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Land, Politics and Benevolent Shamanism: The Enxet Indians in a Democratic Paraguay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Stephen W. Kidd
Stephen W. Kidd
Affiliation:
coordinator and investigator of the Tierraviva Land Programme, Asunción, Paraguay and Lecturer in Anthropology at theUniversidad Nacional, Asunción.
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Abstract

Only in the last century has the territory of the Enxet Indians of Paraguay been colonised by non-Indians, led initially by Anglican missionaries. This article examines the Enxet in the contemporary political context of Paraguay giving special attention to their claim for 160,000 hectares of their traditional territory. It also considers the development of a mythically expressed autochthonous political discourse and the relationship of the Indians to professional politicians. Despite significant legal backing, the Enxet land claims are strongly opposed by powerful landowners and their best chance for success will be to gain international support.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , February 1995 , pp. 43 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 The Enxet are usually referred to as the Lengua-Maskoy. Since this is understood by the Indians as a pejorative term I will use their own term ‘Enxet’. However, this usage is not without its difficulties as the Sanapaná and Angaité also refer to themselves as Enxet whilst the Toba-Maskoy use Enenxet. All are members of the Maskoy linguistic family.

2 It is difficult to know the exact populations of the various Indian peoples. This is made clear in: Chase-Sardi, M., Brun, A. and Enciso, M. A., Situación sociocultural, econó;mica, jurídico-politica actual de las comunidades indígenas en el Paraguay (Asunción, 1990)Google Scholar.

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56 Ibid. p. 203.

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61 Loewen, ‘Lengua festivals’, p. 20.

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63 This is normal among leaders in lowland South America, cf.: Thomas, D. J., Order without government: the society of the Pemon Indians of Venezuela (Urbana, 1982), pp. 57Google Scholar, 123–39; Renshaw, ‘The economy and economic morality’, p. 288; Overing, J., ‘Lessons in wizardry: personal autonomy and the domestication of the self in Piaroa society’, in Lewis, I. M., and Jahoda, G. (eds.), Acquiring culture (London, 1988), p. 171f.Google Scholar; Overing, J., ‘The aesthetics of production: the sense of community among the Cubeo and Piaroa’, Dialectical Anthropology, vol. 14 (1989), pp. 162, 166CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Clastres, P., Society against the State: essays in political anthropology (New York, 1987), pp. 11fGoogle Scholar.; Belaunde, L. A., ‘Gender, commensality and community among the Airo-Pai of West Amazonia (Secoya, Western-Tukanoan speaking)’, Unpubl. PhD diss., University of London, 1992, p. 31Google Scholar.

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67 ‘Tasek hekñat enxet'ak nano. Meeko exnekñat apkelo. Apmelyeha'ak hekñat kemata enxet. Apkelwesee hawee sekxok apkelwesee Lengua’.

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70 Grubb, An unknown people, p. 155.

71 Wilson, Magic and the millennium, p. 269.

72 Burridge, New Heaven, New Earth, p. 39.

73 One ranch, Quebrachales Puerto Colón, had over 300,000 hectares in 1991.

74 Ganadería, Ministerio de Agricultura y, Censo Agropecuario Nacional (Asunción, 1991)Google Scholar.

75 Faulkner, P., ‘Census of the Indian population of the Anglican Zone of Paraguay’ (1978)Google Scholar. Unpublished document of the Iglesia Anglicana Paraguaya.

76 INDI, Censo y Estudio de la Población Indigena del Paraguay 1981 (Asunción, 1982)Google Scholar.

77 The total population of southern Enxet is probably around 5,000.

78 Stahl, W., Hazelton, P., Schellenberg, F., Tyson, P. and Wallace, I., La Herencia evaluation report (Asunción, 1982), p. 57Google Scholar. The SAMS had, from 1923, held 22,500 hectares in trust for the Indians but in the late 1950s and early 1960s sold virtually all of it to fund their Mission work elsewhere.

