Gran Chaco people
 Area of the Gran Chaco | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 300,000 (est. 2010) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay | |
| Languages | |
| See text | |
| Religion | |
| traditional tribal religion, Catholicism, Protestantism, atheism |
The indigenous Gran Chaco people consist of approximately thirty-five tribal groups in the Gran Chaco of South America. Because, like the Great Plains of North America, the terrain lent itself to a nomadic lifestyle, there is little to no archaeological evidence of their prehistoric occupation. Contributing to this near-absence of archaeological data is the lack of suitable raw material for stone tools or permanent construction and soil conditions that are not conducive to the preservation of organic material.[1][2]
Geography
[edit]The actual cultural area of the Gran Chaco peoples differs from that of the geographic Gran Chaco. The northwestern boundary of the cultural area is the Parapetí River and the marshes of the Bañados de Izozog depression, beyond which were the lands of the culturally unrelated Chané and Chiriguano. The cultural boundaries have not been static, even during historical times. In the late 17th century the area expanded to the east across the Paraguay River, when the Mbayá invaded the lands between the Apa River and the Miranda River in Mato Grosso do Sul province in Brazil.[3]
Languages
[edit]The tribal groups of the Gran Chaco fall into six language families:[4]
- Matacoan languages or Mataco-maká (Wichí languages, Chorote languages, Nivaclé languages and the Maká language)
- Guaicuruan languages
- Lule–Vilela languages
- Mascoian languages
- Zamucoan languages
- Tupi–Guarani languages
Many of the languages are part of a Chaco linguistic area. Common Chaco areal features include SVO word order and active-stative verb alignment.[5] (See also Mataco–Guaicuru languages.)
History
[edit]The modern history of the Gran Chaco peoples is one of marginalization[6] and outright genocide.[7][8][9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Combes, Villar & Lowrey 2009, p. 71
- ↑ Calandra, Horacio Adolfo; Salceda, Susana Alicia (2008). "Cambio y continuidad en el Gran Chaco: De las historias étnicas a la prehistoria". In Braunstein, José; Meichtry, Norma C. (eds.). Liderazgo, representatividad y control social en el Gran Chaco. Corrientes, Argentina: Universidad Nacional del Nordeste. pp. 31–38 [32–33]. ISBN 978-950-656-116-1.
- ↑ Métraux 1946, p. 197
- ↑ Combes, Villar & Lowrey 2009, p. 69
- ↑ Campbell, Lyle; Grondona, Verónica (2012). "Languages of the Chaco and Southern Cone". In Grondona, Verónica; Campbell, Lyle (eds.). The Indigenous Languages of South America. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 2. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 625–668. ISBN 9783110255133.
- ↑ Stunnenberg 1993, p. through out
- ↑ Salamanca, Carlos (2008). "De las fosas al panteón: contrasentidos en las honras de los indios revividos" (PDF). Revista Colombiana de Antropología (in Spanish). 44 (1): 7–39. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 January 2021.
- ↑ Pellegrini, Brian (3 March 2020). "Masacre de Rincón Bomba: la justicia federal confirmó que se trató de un "genocidio" contra indígenas pilagá" [Rincón Bomba Massacre: Federal justice confirmed it was a "genocide" against the Pilagá indigenous people] (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 28 July 2021.
- ↑ Alvado, María Alicia (29 April 2023). "Una metodología del exterminio: las masacres de Rincón Bomba y Napalpí" [A methodology of extermination: the Rincón Bomba and Napalpí massacres] (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2 May 2023.
Bibliography
[edit]- Combes, Isabelle; Villar, Diego; Lowrey, Kathleen (2009). "Comparative Studies and the South American Gran Chaco". Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America. 7 (1): 69–102. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014.
- Métraux, Alfred (1946). Steward, Julian H. (ed.). "Part 2: Indians of the Grand Chaco – Ethnography of the Chaco". Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin. 1 (143). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution: 197–370.
- Stunnenberg, Petrus Walterus (1993). Entitled to Land: The Incorporation of the Paraguayan and Argentinean Gran Chaco and the Spatial Marginalization of the Indian People (PDF). Nijmegen Studies in Development and Cultural Change. Fort Lauderdale, Florida: Verlag Breitenbach. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 February 2019.
Further reading
[edit]- Sušnik, Branislava J. (1961). Apuntes de la etnografía Paraguaya, primera parte (second ed.). Asunción, Paraguay: Manuales del Musea Etnografía Andres Barbero.
- Renshaw, John (2002). The Indians of the Paraguayan Chaco: Identity and Economy. ISBN 9780803289918.