ABSTRACT
In order to understand the contemporary character and distribution of Indian populations in Latin America, it is necessary to know something about the nature of indigenous societies at the time of European discovery. A moment's reflection about the areas occupied by three major culture types suggests that these regions are still characterized by distinctive populations today. Elman Service has dubbed these areas Euro-America, Mestizo-America, and Indo-America, respectively. This chapter provides the distribution of the Amerindian population in Latin America according to the latest more or less complete data readily available, which range from 2000 to 2007. In Euro-America and Afro-America, the indigenous population generally accounts for one percent or less of the total population. Many Indians are known to reside in Latin American cities, but obtaining a reliable estimate of their numbers is nearly impossible. To judge from the available figures, more than 200,000 Indians are probably urban dwellers in Mestizo-America.
