Enxet and Enlhet

Ian Skoggard and Johannes Wilbert

The Enxet and Enlhet live in the Presidente Hayes and Boquerón departments of Paraguay. There are two major groups: a northern group (Enlhet Norte) living in the area of the Mennonite colonies and the southern group (Enxet Sur) living in an Anglican zone of influence. Their traditional territory stretched 240 km westwards from the Paraguay River, between latitudes 22°45" and 24° S. This area is part of the Gran Chaco, an alluvial plain that constitutes the second largest ecosystem (725,000 sq. km.) of lowland South America, extending from latitude 20° to 28° S from the Paraguay River on the east to the Andean foothills on the west, encompassing northern Argentina, much of Paraguay, and adjoining areas of Bolivia and Brazil. Winter temperatures range from 15°-25° C; summer temperatures are between 30°-45° C, among the highest recorded temperatures for the continent. In the wet season, as much as 70 percent of the region can be flooded. The rains are variable and go in cycles; a three-year period of relatively excessive rain can follow four years of moderate drought. The flooded area can be divided into three ecological zones: a treeless land where the flooding is deepest and most prolonged; a palm forest; and low-lying woodland. The non-flooded land at a higher elevation is also divided into three ecological zones: a small area of savanna grassland (espartillares), a low forest with short trees, and a high forest with tall trees.

Early population estimates were as high as 7000. Between 1884 and 1920 the Enxet and Enlhet suffered a series of epidemics that reduced their numbers to around 2000. A 2012 census put the Enlhet Norte population at 8,167 and Enxet Sur at 7,284. While nearly all the Enxet Sur live in the Department of Presidente Hayes, just over half the Enlhet Norte (4,183) live in the neighboring Department of Boquerón.

The Enlhet (Lengua) language belongs to the Mascoyan linguistic family and is comprised of two major dialects: Enlhet Norte and Enxet Sur. The Mascoyan language family is distinct from the Guarani and Quichua language families that dominate the central South American region. The Enlhet language is separate from neighboring tribes, such as the Angaité, Sanapaná, Enenxet, and Ayoreo to the north; the Nivaklé to the west; and the Toba and the Maká to the south and south-west.

The Gran Chaco region was a frontier of the Inka Empire and a source for variety of trade goods. Some scholars believe that the region became a refuge for various peoples escaping Inka and subsequent Spanish rule. String bags, woven headbands, feather ornaments, various weaving motifs, the wearing of ear discs, may be relics of a Peruvian past. Other possible evidence of a Peruvian past is the Enxet and Enlhet belief in a “city of the dead,” which some scholars suggest originated with town-dwelling ancestors. According to their own legend, the Enlhet and Enxet were ruled by a woman who had come from the mountains of the northwest. Historical records report that they migrated eastward from the interior towards the Paraguay River in the eighteenth century. In 1786 some were settled on the Roman Catholic mission of Melodia, across from Asunción. In 1841, some were reported living in the region west of Concepción. Through much of the Spanish colonial period, the Enlhet and Enxet managed to remain free. Spanish settlers never successfully occupied their land, due in part to the harshness of the terrain and the lack of any valuable natural resources. In the early twentieth century, the Enxet and Enlhet were still largely independent.

In 1885, bankrupt after having lost the Paraguayan War (1864-1870), the government of Paraguay sold much of the land in the Gran Chaco to British investors on the London Stock Exchange. The British investors encouraged the Anglican Church to establish a mission in the region to pacify and civilize the indigenous population. In 1888, the South American Missionary Society (SAMS) was formed. A member of the SAMS executive board, Sir Herbert Gibson owned or controlled over 500,000 hectares in the region, which was sold or leased to cattle ranchers. Many of the ranchers were Mennonites who emigrated from Canada and Europe between 1928 and 1948, and employed the natives as permanent ranch hands or seasonal laborers. By 1944, most if not all of the Enxet and Enlhet territory was in private hands. The settlers brought with them deadly diseases and a series of devastating epidemics that reduced the population. The Chaco War (1932-1935) between Paraguay and Bolivia also claimed the lives of many native peoples. Additionally, the fencing in of tribal land disrupted traditional lifeways, forcing the Enxet and Enlhet to become ranch hands and wage laborers, with many of them converting to Christianity and settling down on mission land.

