THE GUARANIES COMMUNITIES SETTLED IN MISIONES PROVINCE - ARGENTINA -

The space occupation in Misiones is established in small groups, and nowadays there are around 700 families of the portion called MBY'A which still survive.

According to their main characteristics, they can be classified into three groups:

Farmers with highly sedentary attitudes

They work to make their living, they hunt and fish only if the geographic location allows them. They work as basket makers and then sell their products, being this activity one of their main resource. They speak Spanish and participate in Creole parties.

Although they keep their source language, they only use it in close treatments – away from society-, they have the highest level of integration, except for their indigenous religion.

They have lost most of the elements related to material culture.

The second type is formed by members with less relation with culture

They are farmers with a certain level of nomadic attitudes. Although they sometimes work, their economy is based on agriculture. The sale of their craftsmanship is not an important contribution to their economy. They can be called polyglots, since all of them speak Spanish.
They have a trivial life relatively united, they keep ritual and religious manifestations.
The third type would be formed by nomads.
They practice agriculture in a low scale, most of their cultivated areas are the slopes of hills or the top of them, in this way they try to go unnoticed.
Hunting is an important activity for them and their frequent moves are focused on better places for it.
They always try to be away from white men.
They occasionally visit a community to exchange products, specially metallic machetes, salt, etc.
Their tight secrecy regarding religious traditions is related to less cultured groups from Paraguay.
The biggest number of sub-groups is part of the second group, and some of them use to live in collective houses.
Nomads´ houses are extremely simple, consisting of a short roof, with no walls or just surrounded by row of tacuaras*.

*Tacuara: tree similar to bamboo but with slightly bigger trunks

Groups characterization

The Community

The base of social organization is constituted by the large family, with no more than 12 or 15 members.

Language

The first language learned by children is the Guaraní in its variant MBY'A, but the most used one to establish relationships with white men is Yopará or Paraguayan Guaraní.

The MBY'A is kept as a primitive and private language, only used internally.

The biggest portion of male adults speak Spanish and have rudimentary knowledge of it, children start to learn this language in their childhood, this is one of the reasons they accompany their parents to help with rural works and have contact with white men.

So the language of these groups is as follows:
They keep the MBY'A ( as a private language)
Fluent use of Yopará
Spanish used to establish intercultural relations.

The Economy

It is based on traditional crops which have been inherited: maize, manioc, sweet potato, calabash, tobacco, etc.
Due to their continuous change of residence and the lack of owned lands, the plantations are not so important, each family has only ¼ to ½ hectares of cultivated land, so it cannot be considered a sustenance agriculture, since it absolutely does not satisfy the food needs of the population; instead it is a complement of other activities with which they survive.

Maize is the basis of their nourishment, it contains a mythical and religious role still kept among them.

They sow the land with tools they purchase in shops, as hoes, machetes, axes, etc.

They focus their economy on handicrafts, pottery and carvings. The most important activity is the making of baskets, bracelets, crucifixes, sieves, etc., made of vegetal fibers ( tacuaras, tacuaruzú, tacuapí and güembé).

They hunt and fish to complement their nourishment.

Women are the ones who work harder in making baskets and men are in charge of selling them.

Labor characteristics

There are two ways in which MBY'A are contracted for work:
Individual work, as farm laborer.
Group work; in this case the group leader is in charge of receiving the money and distribute it among all the people involved in the work.
These kind of works are imposed by the market, male adults are the ones with best opportunities for occasional farm works (harvesting of seasonal products). The hiring of indigenous labor is made according to carried out works (piecework).

Leadership

The leader nomination varies, but they are generally similar to military degrees, as Major, Captain, Tenant, Sergeant, Corporal.
MBY'A are distinguished by two types of leadership: religious ( Paí) and political (Cacique).
The function of the leader is to direct the groups into their production activities, food distribution, contacts with white men, justice and manage with internal problems.
At the moment, to be a leader is not only prestigious among their community but also in front of white men.

