View source for Picunche

{{Short description|Indigenous people of Chile}}
{{Expand Spanish|Picunches|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Picunche
| image            = Araucanos por Olsen (1855).JPG
| image_caption    = Illustration of a Picunche couple in ''Durch Süd-Amerika'' (1894) by [[Theodor Ohlsen]]
| regions          = {{flag|Chile}} (from the [[Aconcagua River]] to the [[Biobío River]], in [[Central Chile]])
| languages        = [[Mapuche language|Mapudungun]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
| religions        = [[Mapuche religion]], [[Religion in the Inca Empire|Inca religion]], [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]]
| related_groups   = [[Mapuche]], [[Diaguita]], {{ill|Chiquillanes|es}}, [[Pehuenche]]
}}

The '''Picunche''' (a [[Mapudungun]] word meaning "North People"),<ref Name="Elliott">{{cite book  | last = Elliott  | first = Lilian Elwyn  | title = Chile Today and Tomorrow  | publisher = Macmillan  | date = 1922  | url = https://archive.org/details/chiletodayandto03joycgoog  | quote = Picunche -wikipedia people.  | page = [https://archive.org/details/chiletodayandto03joycgoog/page/n372 312]  }}</ref> also referred to as ''picones'' by the Spanish, were a Mapudungun-speaking people living to the north of the [[Mapuche]]s or Araucanians (a name given to those Mapuche living between the [[Itata River|Itata]] and [[Toltén River|Toltén]] rivers) and south of the [[Choapa River]] and the [[Diaguitas]].  Until the Conquest of Chile the Itata was the natural limit between the [[Mapuche]], located to the south, and Picunche, to the north.  During the [[Incas in Central Chile|Inca attempt to conquer Chile]] the southern Picunche peoples that successfully resisted them were later known as the [[Promaucaes]].

The Picunche living north of the Promaucaes were called ''Quillotanes''<ref>Juan Ignacio Molina, '''Compendio de la historia civil del reyno de Chile''', pg. 9. Named for [[Quillota]], one of the settlements of the [[Inca Empire]] in Chile.</ref> (those living in the [[Aconcagua River]] valley north to the Choapa) and ''[[Mapochoes]]'' (those living in the [[Maipo River]] basin) by the Spanish, and were part of the [[Inca Empire]] at the time when the first [[Spaniards]] arrived in Chile.

Among the peoples the Spanish called the Promaucaes, the people of the [[Rapel River]] valley were particularly called by this name by the Spanish.<ref name="Juan Ignacio Molina pg. 9">Juan Ignacio Molina, '''Compendio de la historia civil del reyno de Chile''', pg. 9.</ref> Those of the [[Mataquito River]] valley were called the ''Cures''.<ref name="Juan Ignacio Molina pg. 9"/> The people in the [[Maule River]] valley and to the south were distinguished as ''Maules'' and those to the south of the Maules and north of the Itata were known as ''Cauqui'' by the Inca<ref>Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, '''Comentarios reales''', 2da_VII_20 20</ref> and ''[[Cauquenes]]'' by the Spanish<ref name="Juan Ignacio Molina pg. 9"/> and that gave their name to [[Cauquenes River]].

They did not survive as a separate society into the present day, because of a general population decline and having been absorbed into the general Chilean population during the colonial period.

The Indigenous Picunche disappeared by a process of mestizaje by gradually abandoning their villages (''[[pueblo de indios]]'') to settle in nearby Spanish haciendas. There Picunches mingled with disparate Indigenous peoples brought in from [[Araucanía (historic region)|Araucanía]] ([[Mapuche]]), [[Chiloé Archipelago|Chiloé]] ([[Huilliche people|Huilliche]], [[Cuncos|Cunco]], [[Chono people|Chono]], [[Poya people|Poyas]]<ref>{{Cite book|chapter=El pueblo chono: de vagabundo y pagano a cristiano y sedentario mestizado|url=http://www.turismocientifico.cl/admin/apps/filemanager/repository/%C3%A1reas%20del%20conocimiento/Poblamiento,%20historia%20y%20cultura/Antropologia/Etnias/Al%20Pueblo%20Chono.pdf|last=Urbina Burgos|first=Rodolfo|pages=325–346|title=Orbis incognitvs: avisos y legados del Nuevo Mundo|year=2007|publisher=Universidad de Huelva|location=Huelva|ISBN=9788496826243|language=es}}</ref>) and [[Cuyo (Argentina)|Cuyo]] ([[Huarpe]]<ref name=villalobosHacienda2>Villalobos ''et al''. 1974, pp. 166–170.</ref>).<ref name=migracioneslocales>{{Cite journal|title=Migraciones locales y asentamiento indígena en las estancias españolas de Chile central, 1580-1650|journal=[[Historia (history of the Americas journal)|Historia]]|volume=49|issue=1|doi=10.4067/S0717-71942016000100004|url=https://scielo.conicyt.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0717-71942016000100004&script=sci_arttext#nb29|year=2016|language=es|doi-access=free}}</ref> Few in numbers, disconnected from their ancestral lands and diluted by mestizaje the Picunche and their descendants lost their Indigenous identity.<ref name=migracioneslocales/>

[[File:Pueblos indigenas de Chile.svg|thumb|center|700px|Distribution of pre-Hispanic people of Chile]]

==Agriculture==
The Picunches' primary crops consisted of corn and potatoes, and they lived in thatched-roof adobe houses.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

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[[Category:Mapuche groups]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Chile]]
[[Category:Social history of Chile]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples in Chile]]
[[Category:Pre-Columbian cultures]]


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