1995

AN INNOVATING TRADITION: STRATEGIES FOR THE SURVIVAL OF LOCAL CULTURE IN

THE CHAMACOCO'S COLONIA POTRERITO VILLAGE

Mario Rabey
Mario Blaser

Identity and knowledge: ancient, Western, traditional

In this paper we want to explain the strategies that Colonia Potrerito's community, appertaining to
the Chamacoco or Ishir people, sets in motion in producing and circulating knowledge to meet
the on-going breakdown process of its ethnographic culture. The Chamacoco culture and society
was 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 early
observers (Boggiani 1900; Baldus 1927) and their results in terms of systems of activities and
believes.

An agriculture project with assistance of the non-profit orgnization ACIP (Ayuda a las
Comunidades Indigenas del Paraguay) is currently carried out in the village, based on the
introduction 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 the
present. 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 was
defined by Merlino & Rabey (1981), in a geographic and sociocultural context quite different from
the 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, linking
to 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 agricultural
techniques embraces the attributes that define appropriate technology, it could be evaluated if
these technologies can contribute to diminish or to control the breakdown process above
mentioned.

Our research unity is the local community, as defined by Rabey & González (1985): “the space
where 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 the
integration of all local cultures". Cordeu (1989: 553) says that meaning, appraisal, feeling, action
and knowledge condense into the cultural symbolic frame. So in order to demarcate the local
community it is important that these dispositions are shared in some degree by its members. The
basic attribute of the local community is "the identity: an integrated set of traits, a system that
differentiates it of other analogous systems (another local communities), and joins it into the
complex sociocultural system (Rabey y González 1985).

Kessing (1987) points out that there are some risks in the interpretative task of regarding the study
of 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 denotes
different 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 local
community, 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 culture
remains. 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 Chamacoco
partialities, Ebitoso and Tomaraxo, live together, there is an extended consensus regarding the
conservation 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 the
complex sociocultural system takes place, and this is only an example among others, over the
basis of a consensus about the general meaning attributed to the maintenance of the ancient
culture's traits. In spite of this, there is a great strife between Ebitoso and Tomaraxo, a strife that is
partially based on different goals and reasons for each of them. We pretend to show, by using this
example, how the making of consensus about shared general meanings makes possible to define
an extended identity that allows to speak about one local community, despite the existence of two
partialities.

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 embraces
materials 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 results
excessively ambiguous and insufficient, because it put off knowledge and practices that, although
recently acquired, play an important part in the present cultural goods of a group. For instance, the
myths that explain the existence of blond among Ishir could not have been built before the last
years of XIX Century, the time when a continuous contact with the White started (Cordeu 1989). In
relation 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 making
part of one tradition.

In addition, it is accepted that tradition and identity are closely linked. It is also acknowledged
that the identity ability for self-conservation is mainly possible because its permeability to changes
and 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 aroused
is what place we must give to the recent innovations. Furthermore, what happens when an
informant tells us how his/her "grandparents" -ancestors- observed some practice and how it is
nowadays performed? Would we determine what of these are traditional, even when both of them
contribute to establish a differentiated identity between past and present? We intend to point out
the following: if tradition and identity are closely linked, the first can not be restricted only to the
traits that allow to link the past with the present. It must also include the traits that make
differences between the past and the present, and are simultaneously basic for the building of the
current identity.

Then we will speak of traditional knowledge referring to the enduring or innovating one that is
perceived by the community as actually or potentially useful for the preservation of its identity. It
contrasts with Western knowledge, which tends to dilute the local identities in more ample
identities. In addition, we will name ancient knowledge the representations that people build
about the cognitive and value patterns that gave identity to their ancestors. These will fuse into
traditional 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 the
importance of establishing how the community members perceive the relationship between the
transformations of ancient knowledge and the introduction of new knowledge. This will bring light
on their present world's view, especially on the value they give to these changes, and how
traditional 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 / human
being. Some authors mention three partialities among the Ishir: Xorio, Ebitoso and Tomaraxo. Until
the 1950's all of them inhabited the West margin of the Paraguay river, South from Corumbá: the
Xorio 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 de
los Vitiones lake at from the Bambourral river, 200 km Northwest from Bahia Negra. That area
appertained to Paraguay until Chaco war in the 1930's, when it was conquered by Bolivia. In 1799
the comandante (major) of Fortín Borbón, today Fuerte Olimpo, organized an expedition aimed to
stop the Ishir's raids. This campaign went towards the Northwest, and this would confirm the
above 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 an
established number of slaves. These were obtained by the Xorio and the Ebitoso, mainly from the
Tomaraxo, to whom they permanently harassed with that aim. Then an intertribal system (Cardoso
de Oliveira 1977) was constituted, where the political subjection by force combined with some
cognitive submission that expressed itself by means of the reverence to their lords and the
acceptance 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 noble
courtesy 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 economic
interests. 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 as
suppliers of women for the White (Susnik 1969; Cordeu 1989).

