According to Chilean archaeology, the estimated origin of the Diaguita culture dates back to periods between 1000 and 1536 AD, when the first agricultural potter societies were established in the Coquimbo region. These were sedentary communities that settled in what are now the Elqui, Limarí, and Choapa provinces. Some researchers, such as the distinguished historian Dr. Joel Avilez, attribute this culture to Argentine Calchaquí Diaguitas or Huarpes. Consequently, an aspect of hypothetical deduction makes this synthesis a discussion among archaeologists and historians.
Discovery
The Chilean Diaguita culture was discovered in 1928 by the archaeologist and ethnographer Ricardo Latcham. As a result, a series of researchers contributed to various discoveries in different sectors of Coquimbo. One of them, Francisco Cornely, distinguished three phases in the pottery production of the Diaguitas: archaic, transitional, and classical with Inca influence. Subsequently, researcher Gonzalo Ampuero revisited Cornely's proposals and presented a distinction by phases, asserting the influence of both Incas and Spaniards (Cornely, 1966).
Technological Development
The technological elements of the Diaguita culture are reflected through various rudimentary but artistically elaborated items. In tombs discovered in the sector of Olivar in La Serena, evidence is found of knowledge in noble metal smelting. Proof of this artistry can be seen in personal use items recovered.
Cosmovision and Social Organization
The cultural elements of this indigenous people are characterized by their notable pottery. Symmetry represents a worldview of life. The power of the council of elders also played a specific role in Diaguita community decisions, as they had the authority to accept or reject proposals and make decisions during times of war. The shaman was the bridge between the invisible worlds and the people, given that by ingesting psychotropic plants and hallucinogens, they could travel to higher dimensions and communicate with intangible entities.
The Diaguitas practiced polygamy, especially among chiefs. Daily tasks were shared indifferently between both genders, with male potters and female hunters being common. Regarding places of worship, the Diaguitas paid homage to the Moon, as its waxing phases represented crop cultivation. In their everyday items, animal symbolism was used: llamas, alpacas, and guanacos for protection and travel; frogs for rain; and pumas for strength and power. After the Inca conquest in Chile, practices of lunar worship were replaced by sun worship (Inti) (Cantarutti and Mera, 2002-2005).
The power of algarrobo and chañar trees, icons on the flag of the Diaguita nation in Chile, is a faithful testimony of protection linked to birth, food, and shelter. Algarroba wine represented celebrations among the Diaguitas as ties between clans and social organizations of each valley. Hunting and gathering were daily activities in their conchales, where they stored their food waste (Cantarutti and Mera, 2013).
Funerary practices represent the beginning and end of the Diaguita journey in the material world, preparing bodies for the next life with their most cherished possessions. Funeral rites and burials reflected daily practices and social status. Their skeletal remains revealed roles through objects: fishermen were buried with marine utensils, potters with stones and colored earth, hunters with weapons, shamans with hallucinogenic shells, and musicians with instruments, among others. The archaeological site El Olivar in La Serena has bodies of all ages that show the Diaguita worldview across different chronological periods (Cantarutti and Mera, 2013).
Inca Conquest Period (1460 – 1536)
The conquest of the Diaguita people was channeled in 1460 after the capture of Tequirqui by Emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui. The Diaguitas fought fiercely but eventually integrated into the Inca Empire. With the conquest, pottery presented new geometric patterns, modifying traditional period iconography (black and red on a white background) with changes in ceramic pieces. There was also a notable shift from their native language kakan to that of the conquerors, Quechua. The routes of the Inca Empire were reflected in the Inca Road Qhapaq Ñan, which facilitated interconnection and creation of tambos as rest stops for chasqui messengers who informed each valley about political-administrative events of the empire (Rodas Romero, 2022).
Spanish Conquest Period (1536 – 1549)
Following the conquest of Cuzco by Francisco Pizarro, the fragmentation of the Inca Empire affected the valleys under its control. From this period onwards, the Diaguita culture was violently influenced, decimated and partially reduced but never exterminated. This ethnohistoric period ended with the discovery and conquest of Chile by Diego de Almagro in 1534, followed by Pedro de Valdivia in 1536.
