{{Short description|Indigenous group in modern-day Colombia}} {{Infobox ethnic group | group = Guayupe | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Acacias paisaje.jpg | image_caption = Landscape in Acacías, terrain of the Guayupe | popplace = Meta, {{COL}} | total = 250,000 | total_year = 1537 | total_source = | total_ref = <ref name=Ruiz>Ruíz Churión, 2010</ref> | langs = Arawakan, Colombian Spanish | rels = Traditional religion, Catholicism | related = Guahibo, Muisca, Sutagao, Tegua, U'wa }} right|thumb|260px|Map of pre-Columbian civilizations. The '''Guayupe''' lived east of the Muisca right|thumb|260px|'''Coca''' was used by the Guayupe in their rituals
The '''Guayupe''' are an Arawak-speaking<ref name=Destino>{{in lang|es}} [http://www.destinosecoturisticos.com/meta/museo-guayupe-puerto-santander/ Description Guayupe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926025024/https://www.destinosecoturisticos.com/meta/museo-guayupe-puerto-santander/ |date=2020-09-26 }}</ref> Indigenous group of people in modern-day Colombia. They inhabit the westernmost parts of the department of Meta.<ref>Díaz Moreno, 2012, p.171</ref> At the time of the Spanish conquest, more than 250,000 Guayupe were living in large parts of Meta.<ref name=Ruiz/><ref>Díaz Moreno, 2012, p.174</ref>
The territories of the Guayupe stretched from the neighbouring Guahibo terrains to the east and north and the Muisca territories to the west over an area of {{convert|22000|km2|sqmi}}.<ref name=Llanero/>
Knowledge of the Guayupe has been provided by Pedro de Aguado and others.
== Guayupe territory == The territory of the Guayupe before the Spanish conquest stretched from the rivers Upía and Guayabero to the peaks of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes.<ref>{{in lang|es}} 2007 - [http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-3856958 Más de 50 piezas arqueológicas de la desconocida cultura guayupe tendrán museo en el Meta] - El Tiempo</ref> Their area covered around {{convert|22000|km2|sqmi}}.<ref name=Llanero>{{in lang|es}} [http://canalllanero.blogspot.com.co/2014/09/la-nacion-guayupe-fue-una-etnia-de-la.html Description of the Guayupe]</ref> The Guayupe lived mostly around the Ariari River.<ref name=Llanero/>
=== Municipalities belonging to Guayupe territories ===
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" ! scope="col" | Name ! scope="col" | Department ! scope="col" | Altitude (m)<br><small>urban centre</small> ! scope="col" | Map |- | align=center | Acacías | align=center | Meta | align=center | 498 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | Barranca de Upía | align=center | Meta | align=center | 200 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | El Calvario | align=center | Meta | align=center | 1987 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | Cubarral | align=center | Meta | align=center | 534 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | Cumaral | align=center | Meta | align=center | 452 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | '''Fuente de Oro''' | align=center | Meta | align=center | 359 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | Granada | align=center | Meta | align=center | 372 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | Guamal | align=center | Meta | align=center | 525 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | Restrepo | align=center | Meta | align=center | 570 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | San Juan de Arama | align=center | Meta | align=center | 510 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | San Juanito | align=center | Meta | align=center | 1795 | align=center | 100px|center |- | align=center | Villavicencio | align=center | Meta | align=center | 467 | align=center | 100px|center |- |}
== Description == The first report on the Guayupe nation is from German conquistador Philipp von Hutten, participant of the expedition led by Georg Hohermuth von Speyer from Coro in Venezuela to the borders of the Amazon bassin (1535 - 1538). He describes them as "very good looking people and very able in defending themselves."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Das Gold der Neuen Welt. Die Papiere des Welser-Konquistadors und Generalkapitäns von Venezuela, Philipp von Hutten 1534-1541|publisher=Schmitt, Eberhard/von Hutten, Friedrich Karl|year=1996|isbn=978-3-87061-862-9|location=Hildburghausen|pages=98 f; 116}}</ref> Indeed, Hohermuths army never was able to make peace with the Guayupe, crossing their entire land from the northern shores of Upía river down to the regions south of the Guaviare river. On their way, the conquistadors were engaged in various skirmishes and even in a big battle with the Guayupe warriors. "They tried their luck on us frequently but although they killed and wounded many of us, we always gave them the rawer deal. This nation fights with bow and arrow and spears and shields made of tapir skin, and they throw gins."<ref name=":0" /> The Germans were not the first Europeans to encounter the Guayupe. Near the Guaviare river they found some items of clearly European origin. As they knew later, it were belongings of an expedition led by Alonso de Herrera, who likely came up the Guaviare river with boats. In 1534, the Guayupe "had slaughtered 90 of Herrera's men and the survivors escaped downstream. In Coro, we met some of them."<ref name=":0" />
