Nivaclé

They belong to the Mataco linguistic family and are also known by the names Chulupi o Ashlushlai. Their natural habitat was in the area between the Bermejo river and the Pilcomayo in the Argentine Chaco. Today their territory also extends into the triangle between Pedro P. Peña, Mariscal Estigarribia up to Pilcomayo and the G.Raül Díaz area. It is estimated that the Nivaclè population reaches 14,000 people. According to the Nivaclè the world was not created, it has always existed. At the beginning everything was confused and chaotic in the darkness. The first men could not see each other, nor the stars. The light appeared. Fitzököjic, a cultural hero, came to bring order in chaos, create culture and rules of social relations. There were only men. Fitzököjic told them to sleep and dream and brought the women. Fitzököjic taught them to cultivate the fields, gave the men seeds and told them that they had to work to earn their food. He gave them, for example, corn and pumpkin. He taught everything, even dancing, which the men practiced every day. Traditionally they derived subsistence not only from agriculture, but also from fruit picking, goat breeding, hunting and fishing. The c’ayoich’e is a fishing technique still in use today, with which the fisherman, wading and swimming, uses a net tied to two poles that close like an inverted pair of scissors. Marriage is normally monogamous except for leaders and shamans (toyet) who practice polygamy. The man takes care of the sowing, the woman takes care of the harvest. The woman collects the plants, the man the honey. Shamans exercise their healing abilities, after drinking an infusion of herbs, with prayers and songs, putting themselves in communication with the afterlife. For young males an initiation ceremony was practiced so that they could drink the honey chicha, among abundant libations and dances. For girls the initiation party continues varaasnat. On the first full moon following the first menstruation, a ritual bath was performed. In the second full moon an asado. The third was the main celebration with various dances. The girl receives her “auxiliary spirit”, which puts her in communication with Fitzököjic, externalized with body painting made by female shamans. In the traditional funeral rite a burning stone was inserted into the body of the deceased who was placed in a fiery tomb. Shamans cured various diseases. Each had its special skill. One consisted of recovering and repositioning a lost soul, curing an individual malaise or even a community imbalance. The shaman also takes care of events that affect the entire community, such as drought. Craftsmanship These ponchos of woven wool are characteristic, which can replace the traditional ones made with animal skins. In the same way, the belts and partly the bags, previously made with caraguata fiber, have been replaced by similar wool artifacts. In manufacturing they use the typical Arawak vertical loom, made up of two vertical poles driven into the ground on which those supporting the fabric are crossed. The decorative motifs represent stripes, squares and lists. The colors are raw wool for the background and different dark tones for the decorations. In other cases, the intense red for the background with white decoration. The Nivaclè have developed a certain degree of specialization in the creation of zoomorphic sculptures in palo santo wood. To transport water they used to use small ceramic canteens, with necks narrow and provided with small handles through which a caraguata rope passed for transport, decorated with stylized designs with anthropomorphic and ornithomorphic reminiscences Museo Verde.The realization of a “leggero museum” is under evaluation at the Nivaclè Language Academy in the Paraguayan city of Filadelphia.