The Kakan Language
In the seventeenth century, they were identified as occupying a sector of the Elqui valley known since 1605 as "the Diaguita Valley." In this place, an indigenous town was established in 1612, settling the original population that integrated into the colonial encomienda. Chilean Diaguitas inhabited regions of Coquimbo and Copiapó, known as "Little North". They were distributed across the valleys of Copiapó, Huasco, Elqui, Limarí, and Choapa in their pre-cordilleran sectors and interfluvial areas (Ampuero, 1978, p. 6).
Ricardo Latcham (1928, 52) was one of the first researchers to identify this area as inhabited by the Diaguita people and identified kakán as their common language based on Spanish chronicles during the conquest. These definitions were later taken up by Francisco Cornely who geographically located settlements of this people and highlighted historical aspects of their tradition and pottery production. He also defined phases of ceramics according to their designs.
Regarding their language, it has been considered "dead," as Coquimbo is characterized by an endless number of Quechua words. Among current communities, the use of Quechua remains a controversial issue.
Associated Chronicles
Such sources include The Chronicle of the Kingdoms of Chile by Geronimo de Vivar, originally written in 1588 and published in 1966 by the Fondo T. D Medina, which states:
"The Coquimbo valley is beautiful and wide, more so than any other I have mentioned. A river runs through it. There was a large population and it was very populated, and when the Incas came to conquer them, over the opening of an irrigation canal that the Incas ordered dug and they did not want, 5000 Indians were killed, which was partly to depopulate this valley." (Vivar, 1966, p. 32)
According to chronicler Pedro Mariño de Lovera, in the Coquimbo Valley today identified as Elqui Valley, around 1544 there was a governor named Anien and a cacique whose name was Maracondi, representing the complex hierarchy of indigenous society. Later, in 1558, during visits and assessments of indigenous population repartimientos in the city of La Serena, names such as Lungui, Queopo, Cobipoco, Asanlo, and Calco appeared among the Diaguita people, Andocalla, Cheoqueandi, Guanchal, and Ganduli (Vivar, 1966, pp. 10-12).
Diaguitas in the 21st Century
Law 19.253 promulgated by the Chilean government in 2006 officially recognized the existence and attributes of the Diaguita people. They claim equality of rights and opportunities, protection of ancestral territorial sites, and return of lands.
The ancestral Tekirke organization brings together nine associations and twenty-five communities of Diaguitas in the Elqui province. According to the 2017 census, there are 26,470 individuals of different sexual conditions, gender identity, and age ranges who identify as Diaguita. Currently, Chile does not have a constitution that provides protection and state guarantees for indigenous peoples.
Conclusions
Long ago, researchers spoke of a dead and extinct culture, but surveys and the Social Housing Registry (RSH) show more than 10,000 Diaguitas in the Coquimbo region. The presence of the Diaguita represents the true embodiment of the intangible heritage of their past, manifesting as a living culture.
Bibliography
Cantarutti Gabriel, & Mera, R. (2002-2005). Stylistic variability in pottery and reflections on Inca domination in the Limarí Valley in light of the Estadio Fiscal site in Ovalle. Xama 15-18, 199-215,
Cerda, P. (2004). Pre-Hispanic Pottery from the Coquimbo Region. Government of Coquimbo.
Cornely, F. (1966). Chilean Diaguita Culture and El Molle Culture. Editorial del Pacífico.
Gonzalez Carvajal, P. (1995). Ceramic Designs of the Diaguita-Inca: Structure, Symbolism, Color, and Cultural Relations. Thesis for the degree of Archaeologist. Universidad de Chile.
Latcham, R. (1928). Indigenous Pottery in Chile. Universo.
Rodas Romero, M. D. (2022). The Qhapaq Ñan: survivor of time's passage, ArqueoTimes, 2, 20-23.Vivar, G. (1966). Chronicle and Relation of the Kingdoms of Chile (1558). Fondo Histórico y Bibliográfico José Toribio Medina.
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