COCONUCAN, a linguistic stock or sub-stock of South American Indians, so called from the Coconucos, its best known tribe. The Coconucan tribes lived on the western slopes of the Cordillera Central, east of Popayan in southern Colombia. Al though formerly regarded as an independent linguistic stock, Rivet believes the languages of these tribes to be related to the Chibchan (q.v.). The Coconucos were a sedentary, agricultural people, warlike in character, and apparently of the same general level of culture as the neighbouring Chibchan tribes. Apart from scanty references in the early chronicles, little is known concerning the group.
See H. Beuchat and P. Rivet, Af nites des langues du sud de la Colombie et du nord de l'Equateur (Museon, 191o, vol. xi.) .