blue oval: the Guaycura
red oval: the Pericu
The Monqui tribe was probably related to the Pericu and Guycura
The Cochimi and all other tribes north of them on the Californa Peninsula are Amerind groups and not related to the Pericu
54. Possible Relatives in the Americas
Pericu People (Baja California Sur, Mexico)
by George Weber
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Table of Contents
Caves, Artefacts, Art, and Material Culture Genetic Relationships to the Outside World Neighbours, relatives,
enemies: |
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blue oval: the Guaycura red oval: the Pericu The Monqui tribe was probably related to the Pericu and Guycura The Cochimi and all other tribes north of them on the Californa Peninsula are Amerind groups and not related to the Pericu
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The several dozen Pericu skulls kept by the Regional Museum of La Paz in Baja California Sur in Mexico and the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City were recently measured and analysed. The Pericu had been thought to be a somewhat aberrant Amerind group. They turn out to be something far more enigmatic. What they are is still not entirely clear but they donot seem to be Amerind (see chapter Genetic Relationships below). Their closest relatives seem to be the Fuegians, the Australians, some Papua-Newguineans and other populations of the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas, including possibly the Andamanese Negrito to whom a large section of this web-site is dedicated.
The Pericu's first known encounter with the advancing Spanish took place when Hernan Cortez visited and named the area around La Paz - today the capital of the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. Earlier encounters with explorers and traders are likely but have not been recorded. During the following centuries, mostly missionaries and perhaps a few traders took an interest in the primitive, materially poor and remote Pericu and the Guaycura.
As has happened so many times before and after, the attentions of outsiders (be they missionaries, bureaucrats or traders) proved lethal to the objects of their attention. By the end of the 18th century the Pericu had vanished, mostly despatched by the new diseases introduced by outsiders. The neighbouring Guyacura followed them into oblivion sometime during the 19th century.
It is estimated that the Pericu-Guaycura-Monqui group consisted of around 4,000 persons in 1734 and 400 1772. In other words, disease had reduced the population to 10% of its former strength within less than 40 years. The rapidity of their decline is an indicator that the Pericu and their nearest neighbours had been completely isolated from the outside world at the tip of their peninsula for a very long time and that in consequence they had fewer immune defences even than the "normal" Amerind populations of the Americas.
Scientific interest in te Pericu has not been overwhelming until 2001 when Dr. Silvia Gonzalez announced that her results of skull measurements done on the Penon woman (dated at 20,000 years among the oldest human remains ever found in the Americas) were remarkably close to those of the Pericu. The possibility that descendants of Penon Woman had survived until a few hundred years ago thrilled prehistorians and upset lots of made-up minds and settled opinions. Moreover, since the find was made in freedom-loving Mexico, US pressure groups could not go to NAGPRA to insist that the evidence be buried before it could produce unsettling scientific data.
Dr. Gonzalez also pointed out in 2001 that, based on her skull measurements, the Penon woman (and by implication also the Pericu and Guaycura) were not related to modern Amerind populations but instead had affiliations with Australians. She then announced plans to do DNA analyses of the Pericu, saying that she thought the result "would be a scientific bomb". Unfortunately, until early 2007, the bomb has failed to go off and all parties (pros as well as cons) are left standing aroundwith their quarrels stopped in mid-argument, waiting for the lady. Come ON Dr. Gonzalez, be speedy!
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A Pericu skull. |
Evidence concerning the language spoken by the Pericu is limited to a handful of words plus fewer than a dozen place names. Jesuit missionaries did note that the Pericu language was "different" from Guaycura, but how big the difference was we will never know - unless in some old documents a Pericu grammar and extensive word list is discovered. It has happened before, but does not seem very likely here.
The place names thought to come from the Pericu language are:
- Anicá. Ranchería
- Aiñiní. Santiago
- Añuití. San José del Cabo
- Caduaño, Caduño, Gaduaño,
Cadueño. "Green arroyo"
- Calluco, Galluco
- Cunimniici. Mountains
- Eguí.
- Marinó. Santa Ana Mountains
- Purum, Puurum. Mountains, ranchería
- Yeneca, Leneca. Ranchería
- Yenecamú. Cabo San Lucas
List from http://www.bajacalifologia.org/english/index.htm where references for each word are also given.
