Ñandesy e Oguatá Porã: O Impacto da COVID-19 na Mobilidade das Mulheres Guarani e Kaiowá

Abstract

Historically, the Guarani and Kaiowá communities engage in a spatial displacement process known as Oguatá, guided by diverse motivations. This research aims to analyze this movement through the narratives of the elders (Ñandesy) during the COVID-19 pandemic, seeking to understand the impacts of social isolation on the practice of Oguatá. The ethnographic focus is on the border region between Brazil and Paraguay, specifically in the municipalities of Amambai and Caarapó. In these areas, women traditionally move to establish and strengthen kinship ties, participate in rituals, and other activities. Thus, displacement is understood as an essential process in the Guarani way of life, fundamental to the cosmology of a borderless population affected by the historical interferences of the state. The state's territorial dynamics, which delineate borders and restrict the movement of border communities, exacerbate these challenges. In this context, state measures against the spread of the coronavirus directly impacted this ancestral practice, compromised by directives from an inattentive state, which demonstrated a limited understanding of Indigenous realities while disseminating collective prescriptions for social isolation.