79 La Patria is mainly settled by Sanapaná and Angaité.

80 Herencia, La, Informe Anual (Asunción, 1980, 1983, 1985)Google Scholar.

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82 These seemingly ‘egalitarian’ values are common to many peoples of South America and good discussions and analyses of this topic are found in: C. McCallum; ‘Gender, personhood and social organization amongst the Cashinahua of Western Amazonia’, unpubl. PhD diss., University of London, 1989; Overing, ‘The aesthetics of production’; Gow, P., Of Mixed Blood: kinship and history in Peruvian Amazon (Oxford, 1991)Google Scholar; de Castro, E. Viveiros, From the Enemies' Point of View: humanity and divinity in an Amazonian society (Chicago and London, 1992)Google Scholar; Belaunde, ‘Gender, commensality and community’.

83 Wallis, C., Cuatro proyectos del Chaco. Comisión Intereclesiástica de Coordinatión para Proyectos de Desarrollo (ICCO) (Holland, 1985)Google Scholar; Bremen, V. von, Fuentes de caza y recolección modernas: proyectos de ayuda al desarrollo destinados a los indígenas del Gran Chaco (Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia) (Stuttgart, 1987)Google Scholar.

84 The Mennonites are German-speaking anabaptists who arrived in the Chaco in 1928–31, and 1946–7. They number approximately 12,000 and own more than 1,100,000 hectares to the north-west of the southern Enxet territory. Their economy is based on cattle ranching and commercial agriculture for which they employ dry-farming techniques.

85 For example, on the Quebrachales Puerto Colón ranch, which, in 1991, had a total of six Indian communities, only 10% of families had a member employed by the ranch.

86 More detailed descriptions of the conditions of employment of the Enxet can be found in: Kidd, Informe sobre las comunidades indígenas Lengua-Sanapaná-Angaité; Kidd, S. W., ‘The working conditions of the Enxet Indians’, Report prepared for Anti-Slavery International (1994)Google Scholar.

87 This is the figure for ranch workers for 1994. The employer is also obliged to provide adequate food for the employee and his family.

88 Cf. Layton, R., ‘Political and territorial structures among hunter-gatherers’, Man, vol. 21 (1986), pp. 18–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ingold, T., The Appropriation of Nature. Essays on human ecology and social relations (Manchester, 1986)Google Scholar.

89 Bennett, G., Aboriginal rights in international law, Occasional Paper No. 37 of the Royal Anthropological Institute (1978), p. 32Google Scholar.

90 Ibid. p. 32.

91 Details on the land claims can be found in: Kidd, Informe sobre las comunidades indígenas lengua-Sanapaná-Angaité; Kidd, S. W., ‘Paraguay: the Enxet and their struggle to regain their land’, Indigenous Affairs, No. 1 (1994), pp. 36–42Google Scholar. Recently, most of the technical support of the land claims has been carried out by a newly formed secular organisation.

92 Bogado, Apteemakxa nanok Enxet, p. 13.

93 Ahoxek hekñat makham meeke walee kenhan inglés. Apwetagwokmek hekñat enxet walee apkyokxa ekwesee Nawatsam, kenhan kexyokok hekñat apaewa walee nanok kenban meeko exnekñat aksok walee nano. Kenhan hekñat etaxnok walee keso Chaco haktee apkantawok hekñat walee enxet eeke ektaha apwayam naep watsam. Kenhan yetnek hekñat anhan Sap'ag kenhan Kelyakmok kenhan Kyatewes. Eekeso apkelwesee apagkok hekñat pok enxet'ak.

94 Ibid. pp. 22f.

95 Ibid. pp. 29f.

96 The Maká did, in fact, move to Asunción after the Chaco War as a reward for helping the Paraguayans.

97 Turner, T., ‘History, myth and social consciousness among the Kayapó of Central Brazil’, in Hill, J. D. (ed.), Rethinking History and Myth: indígenous perspectives on the past (Urbana, 1988)Google Scholar.