Division of labor was based primarily on sex and age. The Pericu were reported at various times as beingmonogamous andpolygamous. Such reports may have been influenced by the moral rigour of the outside reporters and on the degree of social decay among Pericu as the decades of contact with outsiders and epidemics increasingly changed their society.
Local communities were independent of each other and there was no superior authority. Leadership positions within local communities tended to be hereditary and went mostly to males but occasionally positions of leadership were also held by women. Conflicts between local communities about hunting and gathering rights were frequent. Conflict over the border area between Pericu and Guaycura tribal territories was chronic and seems to have been going on for a very long time prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. Clearly, these were not entirely peaceful communities at one with nature and the environment.
The Pericu religion was a basically shamanistic system in which the shaman (medicine man) could call down supernatural forces (spirits) to cure the sick. Mortuary and mourning observances were remarkably elaborate, although since these tended to survive and be examined in archaeological excavations, we know much more about them than about the religious beliefs behind them.
The so-called "Las Palmas Complex" is an archaeological pattern of burial customs that were reflected in Pericu mortuary customs right to their termination only a few hundred years ago. The burial practices of the Las Palmas Complex are concentrated the southernmost Cape region of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Dating is very insecure but could go as far back as 10,000 years from the present.
The complex was recognized in the late 19th century and is characterized by secondary burials of disarticulated bones painted with red ochre in caves or rockshelters. The skulls in such burials tend to be extremely long-headed (highly dolichocephalic), leading to suggestions that makers of the Las Palmas complex (identified with the historical Pericu) might represent either a genetically isolated remnant of a very early wave of immigrants into the Americas or later trans-Pacific migrants. Other elements in the material inventory of the Las Palmas Complex include stone grinding basins, atlatls (spear throwers), lark's-head type netting and coiled basketry and palm-bark containers.
In 1883/84 Lyman Belding and Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate unearthed a Pericu skeleton that was "wrapped in cloth made from the bark of the palm and bound with three ply cord which had been plaited as sailors make sennit, the material being fiber of the agave". Dr. W. H. Dall (Smithsonian contributions to knowledge, number 31) noted that the mummies of the Aleutian Islands off Alaska were bound with cord quite similarly braided in square sennit. The package of bones was about 51 cm (20 in.) long and did not appear to have been disturbed since burial, although a femur and some small bones were missing, and nearly all of the bones had been unjointed and painted with ochre. The bones of the hand were inside of the skull, which was full of small bones and sand.
Dr. Ten Kate is also reported to have found the skeleton of a girl of about twelve years that was also in excellent condition but had not been painted with ochre - a rare exception. For the skeletons found by Dr. Ten Kate on Espiritu Santo Island (in the territory disputed between Pericu and Guaycura, just off La Paz) as well as at Encenada and Los Martires, all had been painted the usual brick red ochre. However, one skeleton found at Los Martires was that of a crippled person - it had not been painted with ochre. It seems that young (and female?) and handicapped people were not given the normal ochre treatment before burial.
Some bones found in a cave near Candelario and several skeletons found at San Pedro were also painted with ochre. All of the skulls were highly dolichocephalic and quite un-Amerind.
The only ornaments or other objects found with the skeletons were two small, neatly worked pearl oyster shells in the package of the bones of the young girl. These shells had been polished on the convex side, the edges finely serrated and pierced at the apex to be hung, probably around the neck.
The methods used by the Pericu to de-flesh and disarticulate the bones of their dead remain unknown. For a number of methods used by a comparably ancient and still living population see Chapter 19 in the Andamanese section of this site.
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A Pericu burial. Note the disarticulatedbones. The bones were painted ochre. |
Caves, Artefacts, Art, and Material Culture
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Caves were used as burial chambers and as shelters by the Pericu. |
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Painted stones - one of the few hints that the Pericu had something resembling art. |
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Pericu stone tools were not only quite sophisticated but also clearly adapted to the exploitation and processing of marine resources. Sites usually lack a space allocated for the making of tools so we do not know where these tools were actually made by their users. |
Other material items in the Las Palmas Complex (which is concentrated in the southernmost tip of the peninsula and is thought to have originated among the direct ancestors of the Pericu) include stone grinding basins, harpoons, spears, atlatls (spear throwers) and netting. Bags, coiled basketry, sewn palm-bark containers and gourds were used to carry things. Pottery was quite unknown.
