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The Quimbaya region, in the
Cauca Valley of central Colombia, was the homeland of many different
tribes in the sixteenth century, only one of them called the Quimbaya.
These tribes often spoke mutually unintelligible languages, but despite
regional and local differences, all shared certain customs. The Indians
were farmers who lived in wood and thatch houses in villages under the
control of chiefs; they were rich in gold, worshipped idols made of wood
or wax, and had shamans who communicated with the gods. They were also
given to drinking bouts, and were warlike and cannibalistic. After a
series of elaborate rituals, the dead were buried in deep shaft graves:
When their chiefs die in a part of this province called Tauya, they
place their bodies in hammocks and light fires all round. Holes are dug
beneath, into which the melted fat drops, and when the body is half
burned the relatives come and make great lamentations, drinking their
wine and reciting songs of praise to their gods according to their
custom, and as they have been taught by their elders. This being done,
they wrap the bodies in shrouds, and keep them for several years
unburied. When they are thoroughly dried up, they put them into
sepulchers which they make their houses. Pedro de Cieza de Leon,
1554. Most of the
Quimbaya gold. comes from looted tombs. Many of the simpler items
(bells, frog pendants, disks, and nose ornaments) are widespread in
central Colombia and were shared by many tribes over a large area.
One group of goldwork, however, stands out from the rest and defines the
Quimbaya style in its more restricted sense. These specimens are often
big and heavy, superbly finished, with a preference for large plane
surfaces and restrained decoration. The essential unity of the style is
shown by the treatment of the human figures used to embellish lime
flasks, trumpets, helmets, and ornaments. Both men and women are
represented, modeled in the round, with plump bodies and small hands and
feet, naked except for their jewelry. The half closed eyes, with their
heavy lids, have a sleepy or drugged
expression, and some of the figures carry lime flasks and coca chewing
paraphernalia. Though coca was not the only drug used by the Indians, it was probably
the most common. Not a hallucinogen but a simple narcotic, coca was used
mainly to assuage hunger and thirst. The Indians then and now carried the
leaves in. a bag. A small lime flask, also called a poporo, held the
crushed shell or lime. A small quantity of lime on a dipper would be
passed across the lips to mix with the chewed coca leaves, and the
alkaline base it created would help the absorption of the cocaine. The
use of coca was mostly secular, but it also plays a part in ritual and
religious ceremonies. Its ability to keep the user awake and to clear
the mind helped the Indians in their nightlong religious and
philosophical discussions. Today's lime flasks are made from gourds, not
gold, and the lime dippers are sticks.
The modern district of Tolima, in the middle Magdalena Valley, was the
home of two distinct Indian groups. In the northern portion lived the
Parches, a tribe of bellicose headhunters, of whom Pedro Simon wrote:
"They were such ferocious people, and such great butchers of human
flesh, that they did not know how to exist without continuous wars
against their neighbors not to eland their territory and kingdom, which
is the usual reason for going to war, but to obtain human flesh to eat."
Their permanent enemies were the Muiscas, with whom they alternately
fought and traded, exchanging the gold of Ibague for the salt, emeralds,
and cotton mantles of the highlands. Their neighbors in southern Tolima were the Pijao Indians, who had a
similar reputation as warriors and cannibals, but were also skilled
goldsmiths. Most of the goldwork of southern Tolima comes from looted
cemeteries, and lacks background information. The most characteristic
objects are flat, stylized human figures, terminating in crescent shaped
bases.
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