From Aldea kue to the future: Mbya children´s everyday life and perspectives in changing contexts (Misiones, Argentina)

REMORINI, C.

San Diego

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the Anthropology of Children and Youth Interest Group and Society for Psychological Anthropology; 2013

American Anthropological Association

The discontinuity in the intergenerational transmission of knowledge, skills and cultural practices considered "traditional" from Mbya perspective, is often a recurring theme in the speeches of indigenous leaders. This problem is attributed to the reduction of spheres for learning the Ñande Reko ("our culture") and the native language. Facing this position, our ethnographic observation of children´s participation in routine activities both, at home and in activities organized by peers, shows, however, the effectiveness of some knowledge and skills highly valued in the context of the Mbya life style. Otherwise, talking with children, we accessed to their expectations about their community and the projects arising to facing ecological and cultural transformations. In this paper we account for Mbya children perspectives regarding these processes of transformations and its impact on their daily lives, trajectories and projects. We base it on our experience working with children and youth in one Mbya community in which we inquire about the community history (?Aldea kue?) and expectations for the future. By performing drawings, models and conversations we recognized their concerns related to access to education and health services and labor opportunities that add value to their knowledge and cultural experiences. Contrasting adults and children´s perceptions we observed the latter pose a set of expectations regarding changes in life style and its tangible expression in the "future village". We also recognized the articulation children raised between traditional and innovative components of life style in a regional context characterized by demand for traditional knowledge and exploitation of ecosystems for different economic initiatives and tourism.