Climate in southernmost California was such that clothing could be minimal. The women wore fibre skirts or animal skins while the men normally went naked. Both sexes had various forms of adornment, especially body-painting which probably had a now lost religious significance.
The Pericu were oriented to and lived above all from the sea. They fished, collected shellfish and hunted marine mammals from their coasts. Terrestrial resources included plants (e.g. agave), the fruit of cacti, small game. Hunting deer was also pracrticed.There is no trace of agricultural practices among the Pericu.
Exceptional among the more landward oriented aboriginal groups of the California coasts were the relatively sophisticated watercraft such as the wooden rafts and double-bladed paddles of the Pericu.
Genetic Relationships to Outside People
It is likely that human populations arriving at the southern tip of the peninsula through demographic pressure exerted by northern groups also suffered some degree of barrier to gene flow throughout the Sonoran desert. Such genetic isolation was possible even when cultural mobility might have been intense during the early Holocene. The southward region probably acted as a refuge in which human groups remained spatially, genetically and perhaps culturally isolated from the mainland. In this model, the inferred presence of Palaeoamericans in the southern tip of peninsula supports the hypothesis of a "Pacific Route" of settlement.
Distance of the Pericu to several American and other populations based on results of multivariate analysis of Pericu skulls. The principal coordinates represent minimum genetic distances.
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Distance of the Pericu to several American and other populations based on results of multivariate analysis of Pericu skulls. The principal coordinates represent minimum genetic distances. For abbreviations used in the chart, see below. |
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Population and region (bold italic
= populations discussed in more detail in this
chapter ) |
Abbreviations |
Number of |
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Pericu (Baja California Sur, Mexico) |
BCS |
33 |
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Fuegians (Tierra del Fuego, Argentina/Chile) |
FUEG |
89 |
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Tehuelche (Patagonians) (Argentina) |
PATA |
98 |
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Andean Patagonians (Argentina/Chile) |
APAT |
20 |
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Pampas (Buenos Aires, Argenina) |
PAM |
23 |
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Delta of Parana (eastern Argentina) |
DPAR |
30 |
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Aztecs (Mexico) |
TLAT |
39 |
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Bolivians (Bolivia) |
BOL |
19 |
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Toba (northeastern Argentina) |
TOBA |
10 |
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Calchaqui (northwestern Argentina) |
CAL |
8 |
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Palaeoamericans of Brazil (Lagoa Santa "Luzia" etc.) |
PAL |
22 |
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Teita (Kenya, Africa) |
TEITA |
83 |
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Dogon (Mali, Africa) |
DOGON |
99 |
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Zulu (South Africa) |
ZULU |
101 |
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Bushmen (South Africa) |
BUSH |
90 |
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Australian aborigines (Australia) |
AUST |
101 |
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Tasmanian aborigines (Tasmania, Australia) |
TASM |
87 |
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Tolai (Melanesia) |
TOLAI |
110 |
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Buriats (East Asia) |
BURIAT |
109 |
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Inuit (Eskimo) (Alaska/Canada/Greenland) |
ESKI |
108 |
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Yauyos (Peru) |
PERU |
110 |
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Arikara (USA) |
ARIK |
69 |
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Ainu (Japan) |
AINU |
86 |
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North Japanese (Japan) |
NJAP |
87 |
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South Japanese )Japan) |
SJAP |
91 |
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Hainan (southern China) |
HAIN |
83 |
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Anyang (Taiwan) |
ANYA |
42 |
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Atayal (eastern China) |
ATAY |
47 |
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Santa Cruz (California, USA) |
SANT |
102 |
NEIGHBOURS, RELATIVES, ENEMIES
The Guaycuras
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Left is a photograph from chapter 10 of the on-line book http://www.innerexplorations.com/catsimple/guaybook.htm . There are many more excellent pictures there of the Pericu's closest relatives and northern neighbours, the Guaycuras. In August, 1892 León Diguet took a photograph of María Ignacia Melina from Loreto who was said to be 85 years old and one of the last four Guaycuras still living then. Her father had been half Guaycura, and her mother full-blooded Guaycura. |
The Guaycura were the only direct neighbours of the Pericu. Relations do not seem to have been friendly or close. The area where their tribal borders overlapped (in the La Paz area) were disputed between the two groups.