Following the 1989 coup that ousted General Stroessner, a national constitution gave indigenous peoples the right to communal property free of cost in order to maintain their traditional way of life. By 1992, two communities, Makthlawaiya (Makxlawaya) and El Estribo, had been established. A 1993 statute further recognized the right of indigenous peoples to lands they had traditionally occupied. However, the executive branch of the Paraguay government blocked various indigenous land claim attempts and the legislature branch had little interest in promoting indigenous land rights. Furthermore, a local political association of Chaco farmers lobbied the government against preferential treatment for indigenous peoples. The Enxet and Enlhet and their allies have met some success going outside the country, lobbying international organizations and banks to put pressure on the Paraguayan government to respect their land rights and way of life.

Traditional house types included three kinds of structures consisting of frames of sticks tied together with the bast of the bottle tree (Chorisia insignis) and covered with bulrush mats. Animal hides, especially of vicuña, were frequently used as walls and separations. Oval or semilunar-cupulate communal houses without interior subdivisions sheltered the members of extended families, and beehive huts or windscreens provided housing for nuclear families. Beehive huts were usually constructed in juxtaposed pairs, featuring a division between the two units. With their fronts oriented toward the north, three to five communal structures or a larger number of single-family houses were arranged in a semicircle facing a plaza for ceremonial or secular activities. Since becoming sedentary, the Enlhet and Enxet build typical Paraguayan rural houses with palm-leaf thatch and walls. Sparse household furniture includes plank benches and tables. Abandoning their earlier custom of sleeping on hides or in hammocks, the Enxet and Enlhet have adopted the use of wooden bedsteads with supporting strips of cowhide.

Until the turn of the nineteenth century, the Enlhet and Enxet were a semi-nomadic people moving seasonally as dictated by climate and environment. Dwellings were temporary structures used primarily as shelters from the heat and rain. They were dome-shaped, constructed of branches stuck vertically in the ground, then bent and tied together at the top. Smaller branches were woven horizontally through the vertical branches, and covered with grass and palm leaves. Skins were used as ground covers and for sleeping.

In the twentieth century, the Enxet and Enlhet were living in ranch communities, or on mission stations. Ranch communities ranged in size from 3 to 170 people and were scattered throughout the region. Beginning in 1979, the missions, Mennonite ranchers, and government of Paraguay bought up parcels of land to resettle indigenous peoples.

Alternating extremes of drought and flood were not conducive to large-scale agriculture. The Enxet and Enlhet practiced gardening using wooden hoes on small, scattered plots of suitable soil, mostly raising pumpkins, sweet potatoes, tobacco, maize, and manioc. Manioc was the staple food and was either boiled, roasted, or ground into flour to make cakes. When in season, the seeds of the algarrobo (Pc) were gathered. Missionaries and colonists have contributed to a sedentary lifestyle and a concomitant intensification of subsistence and cash-crop agriculture. Crops include maize, sweet manioc, beans, pumpkins, anco (squashes), watermelons, sweet potatoes, tobacco, and cotton.

Traditionally, the Enlhet and Enxet led migratory lives as hunters, gatherers, and fishers. Hunting, the prerogative of men, was the principal food-quest activity, and a pronounced hunting ethos pervaded the entire culture. On individual and collective hunts, on foot or on horseback, larger animals such as tapir, peccaries, deer, and rheas were killed with bows and arrows, spears, bolas, or clubs, and employing methods such as chasing, corralling, smoke and fire drives, and camouflage. The rhea was a prized game animal sought for both its meat and feathers. A wide variety of other game was also eagerly sought: anteaters, maned wolves, foxes, tiger-cats, capybara, nutria, otters, armadillos, coatis, iguanas, turtles, and a variety of smaller rodents and birds. For two to three months during the rainy season, waterfowl became abundant, and were hunted with sticks, including at night by torchlight. Amulets were used to aid in hunting. Depending on their location, regional groups continue to try to supplement their diet by exploiting what is left of the once abundant and varied fauna of their territory. Individual hunting using dogs has replaced collective hunting with bows and arrows.