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99 Ibid. p.212.

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102 These are regarded as manifestations of the ‘master’ of the plant.

103 Cf. Grubb, An unknown people, pp. 145, 161; Overing, ‘Lessons in wizardry’, p. 171; Gow, Of Mixed Blood, p. 238.

104 McCallum, ‘Gender, personhood and social organization’, p. 235; Thomas, Order without government, pp. 231–2.

105 Kidd, ‘Religious change’.

106 Cf. Von Bremen, Fuentes de caza y recolección modernas, p. 84.

107 Cf. Kidd, ‘Religious change’; Von Bremen, Fuentes de caza y recolección modernas.

108 Grubb, A church in the wilds, p. 58.

109 Information from Diary of ‘Misión Central’, 1956–58 (located in the archive of the Iglesia Anglicana Paraguaya, Asunción).

110 Information from Diary of ‘Misión Central’, 1963 (located in the archive of the Iglesia Anglicana Paraguaya, Asunción).

111 Miller, E. S., ‘The Argentine Toba evangelical service’, Ethnology, vol. 10 (1971), p. 151CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Von Bremen, Fuentes de caza y recolección modernas, p. 23.

112 The results of the elections are as follows: the 1991 municipal election was won by the Colorado party; the 1992 Colorado party internal election was won by the militant; the 1993 governor's and deputy's elections for Presidente Hayes were both won by the Colorado party.

113 Red is the colour of the Colorado party and, according to eyewitnesses, those Indians with red armbands had their ballot papers filled in for them by Colorados who were manning the voting stations.

114 In late 1993 a Korean mission began working in Makthlawaiya and El Estribo but stopped after about four months.

115 Sources: Dacio Martínez and Ed Brice, personal communication.

116 CEDHU, ‘Plenaria Aprueba el Capítulo de los Pueblos Indígenas’, Mbya Guarani, No. 11 (1992), p. 3Google Scholar.

117 Editor, ‘Editorial. Los Maskoy y el INDI’, Diálogo Indígena Misionero, vol. 8, No. 26 (1987), p. 3.

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119 Source: Wilmar Dagen, personal communication.

120 Editor, ‘Se repite violento desalojo. Empeora situatión para Mbya de Paso Romero’, Diálogo Indígena Misionero, vol. 6, No. 20 (1985), p. 6; Kidd, Informe sobre las comunidades indígenas Lengua-Sanapaná-Angaité.

121 Ibid. pp. 35–7.

122 Asociación Rural del Paraguay, Comisión de Asuntos Indígenas, ‘Proyecto: tierras del Chaco para indígenas y campesinos’ (1994). Manuscript of the Asociación Rural del Paraguay.

123 See: Proyecto de ley que crea la Administratión Nacional del Desarrollo del Chaco. Manuscript of the Asociación Rural del Paraguay.

124 This is a group representing industrialists in Paraguay.

125 See Barreto, M., ‘Cuando la limosna es grande…’, Diario Noticias of 20 07 1994Google Scholar.

126 Kidd, Informe sobre las comunidades indígenas Lengua-Sanapaná-Angaité, pp. 7–15; Kidd, S. W., ‘La lucha interminable: los pueblos Enxet y Quebrachales Puerto Colón S.A.’, Diálogo lndígena Misionero, No. 50 (1994), pp. 4–9Google Scholar.

127 Editor, ‘Presupuesto del INDI 1991’, Diálogo Indígena Misionero, vol. II, No. 38 (1990), pp. 14–15.

128 Editor, ‘Editorial. Desinterés del gobierno por asegurar tierras indígenas’, Diálogo Indígena Misionero, vol. 13, No. 44 (1992) pp. 3–4.

129 Kidd, Informe sobre las comunidades indígenas Lengua-Sanapaná-Angaité.

130 In: Diario Noticias of 6 Oct. 1992