Yvyrupa, the Earth: Living Memory and Guarani Movements

Abstract

This article is based on the purpose of expanding the perspectives on the Amerindian space/territory based on Guarani reflections and narratives about Yvyrupa, the land or terrestrial platform. The idea of living memory appears crucial to delve into the ways of living and being inhabited by indigenous Amerindian peoples, and expresses the possibility of composing landscapes and moving between worlds. Understanding that landscapes are effects of the distributions between the visible and the invisible, we find among the Guaranies rich elaborations on the social effects of seeing and not seeing, of appearing and of being or not seen. We try to extract some reflections on the challenges posed to an anthropological practice that claims to be political, that is, that assumes its role in terms of the forms of appearance (and disappearance) of indigenous peoples and their worlds, as a prerogative to be able to inhabit worlds in common.