The Mbyá, also called Mbyá Guaraní (in
Mbyá: ''mby’as''), are a branch of the
Guaraní people
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 present-day Paraguay between the ...
who live in
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...
, across a wide territory that ranges through
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...
, and
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
.
Branch of the Guaraní people
Because of their linguistic similarities and similar rituals, linguists and anthropologists consider the Mbyá, along with the
Pai Tavytera
The Pai Tavytera are an indigenous people of Paraguay and Brazil. They primarily live in Amambay Department in Paraguay and the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Name
The Pai Tavytera are also known as the Ava, Caaguá, Caingua, Caiw� ...
,
Eastern Bolivian Guaraní,
Guarayos,
Chané
Chané is the collective name for the southernmost Arawakan-speaking peoples. They lived in the plains of the northern Gran Chaco and in the foothills of the Andes in Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina. The historical Chané are divided i ...
, and others, as a subgroup of the
Guaraní people
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 present-day Paraguay between the ...
.
Although they are now known by the name "Mbyá," they refer to themselves as the "Nhandeva," a word that means "us" or "our people," which is also the name used internally by various other Guaraní peoples.
Another such group, often referred to by ethnographers as the Nhandeva, is called "
Chiripá" by the Mbyá, and the two groups each claim exclusive status as the true Guaraní.
[LADEIRA, Maria Inês]
O caminhar sob a luz: Território mbya à beira do oceano.
1992. Dissertação de Mestrado em Antropologia – Pontifícia Universidade Católica - PUC. Versão Online. São Paulo: Centro de Trabalho Indigenista – CTI, 2014.
The ritual name used by the Mbyá to refer to themselves is Jeguakava Tenonde Porangue'í, meaning "the First Chosen to Carry the Sacred Adornment of Feathers" or "The First Adorned."
Pre-history
Many archeological remains point to the presence of the Guaraní peoples in a wide swath of South America dating long before
colonial powers
Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their rel ...
arrived.
There is no consensus among specialists as to when they arrived in the
Southern Cone
The Southern Cone ( es, Cono Sur, pt, Cone Sul) is a geographical and cultural subregion composed of the southernmost areas of South America, mostly south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Traditionally, it covers Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay, bou ...
, where they had settled by the time the
conquistadors reached the region. Some archeologists estimate that, between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago, proto-Guaraní collectives, perhaps motivated by a population spike, migrated from the
Amazon basin
The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Boli ...
to the south, occupying territories already home to other groups. Although there is evidence of such mobility among the proto-Guaraní, they were not primarily
hunter-gatherer nomad
A nomad is a member of a community without fixed habitation who regularly moves to and from the same areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the po ...
s but relied on planting grains, vegetables, and tubers for nutrition. They would plant these crops in the middle of the forest, opening clearings with
controlled burn
A controlled or prescribed burn, also known as hazard reduction burning, backfire, swailing, or a burn-off, is a fire set intentionally for purposes of forest management, farming, prairie restoration or greenhouse gas abatement. A contro ...
techniques.
[MELIÀ, Bartolome. A experiência Religiosa Guarani. 1989, p.294.]

The proto-Guaraní from whom the Mbyá descended were also
potters and
basket-weavers, producing objects used to collect, prepare, and serve food. Researchers have found clay pots used as funeral urns,
arrowhead
An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...
s, and other inorganic materials at proto-Guaraní archeological sites.
Based on the location of these archeological sites, experts guess that the Guaraní, in the period prior to
European contact, were present in the
Atlantic Forest
The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and t ...
,
Araucaria moist forests
The Araucaria moist forests, officially classified as mixed ombrophilous forest (Portuguese: "Floresta Ombrófila Mista") in Brazil, are a montane subtropical moist forest ecoregion. The forest ecosystem is located in southern Brazil and northeas ...
, and other
rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfo ...
and
deciduous forest
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, af ...
environments. They lived in family groups of varying sizes and obtained everything they needed from their environment, including through collecting medicinal plants, constructing traps for hunting, and crafting pottery.