The Guayupe are a tribe of farmers living in the tropical mountain forests of the Eastern Ranges and the Llanos of Meta, Colombia. In pre-Columbian times they constructed pallisades around their villages consisting of houses around a central square with a ceremonial building in the middle.<ref name="Onofrio_p438">Onofrio, 1995, p.438</ref> Because of the sophisticated defence works including palisades, thorn bushes and well-camouflaged pitfalls, the Spanish soldiers in Hohermuth's army nicknamed one of those well fortified villages "Little Salses",<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aguado|first=Pedro|title=Recopilación Historial|year=1957|location=Bogotá|pages=Vol II, 116 f}}</ref> referring to the Catalan Fort de Salses, an innovative type of fortress at this time. The Guayupe were an agricultural society with yuca one of their main crops.<ref name="Onofrio_p438" /> The Guayupe people went naked, only ornamented with gold, feathers and shells.<ref name="Onofrio_p438" />
The Guayupe society was organised around the ''caciques''; chiefs of the community. The ''cacique'' was regarded as an important person who lived by strict norms in the ceremonial activities; births, marriages and burials. When a ''cacique'' of the Guayupe died, the body was cremated and his successor had to drink his ash mixed with chicha.<ref name=Onofrio_p438/><ref name=ElTiempo1999/> The society of the Guayupe was egalitarian; ''caciques'' only had the use of stools and more feathers on their blankets. At every marriage, half of the bride treasure was going to the ''cacique''.<ref name=Onofrio_p438/>
They built canoes of wood and consumed yuca and casabe, fish and meat. They did not eat bird meat.<ref name=Onofrio_p438/><ref name=Cultura>{{in lang|es}} [http://culguayupe.blogspot.com.co/ Cultura Guayupe]</ref>
According to scholar Pedro de Aguado, the Guayupe defecated in the rivers around and not near their houses.<ref>Mácha & Gómez, 2014, p.67</ref>
=== Religion === As in the Muisca religion, the main gods were the Sun and the Moon who were husband and wife.<ref name=Onofrio_p438/><ref name=Granada>{{in lang|es}} [http://granadameta.com/cultura-guayupe/ The Guayupe of Granada, Meta] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180824222923/http://granadameta.com/cultura-guayupe/ |date=2018-08-24 }}</ref> The supreme being of the Guayupe, in the Muisca religion called Chiminigagua, was ''Inaynagui''.<ref name=Granada/>
The products the Guayupe used in their rituals were coca and tobacco.<ref name=Onofrio_p438/> Cannibalism is not reported of the Guayupe.<ref name=Onofrio_p438/>
=== Modern age === In 1996, fifteen ceramic pots were found, pertaining to the Guayupe culture.<ref>{{in lang|es}} 1996 - [http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-436103 Fifteen Guayupe ceramic pots found in 1996] - El Tiempo</ref> In 2011, after the excavation of a Guayupe burial site, the museum of the Guayupe in Fuente de Oro was opened, containing bones, burial urns, artefacts and plates.<ref>{{in lang|es}} [http://museoscomunitariosencolombia.blogspot.com.co/2011/04/museo-arqueologico-guayupe-puerto.html Museo arqueológico Guayupe]</ref> As of 2009 yearly a ''Reina de Guayupe'', miss contest in Puerto Santander, located at {{convert|16|km|mi}} from the urban centre of Fuente de Oro,<ref name=ElTiempo1999>{{in lang|es}} 1999 - [http://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/MAM-944198 Guayupe museum] - El Tiempo</ref> is held among the Guayupe.<ref>Díaz Moreno, 2012, p.182</ref><ref>Díaz Moreno, 2012, p.187</ref>
== See also == {{Portal|Colombia|Indigenous peoples of the Americas}} *Muisca *Achagua, Tegua, Sutagao
== References == {{reflist|30em}}
== Bibliography == * {{citation |last=Díaz Moreno |first=Ingrid |year=2012 |title=Puerto Santander, cuna de la cultura guayupe: Patrimonialización y formación del Estado en el departemento del Meta - Puerto Santander, crib of the Guayupe culture: heritage and formation of the State in the Meta Department |url=http://www.revistatabularasa.org/numero-17/08diaz.pdf |journal=Tabula Rasa |issn=1794-2489 |volume=17 |pages=171–193 |doi=10.25058/20112742.132 |language=es |accessdate=2016-07-08}} * {{citation |last1=Mácha |first1=Přemysl |last2=Gómez Pellón |first2=José Eloy |year=2014 |title=Masks of Identity: Representing and Performing Otherness in Latin America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LaAxBwAAQBAJ&q=guayupes&pg=PA67 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |pages=1–185 |isbn=9781443860758 |accessdate=2016-07-08}} * {{citation |last=Onofrio |first=Jan |year=1995 |title=Dictionary of Indian Tribes of the Americas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IGzgCQAAQBAJ&q=guayupe+meta+area&pg=PA438 |publisher=American Indian Publishers |isbn=9780937862285 |pages=1–1047 |accessdate=2016-07-08}} * {{citation |last=Ruiz Churión |first=Jairo |year=2010 |title=Guayupes |format=video |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJK_DHUMReo |language=es |accessdate=2016-07-08}} *Fray Pedro Aguado. ''Recopilación Historial'', Parte 2, Vol. III. Bogotá 1957. * {{citation | last1=Hutten | first1=Philipp von | last2=Schmitt | first2=Eberhard | title=Das Gold der Neuen Welt die Papiere des Welser-Konquistadors und Generalkapitäns von Venezuela Philipp von Hutten 1534 - 1541 | publication-place=Berlin | year=1999 | language=de |isbn=978-3-87061-862-9}} {{oclc|254379651}}
== Further reading == * {{citation |last1=Moreno Romero |first1=Marisol |last2=Riaño Cardenas |first2=Ricardo |year=1998 |title=La cultura guayupe: presencia prehispánica en los llanos del Meta - The Guayupe culture: prehispanic presence in the plains of Meta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yj_EZwEACAAJ&q=guayupe |publisher=Alcaldía Mayor de Villavivencio |location=Villavicencio, Colombia |pages=1–102 |language=es |accessdate=2016-07-08}}
{{Ancestry and ethnicity in Colombia}} {{Muisca navbox|Caciques and neighbours}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Indigenous peoples in Colombia Category:Culture of Colombia Category:People from Meta Department