Ara guydje pya'u: o ritual de ano novo guarani na terra indígena Toldo Chimbangue

Abstract

The work consists in the elaboration of the ethnography of the ritual “Ara Guydje Pya’u” or “New Year’s Ritual” ritualized by the Guarani, who provisionally, for more than 20 years, have lived in the Kaingang’s area “Toldo Chimbangue Indegenous Land”, in Chapecó, Santa Catarina, Brasil. This Guarani community is originally from the territory known as “Araça’í Indegenous Land” located in the municipality of Saudades, Santa Catarina, a diasporic territory and still in judicial proceedings for demarcation. For the development of ethnography, the participatory observation’s scientific method was adopted in the different interactions with the Guarani families. That led the revitalization of Opy and the performance of the ritual. Interviews were designed to substantiate the meanings of the observation made during the field research. The “Ara Guydje Pya’u” takes place through performances that communicate and update Guarani cosmology, express the end of a cycle of nature and carry out good omens and feelings, so that life can blossom to the full extent that spring promotes. The stages marked the ritual are; the purification by the sacred fire (tatá), by the use of petyngua, the consecration of ayahuasca, the dance and the sacred songs. This experience is marked by the protection of the moon over the night. After dissipating the old energies, the water and the sun energize the people and the earth for the new sprouting, for the sowing of a new cycle of planting , like cassava, watermelons and other foods. The social life is also marked by this cycle as temporal, a collective spiritual experience, a ritual of passage. The theoretical orientation to support the research was based on Barth (1995, 2005), Hannerz (1997), Turner (1974, 1975, 1987), Taylor (2008), Seeger (2008, 2015). “Ara Guydje Pya’u” is a ritual of passage, the year ends with winter and the new year comes with spring. The participants in the ritual attribute their effectiveness to the success of the coming year. The relevance of the experience translates, above all, into the political importance of the Guarani way of being, updated based on the experiences of the present, as an expression of resistance to anti-indigenous policies that hinder the return to ancestral land and differentiated access to political, civil and social rights.