The consequences of this process in regard to demography, family composition, social

organization, 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 out
some of these consequences among the partialities Xorio and Ebitoso, even though to a certain
extent they can also be related to the Tomaraxo.

The Ishir were hunter-gatherers, possessed weapons and very simple wooden instruments. They
lacked of permanent dwellings and of agriculture. Getting, distributing and consumption of food
was strictly ruled according to their social institutions: clans, groups of age, sex. In this sense, it
can be stated that the means of subsistence and the subsistence itself were more a social than an
individual 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 or pelotak (chiefs) were brokers between the
White and their own people. During this period the dissatisfaction of the Ishir toward their own
pelotak started, because they considered that they could manage themselves, having in that way
the 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
produced changes in the family composition, because if before that the getting of the food and its
consumption depended on the inclusion in the residential group, "having things" depended of the
individual skills to deal with the White employers and not from having a big family to feed.

All this, in addition to the disorder produced in the shape of clans due to the inclusion of mestizos,
and the Baptist preaching, carried toward the shaping of nuclear families similar to the mestizo
rural ones. The approval of marriages between members of the partiality and captives, and after
with White, produced a disorder in the clan's roles referred to the progeny and had effects on the
reciprocity, on the responsibilities regarding the initiation's ritual of the young men, and on the
ritual roles of each clan (Cordeu 1989).

At the same time, the acquisition of the rules of behavior and the economical goals of the White
made the youngsters rebel against the old people, with the result of the disarticulation of the
system of age's groups. The youngsters' rebellion showed up through the reject and the gibe of
the old way of life, disavowing its ritual aspects as "payasería" (clowning in Spanish) (Susnik
1969). In that way, the Ebitoso, very mixed with the Xorio, in the middle of the fifties made the
"prueba" (test in Spanish) of abandon the initiation's ritual. As time went by and the prophecy of
the physical extermination promised by the mythical Nemur did not come true, the abandon of the
old religiosity deepened and the transmission of its features changed of sign. The remaining
religious features were resignified through the new Christian experience, including those in the
category of demoniac.

It is important to show that contrasting with the Xorio and the Ebitoso, the Tomaraxo have
maintained in a larger scale the traits of their old culture. This could partially be explained by the
relative geographical isolation in which they lived and because their hostile reticence toward
strangers, that characterized them until the fifties (Cordeu ms a). In that way, after the Chaco war,
which marked the end of the tribal independence, the old hunting, fishing and gathering economy
was in part maintained as well as the rituals and practices of the male initiation. But the availability
of territories was decreasing more and more, leading to a progressive dependence of the
Tomaraxo on the labor market, and to an intensification of the subsistence crops (Cordeu ms a).

The different investigators who have worked with the Ishir have pointed out their great lability and
inclination to adopt the novelties to which they were exposed in the contact situations, in the first
place with the Caduveo and afterwards with the White. Nowadays, the economic goals and the
behavior rules of the White take root, even though with differences between Ebitoso and
Tomaraxo. In this way, the obtaining of material goods and an utilitarian moral has acquired a great
influence in the attitudes and behavior of the Ishir.

Colonia Potrerito

In order to understand the today's situation of Colonia Potrerito it is necessary to go back at least
to 1983. In this year and after long negotiations, the Paraguayan Government bought the 21.300
ha ranch Puerto Esperanza and assigned it as a Chamacoco reservation. A part of the population
of Puerto Diana moved to these lands. The new inhabitants, following to their leaders, divided
themselves in two factions oriented to different productive activities. On one hand the followers of
Pablo Barboza oriented themselves toward the breeding of cows and the hunting of yacarés
(caimans, alligators); on the other hand, the group leaded by Bruno Barras and Clemente López
decided to devote to agriculture.

In May 1986, López helped by the ACIP members persuaded a group of Tomaraxo, inhabitants of
San Carlos, to move to the new lands. They were going to be under the protection of the group of
Barras and López. In that way, the village was constituted by two partialities, one of them divided
in two factions (Fig. 1).
 Stockbreeders and yacaré hunters
(Pablo Barboza)
EBITOSO
ISHIR
Farmers
ó
(Bruno Barras and Clemente López)
CHAMACOCO

TOMARAXO

Fig. 1: The Puerto Esperanza intra-ethnic configuration

It is important to say that the relationship between the two Ebitoso factions was far from being
calm and without problems. The reasons of the dissensions between them are not clear, even
though some people at ACIP say that these were due to the lost of the ethnic identity of the
Barboza's group. Other informants, both Indian and not Indian, point out toward a certain
competition between the leaders for getting followers that gave more importance to their
leadership. The personal animosity between Barboza and Barras could also be meaningful in that
rivalry.

