Expedition 'poses risk to tribes'

By Victoria Gill
Science and nature reporter, BBC News

A conservation expedition to a remote area of Paraguay poses a risk to isolated tribal groups, according to an indigenous peoples' protection group. Scientists from London's Natural History Museum (NHM) aim to record biodiversity in the Dry Chaco region. An open letter from Iniciativa Amotocodie (IA) to the NHM has highlighted a dilemma: how to balance the need for research against the risks of disturbing indigenous communities. IA says the trip should be called off. But the museum, which is collaborating with Paraguayan colleagues in the project, said it was taking measures to ensure that the expedition would not threaten indigenous tribes. A museum press statement said: "We always take advice on these issues from the relevant national authorities, as we are doing in Paraguay."
They live in completely virgin forest... it makes them vulnerable to any external intrusion Benno Glauser Iniciativa Amotocodie
The Dry Chaco, a semi-arid lowland area that stretches into Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil, is one of the few places where there are still isolated groups of Ayoreo people. These tribes have never had contact with the outside world. The team of British and Paraguayan biologists and botanists hope to find undiscovered species of plants, insects and animals in the region. They hope the expedition will help to draw attention to the need to protect the habitat, which is under threat from the expansion of logging and intensive agriculture.

But Benno Glauser, director of Iniciativa Amotocodie, told BBC News that any contact with tribal groups during the trip could have "fatal consequences". He said there was a risk of "surprise contact" because the scientists had to "move around in a very silent way in order to observe animals". Mr Glauser told the BBC's Today Programme: "We know of three isolated indigenous groups in the area targeted by the expedition.
"They live in completely virgin forest... it makes them vulnerable to any external intrusion."
New encounters
The letter has highlighted the risks associated with carrying out research in such remote regions.
Professor Richard Lane, head of science at the Natural History Museum, told BBC News: "We've considered the whole expedition from the very beginning.
"We have sought local advice from our guides to ensure there will be no inappropriate contact."
The team has also collaborated with Ayoreo representatives in the form of the National Union for the Ayoreo in Paraguay (UNAP).
"Most recently, our collaborators have enlisted an Ayoreo elder, who has volunteered to guide our team in the forest," Professor Lane added.
The charity Survival International has joined the debate.
But Jonathan Mazower, advocacy director for Survival, said that the tribes often perceived outsiders as hostile, and any unexpected encounters could turn violent.
But he did not suggest the trip should be abandoned. Instead, he said it should be moved to a different part of the Chaco.

"[It] is a vast area, but this expedition plans to go to an area that, despite being very remote, is known to be the ancestral home of the Ayoreo tribe," he told BBC News.
There are about 5,000 Ayoreo people in total. Survival International estimates that just 200 are still "uncontacted".
Mr Mazower said that these people were "permanently on the run" from cattle ranchers that were clearing the forest.
"Previously, when they have been contacted, there have been violent encounters," he told BBC News.
"And they are nomads, so it's impossible to know where they are at any one time."
Many of those Ayoreo who have moved out of the forest voluntarily have suffered appalling health problems, particularly from respiratory infections including tuberculosis.
Their isolation leaves them with no natural immunity to such infections.
Professor Lane said that the museum and its partners in the expedition had no interest in contacting isolated tribes during the trip.
"We are targeting protected areas because, many areas of forest of the Chaco have already been cut down, so they are of little interest for a scientific expedition," he said.
The museum plans to go ahead with the expedition and hopes that it will help "governments and conservation groups better understand how to manage fragile habitats and protect them for future generations".

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9171000/9171328.stm

Paraguay: Last Maka Indian chief has no male heir

The Associated Press

Updated: 04/19/2011 04:01:36 PM CDT

 

A woman from the Maca ethnic group, plays the drum and sings as others... ((AP Photo/Jorge Saenz))

ASUNCION, Paraguay—Britain isn't the only place where people are concerned about the rules of royal succession. In Paraguay, the leader of the Maka (ma-KAA) Indian tribe is lamenting that he has no male heir. Andres Chemhei is 65 years old and has three daughters, but no sons. As the leader of one of Paraguay's 20 surviving indigenous tribes, he knows that without a son, his family's ancestral rule must come to an end. According to Paraguayan law, his death will trigger a democratic election for a new leader of his 1,500 people. Chemhei spoke with The Associated Press Tuesday during a celebration of American Indian day, when Maka men and women dress in colorful costumes and share traditional dances. He says whoever's elected to succeed him must be vigilant to maintain the tribe's customs.

