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Ayvu Rapyta, the set of mythico-poetic texts of the Guarani Mbyá tradition, is a masterpiece for the understanding of Amerindian cosmologies, and its translations (including that of Pierre Clastres in Le grand parler) have given rise to enormous interpretative divergences. We present here a new French translation of one of these texts, along with an analytical-interpretive commentary, in order to highlight the interweaving of its poetic and anthropological aspects.

In the pluriethnic and plurilinguistic territories of the Spanish empire, translating from Indigenous languages to Spanish in legal and bureaucratic contexts was common, but few have studied the varied processes of translation. Colonial Paraguay presents an interesting case study in translation given the extensive bilingualism among many creole Spaniards and monolingualism among most Guaraní peoples. In this article, I review three translation types: translation with no-translation, suspect translations, and a summary-translation. Each example reflects the varied modes of translation in the region, the politics of translation, and the ways that translations complement a cultural analysis of accompanying Guaraní-language texts. I include an original translation of a 1761 Guaraní-authored letter from the Nuestra Señora de Fe mission town and its summary-translation.

This article examines the wild-domesticated semantic field of colonial Guaraní, based on the vocabularies of Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (17th century) and Pablo Restivo (18th century). The progressive stabilization of the modern dichotomy of nature and culture is connected with the organization of the productive activities of the Jesuit missions from the Río de la Plata (in the region of Paraguay, Misiones at Argentina, southern Brazil and Uruguay), pointing out the incomplete nature of the domestication process. The analysis of the language applied to the words and phrases corresponding to the wild and domesticated poles allowed us to identify the forms of actions related to the links between humans, animals and plants.

Este artículo analiza el trabajo de Xavier Albó con los guaraní del Chaco boliviano, enfocándose en textos icónicos durante tres momentos importantes de la historia guaraní. Sostengo que al documentar las estructuras de la economía política y la historia bajo las cuales han vivido los guaraní, al igual que sus recursos culturales, el trabajo de Albó contribuye a los debates actuales en antropología sobre la naturaleza construida, fluida y dinámica de la identidad cultural y su relación con el poder y la dominación. Su trabajo académico comprometido estableción las bases para un conocimiento que contribuyó con propuestas concretas para el cambio político, a las que llamo “construcción de mundos,” basadas en nociones de autonomía y auto-determinación culturalmente significativas. Hoy en día, el trabajo de Albó sirve como un valioso modelo de investigación académica comprometida.

Este artículo indaga en las formas de socialidad guaraní, humana y no-humana, en la región multiétnica del Ramal de la provincia de Jujuy (noroeste argentino). Específicamente, tiene por objetivo dar cuenta de la fluidez de los límites socioétnicos que distinguen «lo guaraní» de lo que no lo es y la porosidad de los límites ontológicos que separan conjuntos humanos de otros no-humanos. En este texto, postulo la existencia de dos tipos de excesos de lo guaraní en la región que dificultan su encasillamiento y definición. El primero es de orden sociológico en sentido estricto y alude a la imposibilidad de delimitar la identidad guaraní dentro de las comunidades y en función de las personas que explícitamente se identifican como guaraníes. Es preciso ampliar lo guaraní hacia la población local mestiza, de «sangre entreverada» y guaranizada. El segundo exceso es de orden ontológico y se refiere a la ampliación de los lazos de socialidad hacia los pueblos no-humanos donde habitan los antepasados guaraníes, devenidos dueños protectores de entidades delentorno.

Este artículo analiza, desde una perspectiva sociolingüística, representaciones en torno al guaraní manifiestas en distintos discursos públicos enunciados entre 2004y 2017. El corpus reúne entrevistas a funcionarios públicos, encuestas a ciudadanos correntinos (hablantes y no hablantes de guaraní), así como también artículos periodísticos y notas de opinión publicadas en distintos medios gráficos de la región y de Corrientes.En esta muestra heterogénea se observan representaciones contradictorias sobre el guaraní que permiten cuestionar las políticas lingüísticas previas de castellanización. La estrategia de contraposición permite cuestionar y resignificar las representaciones estigmatizantes, adjudicadas al pasado, configurando un nuevo ideal: el guaraní como parte esencial de la identidad correntina. Esta nueva representación permite construir un contradiscurso hegemónico a favor del rescate y promoción de esta lengua y también legitimar el proyecto de oficialización del guaraní, inicio de una nueva política lingüística y educativa.

