The Asháninka or Asháninca are an Indigenous people living in the rainforests in the regions of Junín, Pasco, Huanuco, and Ucayali in Peru, and in the State of Acre in Brazil. Their ancestral lands are in the forests of Junín, Pasco, Huánuco and part of Ucayali in Peru.

The Asháninka are estimated between 25,000 and 100,000, although others give 88,000 to almost 100,000. Only little more than a thousand of them live on the Brazilian side of the border. The Ashaninka communities are scattered throughout the central rainforests of Peru in the provinces of Junin, Pasco, Huanuco, a part of Ucayali, and the Brazilian state of Acre.

The Asháninka are mostly dependent on subsistence agriculture. They use the slash-and-burn method to clear lands and to plant yucca roots, sweet potato, corn, bananas, rice, coffee, cacao and sugar cane in biodiversity-friendly techniques. They live from hunting and fishing, primarily using bows and arrows or spears, as well as from collecting fruit and vegetables in the jungle.

The Asháninka were known by the Incas as Anti or Campa. The Antis, who gave their name to the Inca province of Antisuyu, were notorious for their fierce independence, and their warlike skills in successfully protecting their land and culture against intrusion from outsiders.

Ashanínka tribal societies have faced overwhelming obstacles in disputes over territory and culture against the immigrating Spanish culture and neighboring tribal societies. Biodiversity is the establishment of the Ashanínka way of life, so they treat this biodiversity hotspot as their natural capital. Beginning in AD 1542, the European settlers pushed to overtake the natural resources. In June 2010, however, the Brazilian and Peruvian governments signed an energy agreement that allows Brazilian companies to build a series of large dams in the Brazilian, Peruvian, and Bolivian Amazon. The problem with the 2,000-megawatt Pakitzapango Dam is that it has a permanent location that is proposed to be located in the heart of Peru's Ene valley and could displace as many as 10,000 Ashanínka. These encroaching problems have not only extremely changed the generational culture of the Ashanínka tribal societies, but has also changed landscape of what we call modern-day Peru. Asháninka activists have defended indigenous rights and territories, including Luzmila Chiricente Mahuanca.

The Asháninka are known historically to be fiercely independent, and were noted for their "bravery and independence" by the Spanish conquistadors. They resisted with some success missionary endeavors by Roman Catholic missionaries from the 17th to 19th centuries, especially near the Cerro de la Sal (Salt Mountain) and the Gran Pajonal (Great Grassland) in the central part of the Amazon basin in Peru. During the rubber boom (1839–1913), the Asháninka were enslaved by rubber tappers and an estimated 70% of the Asháninka population was killed. The rubber enterprise founded by Carlos Fitzcarrald killed many Asháninka people during the rubber boom and enslaved the Asháninka which would not voluntarily extract rubber for Fitzcarrald.

In 1914, there was an Asháninka rebellion against the settlers, missionaries and rubber tappers in the Pichis area and the latter group was evicted from the region by this rebellion. While describing the suppression of this rebellion, anthropologist Stefano Varese wrote: "The government responded to these attacks by sending repressive military missions, but these were demonstrations of sovereignty and authority more than a true interest in retaking the lost rich rubber lands."

For over a century, there has been encroachment onto Asháninka land from rubber tappers, loggers, Maoist guerrillas, drug traffickers, colonists, and oil companies.