History
Jesuit Reductions (17th-18th centuries)
In the 18th century, the Mbyá were identified as inhabitants of the Mba'everá forest.
In that period they lived, among other places, in the jungles between the
Acaray River and the
Monday River in what is now
Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
. They were also referred to as the Tarumá, Apyteré, Tembekuá, Tambeaopé, Ka'yngua, Ka’yguá, Cainguá, or Baticola.

There is no consensus among anthropologists as to the ancestry of the contemporary Mbyá,
Nhandeva, and
Pai Tavytera
The Pai Tavytera are an indigenous people of Paraguay and Brazil. They primarily live in Amambay Department in Paraguay and the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul.
Name
The Pai Tavytera are also known as the Ava, Caaguá, Caingua, Caiw� ...
groups, or as to whether they were among the Guaraní who entered settlements organized by
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Port ...
Jesuit missionaries
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders = ...
that were known as
Jesuit reduction
Reductions ( es, reducciones, also called ; , pl. ) were settlements created by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such redu ...
s. One hypothesis points to the possibility that the Mbyá had resisted conversion to Catholicism and settling in Jesuit reductions, whereas the Nhandeva were the descendants of Guaranís who participated in the Jesuits' conversion process.
Another thesis posits that none of these groups had submitted to the missionary process, choosing to preserve their independence despite frequent displacement from territory that is now part of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina. The latter theory maintains that the differences between these various Guaraní peoples stems from different kinship and family ties as the Guaraní population decreased during the missionary period. This theory also argues that many of the surviving Guaraní groups who had settled in the reductions fled to live in the forests during the 1756
Guaraní War
The Guarani War ( es, link=no, Guerra Guaranítica, pt, Guerra Guaranítica) of 1756, also called the War of the Seven Reductions, took place between the Guaraní tribes of seven Jesuit Reductions and joint Spanish- Portuguese forces. It was a ...
.
Both of these theories aim to explain changes in Guaraní
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosophe ...
to
incorporate
Incorporation may refer to:
* Incorporation (business), the creation of a corporation
* Incorporation of a place, creation of municipal corporation such as a city or county
* Incorporation (academic), awarding a degree based on the student havin ...
some European-influenced elements, which persist to this day. These changes include abandoning
ritual cannibalism, incorporating aspects of
Christian eschatology
Christian eschatology, a major branch of study within Christian theology, deals with "last things". Such eschatology – the word derives from two Greek roots meaning "last" () and "study" (-) – involves the study of "end things", whether ...
into Guaraní
shamanism
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...
, and, in the case of the Mbyá and Nhandeva, the reproduction and use of objects brought by the Jesuits, including musical instruments such as the ''ravé'' (
rabeca
The rabeca or rabeca chuleira is a fiddle originating in Portugal, commonly used in Portugal, Northeastern Brazil, where it is most commonly used in Brazilian forró music, and Cape Verde. It is descended from the medieval rebec.
History
The ...
) and the ''mbaraká'' (
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...
).
Paraguayan War (1864-1870)
The Mbyá were among the Guaraní peoples who were forced to fight on both the Paraguayan and Brazilian sides during the
Paraguayan War
The Paraguayan War, also known as the War of the Triple Alliance, was a South American war that lasted from 1864 to 1870. It was fought between Paraguay and the Triple Alliance of Argentina, the Empire of Brazil, and Uruguay. It was the deadliest ...
. There are no estimates of how many Guaranís, fighters and civilians alike, died in the war, because they were lumped in with all other "peasants" and "soldiers" in contemporary Paraguayan government records as part of an "ethnic denial" policy that was very typical of the period.
The Paraguayan War is considered one of the worst massacres in the history of the Americas. Historians diverge greatly as to how many died in the war and how much territory Paraguay lost to Brazil. Mbyá oral history contains various stories related to the Paraguayan War. Many speak of the terrible violence suffered by their ancestors, of the
forced enlistment of men near the front lines of the war, and of their ancestors fleeing the conflict zones.
