The Changing Kichwa Language Map in Ecuador (original) (raw)

Indigenous populations in Latin America, the Andes, and Ecuador in particular have been subjected to colonization, extermination, relocation, and forced and “voluntary” acculturation for five centuries. The resulting geographic pat- terns of cultural traits, including languages, are still poorly understood, in part due to lack of good contemporary and historical data and in part due to at least occasional prioritization of class and ethnic identity over cultural practices such as language by scholars and census takers. Using Ecuador as a case example, this chapter discusses some of the history of attempts to map the Kichwa language and presents four contrasting maps based on 1950 and 2010 census data.