Domesticated animals other than horses and dogs include sheep, goats, and chickens. In the nineteenth century, sheep herding became important as a source of wool from which women wove ponchos and sashes for trade. Cattle ranching has since supplanted sheep herding, and women who weave must buy their wool.

Fishing played a minor role in Enlhet and Enxet subsistence and was carried out using gear such as fiber gorges, hooks, bows and arrows, spears, gill and barring nets, weirs, and plunge baskets. Fishing was done from the shore, by wading into shallow waters, or, during the rainy season, from canoes. In shallow ponds formed by blocked streams, people caught fish with their bare hands. Spears were used to kill eels and alligators.

Wool is carded, spun, and woven into blankets using simple looms. Woven designs include checks, circles, angles, legs of the jabiru, and snakeskin patterns. Other woven artifacts include waist belts, satchels, headbands, and bracelets. Cordage is used to make hammocks and net bags of various shapes and sizes. Traditional dress for women was a petticoat; for men it was a skin girdle. Skins were used as a floor covering and for saddles. Headdresses made of wool, feathers and snail shells were worn on special occasions. Women wore necklaces of shell buttons, seeds and bone. Shell necklaces were also used as money. Clay is used to make water and cooking pots, and flatware. Gourds are grown and used to make utensils of various sizes and purposes, such as containers for water, fishhooks, needles, or tobacco. Gourds are also used to make rattles, which can have engraved figures of animals and spirits.

Trade in early in contact times was with surrounding peoples, and later with people east of the Paraguay River. Personal property was exchanged during festival season when bands gathered. An object, if desired, usually was freely given, with an expectation of a return gift at a subsequent festival. Gambling was another means by which surplus property was exchanged. During the nineteenth century the Enxet and Enlhet hunted for skins and rhea feathers, which they traded for manufactured goods.

Skin garment and blanket making is exclusively women’s work. Men make shell necklaces. Both men and women make string bags. Women gathered algarroba pods, fruits, root vegetables, and palm shoots. Men collected honey. Although fishing was primarily a male occupation, women did assist when using baskets, weirs, gill-nets, or just bare hands.

Traditionally, land was communally-owned and all its produce was shared. Most Enlhet and Enxet land was sold by the government to private parties. Since 1979, missionaries and local government have helped buy back land to establish new settlements. Further attempts to reclaim and own their land has met with varied success.

The Enxet and Enlhet divide the world into kin and non-kin. Kin refers to all cognatic kin traced bilaterally across many communities. The kindred is a key element of their social organization. They distinguish between close and distant kin. The term “kin” can include “friends.” Non-kin includes affines, strangers, or members of any other ethnic group.

The kinship system of western groups (Enlhet) appears to differ from that of eastern group (Enxet), the former being of the Iroquois, or Dravidian, and the latter of the Hawaiian type. They use teknonymy and mourning terminologies. Descent is bilateral, with emphasis on matrilineal ties.

An exogamy rule prohibited marriage between cognatic kin to at least the third degree of collaterality. Parents and grandparents had a say in permitting or prohibiting a marriage. Weddings occurred during the algarrobo harvest, when food was plentiful and bands gathered to gather the pods.

There is much variability in household composition. The traditional domestic unit was the extended family; average size unit was six people, but could range from two to twenty. The nuclear family has since become the most common form.

The Enlhet and Enxet believe that personal property is linked to the soul and is usually burned at time of death because it is believed that otherwise the spirit of the dead would avenge anyone using the property.

The socialization process involved the accumulation of social knowledge through instruction and experience. The goal of such knowledge was to realize a beautiful, peaceful and loving nature. Such feelings, and feelings in general according to Enxet and Enlhet ethnopsychology, are associated with a metaphysical organ wáxok or “innermost,” also identified with the stomach. The “innermost” is considered the cognitive, affective and the social center of a person. A good person has a stable “innermost” and respects those of neighbors by avoiding words and actions that may possibly upset their “innermost”—people fear the soul of the disturbed person may become angry and harm them at night.