Demographics
In Paraguay, the 1981 census identified 5,500 people of Mbyá ethnicity. The 1992 census identified 4,744. At the Paraguayan Forum of Indigenous Groups (FEPI), in 1995 there were 10,990 Mbyá represented. The difference between these numbers can be attributed to a resistance toward national censuses among members of the
Amerindian
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.
Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...
group. Other estimates in the year 2000 indicated an even higher 12,100 Mbyá in Paraguay.
In the Argentine region of
Misiones
Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes P ...
, Mbyá coexist, in the same familial communities, with members of the Xiripá Guaraní and Pai Tavytera groups. There are 74 such communities, known as ''tekoás'', in the region, and there are approximately 3,000 Mbyá in Argentina as a whole. Two large communities in Misiones near
Iguazu Falls
Iguazú Falls or Iguaçu Falls ( gn, Chororõ Yguasu , es, Cataratas del Iguazú, links=no ; pt, Cataratas do Iguaçu ) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paran� ...
, Fortin Mborore and Yriapú, are home to more than 600 people, many of them coming from Paraguay or Brazil.
In Brazil, the Mbyá population is concentrated in the south and southeast, in the hills of the Atlantic Forest and along the coast. There are also some small and mid-size groups on demarcated indigenous land further inland. They are also commonly found in roadside camps in the states of
Paraná,
Santa Catarina, and
Rio Grande do Sul, mainly along the
BR-101
The BR-101 (also called ''Translitorânea'' (transcoastal), officially named ''Rodovia Governador Mário Covas''.[BR-116
BR-116 is a federal route of highways of Brazil and the longest highway in the country, with of extension. The road connect Fortaleza, Ceará, one of the largest Northeast Brazil metropolises, to the southern city of Jaguarão, Rio Grande do ...](_blank)
highways. According to the Instituto Socioambiental, a Brazilian environmental and indigenous rights organization, there are currently 8,400 Mbyá in Brazil. There are also communities containing descendants of a single Mbyá family that, after the Paraguayan War, migrated to Brazil's
North Region, settled in the forests of
Pará
Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest are the borders of Guyana a ...
and
Tocantins
Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 2 ...
states, and, with time, spread in small familial groups throughout central-western Brazil.
There are also a small number of Mbyá living in Uruguay, split between the Tekoá Marae´i community near
Santiago Vázquez
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
and a community in the
Treinta y Tres
Treinta y Tres () is the capital city of the Treinta y Tres Department in eastern Uruguay.
Location
The city is located on Route 8, on the north banks of Olimar Grande River. The city is almost surrounded by a populated rural area, a zone of ' ...
area.
Present-day
Organization

Generally, the Mbyá live in small groups of four or five families, distributed in temporary camps and villages. The temporary camps are usually found along the roadside, where the group members often sell
handicrafts
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...
. The villages are larger and more permanent settlements, found both within and outside of demarcated
indigenous land. These villages are known as ''tekoa'', and they're ideally in places where the traditional Mbyá way of life, referred to as ''ñande reko'', can be reproduced. They are characterized by the presence of a traditional house of worship known as an ''opy'', used to perform rituals. These villages are also ideally surrounded by forests and fields, with a good water source, but this is not always possible for today's Mbyá. The Mbyá hunt, fish, and gather food, as well as plant crops in their fields, principally maize (''avatí''),
cassava
''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...
(''mandió''), potatoes, peanuts (''manduí''), beans (''kumandá''), squash (''mindain''), and watermelon (''janjau'').
[MORAES, Carlos Eduardo Neves de. A refiguração da ''Tava Miri'' São Miguel na memória coletiva dos Mbyá-Guarani nas Missões/RS, Brasil. Dissertação (Mestrado em Antropologia Social) IFCH, UFRGS. Porto Alegre, 2010][PIRES, Daniele de Menezes. Alegorias etnográficas do Mbyá-Rekó em cenários interétnicos do Rio Grande do Sul (2003-2007): Discurso, prática e holismo Mbyá frente às políticas públicas diferenciadas. Dissertação (Mestrado em Antropologia Social) IFCH, UFRGS. Porto Alegre, 2007] Today, the spaces occupied by Mbyá communities are less and less able to provide them with the resources they need, making it necessary for them to consume industrial products.
