Guaraní people

The Guarani are a group of culturally-related indigenous peoples of South America. They are distinguished from the related Tupi by their use of the Guarani language. The traditional range of the Guarani people is in what is now Paraguay between the Paraná River and lower Paraguay River, the Misiones Province of Argentina, southern Brazil once as far east as Rio de Janeiro, and parts of Uruguay and Bolivia.^[2]

Although their demographic dominance of the region has been reduced by European colonisation and the commensurate rise of mestizos, there are contemporary Guarani populations in Paraguay and parts of Argentina and Bolivia. Most notably, the Guarani language, still widely spoken across traditional Guarani homelands, is one of the two official languages in Paraguay, the other one being Spanish.^[3] The Paraguayan population learns Guarani both informally from social interaction and formally in public schools. In modern Spanish, Guarani also refers to any Paraguayan national in the same way that the French are sometimes called Gauls.

Name

The history and meaning of the name Guarani are subject to dispute. Before they encountered Europeans, the Guarani referred to themselves simply as Abá, meaning "men" or "people".

Early Guarani villages often consisted of communal houses for 10 to 15 families. Communities were united by common interest and language, and tended to form tribal groups by dialect. It is estimated that the Guarani numbered some 400,000 people when they were first encountered by Europeans. At that time, they were sedentary and agricultural, subsisting largely on

• Cosmogonic and eschatological myths; the creation and destruction of all things as dictated by Ñamandu ^[es] "the true father, the first one". After him comes a pantheon of gods, chief among them Yporú who is more frequently known as Tupã. Jasy is another "good" deity who rules the night while Aña ^[es] is a malign deity who dwells at the bottom of the Iguazu River.^[7]
• Animistic mythology, that is animals, plants and minerals being animated and capable of becoming
  Yerba; Irupé was a woman who was turned into the giant lily because she fell in love with the moon.^[8]
• hyacinth. Finally, Kurupi is a phallic mythological figure who will copulate with young women. He has scaly skin like a lizard, hypnotic eyes, and an enormous penis.^[8]

The Iguazu Falls, considered sacred by the Guarani, hold special significance and are the inspiration for numerous myths and legends. They reveal the sound of ancient battles at certain times, they are also the place where I-Yara—a malign Pomboro spirit—abducted Angá—a fair maiden—and hid her. The swallows that inhabit the falls to this day vainly search for her.^[9]

European contact

In 1537, Gonzalo de Mendoza traversed through Paraguay to about the present Brazilian frontier. On his return, he made acquaintance with the Guarani and founded the city of Asunción, later the capital of Paraguay. The first governor of the Spanish territory of Guayrá initiated a policy of intermarriage between European men and indigenous women; the descendants of these matches characterize the Paraguayan nation today. The Laws of the Indies forbade slavery in Hispanic America.

The first two

Today, the Guarani language is an official language of Paraguay and Bolivia.^[citation needed] As of 2012, an estimated 90% of the people in Paraguay spoke Guarani.

Slavery

The center depot of the slave trade was the town of São Paulo. Originally a rendezvous place for Portuguese and Dutch pirates, it later became a refuge for criminals, who mixed with Native American and African women and actively participated in the capturing and selling of Guaranis as slaves.

To oppose these armed and organized robbers, the tribes had only their bows and arrows. Many Guaranis were slain or enslaved by the slave hunters active in Brazil during those years.

The Paraguayan Reductions

In 1607, Spanish King Philip III sent a letter to the governor of Rio de Plata Hernandarias de Saavedra to instruct him to send the newly arrived Jesuits to begin their missionary work.

Slave raiders saw the Guarani missions as "merely an opportunity of capturing more Indians than usual at a haul".^[16] In 1629, an army of Paulistas surrounded the San Antonio mission, set fire to the church and other buildings, killed those who resisted or were too young or too old to travel, and carried the rest into slavery. San Miguel and Jesus Maria quickly met the same fate. Eventually, reinforcements gathered by Father Cataldino drove off the slavers. Within two years, all but two of the establishments were destroyed, and 60,000 Christian converts were carried off for sale to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The attacks usually took place on Sunday, when the whole mission population was gathered for Mass. The priests were usually spared, but several were killed.

