Chronique des Indiens Guayaki

by Pierre Clastres

On les appelle Guayaki, « Rats féroces ». Eux-mêmes se dénomment Aché, « les Personnes ». Silencieux et invisibles, ces nomades parcourent la forêt tropicale à l'est du Paraguay. C'est ce qui leur a permis d'échapper si longtemps au sort de leurs voisins sédentaires : esclavage, mort, disparition.

L'auteur a vécu un an dans leur intimité... Les incidents et anecdotes cocasses ou tragiques tracent peu à peu le portrait de ces Guayaki, paillards quand ils peuvent, graves lorsqu'il le faut : fêtes du miel, de l'amour, conflit au sein des bandes, meurtres, sacrifices, anthropophagie (ils se libèrent de leurs défunts en les mangeant). À la douceur succède la cruauté. Cette culture disparue repose sur la fidélité des Indiens à leurs anciens rites, et, au-delà, aux mythes de leur origine et de leur destin, qui suscitent en nous d'étranges échos.

Ce livre est une chronique qui n'esquive aucun des problèmes que pose à l'ethnologie cette population indienne. De l'écologie très particulière d'une société de chasseurs à la logique la plus secrète de leur pensée, c'est le tout d'un univers culturel inconnu qui se révèle ici, sous le regard d'un des grands ethnologues français.

Genres: Anthropology, History, Nonfiction, Travel, Social Science, College, Ethnography

320 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Pierre Clastres, (1934-1977), was a French anthropologist and ethnographer. He is best known for his fieldwork among the Guayaki in Paraguay and his theory on stateless societies. Some people regard him as giving scientific validity to certain anarchist perspectives.[1]

In his most famous work, Society Against the State (1974), Clastres indeed criticizes both the evolutionist notion that the state would be the ultimate destiny of all societies, and the Rousseauian notion of man's natural state of innocence (the myth of the noble savage). Knowledge of power is innate in any society, thus the natural state for humans wanting to preserve autonomy is a society structured by a complex set of customs which actively avert the rise of despotic power. The state is seen as but a specific constellation of hierarchical power peculiar only to societies who have failed to maintain these mechanisms which prevent separation from happening. Thus, in the Guayaki tribes, the leader has only a representational role, being his people's spokesperson towards other tribes ("international relations"). If he abuses his authority, he may be violently removed by his people, and the institution of "spokesperson" is never allowed to transform itself into a separate institution of authority. Pierre Clastres' theory thus was an explicit criticism of vulgar Marxist theories of economic determinism, in that he considered an autonomous sphere of politics, which existed in stateless societies as the active conjuration of authority. The essential question which Clastres sought to answer was: why would an individual in an egalitarian (eg foraging) society chose to subordinate himself to an authority? He considered the consequent rise of the state to be due to the power disparaties that arise when religion credits a prophet or other medium with a direct knowledge of divine power which is unattainable by the bulk of society. It is this upsetting of the balance of power that engendered the inequality to be found in more highly structured societies, and not an initial economic disparity as argued by the Marxist school of thought.

Reviews

[achen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

1. 這本書記錄了一個曾經存在，如今已然消亡的原始部落——他們的小孩誕生的儀式、取名的方式、成年後男女的社會功能、死亡後的食人習俗等等。只是因為沒有學術背景，不曉人類學/民族學深入探討的層面，所以覺得自己像搭了一趟觀光巴士（掩臉），走馬式地參觀了遙遠的他者過去生活的模式。

2. 穿插全書的瓜亞基人用語比較影響閱讀，但此書還是值得一看，尤其第七第八兩章真是好看極了。

[Molsa Roja(s) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such an extraordinary work... a pure, twentieth century etnography. Contrary to de la Cadena's work, that I'm deeply in love with, this is an extense descriptive work of the Aché cannibal tribe in Paraguay: in here, Clastres masterfully draws how living in such a society is, from within and outside from it simultaneously. It's narrated in an extremely honest tone, not judging not even once and letting the comedy and tragedy of their lives come and go with such ease... I really loved the two final chapters. Man, I felt like I was one of them, in the forest, with my big ass bow hunting down monkeys; with my eyes crossing eyes with the terrible jaguar; feasting in joy the meat of the dead companions. Incredible.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Last book of 2021! In the early 1960s the author lived among and studied this remote and dying community of people native to Paraguay. This is a scholarly account of their rituals around birth, puberty, death and the connection to their founding myths, their understanding of the sources of fortune and misfortune, their attitudes toward gender, illness and sexuality, as well as the mundane practices of daily living. Another interesting introduction to a different culture.

