Gran Chaco

Paola Canova

The Gran Chaco Region constitutes a great plain that spans parts of modern-day Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Historical ethno-linguistic categorization has classified indigenous groups of the region into six main linguistic groups: Mataco-Mataguayo (Wichí, Chorote, Nivaclé [Ashusley], Maká), Guaicurú (Abipón, Toba [Qom], Pilagá, Mocoví, Mbayá-Caduveo), Lule-Vilela (Lule, Vilela), Lengua-Maskoy or Enlhet-Enenlhet (Enxet Sur, Sanapaná, Angaité, Enlhet Norte, Guana), Zamuco (Ayoreo, Chamacoco Ybytoso, Chamacoco Tomarâho) and Tupí-Guaraní (Chiriguano, Isoseño-Guaraní, and Guaraní Occidental, Guaraní Ñandeva [or Tapieté]).₁

As of 2018 the total indigenous population of the Gran Chaco region was approximately 300,000 individuals.

The Guaicurú has been the most extensive linguistic family in the Chaco. During the last millennium BCE they concentrated between the Pilcomayo and Bermejo rivers, and eventually expanded into today’s Paraguayan Chaco along the Paraguay River. Overall, the Guaicurú expansion throughout the Chaco and into Paraguay took place during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, facilitated in part by their acquisition of the horse. They also gained control of the west bank of the Paraguay River from which they raided the Cario-Guaraní on the eastern side of the river. Eventual migrations and fights over hunting territories drove the more northern Guaicurú groups (i.e. the Eyiguayegi-Mbayá) to violently establish themselves between the middle Pilcomayo and the Alto Paraguay region, where they subjugated the Chané-Arawak group, imposing on the latter economic tributes and services. Other Guaicurú groups, such as the Abipones, were exterminated by the seventeenth century, and by the eighteenth century the surviving northern Eyiguayegi-Mbayá group had migrated to the eastern side of the Paraguay River. The contemporary Kadiwéu in Mato Grosso, Brazil are considered descendants of the Mbayá. Other surviving representatives of the Guaicurú linguistic family are the Toba, Pilagá, and some Mocoví groups.

The main population of the western Chaco belonged to the members of the Mataco linguistic family. They extended in an uninterrupted bloc across the Chaco from the Andes almost to the Paraguay River, along the Pilcomayo River to its lower reaches, and along the Bermejo River. They were characterized as having a high demographic index with “a tendency to agglomerate as a defensive measure but without the bellicose-aggressive ethos of the Guaicurú groups” (Sušnik and Chase-Sardi 1995:21). They had as neighbors to the west the Guaicurú groups and the Chané-Arawak. Regional migrations of the Mataco groups resulted from conflicts for hunting grounds with the Lule-Vilela and the Guaicurú. In contrast to the Guaicurú and Mataco, little information is available on the Lule-Vilela linguistic family. Their sub-groups or bands moved between the Bermejo River and the Rio Salado during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but most of them vanished from written records during the following century. In present-day Argentina there are groups of individuals that self-identify as Lule as well as Vilela in the Chaco and Santiago del Estero Provinces of Argentina. The latter mainly live in scattered family groups in the outskirts of cities and rural areas (see INDEC 2012). According to several sixteenth century documents, they originally inhabited the plains of Tucuman, Esteco, and Santiago del Estero, Argentina. According to Métraux (1946), in 1732 Father Antonio Machoni published a piece entitled “Arte y vocabulario de la lengua Lule y Tonocote,” in which he believed the Lule were linguistically related to the Tonocote. This was later challenged by Hervás y Panduro (1800), who argued that Lule was a distinct language from that of the Tonocote group, a differentiation also made by Métraux.

The Guaraní groups inhabiting the Gran Chaco region initially migrated from Brazil and eastern Paraguay. These migrations started in the fourteenth century, and took place as a series of waves. By the sixteenth century, the Guaraní had established themselves in the more humid northern fringes of the Chaco region, by the Parapití River and the Izozog marshes. In doing so, they displaced the Chané-Arawak group, which was forced, in turn, to migrate. The western Chané that stayed in their territories between the cordillera and the Parapití River were reduced to serfs by the Guaraní, who eventually came to be known as the Chiriguano as a result of their intermarriage with the Chaco tribes. Culturally and linguistically, the Guaraní and Chané have little or nothing in common with the Chaco groups, as they were agriculturalists belonging to the Guaraní and Arawak linguistic groups respectively, but both were still within the geographic boundaries of the region. As a result, the northern and eastern hunter-gatherer Chaco tribes were in direct contact with representatives of these two important tropical South American linguistic groups (Sušnik 1968, Combès 2006).