Only a few thousand natives were left of nearly 100,000 just before the Paulista invasion. Father Antonio Ruiz de Montoya purchased 10,000 cattle, and was able to convert the natives from farmers to stock raisers. Soon under Fathers Rançoncier and Romero the Uruguay missions were re-established. In 1632 the Mamelucos discovered a new line of attack from the south. In 1638, despite some successful resistance, all twelve of the missions beyond the Uruguay River were abandoned and their people consolidated with the community of the Missions Territory. In the last raid Father Alfaro was killed.

In the same year Father Montoya, after having successfully opposed the attempts of the governor and the

When the next Paulista army, 800 strong, attacked the missions in 1641 they were met by a body of Christian Guarani armed with guns on the Acaray River. In two battles, the Paulista army suffered a defeat that warded off invasions for ten years. In 1651, the war between Spain and Portugal encouraged another Paulista attack to gain territory for Portugal. Before Spanish troops could arrive to help defend the missions, the fathers themselves led a Guarani army against the enemy. In 1732, at the time of their greatest prosperity, the Guarani missions were guarded by a well-drilled and well-equipped army of 7,000 Guaranis. On more than one occasion this mission army, accompanied by their priests, defended the Spanish colony.

In 1732, there were 30 Guarani missions with 141,252 converted Guaranis.^{[citation needed]} Two years later a smallpox epidemic killed approximately 30,000 of them. In 1765, a second outbreak killed approximately 12,000 more, and then spread westward through the tribes of the Chaco.

Uruguay missions saved

In 1750 the

In 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from Spanish dominions by royal edict. Fearing the outcome of this decision,

The missions were turned over to priests of other orders, chiefly Franciscans, but under a code of regulations drawn up by the viceroy and modeled largely on the Jesuit system. Under chaotic political regulation, the missions rapidly declined. Most Guaranis returned to the countryside. According to the official census of 1801, fewer than 45,000 Guaranis remained; cattle, sheep, and horses had disappeared; the fields and orchards were overgrown or cut down, and the churches were in ruins. The long period of revolutionary struggle that followed completed the destruction. In 1814, the mission Indians numbered 8,000, and in 1848 the few who remained were declared citizens.

Aftermath

A 2018 study in The Quarterly Journal of Economics found that "in areas of former Jesuit presence—within the Guarani area—educational attainment was higher and remains so (by 10–15%) 250 years later. These educational differences have also translated into incomes that are 10% higher today. The identification of the positive effect of the Guarani Jesuit missions emerges after comparing them with abandoned Jesuit missions and neighboring Franciscan Guarani missions. The enduring effects observed are consistent with transmission mechanisms of structural transformation, occupational specialization, and technology adoption in agriculture."^[18]

Eastern Bolivian Guarani

The Guarani people in Bolivia, called Chiriguanos, lived in the foothills of the Andes and had a different history than most other Guarani people. Noted for their warlike character, the Chiriguanos were hostile in turn to the Inca Empire, the Spanish, and the independent state of Bolivia from the late 15th to the late 19th century. The Jesuit missions had little success among the Chiriguanos, although Franciscans in the 19th century attracted numerous converts. The Chririguanos were not finally pacified until the defeat in 1892 of forces led by their messianic leader Apiaguaiki Tumpa in the Battle of Kuruyuki.^[19]

Today

Argentina

• 
  A Guarani community called Taperigua, in Rodeíto, San Pedro, Jujuy, at the Calilegua National Park, Argentina
• 
  The Ruins of San Ignacio Miní, part of the Jesuit Missions of the Guarani people, near the Ruins of Jesús de Tavarangue. Today, a tourist spot.
• 
  A sign in Guarani language at the kitchen of a bakery, in Posadas. As it is described in Spanish, the literal translation is: place where bread is made

Indigenous Guarani in Argentina fight to protect their ancestral lands from illegal logging and government neglect.^[20] A group formed by members of the Guarani community called "Los Rumberos," or “The Patrollers,” safeguard the forest to deter further encroachment.^[21]

Paraguay

The Guarani people and culture persist. Many are descendants of mission exiles. In Paraguay, Guarani lineage predominates in the population and the Guarani language is spoken in most departments to this day.