Como analisado na literatura etnológica recente, a guerra do Chaco (Bolívia/Paraguai 1932-1935) foi o disparador de uma série de deslocamentos espaciais que reconfiguraram o mapa étnico da região. Este artigo se refere, inicialmente, aos deslocamentos que levaram os Guarani e Isoseño da Bolívia ao Chaco boreal paraguaio e descreve, na sequência, a formação das cinco comunidades guarani que existem atualmente na área. Logo, trata de alguns aspectos da sociabilidade dos Guarani do Chaco boreal paraguaio por meio da reflexão sobre o lugar do ritual na sua história e vida social. Através de uma análise que interpreta o rito – e, com ele, a arte indígena – na sua performatividade, argumenta-se que o ritual opera aqui como um dispositivo fundamental para transformar o espaço chaquenho num lugar guarani.

Este artigo propõe uma reflexão a respeito de alguns aspectos presentes na cosmologia guarani que se referem à vida e ao tempo. A partir das falas e reflexões de alguns pensadores guarani – em sua maioria anciãos e pajés - podemos vislumbrar a existência de uma estratégia para a duração cuja invenção e/ou descoberta é remetida a Nhanderu Tenonde, principal divindade do cosmos guarani. Tal estratégia tem como ponto nodal a alternância entre tempos (dia/noite e tempo velho/tempo novo - ou ara yma/ara pyau) e espaços (opy/oka – casa de reza/pátio), operada pelos movimentos de coisas, palavras e pessoas – a troca – que seguem certos padrões estéticos – a linha e o círculo – e que replicam posições relacionais específicas – “em frente” e “na frente”; ela expressa a relação entre dois processos de transformação mutuamente implicados: mbo-jera (o florescimento) e aguyje (a renovação).

The article presents a review of the scene of Paraguayan Literature around the hinge date of February, 3th. 1989. It is when the long dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner ends and new scenery begins for Paraguayan society and culture. In order to offer a representative panorama of this period, I will approach here some concrete examples of the changes that take place in the intellectual field. Firstly, I will develop two of the measures taken by the Paraguayan State during the first years of democracy: the creation of the National Prize for Literature and the recognition of Guarani as official language. Secondly, I will approach the new literary aesthetics that occur in parallel and that have in common the literary and "modernizing" use of Guaraní.

Amerindian general languages were modern/colonial languages through which modern/colonial guaraní subjects were forged and expressed. Early transcriptions of political speeches in tupí-guaraní made by missionaries (XVI-XVII centuries), as well as letters written by indigenous mission authorities (XVIII-XIX centuries), allow for analysing their vocabularies, plots, and styles. Although the words are the same, their significance effects and their translation equivalences varied regarding texts and contexts. Even if arguments (ratio) changed, several traditional verbal arts (oratio) were reinvented in colonial contexts. Within missions, indigenous political authorities, familiarized with catholic and royal arguments and vocabularies, developed their oral and written eloquence in Cabildos (spaces dedicated to politics), while Jesuits incorporated some of the formal tupí-guaraní verbal arts features in their sermons.

Neste artigo procedo a uma reflexão sobre as práticas corporais mbya guarani que mobilizam a dança e sua relação com a alteridade. Diferencio alguns contextos específicos em que se dança de distintas maneiras, tais como, a opy (casa de reza), as apresentações de corais e danças de xondaro, e os bailes de forró, espaços que mobilizam aldeias e relações entre aldeias. Penso a centralidade de tais práticas nas vidas mbya; meu foco de análise toma tais espaços como arenas das relações com diversos outros, tema central da experiência xamânica.