Finally a schism arose in 1987. The Barras' group, followed by the Tomaraxo, detached from the
Barboza's group and settled down in Potrerito. The Tomaraxo likely followed them because of the
ill-treatment that they received from Barboza's group. In the new settlement, the Ebitoso farmers
and the Tomaraxo built two adjacent villages. Nowadays the relationships between them are full of
jealousy and frictions. An important characteristic of this bitterness is the continuous interference
of the Ebitoso in the election of the Tomaraxo's leader (Cordeu ms a). Upon the arrival of one of us
(Blaser) to Colonia Potrerito in 1991, the Tomaraxo's leader Crecencio Aquino was absent, and we
were told by several Ebitoso that he was not a good leader and that he should be replaced by a
more competent one.

In relation to the leader's representativeness, it is important to observe that, as an officially

recognized Indian group, it has a Board of directors. Barras is the chairman of the Board, Gamarra
is its second chairman, and Lopez and Jara are advisors; all of them are Ebitoso. We were
informed that the Tomaraxo leader, on the contrary, is not recognized by the INDI (National
Institute of the Indians) and he only acts as a spokesman on behalf of the Tomaraxo before the
Board of directors. It is a clear evidence of their dependence from the Ebitoso in dealing with the
Government offices.

Not only do the Government offices influence the life of Colonia Potrerito. Several organizations,
both religious and not religious, have contact with it. In that way, the New Tribes Mission, the
Catholic Comisión Episcopal and the ACIP (Aid to Indian Communities of Paraguay) NGO have a
certain amount of influence according to the aid they bring to Colonia Potrerito. If we take in
account that these organizations have different interests, it is easy to imagine the variety of
speeches and attitudes that are put in motion by the members of Colonia Potrerito facing the
outside actors they relate with.
Building traditional knowledge

The Ishir of Colonia Potrerito make their identity by constructing traits that will be used in their
ethnic signals 1. These traits involve the production, circulation and transformation of knowledge, a
process that generates new possibilities of using them as ethnic signals, or on the contrary taking
them away this quality. Then a cultural trait, according to its symbolic meaning, could become an
ethnic signal, or on the contrary stop being one. The variation of contexts in which a trait acquires
symbolic meaning is the previous condition for its change.

According to the above-stated definition, the knowledge that is used for making ethnic signals
informs the traditional knowledge of a local community. In this sense, new or transformed
knowledge can be considered traditional as long as it is used to distinguish the group from others,
while the knowledge that in the past was used as ethnic signals, nowadays could stop having this
role.

As Wilson (1984) points out, the usual idea that tradition constraints change, relates to the idea
that the tradition is a mechanism that blunts the creativity and restricts innovations. This idea is a
consequence of placing the traditional in the “`primitive' `natural' `cultures' characterized by a
fundamental absence of and aversion to innovation" (Wilson 1984: viii). This idea that makes
tradition and innovation mutually exclusive does not allow visualizing that "innovation is a culturally
specific expression and embodiment of a tradition that reaches back to the roots of modern
Western civilization itself".

So there are true innovative traditions, and there is no innovation without a background of tradition.
As it has been pointed out before, a characteristic of the Ishir has been their great flexibility to
adapt to the new situations and to the adopt novelties offered them by the new environment. In this
sense, one can talk, expanding the Wilson's category, of an Ishir innovative tradition,
understanding as innovation the complete process of the introduction, discovery, transformation or
invention of an idea, behavior or thing, and its adoption. The later refers to the behaviors and
actions that lead to acceptance and the use of what has been introduced, discovered, transformed
or invented (Torrence & Van Der Leeuw 1989).

Now we can go beyond proposing an "innovative tradition" of the Ishir, to pointing out the
innovative quality of any tradition. For that we will use the argument developed in the first section
of this paper about the relationship between tradition and identity. In that way, as long as identity
has to reshape as time goes by, the tradition of a group has to be permeable to changes. On the
other hand, the idea of societies characterized by a fundamental absence of and aversion to
innovation is today an idea that starts to lack of a factual basis. It is not our intention to discuss the
possibility of the present or past existence of "cold societies" reluctant to history (Levi-Strauss
1962) and resistant to change (Foster 1973), a discussion yet given by one of us (Rabey 1990b),
but we want to point out in that at less in the present world the local cultures survive as such
according to their ability to adapt to a changing environment, and in this sense they are constantly
innovating traditions.

