Drama e sensibilidade: migraçâo, xamanismo e mulheres mbyá

Abstract

Although extensive, ethnological literature on the Guarani presents some significant gaps. The migratory processes had been rarely analysed through the narratives of its protagonists. Little importance was given to the women’s role as shamanic leaders and in the construction of the kinship nets. This work focuses a migratory movement started in Paraguay in the beginning of the XXth century, lead by a shaman woman along the Brazilian coast until the establishment of a village in the Espirito Santo state (Brazil). In the context of the drama unchained by the death of the leader, looking for a meaning for the crisis, the Mbya build multiple narratives on the life history of the shamanic leader and on the migration movement. Both are understood as a reflexive and transforming experience for the individuals and the society, combined with the strengthening of ritual practices. The treatment that the Indians reserve to the great subjects of the Guarani ethnology, such as migration and shamanism, is analysed in the context of the conditions of production. It makes possible to articulate the ordinary and extraordinary dimensions of the social life, whose production and reproduction are mainly the burden of women.