Contemporary Dispossession and Re-Territorialization Processes of the Ava Guaraní, Mbya Guaraní and Paî Tavyterâ Peoples of the Eastern Region of Paraguay

Abstract

We present the status and dynamics of the traditional Ava Guaraní, Mbya Guarani and PaÄ© Tavyterã territories of the Eastern Region of Paraguay. While recognizing the debate on the native and anthropological categories of the yvy marane'y and oguata that debate the Guaraní migration, we nevertheless focus on the comparison of the traditional territories of these peoples at the beginning of the 20th century and their situation at the beginning of the present, with the distribution, quantity and extension of lands of current communities. For that, we use the ethnic cartography and anthropological insights of Lehner (2005, 2014) and contrasts it with current cartographic sources. Thus, we observe how the division into subgroups and tekoha guasu of the traditional territories of each people has diminished - with few exceptions -, while the tekoha and their translation in recognized communities or in the process of territorial claim remain in force. We partially explain the changes due to the expansive agro-extractive model and state policies, but we show the Guaraní reterritorialization with the existing and growing number of communities with secured lands within traditional territories, as well as the cases of communities that, having been expelled, claim former tekoha or in instead, they occupy or have secured alternative lands beyond those territories.