Here we pretend to analyze the production, circulation and transformation of the "cognitive
resources that use the community to explain its own society" and the "technical and organizational
abilities to apply this explanations to the management of their environment to reach specific goals"
(Rabey 1990a). Through the analysis of these issues we intend to establish in which way the
variations of the context that transform a particular trait into an ethnic signal take place, and in this
way it shapes traditional knowledge, or on the contrary how this trait stops being a signal.

1
We took the ethnic signal category from Plotnicov and Silverman (1978), who defined it as a set of deliberate and
controlled signs that show socially shared attributes, allowing people to establish interactions with countrymen as well as
strangers.
Walking with grand parents' thoughts: the ancient knowledge

According to Cordeu (1989) one of the characteristics of the "breakdown process of the
ethnographic culture", such as he says that is occurring among the Chamacoco, is the loss of the
quality of traditional of a great part of the ancient knowledge. That is to say that some traits of the
ancient knowledge are no longer selected to define the present identity, as a result of lacking of
use or forgetting. However, the old culture still is a point of reference to evaluate both the culture of
the White as well as that of the present Ishir. In Potrerito it is very usual to compare the present
way of life with that assumed as old. The differences and the similarities between them are
fundamental features in the construction of the present identity of Colonia Potrerito's Ishir. The
appraisal that is done of these differences and similarities give us an idea of why some traits of the
ancient knowledge have stopped being traditional knowledge, meanwhile others continue being
traditional. That speaks about the changes in the contexts in which these traits were judged. We
will present separately the analysis of the Ebitoso's and the Tomaraxo's points of view about the
ancient knowledge, taking also in account the generational differences. We will also deal with the
circulation of this knowledge.

Among the Ebitoso one can distinguish a different appraisal about the ancient knowledge and
about the differences and similarities that they find today between the ancient knowledge and their
present culture. Even though the Ebitoso usually agree about what changed and what continues
without change, its assessment varies from one individual to another. It is also true that the degree
of knowledge that they have of the old culture is variable. However they all have an idea or an
image of the culture of their ancestors, that matters is the trend of the appraisals and actions that
these images carry, and not the accurateness of this knowledge.

The Ebitoso's change from an untamed nomadic way of life to a sedentary one, that allows the
possibility of having things, involves their negative assessment of the old culture as compared to
the present one, and this is a feature shared with the Tomaraxo. It is recurrent the comparison in
terms of what they lacked before and what now they own. However, the knowledge of how survive
in the forest is still highly valued. On one hand it allows to look for food in case they can not get it
in another way; on the other hand, the man that works in a timber yard and that knows the forest
can find faster the best logs to improve his income. So even from a sedentary context and with
market goals introduced by the White, this knowledge continues been valued and transmitted as a
set of identifying traits of the Ishir identity when confronted with the White's lack of knowledge
about the forest.

The Ebitoso disagree on the significance that is given to the ancient means to control the behavior.
Young people tend to see as advantageous the weakening of this control. Paradoxically, at least
on the discursive side, they value one of the results of this control: the respect. The old people, on
the other hand, and a few young people see clearly the relationship between control and respect.
According to this, they point out the negative side of the control's weakening.

In relation with the topic of the behavior's control one must point out two things. The first one is
that the customary norms are subordinated to the law of the national society, so they loose their
potential of regulating behaviors and relationships and as a result the common law fall into disuse.
In the second place the Christian religion brought the concepts of fellow man, fraternity and
forgiveness. Many of the anciently punished faults had a relationship with the Esnwherta au'oso
(the Esnwherta sacred words), that include social, moral and religious rules. With the Christian
preaching everything that was related to the mythical anabseros adopted a demoniacal look 2.

2
The anabseros saga tells the giving of reason and culture to people by the anabseros (not human beings) and their
mothers, and the later murdering of anabseros by the Ishir (Susnik 1969).
May be the Ishir language and the monexn‚ (stories) are the more esteemed traits of the ancient
knowledge for both partialities. The first one is the main one that is used as an ethnic signal. Even
though the monexn‚ are dispossessed of its cognitive meaning, for most Ebitoso, these are
appreciated as stories of "manliness and sex” (Susnik 1969). There are really few who can
nowadays understand the cognitive dimension of its mythical symbols. In this way, valued from
other context, they continue having a character of ethnic signal.