[Val Louis · Rating 3 out of 5]

à la longue ça devient un peu répétitif mais c'est globalement super intéressant

[Rhonda Hankins]

An outsider's academic description of living among this group of people in the mid-20th century. Because the Guayaki tribe no longer exists, this book offers unique insights into a way of life that might otherwise be completely forgotten.

Though it's not a light read, it's also not a heavy academic read either. The author, an anthropologist, does a great job at making this book an interesting page-turner.

For reasons I do not know, I happen to read the translator's introduction to this book (normally I bypass such formalities). This one, however, is extremely interesting and I highly recommend you read it.

[Lgordo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was well-written and an easy read. In fact, I found it hard to put down. The author goes through topical chapters, covering most of the big topics in anthropology.

The problem (as with much anthropology) is knowing how much is fact and how much fancy. This difficulty slaps you in the face in this book because of the author's predilection for flights of exegesis. You are basically welcomed to the book with a deep dive into his reconciliation of the Guayaki birth rituals with their origin myth. He concludes by saying that of course this is all his own conjecture but that doesn't make it wrong.

This kind of humanities essays persists throughout the book, sometimes with linchpin arguments that have little clear backing. For example, his essay on the male and female roles and the place of the homosexual in the tribe gets clinched by his declaration that homosexuals have sex with their brothers, but he provides zero narrative on how he got this piece of information which is unlikely to be freely provided.

My only other complaint is his persistent and often unnecessary use of native language vocabulary without providing any kind of glossary. Unless you can remember the precise place where he first used and defined a word, you're stuck wondering what he's referring to -- and half the time it's just an anteater and he could have just said so.

Probably his best move is saving the juiciest topics for last. After the first few chapters you'd be excused for coming away with a "noble savage" impression of these nice, peaceable types put upon by the cruel and heartless white people. The second part is true enough.
But then he starts moving through marriage, death, revenge, jousting, cannibalism... and you realize that it's never really that simple. The Guayaki are closer to the Yanomamo than you really were hoping. In fact, I come away with the impression that South America was really a pretty savage place to live, no matter which civilization you belonged to.

[Paul Helliwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

paul auster’s translation of pierre clastres chronicle of the guayaki indians. the forests are full of dangerous animals that can kill, the nights full of malicious ghosts of former tribe members, the neighbouring tribes are all shunned and believed to be cannibals. then there is the white man and his dogs and guns. the ghosts are lonely in their wanderings in the land of the dead, they must given someone to keep them company or they will come and take someone, it is difficult to keep everyone fed, there is abortion and infanticide to keep the numbers low at the level the environment can support, disease comes and when it does the sick are simply left behind to die.

‘although I have been back to paraguay several times, I have never seen the guayaki indians again. i have not had the heart to...’ clastres, a student of claude levi-strauss, died in a car accident in 77 0r 78. of the guayaki indians their numbers are in any event declining - soon, if not already, clastres realizes, they will be gone.

auster’s translation was not published when it was made. the only manuscript was lost (only to be recovered from a second hand bookstore bargain bin years later). now we have it. I myself found my copy in a charity shop - not the manuscript but a fully bound paperback book published by faber and faber, they were presumably emboldened by the subsequent success of auster as a novelist.

‘no matter that the world described in it has long since vanished, that the tiny group of people the author lived with in 1963 and 1964 has disappeared from the face of the earth. no matter that the author has vanished as well. the book he wrote is still with us... a small triumph against the crushing odds of fate...’

