Environmental Destruction, Guaraní Refugees, and Indigenous Identity in Urban Paraguay

Abstract

Findings

The forests of eastern Paraguayan have been cleared, forcing the indigenous Mbyá-Guaraní to take refuge in cities. Rather than assimilate into the city’s underclass as other indigenous people do, Mbyá remain on the margins of the national society and protest their land loss in increasingly public demonstrations against the government. This research points to the historical struggle that the Mbyá-Guaraní of eastern Paraguay have waged against the state to explain Mbyá identity and action in the urban environment.

Research limitations/implications

Recent work with indigenous refugees shows that dislocation entails not only a disruption of social ties, but efforts to reestablish identities and relations in their new conditions. This research explores the interplay of urban conditions and historic struggles in the development of these new indigenous identities for the Mbyá-Guarani.

Practical implications

Indigenous refugees in extreme poverty are a growing problem in urban Latin America. Once residents of the forest, these groups squat in vacant lots and scavenge for a living, ravaged by disease, drugs, alcohol, and sex work. This work seeks to identify the factors that lead some indigenous people to integrate into urban society, while others assert themselves against that system.

Citation

Reed, R.K. (2015), "Environmental Destruction, Guaraní Refugees, and Indigenous Identity in Urban Paraguay", Climate Change, Culture, and Economics: Anthropological Investigations (Research in Economic Anthropology, Vol. 35), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 263-292. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0190-128120150000035011