The Ayoreo

Who are the Ayoreo?

The Ayoreo is an umbrella term for multiple groups within the same region that speak the Ayoreo language. They are groups of indigenous peoples in southern Bolivia and northern Paraguay who, up until the mid-20th century, were uncontacted by outside societies. Since contact with the first groups of the Ayoreo, they have been in danger. The forests that the Ayoreo inhabit, the Gran Chaco, have been rapidly disappearing to make room for cattle ranching, reducing their land by around 98% (Glauser 2010:12). With a population of more than 6,000, the Ayoreo used to be nomadic individuals, who settled down only during the rainy season to plant crops along the way, such as squash and corn (Bessire 2011:262). Now, however, the small area of land still available for them is spread out, and still rapidly disappearing due to deforestation, forcing them to whisper to communicate out of fear that they would be heard and rounded up, like their family members from previous contact episodes (Bessire 2008).

There were once as many as 50 groups of the Ayoreo, who would share their land and often have very fluid forms of political leadership, with groups splitting off, merging, or forming subgroups often (Glauser 2010:6). The only group still living in substantial numbers within their territory is the Totobiegosode, a word which means “People from the Place Where Collared Peccaries Ate Their Gardens” (Bessire 2008). Now mostly living on cattle ranches that used to be part of their forests, the Ayoreo have adapted their life and culture to the world outside of Eami, their word for the forest (meaning literally “forest-universe”) (Glauser 2010:2).

Map of Ayoreo territory (Gibb 2005).

Map of location of Ayoreo territory in 1950 and in 2009 (Glauser 2010:12).

What is known about their culture pre-contact?

Much of their culture is still unknown to us. The first contact was not made by anthropologists interested in preserving and understanding their culture, but rather by missionaries and cattle ranchers who wished to relocate them and convert them to Westernized, Christian ways of life. Now, the Ayoreo who don’t still live in the forest don’t often talk about their culture and traditions, or ways to implement it into their new lives. Their old traditions and practices often are seen as being part of a sinful, traumatic past (Bessire 2008). There is also a strong resentment among the Ayoreo toward anthropologists who seem to have negative intentions, who they see as digging out parts of their past as a way to uncover sins, or to sell their information wrongfully (Bessire 2011:260). In fact, the Ayoreo even have a derogatory word for those in the outside world that pry for information exploitatively: abujadie (Bessire 2011:260). Abujadie, according to the Ayoreo, are sent from the devil and are covertly against all moral things.

So while there are many aspects of their culture that have been preserved and are known to the rest of the world, they prefer to keep many of their practices and traditions in the past. Much of what is known today can be parsed out from their interactions with the outside world post-contact, such as the sexual freedom seen in young women of Ayoreo society. In Ayoreo society, young women were allowed and even sometimes expected to explore their sexuality after their first period, seeking out sexual encounters with those in their groups (López Entrambasaguas, Granero-Molina, and Hernández-Padilla 2015:8). They married for romantic love, and would explore options before settling down with one person at marriage (López Entrambasaguas et. al. 2015:8). The power structure of marriage varied depending on the status of those marrying each other. For example, a woman from a powerful family might have more status and power over her husband if she were to marry an orphan (López Entrambasaguas et. al. 2015:8). This is reflective of the fact that the Ayoreo tend to view those around them as equal, and they see all things in the world and nature as being equal to them (Glauser 2010:14). However, the Ayoreo place a strong emphasis on whether or not a child is wanted. In fact, infanticide may even be practiced for an “unwanted child,” which is a phrase used to describe a child born to a woman not expressly in a relationship (López Entrambasaguas et. al. 2015:10).

Ayoreo woman in front of dome shelter ("The Ayoreo" n.d.).

Ayoreo man ("The Ayoreo" n.d.).