Men from the Maca ethnic group, attend the celebrations of the "American Indigenous International Day" in Mariano Roque Alonso, on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, April 19, 2011. ((AP Photo/Jorge Saenz))

 The Maká are a group of South American Indians that used to roam in the Gran Chaco—the enormous plain that occupies part of the present-day republics of Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay—and today live in the city of Asunción del Paraguay. A suprasegmental trait distinguishing them from the rest of the inhabitants of the Chaco is that adult men and women wear their hair long without ever cutting it, even when in mourning.  Although their population appears to have diminished in the past fifty years, the Maká still number about 600 individuals. It is unlikely that they ever numbered more than 1,000, which is approximately the population of the typical Chaco tribe.

 

source:

http://genteindigena.org/maka.html

Paraguay Imposes 30-Day State of Emergency to Combat Insurgent Violence

Monday, April 26th 2010 - 01:26 UTC
Paraguay has passed a bill imposing a temporary suspension of constitutional rights in five northern and central provinces of the country in a crackdown on violence by a self proclaimed insurgent group, the Paraguayan People’s Army, EPP. The 30-day suspension signed by President Fernando Lugo after Congress pruned to five provinces his original national exception decree, gives the armed forces greater powers to combat the left-wing group Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo (EPP) which is responsible for the latest killing of four people and kidnapping for ransom, sources in the country's congress said. The emergency will allow troops and police to detain suspects and ban public meetings for 30 days in the five provinces. President Lugo asked for the measures three days ago after a police officer and three farm workers were killed in an attack last Wednesday approximately 380 kilometers to the north of the capital Asunción. Paraguayan intelligence claim the rebels belong to the EPP, a small group with suspected links to left-wing rebels in Colombia.
“These fugitives of the Paraguayan People's Party should be captured, because everyone has the right to live in peace,” Mr Lugo said as he defended his request for a state of suspension. The head of Congress opposition Senator Miguel Carrizosa said that the President has been given the tools to “neutralize EPP, which is causing so much damage and grief” in the north of the country. “People are afraid, the government must act”. EPP is accused of having participated in four renowned kidnap for ransom cases in the last ten years and apparently some of its members have been trained by Colombian rebels from FARC.
The area where the EPP operates is to the north-east close to the Brazilian border, an area of farms and jungle with scarce population and little police presence. In the latest case a policeman and three farm hands went into the jungle after what they believed were cattle rustlers, but were machined gunned by the EPP group. EPP is accused of having kidnapped cattle farmer Luis Lindstrom, in 2008, who was released after 43 days and a ransom of 300.000 US dollars. The most recent kidnap involves another farmer Fidel Zabala, retained 94 days for whom the family paid 550.000 US dollars. In 2001 the group allegedly kidnapped Edith de Debernardi, wife of a rich Paraguyan businessman and in 2005 the daughter of a former president, Cecilia Cubas, for whom a ransom of 300.000 US dollars was paid but she never returned alive.Since the latest violent actions Colombian and Brazilian intelligence groups are known to be operating with sophisticated equipment in support of Paraguayan authorities.

source:
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/04/26/paraguay-imposes-30-day-state-of-emergency-to-combat-insurgent-violence

Bottle dance "Baile de la botella"

The Bottle Dance" It is only performed by girls and is also somewhat of a holiday tradition. The dancers start out with one bottle balanced on their head as they dance. Then they begin adding more bottles one at a time. Depending on the experience of the dancer there may be more than ten bottles at a time.

Poverty and Child Labor

BAÑADO SUR, Paraguay, 21 October 2010 – The Cateura Dump, in the Bañado Sur area along the Paraguay River, is the final dumping site for more than 1,500 tons of solid waste each day. Poor waste management has caused the country’s most essential water supply to become dangerously polluted and the environment contaminated. Seven neighbourhoods housing some 2,500 families surround the dump. Most of these families earn a living by separating garbage for the recycling industry. Children are often the ones with the onerous and unsanitary chore of collecting and peddling the waste. Poverty drives children into early labor. Lack of literacy and adequate education compounds the problem. The UNICEF-supported Abrazo Programme was initiated by the Paraguay National Department for Children and Adolescent Affairs in an attempt to reduce child labour and better the lives of children in these communities.

Womens rights

The 1992 Constitution of Paraguay upholds the principle of equality for all individuals and prohibits discrimination, and the government claims to have removed most of the discriminatory clauses in the country’s existing legislation. Feminist organisations conducted significant awareness-raising campaigns during the 1990s, which helped develop a legal and institutional framework to guarantee the protection of women’s rights.

Family Code: 

Overall, Paraguay’s Family Code provides a reasonable degree of protection for women. However, the incidence of early marriage remains quite high. The legal age for marriage is 16 years for both men and women, and a 2004 United Nations report estimated that 17 per cent of girls between 15 and 19 years of age were married, divorced or widowed.
Polygamy is prohibited by law in Paraguay.
According to Paraguay’s new Civil Code, men and women have the same rights and responsibilities within the home, particularly in relation to parental authority.
Men and women in Paraguay have equal legal rights to inheritance.

