Cabécar people
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Cabécar are an indigenous group of the remote Talamanca region of eastern Costa Rica. They speak Cabécar, a language belonging to the Chibchan language family of the Isthmo-Colombian Area of lower Central America and northwestern Colombia. According to census data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Costa Rica (Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos, INEC), the Cabécar are the largest indigenous group in Costa Rica with a population of nearly 17,000.[1]
Total population | |
---|---|
17,000 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Costa Rica | |
Languages | |
Cabécar, Spanish | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Bribri |
Cabécar territory extends northwest from the Río Coen to the Río Reventazón.[2] Many Cabécar settlements today are located inside reserves established by Costa Rican law in 1976 to protect indigenous ancestral homelands.[3] These reserves exhibit ecological diversity, including vast swaths of tropical rainforest covering steep escarpments and large river valleys where many Cabécar still employ traditional subsistence livelihoods and cultural practices.