[Andrea Noren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite a strange book. After reading the first chapter, I looked up commentary by other anthropologists and found a mixed bag of reviews - it was romanticized, it was dated (well, it was written in the 1960s, though not published in English until much later), it was a valid work on the Guayaki and many more. I could see by reading it that he made many interpretations of their behavior, and he states often that he's doing just that. I also could see that his own biases might have influenced his interpretations of many of the tribe's actions.

My main criticism of the book is that it seems more like a series of articles strung together. He repeats information, sometimes making a different interpretation of the Guayaki's actions, and even completely contradicts previous interpretations in the matter of burial and cannibalism. It's almost as though he found out that yes, the Guayaki had a long tradition of consuming their peers only after he'd written the first parts of the book.

It was quite an interesting book to read, although jarring in places due to the contradictions. I'm also quite happy to note that although this particular band of the Guayaki may have died out after settling under the Paraguayans' protection, there are many others who are still living in the forests.

[Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paraguay
Memoir/Nonfiction

Anthropologist goes and lives with indigenous people from 1963-1964, writing down everything.

Disappointing: I’ve always heard that indigenous tribes were more egalitarian, but (this tribe at least) doesn’t value women so they kill girl babies, go to war with other tribes to kidnap new women, and use brutal violence to keep “their” women in line. That’s… disappointing…

[M David Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5/5
Quizás porque haya sido mi primera etnografía o quizás por la forma en la que estaba redactada, ha sido una lectura un poco forzosa que ha guardado todos sus secretos para el final.
Sin mucho que añadir, me ha gustado y espero que sea un buen comienzo.

[Florence Gultimo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Une ethnographie sensible et politique, débarrassé de préjugés et fort authentique.
Une condamnation de l’acculturation et une démonstration poignante que le pouvoir s’exerce sans violence, et qu’il est possible d’organiser politiquement une société sans mesures coercitives

[yy · Rating 5 out of 5]

每个生命体都曾鲜活地存在过，感谢作者能够记录人类的一员。

[OtterM · Rating 5 out of 5]

太有趣了，居然能有机会走进一个消亡的部落，去见证他们的没落与灭亡。（插句话，印第安人一年有21小时用来睡觉、娱乐、讲神话故事，只有三小时用来裹腹😭一天上这么多小时班，真的觉得人生是多么无趣啊…）

[Jeanne Ouellet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had to read this for uni, it’s okay but it’s basically ethnology so you better like that

[Fil Larocque · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un classique de l’ethnographie.
Décoloniser notre regard sur le cannibalisme.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

以原始生活状态的瓜亚基印第安人的部落生活，重新思考人类的天性到底是什么？以现代文明看似“野蛮”的一些部落习俗是否应该被现代文明所教化，一个民族的历史和文化能在浩瀚的时间场合中得以保留下来的可能都是经过后人以后世的社会标准所筛选的。

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

insane

[daph ୨୧]

for school !

[Judit · Rating 5 out of 5]

muy muymuy interesante y el escritor un capo

[cesarmeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

evidentemente es para clase me he leído solo de la mitad al final pero me desquició tener que leérmelo así que lo meto aquí. en realidad es entretenido se pone a contar todas las mierdas de una tribu aleatoria sin ningún tipo de coherencia slay

[Completelybanned · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pierre Clastres was a Hegelian with an anarchist bent, and in his short life he created a body of work which has been credited with helping to inaugurate the subdiscipline of political anthropology. Clastres did most of his ethnographic fieldwork in the early to mid-1960s, and spent the rest of his time at Lévi-Strauss's Laboratoire d’antropologie sociale. His thesis, which would become the book, Chronique des indiens Guayaki (1972), trans. Chronicle of the Guayaki Indians (1998), drew upon his fieldwork experiences with the Guayaki people in Paraguay from 1963-4. In the book, he describes how the lives have the Guayaki have been affected since coming out of the forest and submitting to a more sedentary life under the patronage of a Paraguayan boss.

