Presencia de un ayllu de camanchacas en el puerto de Iquique en el siglo XVII

Abstract

The present ethnohistorical study analyses documentary references obtained from ecclesiastic books from the late 17^th century, which belong to the Parish of San Lorenzo de Tarapaca. Between 1686 and 1699 the presence of an indigenous camanchaca ayllu is mentioned. They were mostly fishermen and guano collectors at the Ique-ique island (Iquique). The reasons that the visiting priest of the port could have to denominate the community of fisherman settled on the island of the guano as an ayllu are discussed and analysed. Priests were requested by Church authorities to baptise and write down the respective baptismal annotation of the recent born children at the moment of their periodical visits. It is here suggested that the majority of the Indian surnames quoted in text would belong to an ethnic group different from aimara, maybe from an old fishermen population. The community itself, probably did not defined themselves as ayllu, but such denomination was probably used by the local priests, due to the strong social organisational similarity with already existing inland or highland agricultural or pastoral hamlets [estancias]. In any case, this document offers us the first mention referring to a camanchaca ayllu in the history of extreme Northern Chile.