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Drawings of excavated Guarani Stone points.
Guaraní which means foreigner) were
made slaves to the Guaraní, while others
were consumed by the Guaraní in a form
of ritual cannibalism. The Guaraní
believed that by consuming their defeated
enemies, they gained power from their
dead enemies.
One of the rights of passage for
Guaraní boys to become a man and before
he could marry was to kill an enemy in a
ritual ceremony. Another interesting facet
of the Guaraní culture was once a Guaraní
man became a father, immediately after the
birth of his child he had to fast for 15 days,
during which time he was restricted from
making any type of weapon.
Guaraní Botany and Hunting
Due to the semi-nomadic character of
these people, the early Guaraní left no
evidence of their culture. However, they
developed such an extensive base of
knowledge of the flora and fauna that
when the first Europeans arrived, they
recognized the scope of this knowledge
and relied on it extensively. An example of
this is that the Guaraní language is the
most widely used to name flora and fauna,
third only to Latin and Greek. Even today
Guaraní are sought out for their
knowledge of local plant and animal life.
My good friend Roberto Rodas who is the
grandson of a Guaraní chief, demonstrated
Two photographs showing how the feathers and arrow point are
wrapped with philodendron vine
Guarani arrow points
Actual stone tools that were
excavated. These are Guarani
and were found in Brazil.
to my wife, Cecilia, and I the plants used
to stop itching and to repel insects.
Guarani Bows and Arrows
The bows used by the Guaraní were
long, measuring two meters (about 78") in
length. The war arrows of the Guaraní
were tipped with points made from human
bones. Each Guaraní bow was
distinguishable from other Guaraní bows
because the maker marked his bow to be
readily identifiable to the entire
community. For example, no two Guaraní
bows were designed the same and neither
were the arrows that went with a particular
bow. Unlike Native American bows and
arrows, for example, the Hupa bows which
are paddle shaped or the Lakota bows
which are readily identifiable because of
their design, such was and is not the case
with the Guaraní bows and arrows. The
favorite colors to decorate bows were black
and white, black and brown, or all red.
A close-up picture showing
how the philodendron vine is
twisted into a bow string. The
name for the vine in Guarani is
Guembe-Pi.
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