Guaycuru
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Guaycuru or Guaykuru is a generic term for several ethnic groups indigenous to the
Gran Chaco The Gran Chaco or simply Chaco is a sparsely populated, hot and semiarid lowland tropical dry broadleaf forest natural region of the Río de la Plata basin, divided among eastern Bolivia, western Paraguay, northern Argentina, and a portion o ...
region of
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, speaking related Guaicuruan languages. In the 16th century, the time of first contact with
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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
explorers and colonists, the Guaycuru people lived in the present-day countries of
Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
(north of
Santa Fe Province The Invincible Province of Santa Fe (, , lit. "Holy Faith") is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco Province, Chaco (divided by the 2 ...
),
Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...
, Bolivia, and
Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
(south of
Corumbá Corumbá () is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, 425 km northwest of Campo Grande, the state's capital. It has a population of approximately 112,000 inhabitants, and its economy is based mainly on agriculture, ani ...
). The name is written ''guaycurú'' or ''guaicurú'' in
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 countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
(plural ''guaycurúes'' or ''guaicurúes''), and ''guaicuru'' in Portuguese (plural ''guaicurus''). It was originally an offensive epithet given to the Mbayá people of Paraguay by the Guarani, meaning "savage" or "barbarian", which later was extended to the whole group. It has also been used in the past to include other peoples of the Chaco region, but is now restricted to those speaking a Guaicuruan language. First encountered by the Spanish in the 16th century, the Guaycuru peoples strongly resisted Spanish control and the efforts of
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
missionaries to
Christianize Christianization (or Christianisation) is a term for the specific type of change that occurs when someone or something has been or is being converted to Christianity. Christianization has, for the most part, spread through missions by individu ...
them. They were not fully pacified until the early 20th century.


Divisions

The 16th century Guaycuru appear to have been a southern band of the Mbayá rather than a separate people. The terms Mbaya and Guaycuru were synonymous to the early Spanish colonists. Guaycuru came to be the collective name applied to all the bands speaking similar languages, called Guaycuruan. The major extant branches of the Guaycuru are: Alain Fabre (2006), ''Los guaykurú'', Part 3 of ''Los pueblos del Gran Chaco y sus lenguas''. Suplemento Antropológico, volume 41 issue 2, pp. 7–132. Asunción, Paraguay

accessed on 15 Nov 2017.
* Mocoví people, Mocoví (Mocobi) * Toba *
Pilagá fThe Pilagá (in Pilagá language, Pilagá language: ''pit'laxá'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous people of the Guaycuru peoples, Guaycuru group that inhabits the center of the province of Formosa Province, Formosa, in Arge ...
* Kadiweu Other Guaycuru groups have become extinguished over the last 500 years: * Abipón * Mbayá (ancestral to the Kadiweu) * Payaguá, also known as Evueví or Evebe. The Mocoví, Toba, and Pilagá call themselves ''qom'' and appear to form a linguistic and ethnic continuum. They have been placed together with the Abipón in the "Southern" division, while the Kadiweu are placed by themselves in a "Northern" division. The placement of the Payaguá in this classification is still controversial. Some authors, such as Quevedo,
Hunt Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...
, Mason, Greenberg and Viegas Barros, have joined the Guaycuru and the Mataguay languages into a larger Mataco–Guaycuru language family, but it is not clear yet whether the similarities between the vocabularies of the two families are due to a common origin or to borrowing.


Culture

The Guaycuru people consisted of many bands making up distinct ethnic groups with different but similar languages. The Guaycuruans were never politically united and were often hostile to each other as well as to other peoples. When first encountered in the 16th century, the Guaycuru lived in the Gran Chaco, an inhospitable region for agriculture and settlement in the eyes of the Spanish colonists. They were hunter-gatherers and nomadic, moving from place to place as dictated by seasonal resources. The governor of Paraguay,
Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca An alvar is a biological environment based on a limestone plain with thin or no soil and, as a result, sparse grassland vegetation. Often flooded in the spring, and affected by drought in midsummer, alvars support a distinctive group of prairie ...
, said in the 1540s of the Guaycuru : The Abipón Guaycuruans acquired horses from the Spanish in the late 16th century and within 50 years developed a
horse culture A horse culture is a tribal group or community whose day-to-day life revolves around the herding and breeding of horses. Beginning with the domestication of the horse on the steppes of Eurasia, the horse transformed each society that adopted it ...
similar to that of the
Plains Indians Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nations peoples who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of North ...
of North America. They and other Guaycuruans acquired horses and cattle by raiding Spanish haciendas and Guaraní settlements and
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
missions east of the Paraguay and Parana rivers. Between raids they traded skins, wax, honey, salt, and Guaraní slaves to the Spanish en exchange for knives, hatchets, and other products. The mobility afforded by the horse facilitated Guaycuruan control over other peoples in the Chaco and made raiding the Spaniards and their Indian allies a profitable enterprise. The Payaguá, inhabiting the shores of the Paraguay River north of the city of Asunción, were an exception to the horse culture of other Guaycuruans. The Payagua plied the river in canoes, fished and gathered edible plants, and raided their agricultural neighbors, the Guaraní, to the east. The Payaguá also became great traders, both with the Spanish and other Guaycuruans. The Payaguá menaced Spanish travel on the Paraguay river for 200 years. The bands and family groups making up the Guaycuruans were
matrilocal In social anthropology, matrilocal residence or matrilocality (also uxorilocal residence or uxorilocality) is the societal system in which a married couple resides with or near the wife's parents. Description Frequently, visiting marriage ...
and
exogamous Exogamy is the social norm of mating or marrying outside one's social group. The group defines the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. One form of exogamy is dual exogamy, in which tw ...
. The bands only united on ceremonial occasions, especially during the harvest period for wild
honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of pl ...
and algarroba ('' Prosopis'') pods which were used to produce a fermented alcoholic beverage. The reunions were used to designate leaders, reinforce relations among the bands, and facilitate courtships and marriages. The Guaycuruan population of the Chaco in pre-Hispanic times has been estimated to be as high as 500,000 people. Although documentation is mostly lacking, the Guaycuruans were impacted by epidemics of European diseases, but possibly less than their settled, agricultural neighbors such as the Guaraní, The Guaycuruan population in the mid 17th century is estimated at 40,000.


