Imagens espaciais utópicas. Símbolos de liberdade e desterro nos povos guarani

Abstract

This article will contribute some reflections on utopian spatial images and their impact in four Guarani-speaking ethnic groups of South America. I will outline how each one of these ethnic groups describes its 'land without evil' and how, based on this mythical-historical reality, the academy created its own 'land without evil', without adequately taking into account the practical and liberating aspects of the myth. The article starts with some indigenous testimonies, collected in the field or taken from historical-anthropological studies, which demonstrate the expressions and s atial images by means of which these ethnic groups have integrated into their imaginary their historical experiences of reducción, aldeamiento, invasion, confinement in reservations, dispersion, and new expulsions from their lands. The article suggests reflecting on the 'land without evil' without negating the historicity of indigenous Guarani-speaking populations. It will introduce into the current history of these peoples, without negating the compexity involved in this field which is situated in the field of cosmology. I conclude the article by indicating that the mobility of the ethnic groups studied here would have to be considered, on the one hand, as an expression of the traditional symbolic universe of these peoples and, on the other hand, as a consequence of their experiences of banishment.