Religion

The natives have not suffered mission influence along the 20^th century, despite the attempts of evangelization.
They still keep intact their religious beliefs.
The religious culture process is characterized by a relative syncretism. That is to say that the varied contact situations influence in different ways on the many aspects of cultural life and social organization of indigenous.
In the religious aspect, the culture process is merely superficial and does not alter their mythic structure.
The mythic indigenous vision cannot be homogeneously replaced by the mythic Christian one.
The present religion of guaranies can be defined as an inspiration consecrated into canto and dance, directed by the cacique or leader.
In these groups religion is present in all their social life.
The MBY'A are deeply related to Land “Ivy – Porá” ( Land's soul). The land is  closely united with the indigenous spirits conforming a mystical and indestructible link.

Social Organization

The internal organization in these communities is established by family relationships between members,  giving way to large groups directed by one family leader ( Cacique or Paí).

Guaraní philosophy, by one cacique at year 2000

We used to work as a community in our farms, all of us helped in everybody' s land.
There was no famine since all fruits were shared. We lived with more harmony, more unity. There was joy and laughter among women.

I am worried since we are loosing our customs. But I have the hope that with the support of old men and young people who value our culture, we will be able to recover it.

Adults might be erring, but young people could help to see our errors.

If we have OPY, we have to respect it, as it was in the past. At dusk, all of us used to come to the OPY, to see how the OPYGUA was.

We formed a row accompanying with music: TAKU PU MBARAKA PU and dancing to make a bow.
It was not a common performance, it had to do with God.
Everybody knew what to do, nobody was obliged to anything. I personally like to gather people, to help this happen.
I feel spiritually strong to help with this. This strength comes from above, from God to the MBURUVICHA, so as to bring good for the community.
I do it just because God fortifies us with this.
We have the hope to bring our customs back.
There are women who apparently without knowing, silently tell God what hurts them or is happening to them.
We receive health and safe life from OPYGUA, who is always happy with God. When we visited him, he used to tell us what would possibly happen in that day or in the following days.
Nowadays, it is not like this, since there is no OPYGUA in some communities. But we can put one where there isn't any.
It can be easy for adults to recover our culture, but for young people almost impossible if we don´ t show them how.

The authority was the MBURUVICHA. He was like everybody´ s father and his wife like everybody´ s mother.
The whole community had to take care of them, look for their food, clean their space, etc., since these leaders were destined to other mission.
All works and fruits were for OPYGUA and then shared with the community.
Women were in charge of grinding maize to make KAGUIJY, RORA.
This was not only for OPYGUA, but also for visitors who arrived to the community.
Women made a row to give the AGUYYEVETE (welcome) to visitors.
To share was a generous attitude, it didn't´ t matter if he/she asked for or not.
We must administrate the water and all the resources we have. We have to be careful and know how to use poison.
There were no illnesses in the past, since our food was more natural. As the honey, now it tastes differently because it is contaminated by the poison which farmers spread in plants. This does not make any good for us.
Most of the communities have a small piece of land, they do not have enough resources to cover their needs and live according to our culture.
Natives as well as white men must take care of water.

We can contaminate it in different ways, sometimes the rain water we receive by the stream comes already polluted, since it first washed the fumigated farms and plantations.
We always knew how to look after nature, white men are the ones who destroy, they just now realize that it is a must to preserve, however they keep on destroying.
We take from the jungle only what we need, we know how to use nature. We set traps to hunt and nothing is wasted.
We use the GUEMBEPI for crafts, to sow and we eat its fruits. The honey is used for food and the wax to make candles. When we hunt a deer, we take its skin to make hammocks, its hooves to make hooks and we eat the meat.
We live in harmony with nature, we enjoy it and are part of it.
If we say YVY PORA means the land has no evil, this expression explains the respect we have towards it, since we know the land nourish our children, and children are sacred in our culture.

"The fertile land sustains us, after receiving its kindness we sustain it by moving ourselves to another place."

Ask your travel agent to visit the Guaranies Reserve.