South America, in all its vastness, has been home to eras, kingdoms, empires and peoples unique in their culture and relevance, as we have seen in several videos here on the channel. And of the many peoples who left their mark on this continent, few were as resilient and relentless as the Guaranis. And in this video, we will explore the history of these people, such as their origins, their society, their legends and the legacy they left for us today, and before we take this trip back in time, I would like to ask you to leave a thumbs up and to Subscribe if you like the content, as this will help me immensely to continue bringing quality content to you!
! The Origins of the Guarani People As we saw in a previous video about the Tupi and Macro-jê peoples, the origins of the native peoples of the eastern portion of the South American continent are closely linked to the Amazon region, especially in the region between the state of Rondônia, and from there too, the people who would give rise to the Guaranis would have dispersed through the river basins of the Xingu and Araguaia rivers, going south and then the Paraná and Paraguai rivers, around 2000 years ago. And from this expansion, they established themselves in regions of present-day Paraguay, northeast of Argentina, south and southwest of Brazil, more specifically in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul, as well as in southeast Bolivia.
, and in the north of Uruguay. And the term “guarani” means in their language something like “warrior”, “warlord”, a name given by European Jesuits in the first years of colonization, and according to the records they call themselves “Avá”, a term in their language it simply means “person”. The Guarani language belongs to the Tupi-Guarani linguistic trunk , from which 21 languages derive, and the Jesuits of colonial times learned the language to evangelize the natives, and by adapting the writing in that language, they not only spread their faith, but fixed this language that it is still used today.
Guarani is the most spoken indigenous language in South America, where 60% of Paraguay speaks this language, being considered an official language in that country, alongside Spanish, and even some schools in Mato Grosso on the border teach it at school. The “big family” of Guarani society The Guarani are an ethnolinguistic group that extends across a vast region as already mentioned, but there is no record that they formed a centralized State like the ones we know today, instead, their social organization It was based on independent villages called tekoha, which were led by chiefs, villages that functioned autonomously but shared a common language and traditions. There are a large number of subgroups within the Guarani culture, such as the Mbya Guarani, the Ñandeva, Kaiowá, Izoceño and Ava, who are still present in large communities.
Guarani society is quite egalitarian, without a rigid division of social classes, where large families lived and married among themselves, forming a large cohesive community with a strong sense of identity, giving rise to the concept of “large family”, where everyone They play an important role in maintaining community life in the tekoha. Guarani society is characterized by a decentralized structure, where leadership is based on the respect and wisdom of the chiefs, and important decisions are made collectively, and in Guarani culture, land and natural resources were considered sacred and were used in a community. Tekoha is a Guarani term that refers to the traditional territory where a community lives and exercises its cultural, social and economic practices.
The word “tekoha” can be translated as “place where one lives” or “place of being”. For the Guaranis, tekoha is more than just a physical space; is a concept that encompasses the spiritual and cultural relationship with the land, which is seen as sacred and essential for the identity and well-being of the community, where the Guarani way of life, known as “teko”, takes place. And being a semi-nomadic society, they were on the move in search of resources, and among the common activities were hunting and fishing, as well as subsistence agriculture, where cassava, corn, beans and sweet potatoes were among the crops cultivated.
. Men were responsible for hunting, fishing, fighting and building physical structures of the village, women took care of the tasks of raising children, preparing food and agriculture. The community leader, called mburovixá in Guarani, administered the village and mediated internal and external conflicts.
Another important member of the village was the figure of the shaman, who, with his shamanic knowledge, communicated with the deities and had the role of teaching local customs and traditions to the youngest and also served as a healer with a vast knowledge of the healing properties of plants and ways to use them. The shaman was the community's link to the spiritual world, which affected their way of life in every aspect of their daily lives. The Guarani society, as we have already seen, had the habit of migrating, and this nomadic practice comes from its essentially extractive characteristic and has occurred for more than 2 thousand years, and in addition, migration was encouraged by the belief in “Yvy marã e' ỹ” or “land without evil”, a kind of mythical paradise in Tupi-Guarani cosmology.
Guarani beliefs There is no form of organized religion within this culture, but there are central aspects in their mythology associated with the way of life of these people. The creator god within the Guarani cosmogony is Ñamandu or Nhanderu, and in other variants he is called Tupã, the lord of thunder. The Guarani say that this god, also called Ñane Ramõi Jusu Papa or “Our Great Eternal Grandfather”, made himself from a mystical original substance called Jasuka, which was vital and had creative qualities, and was the one who created other beings divine and his wife, Ñande Jari or “Our Grandmother”, from her ritual diadem, called jeguaka.