Durante siglos, parte del mundo letrado estuvo atento a las opiniones de los blancos sobre el pensamiento y las acciones de los guaraní ; eran tiempos exclusivos de la antropología sobre el Otro. En la actualidad, se pretende dar cuenta también de la antropología del Otro sobre nosotros. A fin de mostrar ambas caras, en este artículo se confrontan voces autorizadas de blancos que escribieron sobre los guaraní , con otras de los mbyá-guaraní que hablaron sobre su cultura y la de los blancos. El eje escogido es la figura de Tupã , de cuyo nombre se apropiaron los evangelizadores coloniales para construir su discurso monoteísta. En este juego de alteridades, se analiza primero la infausta "vida literaria" del personaje para luego oír voces de los aún damnificados por ese hecho histórico. Esta confrontación, además de revelar inconsistencias prejuiciosas en algunos escritos y estrategias guaraní para proteger su politeísmo, permite apreciar la magnitud de la violencia simbólica ínsita en la evangelización.Durante séculos, parte do mundo letrado esteve atento às opiniões dos brancos sobre o pensamento e as ações dos guarani; eram tempos exclusivos da antropologia sobre o Outro. No presente, pretende-se dar conta também da antropologia do Outro sobre nós mesmos. Com o objetivo de mostrar essas duas faces, confrontam-se neste artigo vozes autorizadas de brancos que escreveram sobre os guarani com vozes outras dos mbyá-guarani que falaram sobre a sua cultura e a dos brancos. O eixo escolhido é a figura do Tupã, nome que foi apropriado pelos evangelizadores coloniais para construírem seu discurso monoteísta. Em este jogo de alteridades, será analisada, primeiro, a desventurada "vida literária" da personagem, para depois ouvir vozes dos ainda danificados por aquele fato histórico. Este confronto, além de revelar inconsistências preconceituosas em alguns escritos e estratégias guarani protegendo o seu politeísmo, permite avaliar a magnitude da violência simbólica implicada na evangelização.For centuries, a part of the cultured world heeded the White man views on the Guaraní thoughts and behavior -those were the exclusive times of Anthropology of the Other. Nowadays there are attempts to do Anthropology of the Other on ourselves. In order to show both sides of this issue, this paper compares the voices of some White scholars who wrote about the Guaraní with some of the Mbyá-guaraní talking about their own and the White man culture. The topic in question is the figure of Tupã , whose name was appropriated by the colonial missionaries to build their monotheistic discourse. In this interplay of alterity, we analyze first the pernicious "literary life" of this character, followed by the voices of those still hurting from this historic event. This confrontation reveals both the biased inconsistencies of some Guaraní writings and strategies to protect their polytheism, and the magnitude of the symbolic violence intrinsic to the Evangelization process.

Dialogos en guarani is the spanish title embossed on the spine label of a beautifully bound, gilt-edged monolingual guarani manuscript of 283 pages and 88 chapter headlines. This perfectly well kept manuscript has been identified by ANR LANGAS project team in a library of Luján (Argentina) in may 2013, and digitalized in November 2014. Without any mention of author nor date, written by different hands, its origin, objectives and uses arise several hypothesis. Its paper, ink, calligraphies and orthography drive us to date it at the beginning of XVIII century, a period of economical and cultural apogee within the Jesuit reductions in Paraguay (1609-1767). This article briefly draws up the trajectory of the manuscript, places it within the whole of the corpus known at this stage, and compares it with a partial copy of the same text, made in Germany in XIX century. Together with the translation of a few excerpts, we intend to present new research perspectives open by this document and that should be explored by LANGAS team in the coming years.

The present article addresses a document about the Guaraní language published in the newspaper El Progreso in Mercedes, Corrientes, in 1906. In it, Kupalov, the author’s pen-name, criticizes an article by Volapuk published in the same newspaper, in which Guaraní is related to different disparaging features. The text analyzed consists of a number of arguments against Volapuk’s assumptions. We have identified a number of aspects depicted in the document which characterize the sociolinguistic situation at that time. Such aspects are similar to those we have stated as features of the Guaraní prohibition discourse a hundred years later in the ethnographic study “Entiendo pero no hablo” (Gandulfo 2007a): on the one hand, the use of Guaraní associated with derogatory characteristics of the speaker, and the relationship between Guaraní and internal social struggles; on the other hand an educational situation revealing differences as regards the status of Guaraní and national languages to the detriment of the former.