The Guaycura had contact with the Spanish, perhaps going back as far as the 1530 and for the next 200 years they had sporadic but increasing outside contact with both traders and Jesuit missionaries. The latter seem to have been fairly successful at attracting Guaycura followers. But in 1734 there was an unsuccessful revolt against the missionaries by Pericu in which some Guaycura also participated. The number of Guaycuras declined throughout the 18th century and their culture and language was virtually extinct by 1800. The intensive contact with the outside world has given us more information than we have on the Pericu.
For a list of Guaycura place names see http://www.bajacalifologia.org/english/index.htm where references for each word are also given.
For a fuller treatment of the Guaycuran language see
http://www.innerexplorations.com/catsimple/exped5.htm
and for Guaycura archaeological artefacts and remains see http://www.innerexplorations.com/catsimple/exped10.htm
The small tribe of Monquis probably first met outsiders (most likely Spaniards) in the 16th century. The Jesuits in the late 17th century concentrated their earliest and most intensive efforts on this tribe when in 1697 Juan María de Salvatierra set up a mission among the Monquis at Loreto among the Monqui - with little success. The missionaries left few notes and observations so that most of what little is known about the Monquis comes from incidental obervations of passing sailors. The Monqui were hunter-gatherers of the sea shores and they did not have pottery. They also seem to have hunted in the valleys of the Sierra Giganta. Their social organization was based on tiny autonomous local communities that competed for hunting grounds and other ressources. It is not known when the last Monqui died but their culture and people are likely to have vanished sometime during the 18th century.
Hardly anything is known of the Monqui language. It was thought that they spoke a language related to Cochimi, but a review of the evidence by Dr. Laylander in 1997 indicated that this was not so. A relationship with the Guaycura language is possible but remains unproven.
For a list of Monqui place names see http://www.bajacalifologia.org/english/index.htm where references for each word are also given.
Unlike the Pericu, Guaycura and Monqui tribes further South, the Cochimi tribal groups spoke a language (or rather, a group of dialects of a language) that is definitively related to other Amerindian languages in the Yuman family.
Jesuit missions in Cochimi territory were first set up in the south among the Monqui tribe in 1697 but spread northwards over the following decades until 1768 when the Spanish government expelled the Jesuits from the area and the Franciscans took over their missionary functions.
It does not seem likely that the Cochimi had any contact with the Pericu until the coming of the Spanish missionaries, and perhaps not even then. Linguistically, culturally and probably also genetically, they seem to have more in common with other Amerindian populations ti their north than with their southern neighbours.
The Cochimí at their first contact with western explorers were hunter-gatherers, without agriculture or metallurgy. Pottery-making may have reached the northern Cochimí before Spanish contact but this has not been definitively established. Original Cochimi material culture was well adapted to an arid environment and semi-nomadic way of life. There was no higher authority than the local community with conflicts between communities frequent. Remarkable cultural artefacts were the wooden Tablas, tablets with painted designs and/or drilled holes that were used in religious shamanic ceremonies. Some Tablas have been found in archaeological excavations during the 1970s.
The Cochimi were weakened by epidemics and their language and traditional culture became extinct at the beginning of the 20th century - but they themselves have nevertheless survived as a distinct people until today.
For a list of Monqui place names see http://www.bajacalifologia.org/english/index.htm where references for each word are also given.
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Looking down on others does seeem to be a general human trait. While hyperventilating at the very thought of others looking down on you, you yourself do not give it a second thought when putting others in their place. Here is a little sample from the Amerind Yuman tribal site, but the attitude is certainly not limited to the Yuman! The site comments on its southern neighbours on the Californian peninsula as follows: "Passing from the south to the north end of the peninsula a marked change for the better was observed. The social groups appear to have been better defined; the tribes made fine basketry and pottery, and in many other ways were further advanced. They lived in communal huts, very well constructed of cottonwood and well thatched. No better example of the power of environment to better man's condition can be found than that shown as the lower Colorado is reached" (from http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/yuman/yumanfamilyhist.htm ) |
Among web-sites with further information are:
- http://www.bajacalifologia.org/english/index.htm
- http://www.sanjosedelcaboguide.com/
- http://www.mexonline.com/bcs/todossantos-history.htm
- http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0020-7071(196601)32%3A1%3C41%3AOTHPOW%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q
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Last change 1 January 2007
