Plantas y hierbas de los callahuayas: una aproximación etimológica

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the Callahuaya herbalists and the denomination practice of the plants used by them; the latter will be approached from an etymological angle. Two questions are important for this:(i) Are the professional contacts of the herbalists reflected in the Callahuaya lexicon?(ii) Can we say something on the nature of these contacts?Three parameters have been considered for the etymological research and the successive investigation of the Callahuayas’ contacts:(i) etymology itself, comparing the Callahuaya denomination with Quechua, Aymara, and Spanish;(ii) the altitude;(iii) the origin of the species (native vs. non-native).The results show that the Callahuaya herbalists collected the majority of the plants not in their home area, the high altitudes of Bolivia, but below that, in an altitude between 800 and 3,500 metres, with a clear focus on the altitude level between 800 and 2,800 metres. Furthermore, there is evidence that the Callahuayas travelled to the lowlands, located between 0 and 800 metres of altitude. These findings confirm that there have been regular contacts between the home area of the Callahuayas and the lowland regions, in which the herbalists had a professional interest.

Keywords

• Callahuaya
• etimología
• denominación vegetal
• piso altitudinal
• contactos lingüísticos