Statusrapport
Evaluation of Various Components of the Kuatiañe’ê Project
In the last thirty years, Guaraní-speaking peoples have been obliged to undergo a rapid process of confrontation with other cultures that surround their habitat and their forests. Inter-ethnic friction has generated and is generating a new model for Guaraní life that is both in continuity with tradition and at the same time is adapting to the new situation, in order to survive while reclaiming native identity. The fundamental purpose of the Kuatiañe’ê Project is to conserve the “word” of the Ava-Guaraní, Mbya Guaraní, and Ache. This is a significant effort that has aroused the interest and applause not only of the affected peoples, but also of all anthropologists and indigenists [working in this field]. The essence and identity of a people is transmitted through the word, via communication that originally was only spoken, and now is written as well. The Project’s work of recording and compiling the oral culture of the above-mentioned cultures, and posterior use of this material in didactic texts that including reading and exercise books for students and teaching guides for teachers, has parallels and precedents among other ethnic groups of the Chaco that pertain to a variety of linguistic families. Mid term external evaluation, seeking to understand and appraise the work the KUATIAÑE’Ë PROJECT has proposed—giving to Guaraní-speaking indigenous groups the possibility of rescuing and preserving written documentation of their rich oral culture.