Huetar people

Their culture belonged to the Intermediate Area, and it stood out mainly for their works in stone, such as metates, sculptures, tables and ceremonial altars; and the non-practice of anthropophagy or cannibalism.

Although this language is extinct, it survives in a large number of place names in Costa Rica such as Aserrí, Tucurrique or Barva.

[6] The name "huetares", as well as that of "chorotegas", is attributed to the Spanish conqueror Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, derived from the name of two chieftains: King Huetara, chief of Pacaca kingdom (now Tabarcia, east of Santiago de Puriscal) and Chorotega, chief of the area that occupied the Central Atlantic (territory that covered the plains of Esparza and those of the Tivives River).

[8] The Huetar language seems to have been a lingua franca that was spoken or at least understood by most of the communities that inhabited the Costa Rican territory in the 16th century, especially in the Central Valley and the river basin Virilla and Grande de Tárcoles until its mouth in the Pacific.

As common characteristics of these communities, it is worth mentioning relatively dispersed settlement patterns; agriculture based on corn, beans and other crops; great refinement in the work of objects in stone (metates, sculptures, tables and ceremonial altars, etc.