Kichwa-Lamista people

The Peruvian government designates all speakers of Kichwa resident in San Martin Department as "Lamistas", but they themselves differentiate between the people of Lamas, Sisa and the Huallaga River.

[6] The Peruvian government uses the term Lamista to refer to all the Kichwa-speaking population of San Martín Province, but they themselves differentiate between inhabitants of Lamas and those of Sisa and the lower Huallaga River.

[6] The origin of the name Lamas is obscure, but Pedro Weiss suggested it was likely invented by the Spanish to refer to some detail of the indigenous inhabitants' lifestyle or environment.

[10][3] An alternative view, held by modern scholars studying this group, is that the Lamistas originated as a fusion of Amazonian indigenous peoples resident in the reduction of Lamas.

[3] However, for the next century these contacts were sporadic, and it was not until 1653–1656, that the region was brought under Spanish control by expeditions led by Martin de la Riva Herrera, Corregidor of Cajamarca and Chachapoyas.

[3][10] Riva's first expedition of 1653 had as its goal the "pacification" of the Mayo and lower Huallaga rivers,[3] and its subsequent use as a staging post to the territory of the Jivaroans, where he believed gold was to be found.

[10] This marked the conquest of the Tabalosos, Lamas, Amasifuynes, Cascabosoas, Juamuncos and Payananzos, along with some groups of their Suchichi and Munichi allies; and their forced settlement in pueblos de indios under Spanish control.

[10][3] The conquered indigenous population were forcibly distributed into three villages surrounding the new settlement, which was itself reserved for Spaniards and Criollos, creating the reduction of Lamas.

[10] This system created a situation in which the population of Lamas was in constant debt to the Spanish townspeople,[10] and therefore in a subservient position, a feature of the local economy which persisted into the late 20th century.

[10][2] The encomienda system also required the native population to be indoctrinated into the Catholic faith and prohibited them from leaving the area of the city without permission from the encomendero.

[10] The religious instruction of the local population was conducted in Quechua, the Lingua Franca of the Peruvian Amazon used by the Franciscan and Jesuit friars active in the area.

According to Francoise Scazzocchio, it is likely that the multi-ethnic population of Lamas adopted Quechua for inter-group communication at this time, and then quickly abandoned their native languages, as occurred in the nearby reductions of Lagunas and Yurimaguas.

[3][10] The Jesuit missions were a refuge for indigenous people wanting to escape the exploitative conditions imposed by the Criollos, who frequently conducted hunting expeditions to recapture fugitive Indians.

These new settlers, once established, were usually then joined by Criollos, who would form nuclear villages near the indigenous colonies, and enter into a similar pattern of exploitation as found in Lamas and Tarapoto.

[10] Although the indigenous peoples of the Lamas region were, by the late colonial period more unified in terms of language, material culture, observance of religious festival and social position, their original tribal designations remained important.

This typically occurred in front of the church at Lamas and involved the use of lances and stones, creating such disorder that the local Criollos would barricade themselves inside their houses.

[2] These settlements then attracted Criollo and Mestizo migration, leading to the creation of new urban nuclei close by, replicating the relationship of the Kichwa suburbs of Lamas with the white-dominated central districts of the town.

[3] The new secondary zones of settlement developed their own cultural identities, and themselves became the launch pad for waves of lamista colonisation:[10][2] The expansion of Kichwa residents of Lamas into new areas was usually conducted by groups from the same suburb and lineage (see below) moving into a specific territory, rather than a mixture of families of different origins.

[3] Others migrated for religious reasons, evangelical Protestants often wished to avoid the responsibilities associated with participation in the fraternities that celebrate local Catholic festivals.

[3] Other reasons are valid today; the desire to find new and plentiful hunting grounds, the need for new agricultural land and the lack of inheritance for younger sons are all still motivating factors for migration.

Although the Peruvian government created the legal category of Native Community in the 1974 Ley de Comunidades Nativas, the first 14 Lamista settlements to gain this status did not obtain it until 1997.

[7] According to anthropologist Anahí Chaparro, there has been reluctance to designate Lamista groups as Native Communities, in part because to do so may lead to them claiming rights to territory within regional conservation areas.

[2] Their agricultural practices are typically Amazonian, except in their preference for maize over manioc,[8] but their traditional crafts show Andean influence,[2][10] and they were historically divided into moieties similar to those found in the Andes.

[8] The crops they cultivate for subsistence use include: maize, banana, common beans, squash, manioc, Sacha inchik, peanuts, rice, pigeon pea, Talinum paniculatum, Colocasia sp and cotton.

Their preferred hunting seasons are around Carnival in February, and around the period of the festival of Santa Rosa in August, when the animals are well-fed due to the abundance of wild fruit.

[7] Their preferred game is white-lipped peccary, deer and turtles, although other species are taken and any kind of bird may be caught to supplement diet in times when agricultural production is low.

[10][9] Scazzocchio states that during the colonial period, the pre-conquest system of tribal alliances and enmities remained in effect, with the primary antagonism existing between the Salas lineage, descendants of the Tabalosos, and the Amasifuenes and their Sangama allies.

[8] According to Scazzochio, the initial expansions of the Lamistas reflected the areas of origin of the ethnic groups from which they were descended; the Salas, Ischiza, Satalaya and Saboya towards the Sisa River, the Amasifuenes on the western bank of the mid-Huallaga and the Sangama north towards Chasuta.

[14] The most important festival is the annual celebration of the feast of Santa Rosa Raymi in Lamas, which lasts for 10 days in late August and attracts participants and spectators from all over San Martin and beyond.

[14] This event, based on European traditions like the Spanish corrida de gallos, involves young men attempting to rip the head off a duck tied to the top of two long poles.