Os aldeamentos indígenas do império (1845-1889) constituem uma instigante descontinuidade na série de registros da política indigenista colonial e da ação missionária cristã: antecederam a elaboração da Lei de Terras (1850) e instituíram, por meio do programa de Catequese e Civilização dos índios, um regime de governo pautado pela tutela do Estado e por uma nova definição de seu território. Fruto de uma política indigenista paradoxal, os aldeamentos indígenas dispuseram os índios ao convívio com colonos nacionais e estrangeiros. Neste artigo, busca-se acompanhar a mobilidade e a forma de uso do território dos aldeamentos pelos Guarani. Propomos que as dinâmicas — assim como o padrão de uso do território dos aldeamentos pelos Guarani — presentes nas inscrições missionárias possam ser melhor qualificadas quando em aproximação com registros etnográficos contemporâneos, atentos aos elementos culturais que orientam a ocupação das terras pelos Guarani da região do sudoeste de São Paulo e oeste do Paraná. O que os historiadores apreendem como os vestígios esquálidos da missão capuchinha do século XIX — o mosteiro e o cruzeiro —, nas narrativas guarani pontilham uma cartografia de lugares vividos pelos parentes, a topografia sendo uma referência de relações.

Por mucho tiempo la heterogénea población que habitaba la región Río de la Plata, en las fronteras entre España y Portugal, hacia fines del siglo XVIII fue asociada con la barbarie. Con el fin de homogeneizar a esta población y ajustar su comportamiento a las leyes indianas, la monarquía española implementó varias políticas de control. Sin embargo, en el corto plazo estas políticas no lograron modificar las prácticas económicas, políticas y simbólicas de esta población ni su débil percepción del Estado. Por el contrario, los actores locales mantuvieron sus dinámicas relativamente autónomas hasta casi la mitad del siglo XIX. Este artículo analiza la contradicción entre las representaciones del Estado sobre esos actores locales, construidos como "alteridad", y las dinámicas concretas que los caracterizaban, sus percepciones del territorio y el Estado, y sus estrategias para evadir los controles de las autoridades oficiales.For a long time, the heterogenous population that inhabited the Río de la Plata Region, in the borderlands of Spain and Portugal, toward the end of 18th Century, was associated to barbarism. To make that population homogenous and to adjust its behavior to indigenous Law, the Spanish Monarchy carried out several policies of control. However, in a short term these policies were neither able to modify the economic, political and symbolic practices of that population, nor were they able to weaken the perception this population had of the State. On the contrary, local actors kept their own dynamics until almost the first half of the 19th Century. This paper analyses the contradiction between State representations of local actors and the concrete dynamics that characterized them, their perceptions of territory and State, and their strategies for avoiding control by official authorities.

In the Reductions of Paraguay, the teaching of “arts and crafts” reached a surprisingly high level. The conquest of the alphabet by the Guarani was an aspect of that development, which augmented the possibilities of communication between the Indians with the colonial powers. Over the second half of 19th century it was frequent the practice of writing among the Indians of the missions. The knowledge of lettered protocols allowed the indigenous elite a way of direct communication with the colonial authorities. Knowing to read and write opened the doors to some Indians to cabildo posts. Particularly the mayordomos – to whom corresponded the control of the communal goods-, had the capacity of easily writing. A proof of that are the letters written by Valentín Ybariguá in the period of changes in the reducciones administration, after the Jesuit’s expulsion. Through the letters, Valentin attempted to act in conformity with the literate practices current under the framework of Hispanic Monarchy.

Nesse trabalho, apresento uma discussão centrada em uma narrativa a respeito da “origem de Jesus” (Tupãra’y ou filho de Tupã), coletada em uma aldeia guarani situada na região do Vale do Ribeira/SP. A referida narrativa, que evoca uma série de correspondências lógicas entre a origem dos brancos e a origem dos guarani, nos remete a uma discussão a respeito da importância do chamado “xamanismo horizontal” (Hugh-Jones, 1994) nos procedimentos de cura, ao situar a interpretação nativa do episódio da vinda de Jesus na plataforma terrestre como apenas um exemplo dentre os muitos nos quais figura a circulação de potências agentivas provenientes da morada de Tupã, na retaliação (-jepy) de infortúnios impetrados por seres invisíveis (jaexa va’e’ỹ kuery), mais especificamente o espírito dono da figueira. A discussão nos levará, enfim, a uma crítica xamânica (Albert, 2002) do “complexo da culpa cristã”, que transparecerá de um diálogo entre o cacique guarani que narra o episódio e um missionário cristão que buscava convencê-lo em vão de sua responsabilidade pela morte de Jesus. Exploro ainda os procedimentos através dos quais os Guarani incorporaram a narrativa dos missionários para criticar a sua visão, atribuindo um estatuto de verdade incompleta à religião cristã, que tomaria equivocadamente uma divindade “secundária” pelo criador da terra. Por fim, esboço hipóteses a respeito do que seria a versão guarani da “ideologia bipartida ameríndia” (Lévi-Strauss, 1994), fundada no que chamo de um “platonismo em desequilíbrio perpétuo”.

