearby areas. They presented a rather Caucasian aspect, with beards and a so-said minority of greenish eyes. another distinctive aspect was their communal stone houses, half buried on the floor to endure the cold, wind and snow of the wintertime.Though they had their own language, this was lost with Spanish the impositions that favoured both Runa sini and Quechua. Nevertheless, they left a rich pictography and abstract petroglyphs.Another interesting cultural contribution is the famous CÛrdoba accent, or vowel extension in the Spanish of the present inhabitants of CÛrdoba, but also not uncommon to San Luis and other neighbouring provinces.

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