Prior to contact, the religion of the Ayoreo involved the connection of a current time and a more mystical sphere. The Ayoreo believe that all animals, plants, attributes, and natural occurrences once held human form (Bessire 2011:264). These were the “Original Men” and the “Original Women,” who chose to take the form that they have today (such as the human embodiment of “joy” deciding to take the form of all joy) (Bessire 2011:264). The Ayoreo would have nightly rituals where they would sit around the fire and tell adode, or stories of these beings in their human form. This view of the Original Men and Women and their transformations into their current form constructs the basis of their healing practices as well. The Ayoreo practiced healing through ritual chants, believing that illness could be sucked out or blown away by songs or chants that discuss the transformation of these previously-human concepts (Bessire 2011:264). These rituals would be performed by trained shaman, who would specialize in either sarode, the healing songs, or ujnarone, the healing chants (Bessire 2011:264). The principle of the curing chants is that by discussing the stories of the Old Men and Old Women, the shamans can invoke whatever each individual story is about. Therefore, each different curing chant has a personalizable purpose that can be adapted slightly based on the needs. For example, Bessire (2011) explains that smaller ailments like general weakness can be cured by using the ujnarone for clay (Bessire 2011:274).

One significant festival that is known from pre-contact culture is asojna, which happens at the beginning of the rainy season (“The Ayoreo” n.d.). After the first bird call of spring, which marks the beginning of the rainy season for the Ayoreo, they would have nearly a month full of celebration as they prepared to plant their “gardens” of crops (“The Ayoreo” n.d.).

The Ayoreo were matrilocal but patrilineal (Bessire 2011:262), and they would build small dome-shaped shelters from sticks, leaves, and other resources they found in the forest in camps when they weren’t actively moving for 4-5 families each (“The Ayoreo” n.d.). These shelters would only be used to sleep in when it was raining, however, and during nice weather, each family that shared the shelter would build their own small hearth in a circle around it, sleeping in front of the hearth instead (“The Ayoreo” n.d.).

“Headdress: National Museum of the American Indian" n.d.

Shelter made by the Ayoreo ("The Ayoreo" n.d.).

A few values intrinsic to the culture of the Ayoreo are adaptability, as they were a very fluid society with local bands that would meld into each other and would then have to adapt their leadership under these circumstances, and a lack of interest in material possessions (Glauser 2010:14). They also value personal autonomy and have a deep trust and respect for nature and the world around them, as well as a deep trust in themselves (Glauser 2010:14).

Missions & Contact

The first contact with the Ayoreo was made in the 1940s by Mennonite farmers (“The Ayoreo” n.d.). Many of the contact episodes with the Ayoreo have resulted in violence due to the unwanted nature of the contact. Ranchers and missionaries have also utilized previously-converted Ayoreo to enter into the forest and either scare their fellow Ayoreo away from potential ranch sites, or to bring them to mission camps for conversion (Bessire 2008). After conversion, many Ayoreo men turn to the cattle ranchers that dislocated them from their land in the first place for work, and Ayoreo women, who are known for their weaving, turn to sex work or selling their weavings (Bessire 2008; López Entrambasaguas et. al. 2015:8).

Prior to contact, many Ayoreo describe hearing the sounds of bulldozers cutting down their forests in the distance before they understood the nature of vehicles and machinery from the outside world (Bessire 2008). The noises from the bulldozers, which were massive and would knock down everything in their paths, could be heard from up to 10 miles away, and many Ayoreo thought that they might have been living creatures that could track them (Bessire 2008).

We thought the bulldozers were looking for us because it seemed that every time we made a village a bulldozer would come.

A quote by an Ayoreo named Jnoraine (Bessire 2008).

As with many indigenous groups that enter society, there was a large stigma against the Ayoreo and their culture, and during the Chaco War when the Ayoreo were first contacted, Paraguay even offered exemption from military service if individuals presented the severed head of an Ayoreo (Bessire 2008). These harsh realities forced the Ayoreo to assimilate to Christianity and attempt to understand the world of the outside quickly. Because of trauma and the taboo around their culture, many Ayoreo began to forget and push away their culture. They have a phrase for what they experience as a distinct separation from their old ways and their way of life after contact: God chieta bacajeode, or “fills you up,” meaning that God takes over and replaces all other sins (Bessire 2011:279).

A bulldozer used in the deforestation of the Gran Chaco ("The Ayoreo" n.d.).

How do the Ayoreo live today?

….We thought that life would be easy with the whites. We thought that everything was free, that they did not have to hunt and find their food, that they always had plenty. But now we know that everything is very expensive. We were hungry before, and we are hungry still.