In this paper we present two unpublished sources in order to contextualize. On one hand the fragment of a visit to the indigenous towns: Itatí (Corrientes, northeastern Argentina) made in 1653, it is preserved in Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales de Bolivia (Sucre) and was made by the judge Andres Garabito de León. This is the specific inspection a parcel consisting of a bias by a Canindeyú cacique family that developed a conflictive process, indigenous claims, discharge the encomenderos, presentation of witnesses and definitions by the visitor. The other eighteenth century document provides interesting facets: with no exact date of production, was written by a chief and mayor, also belonging to the family of Itatí Canindeyú, and refers to a mita waiver request for males of this reducción. These two texts invite us to reflect on the chiefdoms in one indigenous towns on different time frames and allows us to problematize about these sources, its scope and limits, allowing us to travel the universe work also indigenous feudal relations - commissioned and linkages of reduction with officials and residents of the city.

This article presents a corpus of Guarani sources of the Jesuit reductions of Paraguay, most of them written by indigenous leaders. Documents cover the period 1768-1831, that is to say, from the date of the Jesuits´ expulsion to the moment of dissolution of the most part of the reductions during revolution. The transcribed documents in their Guarani and Spanish versions refer to a fundamental period of transition, allowing the analysis of the role played by the Indians in the revolutionary process and the tranformations of their language (their writing) and their political discourse.

In this introductory note we present two letters, related to the land problem, written by Guarani Indians of the State of São Paulo in the early twentieth century. These letters indicate the contours in which operated the process of occupation and dispossession of indigenous lands in the State of São Paulo in the early decades of the republican period. Considering the contemporary situation of Guarani Indians in the Brazilian coast, the two letters not only refute the position of those who vehemently deny the historical continuity of the Guarani occupation in the Ribeira Valley region but also reveal the Guarani’s long history in the “fight” for the preservation of their traditional territories on the coast of the State of São Paulo.

Indians’ conquest of literacy was the result of the ways of evangelization during colonial times. Indigenous participation in this process allows understanding the rapid diffusion and acceptation of writing technologies. This aspect was particularly visible in the context of the Jesuit Missions of Paraguay, where the Indians resorted to writing in an autonomous way in particular circumstances. Here we analyze the vestiges of indigenous writing practice taking into account two messages, both written by alcalde of mission town of San Miguel, Hilário Yrama, in 1757. The first text is a “billete” written in a piece of paper that brings the signature of Yrama. He wrote it when he lived in the estancia of his mission town, after the occupation of the urban nucleus by the frontier expeditions sent by the Iberic crowns, in company with a group of Indians. In that moment the Indian decided to report to his superiors some of the recent episodes he had experienced.

This article aims to reconstruct the historical trajectory of the Guarani and anthropological myth « Land without Evil » formulated for the first time by the ethnologist Curt Nimuendaju in 1914. From the dialogue between ethnographic data provided by Curt Nimuendaju about the « Land without Evil » and historical sources that reflect the colonial expeditions (called « Itinerary ») performed by baron de Antonina between 1840 and 1860, it is shown that these stories can be read as two different versions of the same historical event and therefore they can be read and thought recursively, one as the negative image of the other. Returning to the context of production and returning to the sources that led to the development of the research hypothesis of the « Land without Evil », it is to show that behind the general concept of Tupi-Guarani « messianism » and « prophetism » lurk multiple sociocultural processes with heuristic value for contemporary guaranologie.

