Joapytykuéra e mbojoapyva: modes of production of leadership and collectives among the Kaiowá (Guarani)

In this article, we aim to discuss the transformations in Kaiowa leadership styles. We understand leadership to be the role of people who forge relationships and attract others to build communities. In the Kaiowa language, they are called mbojoapyva. From 1915 onwards, with the creation of indigenous reserves in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, several kaiowa extended families were forcibly taken to the interior of the indigenous posts created by the Serviço de Proteção ao Índio (SPI), which had an immense impact on the process of leadership creation. We seek to understand how traditional leadership is produced through knowledge and practices associated with modes of being of their ancestors (teko ymaguare), and we describe leadership modalities and styles that have emerged with the creation of indigenous reserves. Traditional leaders, who maintain relationships of alliance and conflict with new political figures emerging in the current context of the reserves, must invest in relations with their ancestors, the masters of their modes of being (teko jára kuéra), with other spirits, as well as with the knowledge, practices and powers of non-indigenous people (karai reko kuera).

KEYWORDS
Leadership and Collectives; Kaiowá; Cosmopolitics; Anthropology of Politics; Guarani