Another quote from the same Ayoreo man, Jnoraine (Bessire 2008).

Today, many Ayoreo suffer due to the conditions forced upon them by contact. There is currently an effort to provide sexual education and resources to the Ayoreo because of an epidemic of HIV among Ayoreo sex workers, who often are not taught about the importance of sexual safety (López Entrambasaguas et. al. 2015:9). Paraguayan and Bolivian doctors often do not fully explain STDs to the Ayoreo who come in with symptoms, either, simply prescribing them treatment and not offering resources on how to prevent future STDs and the spread of them. The Ayoreo didn’t practice Western medicine in the forest, and many have never been told about medication, the spread of illness, or the fact that HIV doesn’t go away after treatment (López Entrambasaguas et. al. 2015:9).

Some post-contact Ayoreo have formed groups such as UNAP, el Unión de Nativos Ayoreo, or the Union of Ayoreo Natives, to protect the rights of the few who still live in the forests (Glauser 2010:20). They fight for putting a stop to deforestation and a protection of the territory of the Ayoreo as their own land, in order to give the still-isolated Ayoreo space to continue living in voluntary isolation (Glauser 2010:20).

The Ayoreo also tend to stay in groups of other Ayoreo, with some stating they feel safer among their people and close to their original territory (Glauser 2011:9). According to Mateo Sobode Chiquenoi and Aquino Aquiraoi Picanerai, two leaders in the Ayoreo community in 2008, the feeling of being Ayoreo is one that is not really safe in the outside world, but is a sense of being among other fellow Ayoreo (Glauser 2011:9).

Learn More

A short news article about the struggles of the Ayoreo as they adapt to life in a Bolivian city: http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/12/bolivias-ayoreo-indians-devoured-by-the-city/
An interview of experts on protecting the Ayoreo discussing the conditions the Ayoreo are facing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuD0gtqq-0M
A story about a strong leader in the Ayoreo community and his struggles with his health post-contact: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49264245
Survival International is an organization that provides support and engages in activism for indigenous groups around the world, including the Ayoreo. If you're interested in learning more about them, what they do for the Ayoreo and other groups, and how you can help, visit their website: https://www.survivalinternational.org/

References

Anon. n.d. “The Ayoreo.” Survival International. Retrieved November 6, 2021 (https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/ayoreo).
Anon. n.d. “Headdress: National Museum of the American Indian.” Headdress | National Museum of the American Indian. Retrieved November 6, 2021 (https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/objects/NMAI_188801?destination=edan_searchtab%3Fedan_q%3D%252A%253A%252A%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Dp.edanmdm.indexedstructured.nmaiculture_continent%253A%2522South%2520America%2522%26edan_fq%255B1%255D%3Dp.edanmdm.indexedstructured.nmaiculture_culture_area%253A%2522Gran%2520Chaco%2522%26edan_fq%255B2%255D%3Dobject_type%253A%2522Headdresses%2522%26edan_fq%255B3%255D%3Dp.edanmdm.indexedstructured.nmaiculture_archeol_1%253A%2522Ayoreo%2520%2528Morotoco%2529%2522).
Bessire, Lucas. 2008. “Isolation.” Cultural Survival. Retrieved November 6, 2021 (https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/isolation).
Bessire, Lucas. 2011. “Ujnarone Chosite: Ritual Poesis, Curing Chants and Becoming Ayoreo in the Gran Chaco.” Journal De La Société Des Américanistes (97-1):259–89.
Gibb, Tom. 2005. “Americas | Paraguay Tribe Faces Bleak Future.” BBC News. Retrieved November 6, 2021 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4426581.stm).
Glauser, Benno. 2010. Paraguay: The Case of the Ayoreo. Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar: UNAP.
Glauser, Benno. 2011. “Being Indigenous: The Concept of Indigeneity, a Conversation with Two Ayoreo Leaders.” The Politics Of Indigeneity: Dialogues And Reflections On Indigenous Activism.
López Entrambasaguas, Olga María, José Granero-Molina, and Jose Hernández-Padilla. 2015. “Understanding Sociocultural Factors Contributing to HIV Risk among Ayoreo Bolivian Sex Workers.” Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care 26(6):781–93.

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