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Muisca
The Muisca society is part of a group of maize agricultural societies
which inhabilited the Eastern Cordillera around the 6th to 7th century
of the our era. Other societies that completed the picture include the
Chitareros and Guanes from Santander and the Laches from the Sierra
Nevada de Cocuy. Previously, hundreds of years before our era, the
Cordillera had been occupied by groups of root horticulturists who had
based their economy on the cultivation of potatoes and other roots
common to the cold highlands, the exploitation of saltwater, hunting,
and fishing. With the Muisca period, once again we see many elements
that we are accustomed to associating with maize agriculture: an
increased number of settlements, which suggests demographic growth, and
significant evidence of social stratification as well as notable
goldworking developments.
In fact, the Muiscas were the most complex indigenous society
encountered by the Spaniards in the territory that constitutes present
day Colombia. The basic social unit incorporated "capitanias" (capitancies)
or groups of relatives who lived in centralized villages. Various of
those groups comprised larger social units denominated "pueblos". These
in turn were organized in confederations under the authority of the more
important chiefts. In the 1500's, after a process which included
alliances based on intermarriages and wars of expansion, the greater
part of the Muisca population had fallen under the domination of four
great confederations: Bogota (which dominated the great Sabana of Bogota
and neighboring areas), Tunja, Sogamoso, and Duitama, located in today's
Department of Boyaca .
The Muisca economy was based, as we have described for Tairona and
groups of Andes from Nan no, on vertically organized agriculture, which
simultaneously employed diverse altitudes. The greater share of the
villages were located in the cold valleys, at an average altitude of
2500 meters above sea level, lands whose fertility and average humidity
permitted an extraordinary development of maize agriculture and the
cultivation of roots common to the higher regions, fundamentally
potatoes. Concurrently, the population exercised control over fields
located in even colder regions and on the warmer, temperate slopes of
the Eastern Cordillera. In this way, each family could, in many cases,
have access to fields of coca, cotton, fruit trees, maize, manioc, and
potatoes.
Among the Muiscas we find notable development in regional
specialization. There were populations, such as Ra quira, whose
expertise lay in producing ceramic vessels. Other villages distinguished
themselves by producing textiles, stone adornments, basketry, salt, fish
or hallucinogenic drugs. All of this triggered the establishment of
complex trade networks where the most important chiefs controlled the
distribution of regional surpluses. A considerable portion of these
surpluses were put into circulation and found their way to distant
groups. The Muiscas, in fact, supplied textiles, gold, and emeralds to
communities living on the Eastern Plains and, in the Magdalena River
Valley.
Muisca goldwork can be divided into two phases of development. The first
is represented by a series of objects found on the western flank of the
mountain range, which consists of anthropomorphic figures, nose rings,
representations of animals with raised tails, and a further series of
articles produced in gold or tumbaga very similar to those from the
Quimbaya Classic period. Later, after 1000 A.D., Muisca goldwork
continued to develop until the arrival of Spaniards in the 1500's.
Goldwork production from the 1500's is a good example of the complexity
of the distribution and exchange systems developed by the Muiscas. In
all likelihood, copper deposits in the territory were mined.
Nonetheless, all of the gold worked by the Muiscas came from outside
territories, especially from the Magdalena valley. Even so, the Muiscas
developed specialized centers to work the metals: places such as
Guatavita, Gachancipa, and Pasca. Necklace beads, pectorals, diadems,
ear ornaments, and nose rings usually cast using the lost wax process,
the beeswax for which they acquired trading with groups from the Eastern
Plains, were produced in many places and in sufficient quantity so as to
supply both local and outside demands.
Among the Muiscas, the work of smelting and casting was performed under
the supervision of priests or "chuques" who, after consuming narcotic
drugs, would offer the pieces to their deities in sanctuaries. Normally,
each offering was comprised of a group of pieces, not necessarily made
of gold, in which the same basic idea, associated with a specific
petition, would be reproduced. Frequently, the offerings were deposited
in ceramic vessels made to represent chiefs or shamans. Special
petitions referred to agricultural calendar holidays, the installation
of new chiefts or ceremonies prior to joining battle with enemy
communities.
A large portion of Muisca goldwork production was oriented toward
producing tunjos or offerings that represented different aspects of
communal life: warriors, priests, chiefs, miniature villages, scenes
depicting sacrifices, snakes, felines, miniature vessels, and baskets,
among many other items. These pieces are very characteristic of the
Muisca territory. A great variety of body ornaments such as bird-shaped
pendants ("eagles"), circular shaped embossed pectorals, and diverse
types of nose rings appear to be very similar to those made in the
Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in the Sinu and Quimbaya areas, and in
Central America, in the centuries immediately prior to the 1500's. |