During the mid-eighteenth century, before their expulsion, the Jesuits tried to evangelize the Mbayá and the Zamucos between the Paraguay and Parapití rivers (around the Paraguay/Bolivia border). Starting in 1716, the Jesuits established the mission San Ignacio de Zamuco, which only lasted until 1723 due to the harshness of the ecological landscape and hostilities between Zamuco groups. Missionaries were not able to establish a homogenous socio-economic unit as they had among the Chiquitano groups, due to ongoing friction between antagonistic Zamuco groups. With the aim of breaking intertribal hostilities, the Jesuits re-settled some small Zamuco groups at Mission San José (1723-1738). However, all efforts to christianize the Zamuco were abandoned in 1750. By that time, some Zamucos had been sent to the mission Sagrado Corazón de Jesus, where this group was absorbed, over time, by the intense process of assimilation or “chiquitanizacion” (see Sušnik 1964 for details). Sušnik argues that the current Ayoreo are the descendants of missionized Zamucoan Morotoco groups who blended with other Zamuco groups that remained isolated. Combès (2009) suggests that as a result of Jesuit endeavors in the region, a historical reconfiguration of groups and identities took place that complicates the attribution of links between Ayoreo and Ishir to specific Zamucoan groups. Because of this reconfiguration, the ancestors of current Ayoreo and Ishir cannot be conceived as fixed categories that lived in complete isolation. In the last hundred years, missionaries from various Christian creeds established instructional relationships with indigenous Chaco groups; primarily Catholic, Anglican, and evangelicals of various denominations (see Grubb 1911; Miller 1995, Klassen 2004).

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the plains south of the Province of Chiquitos in the northern Chaco were occupied by indigenous peoples who spoke dialects of the Zamucoan language family. Jesuits first classified them into four dialectical groups: Zamucos (Zamucos and Zatienos), Caitpotorades, Morocotas, and Ugaraños. The hunting grounds of these groups were located south of the region of Chiquitos. According to Sušnik (1964), the Zamucos of the eighteenth century might have been related to the sixteenth century Tamacocis who themselves were tributaries to the Chiriguanos.

The Chané-Arawak people became serfs, not only of the Chiriguano-Guaraní but also of the Eyiguayegi-Mbayá. The most eastern branch of the Chané, known as the Guana or Layana, was considered the main subgroup of the Chané, and they were the ones who submitted themselves to the Eyiguayegi-Mbaya. Later, by 1850, the Chané-Guana had broken their relationship with the Mbayá and moved to Matto Grosso do Sul, Brazil. More recently, since the Chaco War (1932-1935) some Chané and Guaraní groups have settled in the very heart of the Paraguayan Chaco (see Richard 2008).

Members of the Lengua-Maskoy linguistic family formerly known as Enimagá settled the center of the Chaco region. It is believed that they migrated there from the northwest, as they had cultural traits similar to those of the Payono-Arawak and a language similar to those found in the southern Beni region of Bolivia. This original location coincided with an ethnic cluster of different migrating groups, which gave rise to new groups. Their migratory movement to the central Chaco was the result of pressure, possibly from Arawak or other neolithic groups, and coincided with a movement by the Zamuco to the north of the Chaco. The migrations of the Maskoy resulted in two different groups; the Sapuqui-Maskoy and the Enhlet-Maskoy (Sušnik 1977).

Colonial subjugation of the Chaco region was delayed by the fact that some groups—such as the Abipón and the Mocoví by the Bermejo River, and the Mbayá by the Paraguay River—had adopted an equestrian economy and their mounted offensive tactics held back the Spaniards. Some populations of the Abipón-Guaicurú groups that were located along the Paraguay River would eventually develop a “fluvial canoe culture” and use this skill to confront the Cario-Guaraní on the other side of the river (see Sušnik 1978).

The Chaco region has been a historically diverse area as a result of migratory waves of different groups of hunter-gatherers who found refuge in the region when other groups displaced them. This triggered an ongoing relocation of groups in search of hunting grounds, and also caused intertribal groupings and fusions. According to Sušnik (1976), the mobility of Chaco groups during the sixteenth century was further influenced by factors such as the expansion of neolithic groups, war invasions, Guaraní migrations to the cordilleras, and the initial expeditions of the Spaniards.

Missionization of the indigenous groups in the Chaco first took place upon arrival of the Jesuits, a process initiated during the second half of the sixteenth century with the establishment of missions in Tucuman, Santiago del Estero, and Esteco (in contemporary Argentina), among the Abipón and Mocoví of the Bermejo Basin, and the Toba and Mataco. Contact with Jesuit missionaries influenced the cultural production of indigenous peoples: Mocoví women incorporated the weaving styles of blankets taught by missionaries, Mbayá art was influenced by the Rococo style, and mate was adopted as a drink (Sušnik and Chase-Sardi 1995).