Now we will examine the Tomaraxo. They claim that their culture is nearer to their ancestors than
the Ebitoso culture to theirs. According to their point of view, they have changed a few things in
relation to their ancestors. Changes, mainly in the material life, the work in the farm, the building of
houses, the clothing, the school, are assessed in a positive way. As well as among the Ebitoso, the
context in which this changes are valued is closely linked to the incorporation of the White
market's goals. The negative side of the changes and losses is attributed to the Ebitoso. The idea
is that while they have kept their own culture and they have only adopted useful things, the Ebitoso
have entirely assimilated the national culture: "the Ebitoso look like Paraguayan".

However, they realize that some behaviors are changing in a negative way. Fat consumption
among the young people, even though hidden from the old people, is mentioned as one of them.
The distribution of food, regulated in the past by clan, sex and age, start to be regulated by the
uses of the White, and then the consumption is done into the nuclear family. Even though the
Tomaraxo are influenced by the market goals and some prestige symbols of the White, they keep
some rules linked to the knowledge of their ancient culture. In that way they show themselves
proud of maintaining their old culture and of keeping women out of what "they should not know", in
opposition to the defeat and slackness of the Ebitoso.

With respect to the circulation of the ancient knowledge, the access to a great part of this
knowledge is linked, among the Tomaraxo, to the age stratification, since men get to know it after
they have gone through the initiation's ritual. In this way, the disappearance of this ritual among
the Ebitoso implied the vanishing of the institution devoted to the transmission of this knowledge,
what contributed to its fragmented circulation and to a deeply deformation with respect to its
function.

The arrival of the Tomaraxo meant for many Ebitoso a way for regaining the culture of their
ancestors. A flow of knowledge about the old culture come from the Tomaraxo to the Ebitoso,
some Ebitoso boys participate in the Tomaraxo initiation's ritual, the oldest participate in the ritual
that take place in the Tobich. Much of the hope of Colonia Potrerito’s leaders about the cultural
revival is based in this flow.

The institutions that work on Indian affairs have a lot of influence in the Ebitoso search of the
recovery of the old culture and the Ishir visualize these institutions and their people as conditioning
its aid to their cultural maintenance. The consequences of this in the circulation of the knowledge
will be analyzed later.

Innovations resume award

We have discussed the relationship between tradition and innovation, arguing that innovativeness
is a property of the traditional. However, we must ask ourselves under what circumstances this
innovative ability begins to act. Together with Wilson (1984), we think that the crisis -even though
not only these- precipitate some innovations, understanding crisis as a problem and its solution.
Here Wilson follows the Wittgenstein’s thought in the ‘Tractatus’: "For doubt can exist only where a
question exists, a question only where an answer exists and an answer only where something can
be said".
To this effect, innovations are not only something that happens to a society but they are integrated
in and associated with the social discourse, taking part of the social discourse (Sorensen 1989). A
new knowledge can be available for a long time without having social importance. Under
circumstances of crisis this knowledge can be the solution to a problem or, in terms of
Wittgenstein, it is something that can be said about the doubt. It is not only the availability of new
knowledge the condition of the change, but it must firstly find a place in the social discourse, and
that place will be given by the historical and social context 3. It is the case of the importance that
the farming acquired among the Ishir in the last years. As we pointed out before, in the last
decades the major part of the Ishir had as a basis of their subsistence the work as porters or in
timber yards and ranches. Some of them have worked temporarily in White's farms, where they
have learnt some basic techniques of growing. This knowledge has been available for a long time.
However, it only became important when the social and economic conditions required it. In the last
years the regional labor market broke down and as a result growing became a possible solution to
this problem.

Ishir agricultural innovations tend to solve problems of subsistence and as a result they can do
more planning and foresight. While trying to solve an specific problem, the search for an answer
does not depend on the particular place where this answer is generated, neither on the way of
acquisition. So it could be the result of an invention or a discovery, and it could be acquired by
introduction from outside or by transforming an old one.

Mc Glade & Mc Glade (1989) point out that innovation is not necessarily a rational and deliberate
process. Many innovations are not premeditated, planned or previously looked for. This could be
the case of the religious believes among the Ebitoso. As we pointed out, among them there are
catholic and protestant. However, and even in the same worship, the variation in the religious
conceptions and attitudes are deep. In general terms, there is not much interest for the practices
of the ritual of each worship. Many people know only some parts, and not deeply, of their new
religion. The result is a fragmented vision and a great diversity of re-significations of their contents.
This shows a process of adoption of the new believes that is far away from being intentional and
planned.

At the same time, the ancient religion is resignified into the new Pentecostal context. There is
agreement in seeing the old religion as something linked to devils. However, there is disagreement
about its present power. Young people tend to think that the powers of the ancient religion acted
only in the past but do not exist in the present. Old people, on the other hand, associate this power
with the demonic pieces of the present religious believing.

