Guarani Indians
 |
|
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 270,700 (estimated) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Paraguay, Argentina (esp. Misiones), Brazil, Bolivia | |
| Languages | |
| Guaraní, Spanish, Portuguese | |
| Religion | |
| Catholicism, Protestantism, Animism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Aché, Chané, Kaingang, Mbayá, Tupí |
Guaraní are a group of culturally related indigenous peoples of South America. They are distinguished from the related Tupí by their use of the Guaraní language. The traditional range of the Guaraní people is in present-day Paraguay between the Uruguay River and lower Paraguay River, the Misiones Province of Argentina, southern Brazil once as far as north as Rio de Janeiro, and parts of Uruguay and Bolivia. Although their demographic dominance of the region has been reduced by European colonisation and the commensurate rise of mestizos, there are contemporary Guaraní populations in these areas. Most notably, the Guaraní language, still widely spoken across traditional Guaraní homelands, is one of the two official languages in Paraguay, the other one being Spanish. The language was once looked down upon by the upper and middle classes, but it is now often regarded with pride and serves as a symbol of national distinctiveness. The Paraguayan population learns Guaraní both informally from social interaction and formally in public schools. In modern Spanish, Guaraní is also applied to refer to any Paraguayan national in the same way that the French are sometimes called Gauls.
The history and meaning of the name Guaraní are subject to dispute. Prior to their encounter with Europeans, the Guaraní referred to themselves simply as Abá, meaning "men" or "people." The term Guaraní was originally applied by early Jesuit missionaries to refer to natives who had accepted conversion to the Christian religion; Cayua or Caingua (ka'aguygua) was used to refer to those who had refused it. Cayua is roughly translated as "the ones from the jungle". While the term Cayua is sometimes still used to refer to settlements of indigenous peoples who have not well integrated into the dominant society, the modern usage of the name Guaraní is generally extended to include all people of native origin regardless of societal status. Barbara Ganson writes that the name Guaraní was given by the Spanish as it means "warrior" in the Tupi-Guaraní dialect spoken there.Guarinĩ is attested in 12th-century Old Tupi, by Jesuit sources, as “war, warrior, to wage war,warlord”.
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Wikipedia