Water has always been scarce throughout large regions of the Chaco. During the summers indigenous people would gather and store great quantities of algarroba or chañar, which would last several months after the harvest. The ancient Lule-Vilela groups used deep pits in which they stored jars of water for the dry season, and also dug large cisterns. In extreme need the Chaco groups would drink the water that collects in the hollow axils of caraguatá leaves or dig up tubers such as that of the cipoy (Jacaratia hassleriana). The main food reserves for groups such as the Ayoreo consisted of porotos del monte or beans of the forest (Capparis retusa Griseb.), naranja del monte or orange of the forest (Citrus aurantium L.), and smoked or dried pumpkins. Porotos del monte and naranja del monte were preserved by baking in an earthen oven before exposure to the sun. The seeds of the naranja del monte were boiled and sun-dried, and would keep for more than a year. Mataco groups were known for making winter provisions of pumpkins at harvest time. The pumpkins were cut in half and sun-dried or smoked on a wooden platform, and the seeds were roasted. The Mbayá boiled pumpkin seeds, ground in a mortar, and boiled them again until they turned into a thick mush. Preserved foods were stored mostly in special containers (Bórmida and Califano 1978, Métraux 1946).

Chaco groups have been almost exclusively hunter-gatherers, depending on a wide range of economic activities to reproduce and sustain their livelihoods. While hunting was a mostly male-centered activity, women played an important role in the economic realm through gathering activities. Groups of related women of different ages would go on collecting trips together, gathering firewood and products that varied according to region and season, such as wild fruits, roots, tubers, bromeliad hearts, and small fish. According to Métraux (1946), the most productive farmers of the Chaco were the Arawakan-speaking Chané-Guana of the north, who depended mainly on the yield of their large plantations. Every year after they had tilled their fields and planted their crops, the Chané-Guana moved to the banks of the Paraguay to hunt and fish until harvest time. The Enhlet raised a small number of crops when they were able to find arable spots; their neighbors the Nivaclé had a more favorable habitat for gardens. The Pilagá were hardly able to plant crops, as their land would flood every year.

The acquisition of horses played a key role in the re-organization of the economies of many Chaco groups. After the Abipón, Mocoví, and Mbayá adopted the horse they gave up what little farming they had practiced previously. These groups instead obtained food crops through looting and as tribute from their farming vassals. Sheep were also incorporated into the Chaco economy around the end of the seventeenth century. Next to horses, sheep were the second most frequent item stolen from white people. Weaving wool was only practiced well after the introduction of sheep (Nordenskiöld 2002 [1910], Sušnik 1976).

Trade has always been actively maintained between the Chaco groups and their Andean, Guaraní, and Arawak neighbors, and also between the various groups within the region. For example, the Tapiete would receive their long shell necklaces from the Nivaclé who seem to have obtained them from the Enlhet. Enlhet individuals visited the Choroti to exchange shell disks for blankets or domesticated animals. And small cakes of urucú pigment ([i]Bixa orellana[i]) from the northern Chaco would pass from group to group as far south as the Bermejo River Basin. The Choroti would pay as much as a large woolen blanket for a single cake of urucú. The Chiriguano and Toba exchanged maize for dried or smoked fish when they visited each other (see Dobrizhoffer 1968 [1784] and Fúrlong Cárdiff 1938 for details).

Early descriptions of the Chaco tribes contain references to women's clothes and to blankets made of caraguata (Bromeliaceae) fibers. The Chamacoco and the Ayoreo were known for their use of such fiber skirts and blankets. Along with bromeliad fibers, cotton was already in use by Chaco groups for weaving before European contact. Some of the Pilcomayo and Bermejo River groups spun a variety of cotton (Gossypium peruvianum) that grew wild. The art of weaving was introduced into the Chaco by indigenous groups from the tropical forest area who cultivated cotton. The Arawakan groups, who were famed as skillful weavers, are the most likely agents for the pre-Columbian diffusion of weaving into the region. Peruvian influences were also felt throughout the Chaco, as evidenced by the distribution of various techniques which have survived up to the present and are identical with those employed in the coastal cultures of ancient Peru (Bórmida and Califano 1978, Sušnik 1998). Techniques adopted by Chaco societies that are identified as Arawak or Guaraní are surprisingly few, according to Métraux (1934), but include the following: the loom, the hammock, some types of nets, the feather ornaments of the Mbayá and Ishir-Chamacoco, basketry among the Mbayá, the baby sling, and the shuttlecock of maize leaves. The cultivation of sweet manioc may also be the result of contact with the Guaraní or the Arawak.