This set of resignifications of the ancient believes is also correlative with the resignification of the
new religion. For example, death and illnesses are the starting point of the mythic thoughts of the
Ishir (Cordeu 1989). As long as the attention continues focused on these processes, the
effectiveness of the new believes to reject them or to give them a credible explanation is its main
foundation. In that way, the expressions of the new religiosity consist only of praying when
somebody is ill. The close relationship between health and the religious believes have a great
influence in the healing practices. The Christian religion pushes to the disappearance of the old
komsaxo (shaman) and as a result a progressive dependence upon the Western medicine. In
case of illness, the typical sequence of steps is as following. Firstly either people perform Christian
prayers or the komsaxo sings shamanic songs, then the ill person drinks tea of healing herbs. If
the ill do not recover he or she goes to the hospital of Bahia Negra. That is to say that the first
practices are based on their own cognitive resources, and when these are not effective they go to
a Western doctor.

3
A different case occurs when the knowledge generates or is acquired into the modern market context. Here the
innovation is not an answer to a problem; it is an essential condition for the creation of the economic value through the
production of diversity (Baudrillard 1981).
To speak about innovation in the first step, one must refer only to the Christian prayer, because no
knowledge of the scientific Western medicine is involved in it. In the second step, the innovation is
represented by the new practice of going to the doctor, but the diagnosis knowledge of the
scientific medicine is always beyond the management of the members of the community. Thus the
scientific medical practices embodied in the Ishir culture limit to the healing of illness. This carries
out lack of knowledge about the illnesses as they are understood by the scientific medical system.
When there are Ishir healers the members of the community could establish the relationship
between the illness and its healing practice. In the present, once the illness goes beyond their own
knowledge, the relationship between it and the healing practices that the White doctor employs
stays hidden to the eyes of the community.

Although most Ebitoso reject the ancient religious believes and their connected practices
-including the healing practices-, their main themes continue having an important place in the
elaboration and appraisal of the new ones, as puts in evidence a story told by Capatai, an Ebitoso
who lives among the Tomaraxo. "Formerly I was Christian and now I am of my culture again. I
continue again. Before, when my wife; after she died. When she is ill I pray and put the entire
gospel for healing her, and the gospel did not heal her, and after that moment I return. Esnwherta
makes well, to teach everything is better".

As it was yet mentioned, the present religious appurtenance is used as a boundary of the
partialities' identity, because it is one of the signals that are used to distinguish the Ebitoso from
the Tomaraxo. Other innovations resignified as intra-ethnic boundary are the literacy and the new
rules of respect and courtesy.

Literacy is an innovation that brought with it a new prestige symbol, which is almost exclusively
displayed by the Ebitoso. Knowing how to read and write is highly valued by all the members of
the community and it is important when it biases the election of the leaders. Nowadays an Ebitoso
teacher, aided by a couple of linguists of the New Tribes Mission, is alphabetizing children with
booklets wrote in Ishir. Many Ebitoso wish learn school abilities that would be useful when working
in the village. They also want to be thought about Ishir history.

As we pointed out before, the Ebitoso have abandoned their initiation's ritual, which was the
essential institution in the transmission of the old knowledge. The present absence of this ritual
has as a consequence the fall in disuse of the age's class system, which forms one of the main
mechanisms of internal control (Cordeu 1989). In that way, the lost of the age's class system is
associated to the adoption of new rules of respect and courtesy, that even though are borrowed
from the White, today are chosen as ethnic signals to distinguish themselves both from the White
as well as from the Tomaraxo. As viewed from the present situation of the Ebitoso traditional
Knowledge, the sending of their sons to the Tomaraxo initiation's ritual is an innovation.

In summary, we have seen the traits of the ancient knowledge and the innovations that either
influence the selection of or are used as ethnic signals, and therefore shape the traditional
knowledge. It is important to point out that the traditional knowledge is not entirely shared by the
whole community. So it does not constitute in itself a signal of the community's identity. On the
contrary, sometimes the traditional knowledge is used to construct signals that delimit the
partialities, as it happens with the religion, the ritual of initiation and the rules of behavior. It is
therefore difficult that these signals could be used to define ethnic limits face to the other
segments of the national society.

Which are the traits of traditional knowledge that are shared, and therefore used as a basis for the
construction of the community's identity? Firstly one must point out the ancient knowledge traits
that are chosen by both partialities as ethnic signals: the language, the stories, the knowledge of
the forest, the use of ancient weapons. In terms of innovation, none of them are used as ethnic
signals by the Tomaraxo. In this way, one can not talk of innovations that are used in a shared way
as ethnic signals. The possibility that the innovations become signals of the community's identity
depends mainly on the circulation of the knowledge, on the changes that it suffers and on the
context in which adoption is framed.

