1995AN INNOVATING TRADITION: STRATEGIES FOR THE SURVIVAL OF LOCAL CULTURE INTHE CHAMACOCO'S COLONIA POTRERITO VILLAGEMario RabeyMario Blaser Identity and knowledge: ancient, Western, traditional

In this paper we want to explain the strategies that

Colonia Potrerito

's community, appertaining tothe

Chamacoco

Ishir

people, sets in motion in producing and circulating knowledge to meetthe on-going breakdown process of its ethnographic culture. The Chamacoco culture and societywas recently presented by some authors (Susnik 1969; Chase-Sardi 1972; 1987; Cordeu 1989),which emphasize changes suffered by the ethnographic culture as it was described by earlyobservers (Boggiani 1900; Baldus 1927) and their results in terms of systems of activities andbelieves.An agriculture project with assistance of the non-profit orgnization ACIP (Ayuda a lasComunidades Indigenas del Paraguay) is currently carried out in the village, based on theintroduction of agricultural practices. This project involves a great modification of the ethnic way of life, because of the lack of any noticeable cultivation practices in the remote past as well as in thepresent. In fact, during the last decades the main local resources were occasional jobs -the"

changa

"- and the "

marisca

" or hunting. On this basis it was critical to establish the viability of generating appropriate technology as it wasdefined by Merlino & Rabey (1981), in a geographic and sociocultural context quite different fromthe context where these authors worked, herding and cultivation communities of the high Andes.The appropriate technology was characterized "by a set of features that include: integrality, linkingto basic needs, emphasis in the local world's view and local resources, harmonic introduction of innovations and community's participation". By determining if the introduction of agriculturaltechniques embraces the attributes that define appropriate technology, it could be evaluated if these technologies can contribute to diminish or to control the breakdown process abovementioned.Our research unity is the local community, as defined by Rabey & González (1985): “the spacewhere the local culture, in its searching of participation in the complex sociocultural system(regional, national, transnational), encounters with the global culture in its marching toward theintegration of all local cultures". Cordeu (1989: 553) says that meaning, appraisal, feeling, actionand knowledge condense into the cultural symbolic frame. So in order to demarcate the localcommunity it is important that these dispositions are shared in some degree by its members. Thebasic attribute of the local community is "the identity: an integrated set of traits, a system thatdifferentiates it of other analogous systems (another local communities), and joins it into thecomplex sociocultural system (Rabey y González 1985).Kessing (1987) points out that there are some risks in the interpretative task of regarding the studyof cultures like shared meaning's systems, especially when there is an unequal distribution of knowledge, because the depth in which the general context of symbolic terms is known denotesdifferent meanings to different people. If we look at the objections posited by Kessing, it is however possible to speak about a system of general meanings shared by the members of a localcommunity, that allows the identification of other people as appertaining to the subject's group.There is a close relationship between identity and general shared meanings. We consider that it is

in this level where the consensus of value and dispositions to action that define the local cultureremains. When we penetrate under this level we find the handling of knowledge with diverse aims.In Colonia Potrerito –high Paraguay river, near Bahia Negra town-, where two Chamacocopartialities, Ebitoso and Tomaraxo, live together, there is an extended consensus regarding theconservation of some traits of the ancient culture: "we can't change, we must speak our language,we must sing our songs". In this way the searching of participation as a local culture into thecomplex sociocultural system takes place, and this is only an example among others, over thebasis of a consensus about the general meaning attributed to the maintenance of the ancientculture's traits. In spite of this, there is a great strife between Ebitoso and Tomaraxo, a strife that ispartially based on different goals and reasons for each of them. We pretend to show, by using thisexample, how the making of consensus about shared general meanings makes possible to definean extended identity that allows to speak about one local community, despite the existence of twopartialities.Some analytic categories have been fundamental to develop this research. The first is

traditional knowledge

. Many authors like Honko (1986) have stated that traditional knowledge embracesmaterials that are perceived as old and are thought like having remained in process of transmission during a long time. Although we partially agree with this definition, it is our understanding that it presents some difficulties. In the first place, the temporal approach resultsexcessively ambiguous and insufficient, because it put off knowledge and practices that, althoughrecently acquired, play an important part in the present cultural goods of a group. For instance, themyths that explain the existence of blond among