A person’s “innermost” (cognitive, affective and social center) develops through breast feeding and the love, attention and instruction of the mother. The Enlhet and Enxet marked various stages in the life of men and women with public ceremonies, eight in all. The first was the earlobe piecing ceremony (tayjaycoc), performed when an infant was eight days old. The ritual signified that the infant had an “innermost” and a soul, and was regarded as a complete and autonomous person who could not be killed with impunity. The next festival, pomsiclha, occurred between the ages of eight and ten, and is in recognition of “growing up” and accomplishing a skill, either hunting for boys or weaving for girls. Puberty rituals—natenmaicam for boys and yanmana for girls—are the next “growing up” ceremonies. The girls’ ceremony was considered the most important and biggest of all Enxet and Enlhet ceremonies. Both girls’ and boys’ ceremonies lasted a month and were attended by people from neighboring villages. An additional men’s festival, apyinaycaoc anmin, occurred at around age twenty, when young men were initiated into one of several drinking clubs. The festival of the power of the stars (canjeapyova) was additional adult male ceremony that involved the selection of a star as a supernatural source of power.

Traditionally, Enlhet and Enxet society was composed of exogamous bands, each consisting of an extended uxorilocal family. Several bands were allied to form an endogamous subtribal unit whose members congregated periodically for social and ritual purposes.

The headmen of a band could not impose unpopular decisions, and many held their positions because of their power as shamans. They provided for their people and shared their personal property with them. They also served as contacts and speakers when dealing with foreigners. The subtribal chief spoke on behalf of his constituent bands and held the position by force of personality. Festivals were an opportunity for leaders from different bands to establish an informal “pecking order.”

Much of Enxet and Enlhet social control depends on a person’s ability to control his or her own feelings and emotions based on their knowledge and understanding of wáxok or “innermost” (an individual’s cognitive, affective and social center). Feelings and behavior are expressed in terms of sensing and regulating the state of one’s “innermost.” For example, happiness is an “innermost” that is sweet, sadness is a heavy “innermost” and fear is one that shivers. Love is a soft/unlocked “innermost,” open to and seeking the well-being of others. While kin are defined by those one loves and with whom one shares, the notion of love goes beyond kin to anyone with whom one has a sociable relationship. Hate is the turning off of love, a strong/locked “innermost.” Anger is a wavy “innermost.” A person will not talk or act out of anger; they will not say anything that will cause “waves” in another person’s “innermost.” The Enxet and Enlhet are inclined to discern their internal state and that of their interlocutor before proceeding with any conversation or transaction. If one senses a disturbance in either, the usual response is to remain silent. Gossip and embarrassment can force someone to leave a community for a time. Public forums are occasions for airing grievances and making confessions.

Although the Enlhet and Enxet are expected to love their kin and neighbors, they are expected to turn off that love when dealing with strangers or enemies, usually manifested as silence. Heated discussions are rare, as one is expected to control one’s temper. Nevertheless, if the situation proves to be unbearable, one of the parties will usually leave the village for a while. Marital infidelity usually resulted in one party leaving the village. The introduction of alcohol has had a disrupting effect on maintaining peaceful social relations.

Although not particularly warlike, the Enxet and Enlhet did engage in intertribal warfare with the Sanapaná, their archenemies, and with the Angaité, Chamacoco, Toba, and Maká. They went to war to defend their territory, avenge the killing of one of their own by violence or sorcery, obtain material goods and livestock, and to capture women and children. A special feast (ticyowam ajangaoc) was held in preparation for war. Weapons used were bows and arrows, and wooden clubs. Scalps were taken as war trophies.

The Enlhet and Enxet believed in a creator beetle who formed humans from clay, but afterwards took little part in human affairs. In dreams, a person’s soul leaves the body. In addition to souls, there are malicious spirits (kilyikbama) that steal souls.