Physical Integrity: 

Laws to protect the physical integrity of women in Paraguay are weak. Violence against women is the main infringement of women’s rights in the country. A law passed in 2000 classifies domestic violence as a crime, but only when it is physical violence; the law does not specifically recognise psychological and economic abuse. Moreover, violence must be habitual before legal proceedings can be initiated against the offender.
There is no evidence to indicate that female genital mutilation is practised in Paraguay, nor does it appear to be a country of concern in relation to missing women.

Art of Paraguay

Traditional folk arts include ñanduti (a spider web-like lace), ao poí (embroidered cloth), several kinds of ceramic and clay work, and silver filigree jewelry. Paintings by contemporary artists are displayed in a number of galleries in Asunción.

Foods at Ceremonial Occasions

Special family celebrations and social gatherings call for an asado, or barbecue, with beef roasted over open fires and accompanied by boiled mandioca and sopa paraguaya. Chipa traditionally is prepared for the major religious holidays of Christmas and Holy Week. Special meals during these holidays also may include an asado of beef or a pit-roasted pig. A popular social pastime is the drinking of maté, a tea made from the leaves of a plant related to holly. It is an important ritual, shared among family, friends, and colleagues. Each time, one person is responsible for filling a gourd almost to the top with the tea. Water is heated, but not boiled, in a kettle and poured into the vessel. Each person then sips the liquid through a silver tube.

Remains of first human settlements on indigenous land

Spear heads and carved stone knives, bones of animals which were hunted and eaten and a hearth dating from about 5,200 years have been found on an archaelogical excavation; these finds are the oldest evidence of human presence ever discovered in Paraguay.This scientific investigation was organised and supervised by the Guarani Paî Tavyterâ indigenous association, Paî Reta Joaju, in their sacred territory and carried out by a Spanish team from the Altamira Museum.

 

Cave markings found at the dig site. © Paî Tavyterá/Museo de Altamira

 http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/4291

Ayore and deforestation

Of the several different sub-groups of Ayoreo, the most isolated are the Totobiegosode (‘people from the place of the wild pigs’). Since 1969 many have been forced out of the forest, but some still avoid all contact with outsiders. Their first sustained contact with white people came in the 1940s and 1950s, when Mennonite farmers established colonies on their land. The Ayoreo resisted this invasion, and there were killings on both sides. In 1979 and 1986 the American fundamentalist New Tribes Mission helped organise ‘manhunts’ in which large groups of Totobiegosode were forcibly brought out of the forest.
Several Ayoreo died in these encounters, and others succumbed later to disease. Other Totobiegosode groups came out of the forest in 1998 and 2004 as continual invasions of their land meant they constantly had to abandon their homes, making life very hard.

Recently a man belonging to the only uncontacted tribe,still living a nomaci life in the forest, was spotted in South America outside the Amazon basin. He had been sighted near a region targeted for deforestation by Brazilian cattle-ranchers. The next day an abandoned camp, a clay dish, and game ready for cooking were found nearby. The man is one of an unknown number of uncontacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode living in the dry forests of northern Paraguay. The Ayoreo tribe has lost a lot of land due to cattle-ranchers, such as the Brazilian firm Yaguarete Pora S.A. The man was seen in an area owned by Yaguarete. In a letter to the Paraguayan government about the sighting, already-contacted Totobiegosode leaders said, ‘We are very concerned about [our relatives still in the forest]. They’re threatened by the deforestation in that region.’Yaguarete was recently fined $16,000/£10,500 by the Paraguayan authorities for concealing the existence of the Totobiegosode in the area where it was given a licence to work.

A clay dish for toasting seeds was found where the isolated Indian was spotted.

© GAT/Survival

Four Ayoreo-Totobiegosode men make first contact with the outside world in 2004. © GAT / Survival

Autogestion

Even well into the 1970s there was no  law that protected the indigenous peoples of  Paraguay to the point that it was not against the law to kill Indians. But in the early 1970s indigenous leaders sought to establish a system of "autogestion," in which the indigenous groups themselves would represent their own interests and push their own demands. And in 1981, indigenous groups won major legislative victories when the law of native communities (Law 901) recognized indigenous communities and their right to land. The Paraguayan Indigenous Institute (INDI) was created to implement these new laws but unfortunately the laws were not carried out. In 1992 recognized indigenous communities and their rights, emphasizing indigenous ethnic identity and their rights as peoples, as well as an explicit acceptance of cultural diversity.

Conversion to Christianity

On 6 Sept., 1909, a law was passed providing for the conversion of Indians to Christianity and civilization. As a benefit of this law, the President of the Republic was authorized to grant public lands to individuals or companies organized for the purpose of converting the tribes. On these lands the concessionaire established a reduction with the necessary churches, houses, schools etc.