We have already mentioned which are the more usual courses for the circulation of knowledge,
ancient as well as innovative. However it has to be remarked that the flow of knowledge between
the two partialities acquires a shade of exchange, even though only some Ebitoso see this process
in that way. This exchange consists of a flow of innovations from the Ebitoso to the Tomaraxo, and
a flow of ancient knowledge from the Tomaraxo to the Ebitoso. This does not mean neither that the
Tomaraxo have not produced innovations without intervention of the Ebitoso, nor that the Ebitoso
absolutely lack of ancient knowledge from their own. We only pretend to stress the kind of
knowledge's flows that take place in this community. In fact a great part of the innovations are
jointly elaborated. For example, the experiments with new cultivable species are carried out by
both partialities.

The contexts in which this knowledge are framed, and therefore the appraisal that it receives, vary
from one partiality to another. In the case of the innovations that go from the Ebitoso to the
Tomaraxo, these acquire an utilitarian and/or symbolic value of prestige. In this way, the new
technologies, that aim to resolve the subsistence problems, are valued according to the use that
people give them. The school, where the teacher is an Ebitoso woman, is valued as something
utilitarian because schooling could generate better working conditions or could at least make a
barrier against the swindles practiced by the White; and this is the basis of the prestige given to
literacy.

If the appraisal of the innovative knowledge that goes from the Ebitoso to the Tomaraxo is framed
in a double symbolic/utilitarian context, in the case of the ancient knowledge that goes from the
Tomaraxo to the Ebitoso, there is a third further context: the commodity context. This last is
exemplified by the assessment of the making of feather handcrafts, and of the ritual practices. Into
the third context, the commodity one, the stock of ancient knowledge is considered as a stock of
commodities.

300 guaranies for one monexn: the commoditization of the ancient knowledge and the
anthropologist as a trader of knowledge

Commodity can provisionally be defined as an object of economic value (Appadurai 1988).

According to Simmel (1978) the value is never an inherent property of the objects, but it is the
judgment about them done by the subjects. In this way, any object can become a commodity
under certain circumstances, because this is not a condition inherent to the object, but it is a
situation determined in the object's social life by the people that give it value. Therefore, the
commodity state of a thing can be defined as "the situation in which its exchangeability (past,
present, or future) for some other thing is its socially relevant feature" (Appadurai 1988: 13). The
things can enter and exit the commodity state, depending on the criterion and standards (symbolic,
moral) that define the exchangeability of the things in any particular social and historical context.

Now we will explore how and under which circumstances some traits of the ancient Ishir
knowledge became commodities: these traits are monexn, ritual practices and myths. As we
pointed out before, this knowledge is transmitted from the Tomaraxo to the Ebitoso through the
ritual seclusion in the tobich and through the ritual itself. However, from the Tomaraxo and some
Ebitoso's point of view, in this flow of knowledge there is not an exchange at all. In fact, Appadurai
(1988) points out that in small societies, this zone of ritual is where the commoditization is more
restricted and enclosed, except in the case of massive cultural change. But the Ebitoso are
innovating faster and in a larger amount of dimensions than the Tomaraxo in their sociocultural life
and it is also among them where this process of commoditization takes place.
Graburn (1976) says that the objects produced for aesthetic, for ceremonies or for the sumptuous
use, are transformed in commodities -and in this way, culturally, economically and socially
transformed- by the tastes, markets and ideologies of the global economy. Appadurai (1988)
names these transformations "diversion", in which the "thing" in question gets out from the
determined way, for example ritual artifacts that became decorations. The diversion has two
directions; either it can make a thing a commodity, or other way round. The change of the context
in which a thing is evaluated implies a change in the evaluation that is done about it. In that way,
the switch from a sacred context to a commodity context fills the ancient knowledge with economic
value.

This diversion from the sacred to the commodity contexts among the Ishir of Colonia Potrerito
occurs along two different but related ways. On one hand, Christian preaching carried out the loss
of the sacred sense of this knowledge, and in turn the desertion of the ancient religious believes.
On the other hand, the incorporation of the White economic goals, created an advantageous
context that allowed the expression of the commodity potential (Appadurai 1988) of these
knowledge. However it is only with the entrance of this knowledge in the market that they acquire
the ultimate character of commodity. The market to which we refer is the information/knowledge
market in which Academy makes a part. The anthropologist that goes to the field is a kind of
gatherer, transformer and seller of knowledge.