Shamans were important to Enxet and Enlhet daily life. They healed the sick, averted attacks by evil spirits, regulated rainfall and repelled stormy weather, guaranteed the fertility of the land and its plants and animals, and helped bring about success in warfare. Shamans practiced sorcery to cause sickness and death. They cured by chanting, sucking, and recapturing the soul of their patients. Although contemporary shamans are all male, powerful female shamans figure in the oral tradition, and women were potentially free to become initiated into the position.

Ceremonies marked changing statuses and roles in Enlhet and Enxet social life. Ceremonies involved feasting and dancing, sometimes lasting several weeks. They also included impersonation of evil spirits and ordeals to test and inoculate one against sorcery. Many festivals involved competitive games such as football, hockey, wrestling, archery, and bola throwing. Festivals could also be spontaneous occasions, a form of thanksgiving when food was abundant, with the algarrobo harvest in the summer, and with the gathering of major crops in the fall, such as the festival of the ripening fruits (yoscama caya) and the festival of the gathering of the pumpkin. The yamsiclha, or festival of chanting, was a ceremony to initiate new shamans, or for practicing shamans to enhance their powers.

The evangelical efforts of the Mennonite colonists and Anglican mission, the devastating Chaco War, followed by forced settlement, and the introduction of markets and wage labor all contributed to the demise of the Enxet and Enlhet festival cycle. The last of the largest and most important festivals, yanmana (female puberty rites), was held in 1952. Profound culture change notwithstanding, religion, shamanism, and mythology continue to be of considerable significance.

Musical instruments include bamboo flutes, whistles, drums, and a fiddle strung with horsehair. Dancing was accompanied by rattles and drums. Both women and men danced during festivals. A special women’s dance (maning) was danced at the girl’s puberty ceremony (yanmana). The men danced at male-oriented ceremonies. For festivals and other special occasions, the Enlhet and Enxet painted their faces with angular lines or check patterns in red, dark blue or black. They also painted their chests and arms black.

Illness is attributed to soul capture by a spirit, usually sent by a malevolent shaman. Illness is also attributed to the intrusion of extraneous objects into a person. Insanity is attributed to spirits who lure or seduce a person’s soul, which wanders aimlessly. The shaman is responsible for healing such infirmities by trying to rescue the soul or remove the object that has invaded the body. Additionally, shamans use herbal medicine to allay fever, cleanse wounds, and relieve toothache. They practice massage and stop bleeding using saliva and earth.

The soul is perceived as immortal and it lives on after death in a shade world (pischischi) where they live lives similar to those on earth, interfering little with humans. The land of the dead was believed to be situated in the west, where the souls congregated in groups or families. The souls of shamans went to reside in the Milky Way, and those of other people turned into animals, especially birds.

Death in older people was believed to occur naturally, as a consequence of skeletal deterioration. Young people who died other than in warfare were said to have suffered unnatural deaths from sorcery and spirit aggression. Upon determining the origin of the evil that caused the death of a young person, shamans made public the culprit's name during a ritual of revenge. Funerary rites included the mutilation or fracturing of the dead person's skull and the placing of a candescent stone into the corpse's stomach. The stone was believed to fly to the Milky Way and fall back to earth as a meteor to kill the murderer. After a performance of a rite of vengeance, the corpse was buried as soon as a grave was dug in the nearby mountains or forests. Upon refilling the grave with soil and decorating it with branches, the lamenting mourners left and never revisited the site. Influenced by missionaries and Paraguayan settlers, the Enxet and Enlhet have come to bury their dead in cemeteries.

To avoid being visited by the soul of the dead, the Enlhet and Enxet used to destroy the belongings of the departed, burn their houses, and rebuild them in situ, or move the village to a different location. Shamans conducted special rituals to prevent the living from being accosted by the souls of the dead. Mourning practices included observance of food taboos, hair cropping, and the wearing of mourning dress. The festival of the dead (yocsac) helped relatives grieve and to reintegrate them back into the community. The festival also helped to overcome the fear of the soul of the deceased, considered dangerous, especially for close relatives.

This culture summary is based on the article "Lengua" by Johannes Wilbert in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 7, South America, Johannes Wilbert, ed. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall & Co. 1994. The text was substantially revised and supplemented, and reorganized into sections by Ian Skoggard in August 2018.

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