Indigenous living and its relationship with the landscape

Abstract

This article seeks to weave relationships between living, the landscape, and the original peoples, especially the Mbyá Guarani^[1] from Southern Brazil. We seek to relate the beings and elements that make up the landscape and are present in their narratives of origin and in the constructive forms they create to inhabit this landscape by transforming its components into architecture and places of conviviality. An ethnographic approach was used, including observations, dialogs, and journeys through the landscapes. Publications by indigenous and non-indigenous authors are interdisciplinary theoretical references that help these reflections. It is understood that the relationship between indigenous peoples and the landscape is ancestral, linked to their memories, narratives, and cosmologies. The constructive forms through which they inhabit the landscape reveal affection and a feeling of belonging and kinship with the elements that are part of it. In conclusion, it is perceived that the experienced wisdom of indigenous peoples about the landscape since time immemorial offers lessons to rethink our relationship with the planet as a whole.

^[1] Note on the spelling of indigenous terms: words in indigenous languages do not have a plural, so when referring to a people we use a capital letter in the singular (e.g.: the Guarani); while the use as an adjective is in lower case (e.g.: Guarani school). The other terms are based on the Guarani Lexicon by Dooley (2013). The forms used by the Guarani authors are respected and, in the case of quotations from other authors, the form used by them is maintained.