History of Latin American Dermatology

ROBERTO RAMPOLDI BESTARDOn our territory the existence of man dates back approximately 10,000 years. This discoverywas carried out by the archeologist Tadei, who in 1955 found large workshop-fields,in the north of our territory, of what Daniel Vidart called the “Catalanensian culture.” Theyinhabited the area without spreading far, because it is rich in flora and fauna. Thesegroups, which constitute our prehistory, were low-level gatherers and huntersAfterwards there were other incursions by diverse cultures until, some 3,500 yearsago, the Charrúa are though to have arrived from Patagonia 12, 21, 23, 24, 25 .According to the research, in the years of the Discovery of America, Uruguay was inhabitedby some thousands of Indians — Charrúa, Chaná, Guenoa, Minuane, Yaro, Bohane,Guaraní and Arachan — and their territory extended to Brazil and Argentina. Weshall briefly describe their origin and the differences between the diverse tribes.The Charrúa, Guenoa, Chaná and Minuane constituted the Charrúa macro-ethnicitywith similar origin and linguistic roots. They occupied the territories of the coast of thePlate and central and northern Uruguay. The Minuane spread as far as the Río Grandeand the Charrúa and Chaná up to Argentine Mesopotamian region. The Charrúa wereracially Patagonian (Chonick), a characteristic American branch of the plains with stronganalogies with many customs of the Tehuelche, including the language. According to SerafínCordero, the arrival of the Charrúa is believed to be determined by the identifyingmark of the Neolithic, the bow and arrow.In addition to the theory that maintains that American man reached the continentacross the Bering Strait (Mongoloids), there is another, widely accepted one, developedby Rivet 11 , who maintains that the Patagonian race is of Australian origin; there aresome 70 similar words between Tehuelche and Australian languages. Goebner andSchmidt found certain ethnographic similarities between the Indians of Tierra del Fuegoand Australian Aborigines: the height and skin color of the Patagonians is similar to thatof the Australians and not to that of the Mongoloids. What Rivet does not explain clearlyis how they arrived, given the distance separating them across the ocean 26 .The Yaro and Bohane are tribes that arrived in our territory before the Charrúa, approximately6,000 years ago, slipping across the Amazon basin along the torrents, descendingfrom the Andean mountain range. They arrived along the Paraná and Uruguayrivers and settled in our territory and in the Argentine Mesopotamia. The testimony ofSepp (1691) describes their anthropological features and customs; Félix de Azara establishesthat their language was totally different from that of the rest of the Indians of theregion 25-27 .After the settlement of the Charrúa coming from Patagonia, approximately 2,000years ago there was an inflow of tropical races — Guaraní and Tupí-Guaraní — belongingto the Carib family, a word etymologically linked to “cannibal.” They filled vast territoriesfrom the Guianas to the Plate. In our region the Guaraní settled along the coast ofUruguay and on its islands and the Tupí-Guaraní in northwestern Uruguay (Arachan).Before the conquest, the Guaraní expansion took place, surrounding the territory settledby the Charrúa; exchanges of merchandise and intercommunications were frequentbetween the two groups. The influence of the language and culture of the former graduallyspread among the Charrúa tribes that settled on the tribal borders; thus, many ofthe names of Charrúa chiefs left to us in the narratives of chroniclers and travelers alreadyhad a Guaraní form before the conquest. This situation increased after the Conquest,and their tribes were shifted inland thus increasing their links with theGuaraní-Tape.After the Discovery the Tupí-Guaraní totally invaded our territory. Their cultural influenceover 200 years had the result of the disappearance of the Charrúa language; theJesuit missionaries, who used the Guaraní language to impose their religion, contributedto consolidate this predominance. Researchers rescued a little over 70 words of the Charrúalanguage from oblivion. In 1831, after the ambush at Salsipuedes, the survivors were394