Tupi‐Guarani Apocalyptic Visions of Time and the Body

Abstract

Guarani children of Southern Brazil who live off garbage dumps subvert the tribe's cultural order by turning the future into the present in their role‐playing activities. While the Tupi‐speaking Guarani adults believe that severe hunger and scarcity are necessary conditions for the passage to the Land‐without‐Evil, the kids suggest that the mythic paradise can be a mundane reality. Miniature vegetable gardens and toy truckloads of food create the "divine abundance" featured in the promised land. Non‐Indian graveyard diggers and missionary preachers are transformed into Guarani warriors and prophets by young shamans who blow tobacco on improvised dolls. The children's critique of human society bears witness that the high incidence of infant mortality can transform the tribes apocalyptic visions of time and the body, because it calls for major changes in collective behavior, including the acceptance of the comforts of sedentary agricultural life.

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