Culturas indígenas de la región andina - Indian cultures of the Andean region

The A ndean region is an autonomous and well delimited geographical region of Latin America, but from a cultural geographical point of view it is not concerned as a completely homogeneous territory. The physical geography given by the chains of the Andean mountains was the common basis for several civilizations and cultures of different levels of development and different extensions in time and in space appeared there during thousands of years. Most of them – not without reference to the arrival of the Europeans – completely or partially disappeared. However some elements of their cultures are taking part of the actual mestic reality that is in continuous changing nowadays too. At the same time the natives living today in the Andean region, from the Guajira Peninsula to the Tierra del Fuego, belong to dozens of etnical groups and aproximately 10-15 million people among all Indians of Latin America live in this region.