Futuro melhor: valores, território e dinheiro entre os Guarani da TI Tenonde Porã

Abstract

This research, carried out among the Guarani indigenous communities of the Tenonde Porã Indigenous Land, focuses on the Guarani's relationship with their territory, the values that guide their way of life (nhandereko) and how money as an object and sign is inserted in this context. The thesis stems from a fundamental division established by the Guarani between their own way of life and non-indigenous people’s way of life. In their daily lives, the Guarani find themselves surrounded by non-indigenous people and by a way of life that encourages values considered by the Guarani to be negative and harmful to their way of life, such as individualism, consumerism and profit making as a goal. In general, money appears in guarani speeches and attitudes as something dangerous that can lead to negative transformations for people and places, bringing forth the dissolution of their way of life’s values. However, on the other hand, living in an Indigenous Land very close to the São Paulo metropolis, money is a frequently used object that indigenous people have to deal with in order to have access to a series of things that are part of their lives. Faced with this duality, I describe how the Guarani seek different ways to avoid the dangers of money and leverage it as a tool to strengthen their territory, their community relations, their traditional practices and their way of life’s values.