Ishir

could not have been built before the lastyears of XIX Century, the time when a continuous contact with the White started (Cordeu 1989). Inrelation to this, we could ask how much time is, for the Honko's criterion, a "long time"; in other words, how much time must pass in order to consider some singular myth or technique as makingpart of one tradition.In addition, it is accepted that

tradition

and

identity

are closely linked. It is also acknowledgedthat the identity ability for self-conservation is mainly possible because its permeability to changesand innovations through experimentation and comparison (Honko 1986; Rabey 1987, 1989; Clay,1988; Leong 1989). If we keep the temporal approach for defining tradition, the question arousedis what place we must give to the recent innovations. Furthermore, what happens when aninformant tells us how his/her "grandparents" -ancestors- observed some practice and how it isnowadays performed? Would we determine what of these are traditional, even when both of themcontribute to establish a differentiated identity between past and present? We intend to point outthe following: if tradition and identity are closely linked, the first can not be restricted only to thetraits that allow to link the past with the present. It must also include the traits that makedifferences between the past and the present, and are simultaneously basic for the building of thecurrent identity.Then we will speak of

traditional knowledge

referring to the enduring or innovating one that isperceived by the community as actually or potentially useful for the preservation of its identity. Itcontrasts with

Western knowledge

, which tends to dilute the local identities in more ampleidentities. In addition, we will name

ancient knowledge

the representations that people buildabout the cognitive and value patterns that gave identity to their ancestors. These will fuse intotraditional knowledge if they are shared by the contemporary people.Cordeu (1989) points out that Chamacoco ancient culture continues being the basic frame of reference in their evaluation of the White and modern Chamacoco cultures. This denotes theimportance of establishing how the community members perceive the relationship between thetransformations of ancient knowledge and the introduction of new knowledge. This will bring lighton their present world's view, especially on the value they give to these changes, and howtraditional knowledge is generated.

Ethnohistory

The ancient

Tminaha

and

Caitpotorade

appear to be the historical ancestors of the modern

Chamacoco

(Susnik 1969), that name themselves

Ishir

, a word that means person / humanbeing. Some authors mention three partialities among the Ishir: Xorio, Ebitoso and Tomaraxo. Untilthe 1950's all of them inhabited the West margin of the Paraguay river, South from Corumbá: theXorio and the Ebitoso near Bahia Negra and the Tomaraxo in the proximity of Puerto Sastre(Baldus 1931; Susnik 1957, 1969; Chase Sardi 1972; Cordeu 1989).Ebitoso people state they came from the legendary river-lake Cisimiy, probably the San José delos Vitiones lake at from the Bambourral river, 200 km Northwest from Bahia Negra. That areaappertained to Paraguay until Chaco war in the 1930's, when it was conquered by Bolivia. In 1799the

comandante

(major) of Fortín Borbón, today Fuerte Olimpo, organized an expedition aimed tostop the Ishir's raids. This campaign went towards the Northwest, and this would confirm theabove mentioned geographic origin of the group (Susnik 1969).In this period the Ishir migrated toward the West margin of the Paraguay river, contacting the

Caduveo

tribe. The Caduveo demanded a periodical tribute to the Ishir who gave them anestablished number of slaves. These were obtained by the Xorio and the Ebitoso, mainly from theTomaraxo, to whom they permanently harassed with that aim. Then an intertribal system (Cardosode Oliveira 1977) was constituted, where the political subjection by force combined with somecognitive submission that expressed itself by means of the reverence to their lords and theacceptance of their points of view on the legitimacy of their rule (Cordeu 1989 and ms b).If in the beginning, the capture of prisoners had the aim of satisfying the demands of the Caduveo,some time after the aim was to use them in the Ebitoso's own benefit. With the incorporation of servants appeared a tendency to a certain rudiment of hierarchy, and "the adoption of a noblecourtesy rule, proved by the appearance of jesters and jugglers recruited among the captives"(Cordeu 1989: 550). The rapid contact with the White interrupted this process.The definite settlement of the White brought the subjection of the Ishir to the White's economicinterests. In that way, they were incorporated to the new system as working force in the timber yards and ranches, as "

changuistas

" (temporary workers) for the carriage of load and assuppliers of women for the White (Susnik 1969; Cordeu 1989). The consequences of this process in regard to demography, family composition, socialorganization, world's view, and other features have been studied by authors like Boggiani (1900).Baldus (1927), Susnik (1969), Chase Sardi (1972) and Cordeu (1989). We will briefly point outsome of these consequences among the partialities Xorio and Ebitoso, even though to a certainextent they can also be related to the Tomaraxo.The Ishir were hunter-gatherers, possessed weapons and very simple wooden instruments. Theylacked of permanent dwellings and of agriculture. Getting, distributing and consumption of foodwas strictly ruled according to their social institutions: clans, groups of age, sex. In this sense, itcan be stated that the means of subsistence and the subsistence itself were more a social than anindividual or familiar worry.Since the first contacts with the White, the Xorio and the Ebitoso were occasionally available for the work as woodmen and farmhand. The

caciques

pelotak

(chiefs) were brokers between theWhite and their own people. During this period the dissatisfaction of the Ishir toward their ownpelotak started, because they considered that they could manage themselves, having in that waythe possibility of obtaining things in an immediate way. Then it started the process which Susnik(1969) named "from hunting to work; from looking for food to having things". This process