Aymara

A large South American tribal group occupying the Titicaca plateau (central Andes) in the Late Intermediate Period - and the language spoken by them. The Aymara language is still spoken some parts of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. The Aymara kingdoms - Canchi Colla Lupaca Collagua Ubina Pacasa Caranga Charca Quillaca Omasuyo and Collahuaya - fought amongst themselves but also shared cultural characteristics. Some of these characteristics appear to have been incorporated into the Inca political system such as class stratification a powerful ruling class and chullpa burials. The peoples lived by cultivating tubers and herding alpaca and llama.

The Aymara language, still spoken and once widespread in southern Peru and the Bolivian Highlands, is one of the defining characteristics of numerous polities in and around the Lake Titicaca basin in the Late Intermediate Period. These ‘Aymara Kingdoms’ (the largest being Colla and Lupaqa) were frequently involved in internecine hostilities, but shared a number of cultural characteristics which indicate political units of some sophistication. Some of these appear to have been incorporated into the Inca political system, such as class stratification, a powerful ruling class and Chullpa burials. The common subsistence base appears to have been cultivation of tubers and the herding of alpaca and llama, but it appears that maize (which could not be grown in the highland climate) was imported, possibly from lowland colonies some distance from the major centres.