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The Mbya are a micro-ethnic group belonging to the Tupi-Guaraní linguistic family that is thought to have migrated into the Interior Atlantic Forest 3200 years ago. The Mbya, along with two other closely related Guaraní groups, are called the Cainguás or forest dwellers, because they avoided outsiders and were not introduced to Christianity or European belief systems in the reduction system of the Jesuits and other religious orders.
The Mbya are today the most culturally and religiously intact of all surviving Guaraní ethnic peoples. The Mbya consider Nande Ru to be their “father” and many of the teachings of their religious leaders are cloaked in parables about the natural world and prophecies about the end of the earth, however almost all Mbya religious practices are kept secret from outsiders.
Mbya communities are organized around two leaders, an opygua and a cacique. The opygua or shaman is the religious leader who conducts ceremonies, counsels families and individuals, directs or performs medical treatments and healing rituals, and may bless and prepare sacred animals such as wild boar. The opygua is often identified at an early age as someone who has prophecies and visionary dreams filled with chants and songs on a regular basis.
The role of the opygua has retained much of its traditional authority and function. These individuals are chosen both by community consensus and by fate. opyguas usually serve throughout their adult lives and they are exempted from heavier duties in the community. Their role requires extensive knowledge of the medicinal properties of the rainforest, maintaining the Opy or prayer house, comprehension of an ancient form of the Mbya language that is used in religious ceremonies, and the ability to maintain and transmit the oral history of their culture.
One important function of the opygua is to dream the forest name of a newborn child and to conduct a special baptismal and naming ritual when the child is one year-old. The Mbya name given to the child during the ceremony reflects the true sole and natural forest character of the infant. This name is seldom shared with outsiders, but has great significance within Mbya communities. The entire village celebrates the naming of the infant with music from guitars, violins, and rattles and songs from the children’s choir along with purification of the infant from smoke spread from the opygua’s pipe.
Dancing and singing are culturally important, especially during ceremonies. Children, from ages 5 to 15, perform traditional songs and dances during ceremonies and for some tourists. In the evening the children perform around a fogon, or ceremonial fire. People from other Mbya villages often visit each other during important holidays, giving young people from multiple villages the opportunity to meet each other. Couples often marry young, usually living as extended family near or with the girl’s parents.
Since colonization, the role of the cacique or mburuvicha has evolved within Mbya society to be similar in function to a paternalistic small town mayor. A Mbya cacique serves as a buffer and a mediator between the community and the external regional society. Caciques are responsible for enforcing laws within their community, signing and enforcing government documents, obtaining documents of national identity, maintaining residency records, and meeting with local and provincial government officials. Although caciques have multiple responsibilities, their position is often powerless when they oppose government decisions. In Misiones Province an additional position of the community legal representative was created for the bureaucratic purpose of negotiating goods and services with governmental representatives of Asuntos Guaraní, a provincial office that oversees the affairs of the Mbya.
Caciques are chosen yearly through politics and voting. The stability of a community can often be gauged by how many years a cacique has served. Communities in conflict often vote in a new cacique on a yearly basis. Men and women may fill either the position of opygua or cacique although traditionally most of the leaders have been men.
Labor activities in a community are usually defined by gender, with men engaged in most of the productive activities and women involved in reproductive activities. Productive labor includes procuring food for the family, including hunting and fishing, and working as day laborers. Reproductive activities are centered in the home and involve cooking, sewing, childcare, and tending the garden. Boys often accompany their fathers on hunting trips, while girls learn at a young age to care for sibling infants and toddlers. While most economic activities are circumscribed by gender, both men and women manufacture and sell handicrafts to tourists.
Traditional wooden traps, and sometimes machetes, are used by men for hunting forest animals such as armadillo, deer, coati, jaguar, and birds. The Mbya are skilled hunters with intimate knowledge of the foraging and movement patterns of their prey. Groups of men fish in the summer months in small rivers or ponds that have been isolated by heavy rains. The Mbya stun and asphyxiate fish by introducing toxic plants into the water.
The Mbya use the traditional slash and burn technique to clear unproductive garden areas. This type of system allows the forest to regenerate and adds natural chemicals to the thin rainforest soils. Men may work together in clearing trees and brush to prepare a garden area, while women and children tend and weed the garden after it is planted.