• 
  Pai Tavytera people in Amambay Department

  , Paraguay, 2012
• 
  Through the Paraguayan diaspora, the Guarani culture can be appreciated in almost every corner of the world. In the picture, the Paraguayan folk dance group Alma Guaraní “Guarani Soul” is attending the International Folklore Festival Vitosha in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Bolivia

• 
  Tereré, a typical Guarani infusion of yerba mate, being taken in San Rafael de Velasco, a historical territory of the Guarani in Bolivia.
• 
  (

  Guarani: guavira "fruit bush") Club Deportivo Guabirá fans. The name of the club is one example of the impact the Guarani left in the Bolivian culture

  .
• 
  The flag of the Autonomous Guarani Territory of Charagua, Bolivia

Guapay, Parapetí, and Ɨtɨka Guasu (or Pilcomayo) River valleys.^[22] The Bolivian Guarani are represented by the Assembly of the Guarani People.^[23] Some Guarani placenames in Bolivia: Yacuiba, Paraimiri, Itaimbeguasu ^[gn], Tatarenda, Saipurú, Capirenda, Itay, Ibamiragera, Carandaytí, Ipaguasú, Abapó, Timboy, Caraparí, Urubichá, Kuruguakua ^[gn], Guanay, Yaguarú and Rogagua

.

There are three principal subgroups of Guarani in Bolivia,[24]^[25] marked by dialectical and historical differences:

• Around fifty thousand Ava Guarani principally in the Andean foothills. Ava means man in Guarani, and thus Ava Guarani has become the name for numerous Guarani ethnic groups in Paraguay and Brazil.^[26]
• Simba (
  Guarani
  : Guarani par excellence)
• The
  Izoceño Guarani or Tapɨi of Izozog who live in the region of Ɨsoso or Izozo on the Parapetí River

Language

Main article: Guarani language

Today, the Standard Paraguayan Guarani is flourishing in Paraguay and is taught in 12 countries;^[28][29][30]

The growing Paraguayan immigration to Argentina has led to a cultural enhancement of the Guarani peoples in Argentina. It can also be seen in Spain, due to the intense Paraguayan immigration to Spain^[31][32]

The language was also used by other tribes in regions like the Paraguayan Chaco and Northern Argentina.^[33]

Notable Guarani people

• Juliana, a 16th-century woman known for killing her Spanish master and urging other indigenous women to do the same^[34]
• Sepé Tiarayú, Guarani War leader popularly venerated as a saint in Brazil and Argentina

See also

• Guarana (plant)
• Guaraní (currency)
• Guarani-Kaiowa
• Guarani mythology
• Guarani alphabet
• Guarani language
• Guarani War
• Indigenous peoples in Brazil
• Jesuit Reductions
• Tupi people
• Encomienda
• Mapuche
• Paraguayan guaraní
• Mapuche people
• Academy of the Guarani Language
• Indigenous peoples in Argentina
• Jesuit missions among the Guaraní
• Indigenous peoples in Paraguay