The cacique cayuá Libânio is a central figure in the construction of the indigenous missions in the provinces of São Paulo, Paraná and Mato Grosso that were instituted in 1845 by Regulation n. 426 on "Catechesis and civilization of the Indians". Managed from the capitals of the provinces by the military and in the field by the Capuchin missionaries, the indigenous missions were planned within a much broader project: that of the colonization of the frontiers and that of the unknowns "sertões" of the Empire. The indigenous missions were spatially associated with military and agricultural colonies that worked during the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) as an advanced system of colonial and military deployment. From biographical elements of the life of cacique Libânio, this paper aims to analyze the forms of mediation practiced by him among indigenous missions newly created and Guarani camps that were located in the Paraná River basin, Tibagi, Paranapanema, Brilhante and Iguatemi. Libânio, the main Indian guide of "Southern Journeys", function as a central figure in the formation and in the consolidation of these establishments; while the expeditions were moving through the hinterland, Libânio drives and activates a series of networks and alliances, driving every year a significant quantity of indigenous families to be established in the orbit of the missions.

This paper proposes, first, an analysis of ethnic and religious clasificactions of indigenous populations produced by colonial documents (Jesuit missionaries’ chronics and texts of Borbonic offitials) under the indigenous policy of reducciones in Paraguay and the Rio de la Plata. Second, an exploration of concrete modes of interaction between “reduced indians” and “infidel indians”, reconstructing specific contexts in which they took place. It is suggested that the official discourse reflected in the chronics and later texts was oriented to produce a fiction of order (and of disorder) based on the ideal of ethnic and linguistic homogeneity, and a radical antinomy that opposed Christian and infidel space. Said “fictions” do not allow an understanding of daily interactions of the mentioned populations in all their complexity, which requires the examination of local sources in order to reconstruct indigenous agency and social networks that go beyond interethnic relations and cultural belonging.

Este artículo examina el desarrollo del gas natural y sus implicacionespara las comunidades indígenas guaraníes, en el sudeste deBolivia. Durante la década de 1990, el gobierno boliviano llevó acabo una serie de medidas neoliberales encaminadas a facilitar laexportación de hidrocarburos y a atraer la inversión internacionalpara la explotación del gas y el petróleo. Las protestas sobre elmanejo y la distribución de los beneficios derivados del gas naturalcontribuyeron directamente a la elección de Evo Morales, el primerpresidente indígena de Bolivia. Sin embargo, y a pesar del discursoindigenista de Morales y sus partidarios, la producción del gas haperjudicado a los grupos indígenas de los llanos del este, quienesson impactados directamente por las actividades extractivas. Esteartículo examina el caso de los guaraníes de la Tierra Comunitariade Origen (TCO) Itika Guasu, en el departamento de Tarija,donde se encuentra el ‘megacampo’ de gas Margarita de Repsol.Se propone que la explotación del gas en territorio guaraní ha sidocaracterizado por una carencia de consulta previa y participaciónreal de las poblaciones afectadas.

This article sheds light on two major contributions to the study of the Guarani under the Missions –both published in 2009. These are Guillermo Wilde’s Religión y poder en las misiones guaraníes, andLía Quarleri’s Rebelión y guerra en las fronteras del Plata, Guaraníes, jesuitas e imperios coloniales. These publications underscore indigenous agency and deemphasize the role of the Jesuits. This change in the focus –from the Jesuits to the indigenous people and their leaders– connects these contributions to the more or less recent scholarship which has studied social conflicts where religion and ecclesiastics acted differently –for instance, in Mexican insurgency. Our analysis of these two books underlines indigenous agency and religion, how these two issues legitimated indigenous authorities, and how these leaders managed the religious life within this environment. In addition, this article links these contributions to the historiography of the Mexican insurgency given that both had to review long-standing views on the role of religion and the ecclesiastics in shaping peasant protest.

CapítuloII: Aspectos e problemas etnológicos de uma área de aculturação intertribal : o Alto Xingu; Capítulo III: fases da aculturação religiosa dos Guarani;Capítulo IV: Persistência e mudança da cultura Tenhtehára

Resumo e conclusão do ensaio publicado.

Capítulo V: Transformações gerais no sistema social, na vida econômica e nas instituições políticas ;Capítulo VI: Aculturação no plano tecnológico e da cultura material;Capítulo VII: A aculturação no plano linguistico;Capítulo VIII: Fenômenos e tendências da aculturação na arte ; Capítulo IX: Reflexos do processo aculturativo no campo da mitologia; Capítulo X: Fenômenos de aculturação religiosa