The anthropologist -as well as any other outsider interested in the old Ishir culture- is visualized by
the members of the community as a potential buyer of information. The actual purchase of
information makes the ancient knowledge enter in the market and creates economic value in it.
This knowledge/commodity enters in a flow that goes from the local producers to the consumers
outside the village. In the understanding of how this flow takes place we can point out three distinct
situations: (a) without exchange, (b) contingent exchange and (c) complete exchange.

In the (a) without exchange situation the flow of knowledge is not mediated by any exchange: the
Tomaraxo transmit to the Ebitoso some pieces of the ancient knowledge in the rituals and in the
ritual seclusion. In the (b) contingent exchange situation, the stock of ancient Ebitoso knowledge
consist of their own knowledge combined with this brought by the Tomaraxo. The circulation of this
knowledge was linked in the past to the age's stratification and to the clan's roles. In the present
the access to this knowledge depends on the interest of a young man and of his possibilities of
obtaining a teacher. If the youth does not have a relative to teach him, he must pay 200 or 300
guaranies (0.30 u$s) to an old man to learn. Why does a young man buy a knowledge that is
frequently considered useless or uninteresting? There are three answers to this question: the
pleasure of learning the stories that are being narrated, the wish of keeping traits of identity and
the possibility of selling them to foreigners. The last answer takes us to (c) the complete exchange
situation, where the knowledge is bought and sold, where the outsider requires a commodity and
the sellers compete to make the sale.

It is important to point out that the flow of knowledge, both from the Tomaraxo as well as from the
Ebitoso, toward the stranger consist in most of cases in an immediate and complete exchange.
However there is an important difference between both partialities. While the Tomaraxo do not
have an internal market for their ancient knowledge, the Ebitoso do it, however it has a contingent
and closed character. In the complete exchange situation, the anthropologist buys the knowledge,
he elaborates it according to his theoretical framework, interests and methodological perspectives,
and he sells them into or outside the Academy. As Rosaldo (1989) stated, the aborigine is a seller
of raw materials to the anthropologist, who acts as a manufacturer into the world division of
anthropological work.

In summary, we have seen that the diversion of knowledge aimed to the reproduction of the
sociocultural life of the group toward a commodity context creates economic value in it. In this
process the Ishir cultural knowledge become a set of commodities.
Concluding remarks: The production of traditional knowledge as a strategy for the local
culture survival

We have intended to analyze the strategies that the Ishir of Colonia Potrerito put in motion to
maintain their local culture, avoiding its disappearance, by means of the production of a traditional
knowledge. This is constantly innovated, and this implies the elaboration of some of the signals
that allow the Ishir to differ their local culture from others.

The signals used vary according to the involved group and to the goals that people look to achieve
through them. In relation to this, we are inclined to think that, beyond the spontaneous interest
-and this largely vary among different individuals- in the revival on the old culture, there is an
interest in putting in motion the category of White giver of goods. This is possible by answering to
the demands of acting "traditional" roles that they suppose are carried by the organizations which
support Indian societies and peoples.

Even though the traditional knowledge is not only one for both partialities, there are possibilities for
its homogenization. The particular flow of ancient knowledge and innovation that is taking place,
sheltered in the temporary consensus that frames the communal identity, could possibly constitute
a shared traditional knowledge by both partialities. In that way, in opposition to the factionalism
tendencies, there could be trends towards the unification in a sound local community.

Beyond the concrete and short dated interests that can lead some Ebitoso to look for the
Tomaraxo's ancient knowledge, the matter is that this continuous representation of themselves as
being "traditionalist" has strong consequences. As Rabinow pointed out (1986), representations
are social facts, and as such they involve behaviors and concrete actions. In this way, the Ebitoso
have started to send their sons to the tobich to accomplish the initiation's ritual, seeking to recover
traits of the ancient culture. On the other hand, the new Christian religiosity has not completely
replaced the ancient, and in that way the believes of many Ebitoso are conditioned to their
effectiveness in answering to the central problems of the Ishir thought. Our hypothesis is that even
though the visible forms of the new religion are not modified, its practices are directed toward the
phenomena of life that have had a central place in the ancient mythical-religious elaborations.

Finally, with respect to the viability of generating appropriate technology, there is no doubt that the
innovations in the field of the techniques refer to the local people basic needs. Even though the
new techniques do not have a relation with the local worlds' view, the proposal that some
Tomaraxo made about the possibility of teaching the agricultural techniques during the ritual
seclusion could aim in this direction. On the other hand, the experiments that are being done by
the people of Potrerito, both in agriculture as well as in building, could generate precisely this kind
of technology. Moreover, it is possible that appropriate technology could be generated, depending
on the success of the strategies that are nowadays implemented in the field of the knowledge
production to avoid the disappearance of the local culture.

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