- Promaucaes
Promaucaes, Promaucas or Purumaucas (
quechua > puruma auca); pre-ColumbianMapuche tribal group that lived in the present territory ofChile , south of theMaipo River basin ofSantiago, Chile and theItata River , (those to the north were called "Quillotanes" [ Juan Ignacio Molina, Compendio de la historia civil del reyno de Chile, pg. 9. Named forQuillota , one of the settlements of theInca Empire in Chile.] and "Mapochoes " by the Spanish). They were speakers ofmapudungun like theMoluche to the south and part of thePicunche tribal grouping that lived north of the Itata River.The Incas named all the populations that were not under their empire "puruma auca". As a result of the victory of these Picunche tribes over the
Inca Empire in theBattle of the Maule they acquired this distinctive name. The Spanish later corrupted the name into "purumaucas" or "promaucaes". Thus their region became known by the early Spanish in Chile as the province of Promaucae and its inhabitants were called "promaucaes".Among the peoples the Spanish called the Promaucaes the people of the
Rapel River valley were particularly called by this name by the Spanish [ Juan Ignacio Molina, Compendio de la historia civil del reyno de Chile, pg. 9. ] . Those of theMataquito River valley were called the "Cures", for which the province ofCurico is named [ Juan Ignacio Molina, Compendio de la historia civil del reyno de Chile, pg. 9. ] . The people in theMaule 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 [ Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Comentarios reales, 2da_VII_20 20 ] or "Cauquenes " [ Juan Ignacio Molina, Compendio de la historia civil del reyno de Chile, pg. 9. ] that gave their name toCauquenes River .References
Source
*
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega , [http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Comentarios_reales Comentarios reales] , Segunda Parte : Libro VII, Cap. [http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Comentarios_reales_:_2da_VII_19 19] , [http://es.wikisource.org/wiki/Comentarios_reales_:_2da_VII_20 20] .
*Juan Ignacio Molina [http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/FichaObra.html?Ref=27011 Compendio de la historia civil del reyno de Chile]
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