# Chané

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Indigenous people of South America

For the language, see [Chané language](/source/Chan%C3%A9_language). For other uses, see [Chane (disambiguation)](/source/Chane_(disambiguation)).

Ethnic group

Chané (Izoceño) El Fuerte de Samaipata, Chané ruins that predate the Inca, Samaipata, Bolivia Total population 1,500 Regions with significant populations Argentina 3,034 (2010) [1] Bolivia Paraguay Languages Chiriguano, Spanish, formerly Chané language (an Arawakan language)[2] Religion Animism, Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism)

**Chané** is the collective name for the southernmost [Arawakan-speaking](/source/Arawakan_languages) peoples. They lived in the plains of the northern [Gran Chaco](/source/Gran_Chaco) and in the foothills of the [Andes](/source/Andes) in [Paraguay](/source/Paraguay), [Brazil](/source/Brazil), [Bolivia](/source/Bolivia), and [Argentina](/source/Argentina). The historical Chané are divided into two principal groups: the Chané proper who lived in eastern Bolivia, and the Guaná who lived in Paraguay and adjacent Brazil. Twenty-first century survivors of the Chané are the Izoceño people of Bolivia and 3,034 descendants reported in Argentina by the 2010 census. Survivors of the Guaná are the [Tereno](/source/Terena_language) and the Kinikinao both of [Mato Grosso do Sul](/source/Mato_Grosso_do_Sul) province in Brazil.[3]

Most of the historical Chané were subjects of and absorbed by the [Eastern Bolivian Guarani](/source/Eastern_Bolivian_Guarani), commonly called Chiriguanos, while the Guaná were subjects of the [Mbayá](/source/Mbay%C3%A1), a [Guaycuruan](/source/Guaycuruan_languages) speaking people.

## History

The Chané, together with other [Arawak](/source/Arawak_peoples) groups, are believed to have originated in northeastern South America, but to have spread southward about 2,500 years ago. They developed an agrarian culture, built densely populated villages, cultivated corn, peanuts, cotton and squash, and are famous for their ceramics and graphics which have been found mainly in the pampas of Bolivia surrounding the city of [Santa Cruz de la Sierra](/source/Santa_Cruz_de_la_Sierra) and in [Samaipata](/source/Samaipata%2C_Bolivia), [Portachuelo](/source/Portachuelo), Valle Abajo, Okinawa, [Cotoca](/source/Cotoca), El Pari, Mataral and Warnes.[4] They also craft wooden masks and fabric clothing.

An ancient Chané religious site dating from about 300 CE is [El Fuerte de Samaipata](/source/El_Fuerte_de_Samaipata), now a [UNESCO World Heritage Site](/source/UNESCO_World_Heritage_Site).[5]

They were a rather peaceful culture and traded with the [Quechua](/source/Quechua_language)-speaking [Incas](/source/Inca) in the Andes and with other Arawak-speaking groups to the north and east. Chanés and Incas established a truce to join forces against the [Eastern Guarani](/source/Eastern_Guarani) peoples of the Andes foothills, who the Incas and Spaniards called *Chiriguanos*. The Chiriguanos raided the Chané homeland on a regular basis, and prior to the Spanish conquest, the Chiriguanos defeated the Chanés and halted the Inca advance into the plains and valleys of what is now the [Santa Cruz Department](/source/Santa_Cruz_Department_(Bolivia)) of [Bolivia](/source/Bolivia). Some Chane were forced into slavery by the Chiriguanos, others migrated to less fertile regions to the southeast. Many Chané women were taken as wives by Chiriguano men, thus starting a process of assimilation. Both Guaraní and [Guaraní](/source/Guaran%C3%AD_language)-speaking Chané also assimilated and mixed with Europeans during the colonial period and after the independence of both Argentina and Bolivia.

## The Guaná

The Guaná, (also called Layaná) are the eastern branch of the Chané. They were vassals of the [Mbayá](/source/Mbay%C3%A1), a relationship that, according to Spanish accounts, existed in 1548, and possibly much earlier.[6] The Guaná were agricultural and pedestrian as opposed to the nomadic Mbayá who became equestrians by the early 17th century. In the early 18th century the Guaná lived in seven large villages of 1,000 or more people on the western side of the Paraguay River between 19 and 22 south latitudes. Later in the 18th century, some of them migrated along with the Mbayá east of the Paraguay River. They were estimated, perhaps generously, in the early 18th century to have numbered 18,000 to 30,000. In 1793 they numbered about 8,200.[7]

The Guaná provided Mbayá chiefs with labor, agricultural products, textiles, and wives and in exchange were given protection and European goods such as iron tools by the Mbayá. The cultures of the Guaná and Mbayá slowly became more similar as the Mbayá adopted agriculture and weaving and the Guaná became equestrian. The Mbayá augmented their numbers, strictly limited by late marriages and [abortion](/source/Abortion), by intermarriage with Guaná and captive women of other ethnic groups.[8] Spanish chroniclers describe the Guaná as docile. The Mbayá, arrogant and ethnocentric, were described by Spanish chroniclers as surprisingly benign and respectful in dealing with their Guaná subjects.[9]

By 1850 the Guaná had broken their relationship with the Mbayá and were living in the area of [Miranda, Mato Grosso do Sul](/source/Miranda%2C_Mato_Grosso_do_Sul), Brazil. The largest sub-tribe of the Guaná was the Tereno who numbered 3 to 4 thousand at the time.[10] In 2001, they were called the Terêna, and 16,000 if them were living in the same area.[11]

