Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Mato Grosso do Sul
GOOD LIVING IN GUARANI COSMOVISION AS AN
ALTERNATIVE TO THE EXISTING SYSTEM
Ir. Margot Bremer, rscj 24
(...)
Being Guarani in Inter-relationship with the Land/Earth
In Guarani cosmovision, the earth inhabited by humans is
conceived as tekoha4 [25] [25], place of life and coexistence with
all beings existing in it. The word tekoha contains a holistic vision, at
the same time it signifies and produces economic, social, political,
ecological and religious meaning fundamental for Guarani life, such
that "without tekoha there is no teko (life)". The Guarani necessity
for the land is interior to the entirety of life, in order to be able to
live their culture and to be Guarani.
Inthe report of an anonymous Jesuit, from 1620, the fundamental
structure of Guarani tekoha is described in three types of spaces
that demonstrate forms of coexistence with the earth:
1) the forest preserved and utilized only as a place of hunting
and fishing;
2) the cultivatable forest utilized for horticulture, and
3) habitable space, the home as a social and religious and even
political space; their lives being concentrated there.
All aspects oftheearth/land in their indissoluble interrelationship
between ecology, economy and community, are in turn co-
penetrated by a religious experience: "For the Guarani the earth is
+ INDIGENIST MISSIONARY COUNCIL - CIMI
24 Theology Assessor of the National Indigenous Pastoral Coordination CONAPI - Paraguay. Access the full article at: http://www.cimi.org.br/pub/MS/Viol_MS_2003_2010.pdf
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