Kaiowcide: Living through the Guarani-Kaiowa Genocide

by Antonio Augusto Rossotto Ioris

Overview

Kaiowcide: Living through the Guarani-Kaiowa Genocide is an analysis of the genocidal violence perpetrated against indigenous peoples in Brazil and towards the Guarani-Kaiowa. The ongoing indigenous genocide is defined as “Kaiowcide,” in place since the 1970s, when the Guarani-Kaiowa mobilized a reaction to land grabbing and oppression in the final years of the military dictatorship. The book is based on years of research on the agribusiness frontiers, on the indigenous geography of the Guarani-Kaiowa, and on sustained engagement with indigenous communities. Instead of merely describing the genocidal tragedy, the focus is on the life through genocide and trying to collectively go beyond it. One of the main contributions is to provide a robust interpretative analysis of the causes and the ramifications of the genocidal experience lived by the Guarani-Kaiowa. Rather than focusing on formalist notions of “direct intent” by settlers and governments, as a prerequisite for the tagging as genocide, this book emphasizes the destructive potential of the actors actively involved in agrarian capitalist transformations promoted by the national state in socio-economic frontiers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793646408
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	11/01/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	314
File size:	9 MB

About the Author

Antonio Augusto Rossotto Ioris is reader in human geography and director of the graduate program on environment and development at the School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction - Death Shaping the Centre of the Continent

Chapter 1 - The Land and Context of Kaiowcide

Chapter 2 - Indigeneity and Genocide

Chapter 3 – The Genocidal March against the Guarani-Kaiowa

Chapter 4 – Kaiowcide: Talking Genocide Today

Chapter 5 – First Phase of Kaiowcide, 1970s to early 1990s: Indigenous Risorgimento and the Genocidal Response

Chapter 6 – Second Phase of Kaiowcide, mid-1990s to 2007: The Agro-Neoliberal Face of Kaiowcide

Chapter 7 – Third Phase of Kaiowcide, 2007 to 2020s: The Zenith of Hell

Chapter 8 – A Lived Genocide: The Offspring of Kaiowcide

Epilogue: Realisation and Transgression

Acronyms and Terms

Guarani Expressions

Editorial Reviews

Brazil’s development policies have long been based on substantial exploitation of the country’s natural resources, such as its rainforests. This continues to cause depredation of indigenous peoples’ traditional territories, which are widely unprotected from the threat of large-scale extractive industry’s activities, such as mining and logging, mostly endorsed by the State. Without any prior consultation or consent, these invasions take place alongside systematic intimidation, and unspeakable violence.

Mato Grosso do Sul has been the centre-stage for severe land conflicts between the agribusiness and the Guarani-Kaiowa, and much indigenous blood has been shed. This violence and destruction have further intensified since the election of the far-right politician, Jair Bolsonaro, who promised to retract pro-environmental legislation before he took office as Brazil’s president in January 2019. Regrettably, these threats have been exacerbated by the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic, which is only the latest major threat in Brazilian indigenous peoples’ history of exclusion.

While waiting to return to their ancestral land, the Guarani-Kaiowa live in precarious campsites lining roadsides, on town peripheries, at the back of farms, and/or in small government reserves, unable to resume their cultural practices so tied to the land. This only magnifies the tragic humanitarian crisis, which undermines the life of the group. With the murder of their leaders by farmer’s militias, the killing of their children often run over by trucks and the suicide of their youth, the Guarani-Kaiowa live in relentless turmoil, which led them to a social and cultural void.

In his book, Ioris fulfills an important political function, which gives visibility to the historical tragedy experienced by the Guarani-Kaiowa families in the last century. The book offers a deeper understanding of the group’s plight under this ongoing destabilizing violence, which the author refers to as genocidal. In addition, the book draws on the interesting parallel between the Guarani-Kaiowa’s rich mythology and current events impacting their lives, offering rare glimpses into the group’s distinct culture and cosmology.

Genna Naccache

"This book is essential and compelling reading and a stimulating contribution to ongoing debates on genocide. At its core, it argues for a radical re-evaluation of the definition and nature of genocide in the twenty first century, drawing on the dramatic situation of the Guarani-Kaiowa indigenous people, who continue to confront a little understood genocide.

It is an urgent manifesto for our times, calling on us to understand and value indigenous peoples in all their diversity, their rich knowledge and connection to nature, and their fundamental role in protecting our planet’s biodiversity

Based on years of field work, it is also a finely drawn portrait of an indigenous people constantly grappling with the horrific legacy of colonialism and post-colonial aggression in the form of massive land theft by agri-business, racism and deeply unequal power structures in Brazil. This is illuminated by powerful first-hand testimonies of a people who, against all the odds, refuse to give up and continue to defy institutionalised racism, corruption and greed.

This is a topical and timely book and will appeal to a broad audience interested in genocide studies, human rights, history, politics, economics, and environmental issues in Latin America."

Fiona Watson

"This book is the result of a shared journey of discovery and hope. Walking through our territory (tekoha), together with our great indigenous leaders, as well as allied non-indigenous people, Ioris, as we affectionately call him, gradually learned about faces, bodies and landscapes marked by historical violence since the arrival of the white colonizers, who still today continue to privately appropriate wealth in the capitalist world. This book on Kaiowcide is product of these wanderings, of appetite for critical reflection and clear political commitment in defence of the people Guarani and Kaiowa. For all that, I want to express gratitude in the language of my people, aguyjevete (thank you very much)."

Eliel Benites

"This is an important book, much more than an outsider history of the genocide of Brazil's Guarani-Kaiowa people and their centuries-old and ongoing battle for survival - against colonisers, missionaries, land grabbers, miners and now Covid-19.

Ioris is an impassioned chronicler who explores the culture and beliefs of the Kaiowa and shares their conviction that ‘another world is possible’."

Mike Gatehouse

"This book about the indigenous genocide underway in Mato Grosso do Sul (Brazil), which has as victims the Guarani-Kaiowa and Guarani-Ñandeva, represents an extremely important contribution. It provides a lucid and compelling description and analysis of the very serious situation experienced by these indigenous peoples, who are increasingly impacted by agribusiness and have lost control over their traditional territories, with the establishment of a state of continued violence. Going through the various historical situations that the Guarani went through and the consolidation of an interethnic relationship since the colonial and post-colonial periods, the work focuses and describes in detail a gradual but striking ‘Kaiowcide’, as defined by the author, which has been occurring mainly from the 1970s onwards and which continues to worsen. For these reasons, I strongly recommend the publication and reading of the book."

Fabio Mura