Mojeños
Ethnic group / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mojeños, also known as Moxeños, Moxos, or Mojos, are an indigenous people of Bolivia. They live in south central Beni Department,[2] on both banks of the Mamore River, and on the marshy plains to its west, known as the Llanos de Mojos. The Mamore is a tributary to the Madeira River in northern Bolivia.
Total population | |
---|---|
42,093 (2012)[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Bolivia ( Beni) | |
Languages | |
Mojeño, Spanish[2] | |
Religion | |
Roman Catholicism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Trinitario |
Mojeños were traditionally hunter-gatherers, as well as farmers and pastoralists.[2] Jesuit missionaries established towns in the Mojos plains beginning in 1682, converting native peoples to Catholicism and establishing a system of social organization that would endure well beyond the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767.[3] Mojeño ethnic identification derives from a process of ethnogenesis as a result of this encounter between a number of pre-existing ethnic groups in this mission environment. This process occurred in several different mission towns, resulting in distinct Mojeño identities, including Mojeño-Trinitarios (Trinidad mission), Mojeño-Loretanos (Loreto mission), Mojeño-Javerianos, and Mojeño-Ignacianos (San Ignacio de Moxos mission).[4] They numbered some 30,000 in the first decade of the 20th century. Many Mojeño communities are affiliated with the Central de Pueblos Indígenas del Beni and/or the Central de Pueblos Étnicos Mojeños del Beni.[4]