The communities are usually headed by two leaders: a spiritual leader or shaman, known as a ''karaí'', and a political leader or chief, known as ''mburuvichá'', who is responsible for contact with those outside the village. Sometimes these two roles are combined.
[ASSIS, Valéria. Dádiva, mercadoria e pessoa: as trocas na constituição do mundo social Mbyá. Tese (Doutorado em Antropologia Social) IFCH, UFRGS. Porto Alegre, 2006]
The Mbyá are present between the
Apa River
The Apa River (Spanish: Río Apa, Portuguese: Rio Apa) is a river of Paraguay and Brazil. It is a tributary of the Paraguay River, which in turn is a tributary of the Paraná River. It starts in the Amambai Mountains of the Brazilian state of Mat ...
and the
Paraná River
The Paraná River ( es, Río Paraná, links=no , pt, Rio Paraná, gn, Ysyry Parana) is a river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina for some ."Parana River". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Br ...
in southern Paraguay, primarily scattered across the Paraguayan department of
Guairá. They also live in the Argentine province of
Misiones
Misiones (, ''Missions'') is one of the 23 provinces of Argentina, located in the northeastern corner of the country in the Mesopotamia region. It is surrounded by Paraguay to the northwest, Brazil to the north, east and south, and Corrientes P ...
and parts of southern and southeastern Brazil, reaching the Brazilian coast. This multinational slice of land corresponds to what the Mbyá consider their original territory. Mobility is one of the group's primary characteristics, and the Mbyá are constantly circulating throughout this territory. However, national borders, restrictions on entering private property, and governments' designations of tribal reserves make this characteristic cultural practice difficult to continue.
Culture
The Mbyá speak a different dialect of
Guaraní than that
spoken in Paraguay, with distinct phonetics, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary. The Mbyá dialect is then divided into two sub-dialects, the ''tambéopé'' and the ''baticola''. Many Mbyá are trilingual, speaking Mbyá, Paraguayan Guaraní, and
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...
, for those living in Spanish-speaking areas. Those who live in Brazil often also speak
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Port ...
.
[GOBBI, Flávio. Entre parentes, lugares e outros: traços na sociocosmologia Guarani no Sul. Dissertação (Mestrado em Antropologia Social) IFCH, UFRGS. Porto Alegre, 2008.]
The spoken word is of central importance in Mbyá culture. Traditionally, the Mbyá culture had no writing system, so the spoken word was the only way to transfer customs and knowledge. Knowledge is transmitted through conversation around the fire, accompanied by drinking
mate
Mate may refer to:
Science
* Mate, one of a pair of animals involved in:
** Mate choice, intersexual selection
** Mating
* Multi-antimicrobial extrusion protein, or MATE, an efflux transporter family of proteins
Person or title
* Friendship
* ...
and smoking a pipe known as a ''petyngua'', as well as through rituals in the ''opy'' house of worship. Speech is considered a divine attribute, the result of cosmic inspiration. In Mbyá tradition, the creator figure is described as a spirit, ''nhe’e'', who represents speech and eloquence as derived from the gods.
Verbal dialogue is also the principal means of communication between the Mbyá and the outside world. Speaking the Mbyá language is a mark of identity for the group. To be considered Mbyá, one must speak the language and live among family in the community.

The concept of family and parentage among the Mbyá is directly related to their
geographic mobility
Geographic mobility is the measure of how populations and goods move over time. Geographic mobility, population mobility, or more simply mobility is also a statistic that measures migration within a population. Commonly used in demography and huma ...
, a noteworthy characteristic of the group's culture. The most basic social structure of the group is the
nuclear family
A nuclear family, elementary family, cereal-packet family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single-parent family, the la ...
