Chibchas (or Muyscas).—Next to the Quichuas of Peru and the Aymaras in Bolivia, the Chibchas of the eastern and north-eastern Highlands of Colombia were the most striking of the sedentary Indians in South America. At present they have ceased to form autonomous tribes and are practically extinct. In the beginning of the sixteenth century they occupied what is now the departments of Boyacd and Cundinamarca with, possibly, a few outlying settlements. The extent of territory indicated was only that of the tribes to which the name “Chibchas” is specially applied. The linguistic stock was scattered over a greater area, and indications even authorize philologists to admit as highly probable a connexion between the Chibcha dialects and some of the idioms of Costa Rica. Whence the Chibchas came is not established; indications seem to favour the North rather than the South. Their traditions allude to the appearance among them, untold ages ago, of two (or three) powerful men (possibly Shamans) who performed miracles and attempted to teach the Indians a different mode of life. It is not quite clear whether the names “Bochica”, “Nemthequeba”, and “Zuhé” apply to one or several personages. Bochica, however, appears most frequently in Chibcha folk-lore, and is represented as an old man who came to Cundinamarca from the eastern plains of Venezuela and lived for a fabulous length of time at Sogamoso on the plateau of Bogota.
The creed of the Muysca was the pantheistic fetishism of American aborigines in general. Human sacrifices were not uncommon, but most of the offerings consisted of gold, emeralds, and fruits of the field. Shamans, or Zeques, were numerous, and acted as medicine men, diviners, oracles. The Chibchas lived in villages, the houses being mostly circular, and of wood and thatch. In 1571 the population was approximately given at 150,000 souls. At the head of each tribe stood the usual council, guided by the oracular utterances of the leading Shamans, while an elective war-chief (Uzaque) represented the executive. The clan system prevailed. Agriculture, the gathering of salt, limited hunting, and war—with their neighbours and among themselves—were the chief occupations. In certain cases plurality of wives was licit. Traditional lore leads to the inference that, until the second half of the fifteenth century, the tribe of Tunja was the most powerful one of the Chibchas. About 1470 the Indians of Bogota rose, and when Gonzalo Ximénez de Quesada began the exploration of the mountains in 1536, the Indians led by the Zippa, or war-chief of Muequeta, had to be encountered. By 1538 the Chibchas were virtually conquered, and considerable wealth in gold and emeralds was secured by the Spaniards at Tunja. Subsequent attempts at revolt on the part of the Chibchas proved ineffectual.
A short mention (from early hearsay) of the Chibchas is found in Anpacoya, Relacion de los sweesos de Pedrarias Dévila in Navarretk, Coleccion (Madrid, 1829); tr. in Hackluyt Society Publications (1865), XXXIV. Report of conquests by Lesprixa and Juan pe San Martin in Oviedo, Hist. general y natural (Madrid, 1850), who also gives data obtained by him from Quesada. Important is Pedro Simon, Noticias hist. de las Cong. de Tierra firme, sections relative to Chibchas unpublished; Bishop Piedrahita (Antwerp, 1688). The same may be said of Castellanos, Elegias (see Castellanos). Accessible, though very rare, is Zamora, Hist. de la prouincia de San Antonio del Nuevo Reyno de Granada (Barcelona, 1701). Gomara and especially Herrera have second-hand information on the tribes. Also second hand, but valuable, are the data in Léprz pr Velasco, Geografia y Descrip. univ. de las Indias (written 1571-1574; published Madrid, 1894).—Among later works see Humpoup?, Vues des Cordilléres etc. (Paris, 1816) and Relation historique (Paris, 1816-1822); Uricopcuna, Memoria sobre las Antigiiedades neo-granadinas (Berlin, 1854); Joaquin Acosta, Compendio historico (Paris, 1848); Botuanrr, Antiquarian, Ethnological, and other Researches (London, 1860). On the Chibcha language, FRAY Brernarpo pr Luao, Gramdtica en la Lengua general del nuevo reyno llamada Mosca (Madrid, 1619); Raranu Criepon, Gramdtica de la Lengua Kéggaba in Bib. Ling. américaine; Unie, Compte rendu du Congres international des Ameéricanistes (1888); Brinton, The American Race (Philadelphia, 1891); Tmernaux Compans, Essai sur l’ancien Cundinamarca (Paris). Important, but very rare, is Ocariz, Genealogias del nuevo Reyno de Granada (Madrid, 1874-6), only the first two parts printed.
Ad. F. Bandelier.