We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.
Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.Help Now >
Mbaya Indians
FREE Catholic Classes
(Guaycurü)
A predatory tribe formerly ranging on both sides of the Paraguay River, on the north and northwestern Paraguay frontier, and in the adjacent portion of the province of Matto Grosso, Brazil. They are one of a group of equestrian warlike and savage tribes, constituting a distinct linguistic stock, the Guaycuran, formerly roving over northern Paraguay and the upper Chaco region, and of which the best known are the Abipon, made famous by the missionary Dobrizhoffer, the Guaycurü proper, or Mbaya , the Macobí, and the still savage and powerful Toba. The Lengua, sometimes included under the same name, are now known to be a branch of the Chiquito of Bolivia. The name, Mbaya, given to them by the more peaceful Guaraní, signified "terrible", "bad", or "savage". The name, Guaycurü, now most commonly used, is said to mean "runner". They have also been called Caballeros by the Spaniards, on account of their fine horsemanship. According to Father Lozano they had three main divisions: Epicua-yiqui (Epiguayegi) in the North, Napin-yiqui in the West, and Taqui-yiqui in the South. Iolis, another authority, gives a different list of six divisions.
The Guaycurü were accustomed to prey upon the more sedentary Guaraní tribes, making sudden raids with quick retreats into their own country, where tangled forests and treacherous swamps made pursuit difficult and subjection almost impossible. In 1542, Alvar Nuñez Cabeça de Vaca, governor of Buenos Aires, with a detachment of Spaniards and contingent of Guaraní, inflicted upon them a signal defeat, chiefly by the terror of his field guns and horses, with both of which the Guaycurü were still unacquainted. The acquisition of horses soon transformed them into a race of expert and daring equestrians, and for two centuries they continued their raids upon the Spanish settlements on the Paraguay River and the neighbouring missions. As early as 1610 the Jesuits unsuccessfully attempted their conversion. About the middle of the eighteenth century a peace was arranged which, according to Dobrizhoffer, was faithfully kept by the Indians. The Jesuit Joseph Sanchez Labrador was then sent, at his own request, to work among these Guaycurü, who had been considered the wildest and most dangerous tribe of the region. Having made good progress in their difficult language, he established for them, in 1670, the mission of Virgen de Belen (now Belen), east of the present Concepción, in Paraguay. They were impatient of restraint, and, although many infants and dying adults received baptism, according to Dobrizhoffer, "the rest did little else than wander over the plains". The mission influence, however, effectually tamed their ferocity. At the expulsion of the Jesuits, in 1767, the Belen mission contained 260 Christian Indians, eight of the nine bands still remaining in the forests.
In this same year was established by Father Manuel Duran the last of the Paraguay Jesuit foundations, the mission of San Juan Nepomucino, on the east bank of the river, among the Guana, or Chana, a numerous agricultural or pedestrian tribe of the same territory, subject to the Mbaya. When the missionaries were driven out, this station contained 600 Indians. The conversion of the Guana had been undertaken more than a century before by Father Pedro Romero, who lost his life in 1645 at the hands of a neighbouring wide tribe. Among the Guana, infanticide, polygamy, and intoxication were unknown, and the men and women worked together in the fields. About the close of the eighteenth century, the Franciscans took up the work begun by the Jesuits, and in the next fifty years gathered a number of Guaycurü and Guana into missions, which continued until the tribes themselves diminished or were assimilated. Lieutenant Page, who commanded a mission sent by the United States Government to explore the Paraguay river, gives an interesting and extended account of his visit to one of these mission, Nossa Senhora de Bon Conselho, near Albuquerque, Brazil, in 1853 (Page, "Report to the Secretary of the Navy", Washington, 1855). Here the Christian Guanas cultivated vegetables for the market afforded by the neighbouring white settlements. Under the care, both temporal and spiritual, of a Franciscan Father, these aborigines who, only a few years earlier, had been wandering savages, now were a remarkably neat, orderly, and thrifty community of husbandmen. Fronting upon a public square, there stood the village church, a school house, and a number of well-constructed thatched dwellings, each dwelling having a frontage of twenty feet, with interiors partitioned with curtains and fitted with raised platforms to serve either as tables or beds. Among the vegetables cultivated was a native rice, which they harvested in canoes. Cotton, too, was grown, spun, dyed, and woven by the women of the settlement. The men wore trousers and ponchos ; the women, a chemise girdled at the waist; the boys were exercised in military tactics, and the children in general were not only taught "the rudiments of a general education, but made some progress in music and dancing ". A few of the Mbaya proper still exist on the western bank of the Paraguay in the neighbourhood of the town of Concepción. Other bands known as Guaycurü roam over the adjacent districts of Matto Grosso, Brazil and may number perhaps 1500 souls as against and estimated 15,000 or 18,000 a century ago. The Guana, on the Taquari and Miranda Rivers in the same region are now labourers among the whites, although still claimed as dependents by the Guaycurü.
In their primitive condition the men of the Guaycurü went entirely naked, while the women wore only a short skirt. The men trimmed their hair in a circular tuft. Girls had the head closely shaven. The men painted their bodies and wore rings in the lower lip. Boys were painted black until about fourteen years old, then red for two years, when they were subjected to a painful ordeal, before taking their station as warriors. War was their chief business, their weapons being the bow, club, and bone knife. The children born of captives were sold as slaves. Their chief tribal ceremony was in honour of the Pleiades, and was accompanied by a short battle between the men and the women, ending with general intoxication. They buried their dead in the ground, and voluntary human victims were sacrificed when a chief died. Polygamy was unknown, but separation was frequent, and infanticide common. They subsisted by fishing and hunting. Their villages consisted each of a single communal structure in three large rooms, the middle of which was reserved for the chief and head men, and for the storage of weapons. The chief had great authority, and with his head men, seems to have belonged to a different clan, or gens, from the common warriors. Captives and their descendants constituted a permanent slave class. As a people they were tall and strongly built. Those still remaining show the admixture of white captive blood and are gradually assimilating to the settled population.
Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.
-
Mysteries of the Rosary
-
St. Faustina Kowalska
-
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
-
Saint of the Day for Wednesday, Oct 4th, 2023
-
Popular Saints
-
St. Francis of Assisi
-
Bible
-
Female / Women Saints
-
7 Morning Prayers you need to get your day started with God
-
Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
From Plows to Profit: The Rise of Industrialized Agriculture in America
-
Nehemiah's Wall: A Testament to Faith, Leadership, and Restoration
-
What's Different About the Catholic Bible? A Catholic Perspective on the Canon of Scripture
-
Silent Killers: The Toxic Legacy of Petrochemicals on Our Health
-
Our Water is Poisoned: A Wake-Up Call for America
Daily Catholic
- Daily Readings for Friday, October 04, 2024
- St. Francis of Assisi: Saint of the Day for Friday, October 04, 2024
- St. Francis of Assisi's Vocation Prayer: Prayer of the Day for Friday, October 04, 2024
- Daily Readings for Thursday, October 03, 2024
- St. Ewald & Ewald: Saint of the Day for Thursday, October 03, 2024
- Memore to St. Joseph: Prayer of the Day for Thursday, October 03, 2024
Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.
Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.