TWILIGHT OMAGUAS: IDENTITY AND ACCULTURATION OF AN AMAZON PEOPLE (XVII, XVIII AND XIX CENTURIES)

Abstract

This study makes visible the changes produced in the Omagua culture of the Amazon Region during the Colony and the first republican years through the analysis of the colonization process suffered by it. It is based on a critical review of texts from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, two key concepts in social sciences are used: identity and acculturation. The ethnohistoric sources of the missions or province of Maynas (an extensive area of ​​jungle granted by the Audiencia of Quito) are valuable to understand what since the 17th century has been known as the Omagua culture and its consequent nature as a nation, in the sense of conscience of unitary and politically mobilized cultural identity in front of others. Although the Omaguas of the early 17th century occupied a territory that seems larger than the one mentioned in the first chronicle. At the end of this century the colonization causes an increase of conflicts, population debacle, social destructuring and cultural decline.