Notes

1. ^ "Guarani". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 8 March 2019.
2. ^ "Society-Guarani". Archived from the original on 2006-09-25.
3. ^ "Paraguay". Embassy of Paraguay in the United States of America. Archived from the original on 2009-01-19.
4. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia".
5. ^ Ganson, Barbara (2003). "The Guarani Under Spanish Rule in the Rio de la Plata". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
6. ISBN 978-85-260-1933-1
   . Global Editora, 2013.
7. ISBN 978-987-9121-99-3
   pp.9-29
8. ^ ^{a b} Salvo and Zammboni, pp.29-63
9. ^ Salvo and Zamboni, pp. 63-67
10. ^ "The larger portion of the population regarded it as a right, a privilege by virtue of conquest, that they should enslave the Indians" (Page, 470).
11. ^ Page, 470
12. ^ Sarreal, Julia J.S. (2014). The Guarani and Their Missions: A Socioeconomic History. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
13. ^ Montoya, Antonio Ruiz de (1993). The Spiritual Conquest: Accomplished by the Religious of the Society of Jesus in the Provinces of Paraguay, Uruguay, and Tape. St. Louis, MO: Institute of Jesuit Sources. p. 52.
14. ^ Ganson, Barbara (2003). The Guarani Under Spanish Rule in the Rio de la Plata. Stanford, CA: Stanford university Press. p. 35.
15. ^ Cushner, Nicholas P. (1983). Jesuit Ranches and the Agrarian Development of Colonial Argentina 1650-1767. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. p. 156.
16. ^ Graham 57
17. ^ Ganson, Barbara (2003). The Guarani Under Spanish Rule in the Rio de la Plata. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 198.
18. hdl:10.1093/qje/qjy024
    .
19. ^ Langer, Erick D. (2009), Expecting Pears from an Elm Tree, Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 11-18, 186-195
20. PMID 34697233
    .
21. ^ "The Jungle Patrollers". 52 Documentary Series (in Guarani and Spanish). Voice of America. Oct 12, 2023. Retrieved Oct 26, 2023.
22. ISBN 978-0-8223-4529-9
    .
23. ^ "YASAREKOMO - Una experiencia de comunicación indígena en Bolivia".
24. ISBN 978-0-8223-4529-9
    .
25. doi:10.1215/00141801-2006-019
    .
26. doi:10.1215/00141801-2006-019
    .
27. ISBN 978-0-8223-4529-9
    .
28. ^ "El guarani o avañe'ẽ, una lengua vigente en 12 países". cienciasdelsur.com (in Spanish). Ciencias del Sur. 2021-08-25. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
29. ^ "PARAGUAY'S GUARANÍ LANGUAGE IS FLOURISHING". glocal.soas.ac.uk/. SOAS University of London. 2021-08-25. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
30. ^ "Taiwán Embajador ou PÑS-pe". spl.gov.py (in Guarani). Secretaria de Politicas Linguisticas de Paraguay. 2021-08-25. Retrieved 2021-12-20.
31. ^ "Defenderán cultura guaraní en España - Nacionales - ABC Color".
32. ^ Carneri, Santi (24 January 2020). "Paraguay seduce a Europa con su cultura guaraní, misiones jesuitas e impresionantes escenarios naturales". El País.
33. ^ "When Everyone is Guarani: the indigenous Guaranization in writings from the 16th century in the Provinces of the River Plate" (PDF). 30 April 2018. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-04-19.
34. ^ Colmán Gutiérrez, Andrés (December 5, 2020). "En busca de la India Juliana". Última Hora (in Spanish). Asunción. Retrieved December 12, 2021.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Guarani Indians". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Further reading

• Austin, Shawn Michae. (2015) "Guarani kinship and the encomienda community in colonial Paraguay, sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries", Colonial Latin American Review, 24:4, 545–571, DOI: 10.1080/10609164.2016.1150039

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Guaraní.

Guarani edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• http://www.unavenirpourlesguaranis.org Archived 2011-03-03 at the Wayback Machine – Campaign for the Guarani, French NGOs
• Guarani Survival Fund – Fund opened by the British NGO Survival International in support of the Guarani
• Guarani, The Language of the People
• Catholic Encyclopedia article
• Circuits of Culture: Media, Politics, and Identity in the Andes
• Indigenous peoples, and The Language (Spanish)
• Bolivian Indians see Rocky Exodus from Serfdom by the Associated Press, January 2, 2010
• The Guarani – Survival International Charitable Trust