, followed by the extended family, made up of all
blood relatives. There is, however, a generic term for "relative," ''retarã''. All Mbyá are considered ''retarã''—that is to say, they are all considered relatives. This broad conception of community allows for the Mbyá's territorial mobility. Individuals and families are always moving, rarely staying more than one or two years in each place that they settle. They circulate among the various villages and encampments of their people: visiting relatives, spreading news, participating in rituals and activities that require collective work (such as constructing buildings), seeking spouses, trading objects, and so on. Death, disease, a lack of resources, and internal political conflicts are also reasons that Mbyá individuals and families migrate. Traveling by foot (''jeguatá''), much like speaking, is seen as having a divine aspect. It forms part of the composition of Mbyá identity.
Rituals are special collective moments for the Mbyá community. One of the group's most traditional rituals is the ''Ñemongarai'', the child-naming ritual, which happens during the peak of the maize harvest. In this ritual, a shaman who does not belong to the community (a nod to the cultural importance of mobility) names the children of the village. Based on each small child's behavior, the shaman attempts to determine which divine being of the Mbyá pantheon sent its spirit to the child, and the shaman gives them a name related to the divine being and its characteristics. This moment is considered the point at which the child's soul is incorporated into their body, when they become an Mbyá.
In general, times of abundance and harvest are celebrated with collective rituals, when possible. When various groups meet in a village, to resolve political issues or hold celebrations, it's common for those gathered to hold a welcome ritual with music and dancing. These gatherings are marked by conversation, the serving of traditional foods, and a festive climate, given the importance of collective efforts and the gathering of relatives for the Mbyá.
Health and Shamanism
Today the Mbyá are confined in small areas, and the environments necessary to sustain their traditional way of life are disappearing, so they have been forced to adopt certain ways of life of those who they refer to as ''juruá'' (descendants of Europeans, literally "mouth with hair"). This higher level of contact has caused serious and growing damage to their health. Diseases previously unknown among Mbyá communities have reached their villages. This has made it necessary for the Mbyá to adopt some medical practices from the outside world.
Traditionally, healing treatment through medicinal plants is provided by shamans called ''karaí'', also known as ''opy'guá'' or "lord of the ''opy''," who also perform rituals meant to influence the weather, prevent future events, and ensure fruitful hunts and harvests. These shamans also lead ritual songs and dances, as well as determine the spiritual names of small children. Their most important function is telling the creation myths, which are also believed to have curative power. These spiritual leaders are divided by age, experience, and knowledge, although these divisions are not primarily hierarchical. Both women and men can be shamans, with the men referred to as ''karaí'' and the women as ''kunhã-karaí''.
Practicing traditional Mbyá medicine has been made more difficult by deforestation: Many shamans find it increasingly difficult to find the herbs that they need for their treatments. Consequentially, young Mbyá often lack the knowledge of medicinal plants that their ancestors long passed on.
Differing Circumstances

The situations in which Mbyá communities find themselves are diverse. There are groups in the forests of Paraguay and the
Gran Chaco
The Gran Chaco or Dry Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion of the Brazilian states of Mato Gros ...
who remain relatively isolated from society. On the other hand, in Argentina, some communities that are confined in tribal reserves rely on lunch distributed by bilingual schools as their only real source of food. The familial groups who travel outside the villages and indigenous territories in Argentina and Brazil usually make their living by selling handicrafts, products that reference Mbyá
material culture
Material culture is the aspect of social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects crea ...
and cosmology, and by providing agricultural labor for private landowners. When they establish themselves in a particular location, they are also able to seek out government aid.
In Brazil over the past decade, groups of young Mbyá singers and dancers have begun performing at schools and universities. Some of these performing groups, through working with partners outside the Mbyá, have recorded their songs on CDs that they sell along with their handicrafts to supplement their income. These performers also aim to spread awareness of the indigenous cause in Brazil and inform Brazilians of the Mbyá culture and way of life.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mbya Guarani
Guaraní
Indigenous peoples in Argentina
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
Indigenous peoples in Paraguay