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This article aims to sketch out the current situation of indigenous peoples in Paraguay, both from a legal standpoint in terms of rights, that they supposedly enjoy and from the socioeconomic standpoint, which often reveals a huge contrast between reality and law. To this end, the author will briefly review the history of relations between national Paraguayan society and indigenous peoples, the legislative and ideological changes that have shaped this relationship, and the subjective perception that the majority of society has of native peoples.
Key words: Paraguay, Indigenous Peoples, indigenous rights, nationalism
Introduction
In Paraguayan society, which perceives itself exclusively as mestizo, indigenous people are a minority not only numerically, but above all symbolically. While nationalist discourse emphasizes the roots of the Paraguayan Guarani mestizo and proudly boasts descent from the glorious "warrior race", society as a whole tends to despise indigenous peoples, who are marginalized and even excluded from the national community as "non-Paraguayan" and archaic vestiges sentenced to perish by natural selection. The existence in a society an Ethnic Other that wants to be thought of as having uniform practices often leads to ethnocide, whose purpose is to physically or symbolically eradicate that which does not fit into the dominant cultural and socioeconomic molds. In this work, the author will review the most important authors of Paraguayan anthropology1 and their studies on historical and present indigenous populations, especially in terms of their relationship with the Paraguayan State.
The Indigenous Population of Paraguay - General Information
Today, the territory of Paraguay is inhabited by approximately 113,000 Indians, constituting 1.7% of the total population (Dirección General de Estadística, Encuestas y Censos). Twenty ethnic groups are divided into five different language families that are mainly concentrated in the western part of the country (Chaco), which is less populated and more inhospitable than the East. The largest group, the Guarani, is divided into six ethnic clusters, four of which are settled in the eastern region: Tavyterá; Mbyá pai; Ava Guarani, and Ache. The others inhabit the western region: Western Guarani; and Guarani Ñandeva (Zanardini and Biedermann 17). The majority of the indigenous population lives in rural areas (91.5%), although the percentage of urban indigenous people continues to grow year by year. Some groups tend to...