History

In 1542, Cabeza de Vaca responded to the request of the Guaraní to punish the hostile Guaycuru. He dispatched a large expedition of Spaniard and Guaraní soldiers from Asunción and attacked an encampment of Mbayas, also called Eyiguayegis. The Spanish and Guaraní killed many and took 400 prisoners. In the aftermath of the battle, however, the Guaycuruans retained their control of the Chaco and gradually acquired horses, a taste for Spanish beef, and iron weapons and tools. In the 17th century, Guaycuruan raids forced the abandonment of Concepción del Bermejo, Argentina and the relocation of
Santa Fe, Argentina Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz (; usually called just Santa Fe, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city of the provinces of Argentina, province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe, Argentina. It is situated in north-eastern Argentina, near the junction of t ...
. In retaliation, in 1677, the Spanish massacred 300 Mbayan traders who were camped near Asunsción. By the early 1700s, bands of up to 400 Guaycuruan warriors were attacking Spanish settlements in Tucuman and other nearby Argentine provinces. Their raids forced the Spanish to abandon some frontier areas. Frequent Spanish military expeditions against the Guaycuruans were only temporarily successful if at all. The Guaycuruans largest raid came in 1735 when 1,000 Mocobis and Tobas descended upon
Salta Province Salta () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the east clockwise Formosa Province, Formosa, Chaco Province, Chaco, Santiago del Estero Province, Santiago del Es ...
, Argentina. They killed or captured hundreds of people, ransoming some captives and keeping others as slaves, and much livestock. Mbaya raids in Paraguay during the same decade resulted in the death of 500 Paraguayans and the theft of 6,000 head of livestock. However, Guaycuruan power had reached its zenith. A smallpox epidemic from 1732 to 1736 killed many, especially Mocobis; Spanish settlements were encroaching on the Chaco, and some of the Guaycuruans were adopting Spanish culture and religion. Moreover, the human pressure on the Chaco led to its environmental deterioration and it became less suitable as a habitat for the traditional hunting-gathering culture plus horse and cattle herds of the Chaco peoples.
Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
missionaries made unsuccessful attempts to establish missions or
reductions Reductions (, also called ; ) were settlements established by Spanish rulers and Roman Catholic missionaries in Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies (the Philippines). In Portuguese-speaking Latin America, such reductions were also ...
among the Guaycuruans in the early 1600s. Their first successful mission was established among the Mocobis at San Javier, north of Santa Fe, Argentina in 1743. Several other missions were established among the various ethnic groups of the Guaycuru and the mission population reached a peak of 5,000 to 6,000 in the early 1780s. The population of the missions was unstable as many Guaycuruans returned to their nomadic ways after a residence at a mission. Many Guaycuruans were also, by this time, integrated into the Spanish economy, raising livestock, growing crops, and working for wages--although many also continued smuggling and stealing livestock and remained hostile to the Spanish.


Decline

By the early 19th century, when the South American countries sought independence from Spain, the Guaycuruan peoples were divided among those who lived in missions and were at least partially integrated into Hispanic and Christian society and those who continued to live as nomads in the more isolated parts of the Gran Chaco. In the independence movement of the 1810s and 1820s some Guaycuruans served with the colonial independence armies, others resumed their raiding ways and expelled settlers from part of the Argentine Chaco. However, old animosities among the various ethnic groups making up the Guaycuruans led to internecine warfare among Tobas, Macobis, and Albipones. The Mbayas were increasingly absorbed into Brazilian society. Only a "small, depressed colony" of the once powerful Payaguá still survived near Asunción in 1852. The last known Payaguá, Maria Dominga Miranda, died in the early 1940s. The Abipón became extinct in the last half of the 19th century. The Mbayas were given land by Brazil for their assistance in 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 wa ...
(1864-1870), but survive only as the Kadiweu, numbering 1,400 in 2014.. The still-nomadic Tobas and Mocovis in the Argentine Chaco continued to resist the advancing frontier until 1884, when they were decisively defeated by the army; while a number of them agreed to thereafter live in reductions, thousands of Tobas retreated to isolated regions of Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia and retained some level of autonomy into the 20th century. In 1904, a millenarian movement, similar to that of the Ghost Dance in the North American West, erupted among the Mocovis of San Javier, Santa Fe, Argentina, but was quickly squelched when 500 of them were repulsed after an attack on the town. In 1924, Argentine police and military killed 400 Toba in what was called the Napalpí massacre. In the 1968 census 16,548 Tobas and 1,202 of the closely related Pilagás were counted in Argentina. 2,600 Tobas were living in Bolivia. 3,000 to 6,000 Mocovis lived in Argentina in 1968.Saegar, pp. 178-179


References

{{Authority control Indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco Indigenous peoples in Brazil Indigenous peoples in Paraguay Indigenous peoples in Argentina Indigenous peoples in Bolivia