In most Chaco societies, women played a central role in initiating sexual flirting and courting to find a potential partner. Their practices were described as “morally lax” (Grubb 1911) and “shameless” (Nordenskiöld 2002 [1910]). However, they did not have a negative moral connotation for these groups (see Chase-Sardi 1969, Métraux 1944). After marriage, monogamy was the norm among Chaco groups, although polygamy was known in some, especially for leaders of bands (cf. Renshaw 1996). The rule of residency after marriage that most groups in the Chaco followed was that of uroxilocality, by which a couple would settle locally among the wife’s relatives. While groups such as the Enhlet observed uroxilocality with rigor, exceptions to this rule were not infrequent. For example, residency for groups such as the Ayoreo and the Toba-Pilagá depended more on the affective links of children with their parents (Braunstein 1983).

Traditionally, three main models defined Chaco societies: bands of nomads and semi-nomads; societies with a double rhythm that followed changes in the seasons, with semi-permanent bands in defined locales transitioning to nomadic bands of extended families; and semi-nomadic groups organized into localized lineages established though marriage (Braunstein 1983). Inevitably, these patterns were altered following colonization of the Chaco, as groups became more permanently settled.

The social organization of the Chané-Arawak varied from most Chaco groups as they were serfs of the Chiriguano-Guaraní and the Eyiguayegi-Mbayá. In their case, subordination was economic and this did not mean tribal subordination as a whole; they maintained the independence of their villages, their social structure, and their language. Dependency on the Mbayá came through marriage of their women with Mbayá leadership. This gave Mbayá leaders access to agricultural production of the aldeas (villages), as long as their chiefs sustained relations of reciprocity with Chané leaders, and protected them against the incursions of outsiders.

The political unity of tribes in the Gran Chaco depended on networks of alliances between bands, families and individuals. Leadership depended on the cohesion of a group in terms of its internal and external relations. Leaders were chosen according to their courage and oratorical skills; many leaders were additionally known to be shamans. Interactions between bands of different linguistic groups were not uncommon, and interethnic alliances could form. This cooperation worked well as long as there was not a monopoly over hunting by a specific group, which was the primary source of conflicts (Braunstein and Miller 1999).

In contrast to the democratic organization of the Pilcomayo River groups, Mbayá society was rigorously stratified. The adoption of the horse gave them a decided advantage over their neighbors, which contributed to the formation of a system of classes and even of castes. Unable to absorb its countless prisoners, as most Chaco Indian groups did, the Mbayá group maintained its individuality and hegemony by stressing blood purity and privileges as conquerors. Subjugated groups were reduced to the condition of serfs and slaves, and the heads of extended Mbayá families constituted a new aristocracy (Sušnik 1978).

It was common for women to use physical aggression in public spaces to solve differences among themselves. Motivations for quarrels were mostly related to accusations of jealousy, egoism, greed or defamation. Men around the contenders would never try to stop fights between women, even if relatives. At times the women would arm their wrists with very sharp fish or goat bones and target each other’s chest and body. The fight would only end when one of the contenders succumbed. Contrary to women’s practices, men would engage in “ritualized beatings.” These were also public events, but men, unlike women, would measure their force so as not to harm their opponent. Eventually, the contenders could accept the intervention of a female relative to mediate and end the ritualized confrontation (See Chase-Sardi et al. 1992, Leake 1933).

Traditionally, the only religious specialists were shamans, who were distinguished for their ability and knowledge. They were believed to control natural resources and were “owners” of certain species. Therefore, a hunter could ask a shaman permission to take some of his animals, and the shaman could indicate their location and set a limit of how much the hunter could take. Relationships between shamans and spirits were strong, and interactions mostly took place at night. Shamans would learn their trade from spirits, after ingesting strong tobacco juice. Among the Mataco, for example, a spirit named vilan was known for teaching the shaman how to cure sick people (Métraux 1944). One of the main techniques of shamans is the use of the soplo, exhaling a puff of air. It was believed that auxiliary spirits could impose their will on shamans. Among the Chamacoco it was common that auxiliary spirits could appear in a dream and order the shaman to call up a plague or a flood, for example, and the shaman was obliged to respond. Moreover, under such circumstance, the shaman had to sing throughout the night and the next day for fear that his auxiliary spirit would abandon him to die (Renshaw 2002).

All Chaco groups, even those who were essentially nomadic, had pottery (Fock 1962). There is great homogeneity in the shape and quality of the ceramics throughout the area, though a more refined pottery style is found in the northern marginal area among the Arawakan-speaking tribes and their close neighbors, the Mbayá. In the areas surrounding the Pilcomayo, Bermejo, and lower Paraguay rivers, ceramic decoration was rudimentary. Simple geometric motifs were traced on the surface of the vessels with a palo santo (Bulnesia sarmientoi) stick. The designs included dots, circles, or lines. Among the Mataco-Choroti, cooking pots were occasionally ornamented with rows of small clay pellets applied the surface when still wet. The Mataco, immediate neighbors of the Chiriguano, more often decorated their pottery with fingernail impressions or with crude appliqué ornaments compared to the other tribes in their area (Métraux 1944).

The culture summary was written by Paola Canova in March, 2018.

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