Other ethnic groups

Aside from the indigenous peoples in Paraguay there are also other ethnic groups that reside in Paraguay. For the most part they are immigrant from neighboring countries and other parts of the world. Most immigrants have blened to Paraguayian population but some maintain distinct identities and cultures. These groups include Mennonites, who settled in Chaco and the northern regions early in the early twentieth century; Japanese, who settled in agricultural colonies during the 1950s and 1960s; and more recent Korean, Lebanese, and ethnic Chinese immigrants, who have settled in the urban centers of Asunción since the 1970s. Then in the 1960s and 1970s, many Brazilian immigrant farmers moved to the eastern frontier region and became the backbone of the soybean export sector. By the 1990s, a second generation of Brazilians had been born and raised in Paraguay, and some intermarried with the local population making the brasiguayos, a distinct subgroup.

Guarani heritage

After the departure of the Jesuits, most of the natives who had been integrated into the missions continued with the communitarian and autonomous work methods that they had developed, and slowly became integrated into the society of the Province of Paraguay. On the other hand, other indians returned to the forests when the Jesuits left them. Surviving Guaraní continue to practice communal agriculture in some rural areas and Guaraní culture has had a strong influence on present-day Paraguayan musical folklore. The descendants of Guaraní women and Spanish ranchers are today Paraguay's rural population which as called mestizo. Only a few scattered communities of “pure” Guaraní remain, but Paraguay claims a strong Guaraní heritage, and most of the people living along the Paraguay River near Asunción speak Guaraní, yet with a Spanish influence. Guaraní are proud of their heritage and often define themselves by three aspects of their culture: speaking Guaraní, drinking yerba (herb) tea, and eating mandioca (cassava).

The Guarani tribe

 The Guarani are primarily a tribal people indigenous to Paraguay and some regions of Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia. Paraguay consisted of numerous seminomadic, Guarani-speaking tribes of Indians, who were recognized for their fierce warrior traditions. They practiced a mythical polytheistic religion, which later blended with Christianity. These peoples are generally classified as short and stoutly built, averaging but little over five feet, and are rather light in colour. The men wear only the G-string, with labrets on the lower lip, and feather crowns. The women wore woven garments covering the whole body. The Guarani were hunter-gatherers, they depended primarily on intensive agriculture supplemented by fishing, hunting, and gathering; the staple crops were corn and manioc. Their housings were big communal houses that harbored thirty or more families in which they had no social classes and they existed based on cooperation and mutual help.

Colonization and the Indigenous

The original people living in what is now Paraguay were Guaraní Amerindians of the Tupi-Guaraní language family among many other indigenous groups. At the time of the European arrival it is said that there were as many as 150,000 Amerindians living in present day Paraguay. Sebastian Cabot is the first known European to explore Paraguay from 1526 to 1530 under the Spanish order. The first permanent Spanish settlement, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Our Lady of the Assumption, which the capital), was founded where the Paraguay and Pilcomayo rivers meet on Assumption Day, 15 August 1537. Then in the following two centuries Paraguay was dominated by the Jesuit Missions, these Jesuit missionaries were there to protect the natives from Portuguese slave trade and the Spanish colonist. Priests organized Guaraní families in mission villages ( reducciones ) designed as self-sufficient communities in which they were taught trades, improved methods of cultivation, and the fine arts, as well as religion. Eventually the colonist became jealous of the growing communities and therefore expelled the Jesuit from the New World. After the expulsion of the Jesuit the reducciones were taken over by civil authorities and the mismanagement caused their population to decline. The survivors either were assimilated into the rural mestizo population or fled to the hinterland. 

Basic Facts

Paraguay is located in the central South America and in the northeast of Argentina. The Population of the country is estimated to 6,669,086 as of 2007. The major ethnic group is mestizo which is mixed Spanish and Amerindian which constitutes for 95% of the population. Spanish and Guaraní, which is spoken by most of the population, are the official languages. Guarani is also the currency of the country.Its government is a Constitutional Republic. Roman Catholicism is the established religion; most of the small number of Protestants are Mennonites. Majority of the population are engaged in the agriculture. Agricultural products include cotton, sugarcane, soybeans, corn, wheat, tobacco, cassava (tapioca), fruits, vegetables; beef, pork, eggs, milk and timber.The terrain is mostly grassy plains and wooded hills east of Rio Paraguay; Gran Chaco region west of Rio Paraguay mostly low, marshy plain near the river, and dry forest and thorny scrub elsewhere. 

The reason for this blog

This blog is to be a form of news, a window,and or an observation on one of the many countries of South America, Paraguay. It will be a reference of the anthropology of Paraguay; from its humble beginnings to its present. A learning experience that i hope everyone enjoys.