Kuña Reko: women and politics, cosmology and kinship among the Guarani

• Grant number: 17/09129-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: January 01, 2018
• End date: December 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology - Indigenous Ethnology
• Principal Investigator: Marcio Ferreira da Silva
• Grantee: Lauriene Seraguza Olegário e Souza
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The object of this research is the range of relations of women with politics, kinship and cosmology in the areas of the territory that the Guarani have taken back. This ethnography focusses on the Ypo'i, Potrero Guasu and Yvy Katu villages and the Porto Lindo and Pirajuí reservations. The main hypothesis is that, in addition to the recuperation of the territorial and environmental patrimony that was usurped, these reclaimed areas impel reconfigurations in kinship, cosmology and in the ways that knowledge circulates. Kin that have, up until now, been confined to the reservations, are reunited in these reclaimed areas and this stimulates the circulation of narratives about the past, the recovery of social practices and the reactivation of ceremonial activities, connections w ith deities, as well as the production and use of ritual objects, foods and medicines. A remarkable aspect of these processes of territorial recovery is the significant presence of women as crucial agents in the production of "a traditional place appropriate for existence" (tekoha) and, in some cases, as the leaders of such processes. The native term that designates these recoveries of land is tekoharã (literally, tekoha + rã, a future suffix). In the cases observed, this usage of the term also suggests the reactivation of a past space from which the Guarani were removed, the rebuilding up of which requires the re-articulation of a collectivity. The objective of this research is to situate the guarani women, or more specifically "the modes of being of women" (kuña reko), in these processes of territorial recovery, focusing on the relations that they establish and on the production and circulation of knowledge that these women promote, connecting past and present social figurations. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DIBE AYOUB; LAURIENE SERAGUZA; MAIARA DOURADO. Lutas pela terra, mulheres e violências:aproximações e distanciamentos desde as indígenas Guarani e Kaiowa, as posseiras de Trombas e Formoso e as mulheres dos faxinais de Pinhão. Rev. Antropol., v. 67, 2024-06-14. (17/09129-7, 16/12736-0)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

SOUZA, Lauriene Seraguza Olegário e. Women Keepers of the Fire: politics and kinship in the guarani world. 2022. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.