ESMERALDAN, an independent linguistic stock of South American Indians, whose name is derived from the province of Esmeraldas in Ecuador. The Esmeraldan tribes occupied the coast region extending from the Bahia de Caraques northward to the mouth of the Esmeraldas river. They are now practically ex tinct. According to the early accounts these tribes artificially deformed the head. The men wore a short poncho-like shirt to the waist, the women an apron. Nose, ears and lips were pierced and gold, emerald and turquoise ornaments were worn in them, The teeth were also inlaid with gold. The Esmeraldan tribes were sedentary, agricultural folk, raising also considerable cotton, which they wove into excellent cloth. Pottery was made, and they used both dug-out canoes and log rafts in coastwise trade. Their houses had reed walls, thatched roofs, and were grouped in large villages. They had special religious structures, in which were images. Child sacrifice was in use, the bodies being afterward flayed, the skin stuffed with straw and set up in their temples. The archaeological remains in this area, of which brief preliminary reports only have been made, suggest strongly an early cultural association of some sort with Central America.
See M. H. Saville, Antiquities of Manabi (Contributions to South American Archaeology, vols. I., II., Mus. Amer. Indian, New York City) R. Vernau and P. Rivet Ethnographie ancienne de l'Equateur (1912).