## Distribution

There are some Chané communities still living in the [Izozog](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Izozog&action=edit&redlink=1) region in [Santa Cruz, Bolivia](/source/Santa_Cruz%2C_Bolivia), and in [Yacui](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yacui&action=edit&redlink=1) and Che-Renda near [Tartagal, Argentina](/source/Tartagal%2C_Argentina).[12] In both cases, they have been influenced by the Guaraní language and culture, but still retain their Chane identity. The other descendants of the Chane culture were first mixed with the Guaranis, later with the Spaniards, and in the last two centuries with migration flows of other Europeans, Arabs, and migrants from other parts of Bolivia and Argentina. The Chane culture is an important heritage component of the populations of Santa Cruz, the Paraguayan Chaco, [Salta Province](/source/Salta_Province), [Jujuy Province](/source/Jujuy_Province) and the Argentine Chaco.

## See also

- [Arawak](/source/Arawak_peoples)

- [Chané language](/source/Chan%C3%A9_language)

- [Maipurean languages](/source/Maipurean_languages)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Censo Nacional de Población, Hogares y Viviendas 2010](http://www.estadistica.sanluis.gov.ar/estadisticaWeb/Contenido/Pagina148/File/LIBRO/censo2010_tomo1.pdf) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20160409013106/http://www.estadistica.sanluis.gov.ar/estadisticaWeb/Contenido/Pagina148/File/LIBRO/censo2010_tomo1.pdf) 2016-04-09 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Chané."](https://archive.today/20130102110704/http://www.ethnologue.com/15/show_language.asp?code=caj) *Ethnologue.* (retrieved 16 May 2011)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Censo Nacional de Poblacion, Hogares y Viviendas," [https://www.indec.gov.ar/ftp/cuadros/poblacion/censo2010_tomo1.pdf](https://www.indec.gov.ar/ftp/cuadros/poblacion/censo2010_tomo1.pdf) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20161113160124/https://www.indec.gov.ar/ftp/cuadros/poblacion/censo2010_tomo1.pdf) 2016-11-13 at the [Wayback Machine](/source/Wayback_Machine), accessed 18 Dec 2017

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Tras la Huella de los Chané, El Deber, June 1, 2003

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Fuerte de Samaipata"](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/883). *whc.unesco.org*. Retrieved 23 Sep 2016.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Santos-Granero, Fernando (2009), *Vital Enemies*, Austin: University of Texas Press, p. 38. Downloaded from [Project MUSE](/source/Project_MUSE).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Steward, pp. 239-240

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Saegar, pp. 18, 87-88, 116

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Hemming, John (1978), *Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazilian Indians,* Cambridge: Harvard University Press, pp 394-395

1. **[^](#cite_ref-10)** Steward, Julian H. (1946), *Handbook of South American Indians, Volume 1, The Marginal Tribes*, Washington: Smithsonian Institution, pp 238-241

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** "Terêna", [http://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/ter/](http://www.ethnologue.com/18/language/ter/), accessed 28 Dec 2017

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** [Glosario de lenguas indígenas sudamericanas, Edgardo Civallero, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba](https://web.archive.org/web/20160506184129/https://issuu.com/edgardo-civallero/docs/glosario_de_lenguas_ind__genas_suda)

v t e Ancestry and ethnicity in Argentina Ancestral background of Argentine citizens Africa Angolan Cape Verdean Senegalese South African Americas Indigenous Abipón Chané Capayán Diaguita Guaraní Huarpe Kolla Mapuche Mocoví Nivaclé Pehuenche Poya Qom Quechua Quilme Selkʼnam Tehuelche Teushen Wichí Non-Indigenous American Bolivian Brazilian Colombian Chilean Dominican Mexican Paraguayan Peruvian Uruguayan Venezuelan Asia Arab Lebanese Syrian Armenian Chinese Indian Israeli Japanese Korean Roma Taiwanese Turkish Europe By religious beliefs Mennonite Jewish By region and country Central Austrian Czech German Hungarian Polish Slovene Swiss Eastern Belarusian Russian Ukrainian Northern Baltic Estonian Latvian Lithuanian Nordic Danish Finnish Icelandic Norwegian Swedish Southeast Albanian Bulgarian Croatian Greek Macedonian Montenegrin Romanian Serbian Southern Iberic Spanish Basque Portuguese Italian Maltese Western Belgian British English Scottish Welsh Dutch French Irish Luxembourgian All European immigration to Argentina

v t e Bolivians Indigenous Apolista Ava Guarani Aymara Ayoreo Baure Bororo Canichana Cayubaba Chácobo Chané Chiquitano Ese Ejja Guaraní (Eastern Bolivian Guaraní) Guarayos Guató Itonama Lupaca Machinere Maropa Mojeño Movima Nivaclé Pacahuara Pauserna Quechua Qulla Sirionó Tacana Toba Toromona Tsimané Uru Uru-Murato Wanám Wichí Yaminawá Yuqui Yuracaré European Croatian German Ethnic Mennonite Italian Spanish Asian Japanese Jewish Americas Argentine Brazilian Uruguayan Others African Category:Ethnic groups in Bolivia

Authority control databases: National United States France BnF data Israel

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Chané](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan%C3%A9) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan%C3%A9?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.