Ethnography of Argentina
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The ethnography of Argentina is somewhat peculiar and distinct from that of other countries in South America. Most Argentine people have ancestors that are from Europe (95% of total population)[1], in contrast to the citizens of the other countries in South America.
The National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina performed the first Native America census in Argentina, named Encuesta Complementaria de Pueblos Indígenas (ECPI) 2004 - 2005 (Complementary Census of Indigenous Peoples) [2]. The census was complementary to those of the 2001 census [INDEC], and its results were released in June 2005. There were 318,683 persons that claimed belonging to or being descendants of the first generation of an aboriginal group. Given the census of homes of 2001 and the 2005 complementary ECPI, it turns out that 2.8% of Argentine homes host at least one member that acknowledges belonging to an aboriginal group.
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[edit] The arrival of the European immigrants
- See also: Immigration in Argentina
The number and composition of the population was stable until 1853, when the national government, after passing a constitution, started a campaign to attract European immigration to populate the country. This state policy lasted several decades. At first the number of immigrants was scarce, but in the 1870s, due to the economic crisis in Europe, it started to increase, reaching an extremely high rate between 1890 and 1930. Unofficial records show that, during the 1860s, 160,000 immigrants arrived to Argentina, while in the 1880s the number increased to 841,000, almost doubling the population of the country in that decade. Between 1857 and 1940 6,611,000 of Europeans immigrants arrived to Argentina.
Most of these immigrants were largely from Italy and Spain, and in lesser number from United Kingdom, France (mainly Occitania), Germany and Switzerland. Contingents also arrived from Russia, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine and Poland (mostly Jews), Volga Germans, Libya, Syria, Armenia, Portugal, Greece, Ireland, Wales, Gypsy, Netherlands (mainly from Frisia), Belgium, Japan (mainly Okinawa), Cape Verde, Boers, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway and Sikhs.
In general it can be said that the Spanish and Italian immigrants were mostly unqualified peasants with little education, while those from northern Europe had professional qualifications, a certain grade of instruction, and some capital to invest in agriculture or industry.
[edit] Race mixing in Latin America and Argentina
The mixture of Native Americans and Europeans started with the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the Americas. The descendants of the mixture of Europeans and aboriginals are often referred as criollos, though the meaning of the term varies according to the region and time. Argentina, as a Spanish colony for over three centuries, experienced this phenomenon between the 16th and the 19th century.
At the time of the May Revolution of 1810, most of the population of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was mixed, including several gauchos and some black slaves, with a European minority. Until the last part of the 19th century there were on the Argentine territory several aboriginal groups, most of them isolated from the main population centres, in regions such as the Chaco, western Pampas, the Altiplano and Patagonia, but the demographic density of these territories (in which the aboriginal element was dominant) was extremely low — less than one inhabitant per km².
Nevertheless, the Viceroyalty had a small population, even in comparison with other colonial Spanish administrations of the epoch, such as the Viceroyalty of Peru. The population of the territories of present-day Argentina was of a few hundred of thousands, much less than that of present-day Chile, Paraguay and Bolivia.
[edit] Mestizos of preponderant aboriginal features
This mestizo composition is clear in some sectors of lower classes throughout the Argentine territory. In the country exist more than 750,000 of persons with Bolivian origins, whose composition is 90% native, and a similar number of Paraguayan origin, with a clearly mestizo composition. It's common to observe the ethnic dichotomy in the beggars of the city of Buenos Aires as an example. In the sectors of higher resources the mestizo population is a minority, and its not uncommon to hear pejorative comment for someone of non-European features.
Finally, there is also a strong social categorisation that connects the mestizo dark skin with the poverty, analphabetism and crime. From 3% to 10% of the Argentinian population is mixed.
[edit] Purely aboriginal inhabitants
There are Amerindian Tobas, Aymaras, Guaraníes and Mapuches among the most important groups that still maintain their cultural roots, but under a continuous pressure of religious and idiomatic integration. The local natives that speak Quechua adopted that language by the teachings of the religious missions that arrived from Peru to the Santiago del Estero Province; the language is quickly losing importance. In the Argentinian Territory thare are about 400.000 indigenous people, who represent the 1% of the population.
[edit] The absorption of the black race
During the colonial times a third of the population was of black race, most of them slaves brought from Africa to work for the criollos.
In 1813 the Freedom of Wombs Law was passed, nominally freeing all slaves within the Argentine territory, but during the following wars of independence many black citizens were forcefully recruited and used as front-line soldiers. This drastically reduced the male population of this ethnical group, which did not remain pure.
In 1871 an epidemic of yellow fever that fell over Buenos Aires seriously affected the lower class neighbourhoods of the city, where most of the remaining black individuals lived, reducing their number even further.
By 1880 there were still some thousands of black inhabitants (mostly women) in Argentina. Many of these had children with newcomers from Spain and Italy, but individuals of European origin being so many in comparison with those of African ancestry, the former soon became genetically dominant.
A recent study determined that almost 1.5% of the Argentine population had at least one ancestor of black race. Still, this genetical contribution is so small that is very difficult for a phenotypic manifestation to emerge in the current Argentine population.
[edit] Asiatic immigration
From the middle of the 20th century immigration from Asiatic countries started to arrive to the country. The first wave from Japan, specially from the island of Okinawa. During the 1970s the main Asiatic influx was from China, and during the 1990s from South Korea and Laos. Unlike the immigration of early century, they tended to keep in closed social circles and not mix with other local ethnic groups, even though the Japanese, who were the first to arrive to the country, and therefore with a second generation of Japanese-Argentines, have mixed much more than the other Asiatic groups.
[edit] Immigration from neighbouring countries
Among the most numerous immigrations from neighbouring countries are the Paraguayan (the biggest foreign community), Bolivian, Peruvian and Chileans, and in lesser number Ecuadorians and Brazilians. There have been reports of discrimination to there groups, as well as exploitation; Buenos Aires Police has released Bolivian citizens held in semi-slavery working in textile industry, some run by South Korean immigrants.
Uruguay represents a special case; many have crossed the Río de la Plata to live in Argentina, mainly in Buenos Aires, searching for opportunities in the bigger country. Given their cultural and ethnical resemblance with the porteños, they are rarely discriminated against.
[edit] See also
- Demographics of Argentina
- Immigration in Argentina
- Native languages of Argentina
- History of the Jews in Argentina
