Situated at the junction of the lowlands and the highlands, the Yurakaré represent a group without affiliation, not only at the linguistic level. Even though their socio-cultural profile and their general economy make them a lowland Amazonian people, it is difficult to group them with any of their eastern neighbors, or to fit them into a regionally well-defined group.

The Yurakaré have been mentioned by their current name in the historical sources since the end of the sixteenth century . The available sources of the 16th century and the archeological vestiges from the area allow us to make some statements about the situation of the Yurakaré before the arrival of the Spaniards (cf. Sánchez 2003). The earliest historical period in which we can situate the Yurakaré (the end of the 15th century) is characterized by two major social processes: on the one hand the territorial expansion of the Inca empire Tawantinsuyu in the Andes, stretching towards the lowlands, and on the other hand the migrations of the Guaraní, coming from the Paraná basin, and giving rise to the ethnogenesis of the Chiriguanos.

Continue Reading: http://www.mpi.nl/DOBES/projects/yurakare/people