Clastres is representative of the kinds of questions anthropologists of Amazonia were asking mid-century. To begin, like many other Euro-Americans up to this point in time, he notices that Amazonians do not organize themselves politically or socially in ways similar to Europeans. And as a good follower of Durkheim, he thinks of society as an organism which must be maintained through rules and regulations, and such rules are reproduced through ritual. The structuralist innovation was that such rules and regulations were deep, underlying structures in the consciousness of community members. For example, observing the birth of Pichugi's son, he writes that the Guayaki “are always anxious to use each event in an individual's life as a way of restoring tribal unity, as a way of re-awakening in all the members of the tribe the certainty that they formed a community” (1998, 57). The emphasis on lacks and explaining them through ritual would continue for some time.

There are several other assumptions about the Guayaki which are characteristic of scholarship at the time. First, there is assumption of the universality of the Western gender binary, which can be seen in the chapter “The Life and Death of a Homosexual,” which focuses on the characters of Krembegi and Chachubutawacgugi. According to Clastres, Krembegi was a non-anomaly: “No one in the camp paid particular attention to him, he was like everyone else” (290). And yet he was also something that demanded explanation: Krembegi's habits made him “outside this social order” (294). Second, but more subtle, is Clastres's assumption that the Guayaki are as afraid of death as Europeans are. For Clastres, Guayaki men (who represent culture) are doing everything they can to subdue the power of death by controlling women (who represent nature). This assumption is perhaps best demonstrated by reflecting on his explanation of the game of to kybairu, a game played during the “honey celebration,” in which players put their heads together in a pattern which resembles the hexagonal cells of a beehive (221). He goes on to write that the game “symbolizes the reconquest of universal life, it expresses its spirit, it celebrates its victory,” and, most plainly, that it “is against death” (233). Even if we accept Viveiros de Castro's (2010) injunction to read Clastres loosely and defer from nitpicking universalizing statements, we should not gloss over the ways in which such explanations may lead us astray from Indigenous Amazonians’ own ideas of what they are doing. Third, Clastres is also important because his thoughts on cannibalism among the Guayaki are cited by several other scholars of Amazonia (e.g., Vilaça, 2000). If anything, Clastres stands as a testament to the anthropologist's difficulty grappling with the subject of cannibalism. He vacillates between materialist explanations (Guayaki have plenty of protein, cannibalism is not for want of meat) and more structuralist interpretations (e.g., musing on the way the verb ‘to eat’ is often used instead of the verb ‘to make love’). Later scholars (e.g., Vilaça; Conklin) would take issue with this inconsistency and attempt to offer more coherent definitions.

[Beroha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plein d'entrain, Pierre Clastres entre dans une société promise, par la force des choses, à une disparition lente et douloureuse. Déjà acculturés, ses" indiens" lui font cependant découvrir leur culture, partagent leur savoirs et leur vision du monde. Un trésor qui se perd face à l'avancée des "blancs" dans les forêts, réduisant les territoires de chasses ou les transformant en pâturages. Une société entre deux mondes, dont le fonctionnement unique mérite d'être relatée, et qui se trouve sur le point de basculer, voilà le portrait des Guayaki que nous propose l'auteur.

[Jessie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This study of a now extinct Paraguayan tribe is fascinating. It is a book of its times, using the language of "savages" to describe the tribe, but is generally sympathetic and questions existing folk-lore of native peoples, especially the well-trod lie that many tribes were cannabalistic, which was used to horrify the public and justify treatment of the native peoples. Interestingly, however, tribes themselves seem to have perpetuated this lie against other tribes or sub-tribes in order to dehumanize their enemies. And yet it seems to be true of some tribes and Castres's fascination with this is difficult to understand.

[Dominique · Rating 3 out of 5]

My personal rating for it is a 2, just because it is not my cup of tea. The way the book is written is a 5.

That being said, I had to read this book for class so it's not the kind of book I would read on my own. However, I LOVE the poetic way with book flows.

[Andrew Bourne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short review here: http://bombmagazine.org/article/51671...

[Brooklyn Butler · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think if I wasn't forced to read this for class I would have liked it more. There are interesting ideas but also Clasters sucks

[Katie Degentesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent anthropolgical account that reads like sci-fi. Highly recommended.

[(0v0)]

Read this. Katie says.