And from a mountain in the region of Areguá, in present-day Paraguay, he would have created the world, such as rivers, oceans, forests, animals, stars and firmament, and finally the first man and woman – called Rupave and Sypave. Gods such as Kuaray (Guaraci), who represents the sun and the goddess Jaci who represents the Moon, demonstrate a deep connection with the nature and spirituality of this society. The Guarani have a rich tradition of songs and dances that are an integral part of their religious ceremonies, where they narrate these mythical stories and teach posterity the origins of their people.
If you find it interesting that I tell you in more detail about the Guarani mythology and other peoples here on the channel, in a dedicated video, leave it in the comments below. The Guarani cosmogony is not just a series of myths, but a very complex system of beliefs that deeply influenced - and still influences - the daily life of Guarani communities, shaping their social and spiritual practices and their interaction with the environment, but which suffered a lot of impact when European colonizers arrived on the continent. The 'Reductions' and contact with Europeans Contact between the Guaranis and Europeans began at the beginning of the 16th century, with the arrival of Spanish and Portuguese explorers, with the first contact occurring in 1516 when the Spanish explorer Juan Diaz de Solis arrived in the Prata Basin.
Before the arrival of Europeans, the Guaranis traveled along the coastal region from the south of the current state of São Paulo to Rio Grande do Sul, entering the interior in the basins of the Paraná, Uruguay and Paraguay rivers. But European colonization interrupted this lifestyle, and many Guarani groups began to migrate to the interior of the continent, fleeing the attacks and slavery that both the Spanish and Portuguese imposed on them. Until the 18th century, the history of the Guarani people was also marked by Jesuit missions, which gathered thousands of Guaranis with the aim of catechizing them, in villages known as Reduções.
The Guarani reductions received this name due to the process of “reduction” of indigenous villages, in centralized locations and organized by the Jesuits during the colonization of South America . The term “reduction” comes from the Latin reductio, which means “to take back” or “to gather”. The Jesuits used this term to describe the action of gathering indigenous people into communities structured in the European style, where they could be evangelized and educated according to Christian principles.
These reductions aimed not only at religious conversion, but also at protecting indigenous people against the abuses of colonizers and their integration into an organized and self-sufficient society. The reductions became centers of agricultural and artisanal production, and the Guarani were taught to read, write and practice European skills. Although some Jesuits had good intentions and helped them, contact with Europeans in general brought many challenges and conflicts.
One of the most striking events was the Guarani War (1754-1756), led by Sepé Tiaraju (v. 1723-1756), where the Guarani fought against Spanish and Portuguese domination and, in addition, the Europeans brought diseases that decimated a large part of the native population and forced many Guarani to take refuge in remote areas to escape slavery and cultural assimilation. The final blow came with the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, which began in 1759 and culminated in the dissolution of the Society of Jesus in 1773, and without the support and administration of the Jesuits, the reductions collapsed, leading to dispersal.
of the indigenous peoples who lived in these communities. The Guaranis today and their legacy The Guaranis' migratory way of life has already suffered interference since the beginning of European colonization, but it was actually interrupted after the Paraguayan War (1864-1870). This conflict between Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay against Paraguay had a devastating impact on the Guarani, with many being forcibly recruited to fight, and their lands being devastated.
The territory was occupied by the victors and was mainly exploited in the production of yerba mate, and at the beginning of the 20th century, Brazil and Paraguay created territorialization policies and forced the Guaranis to adapt to new forms of territorial organization. At the beginning of the 20th century, social and political movements began to allocate specific areas for the formation of reserves for the Guarani communities, forcing many of them to migrate due to economic and social pressure. In Mato Grosso do Sul, for example, the institutional redefinition and the tutelary and clientelistic action of the Brazilian government significantly impacted the social structures of these communities.
Despite the adversities, the Guarani continued to fight for their territorial and cultural rights. Resistance and mobilization movements intensified, especially from the second half of the 20th century, with the creation of indigenous organizations and the search for recognition and demarcation of lands. The social impact was devastating, as the dominant culture affected the original way of life, and as we saw, the connection with their land – tekoha – is something intrinsic to their culture, but which they lost when they were forced to move to areas delimited.
And despite the pressure, the Guarani keep their culture, language and traditions alive, adapting to new realities without losing their identity. The legacy of the Guarani people is vast and profound, covering cultural, linguistic, spiritual and ecological aspects, a lifestyle that survives today, and even though it has suffered in recent centuries, remains firm in the test of time, much more than powerful empires and kingdoms theocratic, as they are a people who stand together, like a big family! I hope you enjoyed this video and if you made it this far, leave a thumbs up and share it with more people.
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