Aché (indigenous people)
The Aché are an Indigenous people from the subtropical rainforests of eastern Paraguay, known for their traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Historically living in relative isolation, the Aché’s existence dramatically changed in the mid-twentieth century when outside developers encroached on their ancestral lands, leading to forced resettlement onto small reservations. The Aché, also referred to as the Axe people, have distinct cultural and linguistic traits, differentiating them from neighboring Indigenous groups like the Guaraní. They practiced various cultural customs, including body modifications and rituals related to significant life events, although many aspects of their beliefs have evolved or changed due to external influences, including the adoption of Christianity.
Traditionally, the Aché hunted small game and gathered native plants, relying on the rich biodiversity of their forest habitat. However, their lifestyle has been severely impacted by deforestation, agricultural expansion, and violence from outside groups, resulting in significant loss of life and cultural practices. Today, many Aché live in reservation settlements where they face ongoing challenges regarding land rights and access to resources. Human rights organizations are working to support the Aché and seek justice for past abuses, as awareness of their plight continues to grow in the 21st century.
Aché (indigenous people)
The Aché are an Indigenous people of South America who maintained their traditional way of life over a large stretch of forested land in Paraguay for centuries. They lived relatively isolated from the world until the middle of the twentieth century. In the 1960s, outside developers who wanted to take control of the Aché's historical homeland threatened the group's hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Since then, the Aché have been resettled forcibly onto small reservations and have suffered other attacks and oppression.
Background
The Aché, also known as the Axe people, are an ethnic group from the subtropical rainforests of eastern Paraguay. "Aché" is the name the group uses for itself. Early anthropologists and neighboring Indigenous groups often called them "Guayaki," “Guaiaqui,” or “Guayaki-Ache,” but in the twenty-first century, these terms are considered offensive.
Anthropological studies have determined that the Aché are related to their neighbors, the Guaraní. However, enough differences exist in their respective language, culture, and biology for the Aché and Guaraní to be regarded as two separate groups. The Aché do share one trait with the Guaraní, howeverboth groups practiced cannibalism well into the twentieth century. Some Aché peoples practiced funerary cannibalism—all members of the group except direct family members of the deceased gathered to eat the body to ensure their spirit could not possess the living.
While Europeans and others have known about the existence of the Aché since the late 1500s or early 1600s, little is known about their origins or earlier history. Jesuit missionaries who attempted to convert the Aché in the 1600s considered them "savages." The Europeans' descriptions of the Aché emphasized their tendency to wear little to no clothing—perhaps just a piece of fabric on their backs that apparently helped protect their skin from thorns on low-hanging greenery as they moved through the forest. Because the Aché foraged for food and did not grow any crops, the Europeans considered them uncivilized.
Overview
The Aché have light skin and hair and Asiatic features. Throughout history, they have lived in small groups that could move quickly and generally did not build permanent homes. The four main groups of Aché, which have little in common as far as language and interaction, include the Northern Aché, the Ñacunday Aché, the Yvytyruzu Aché, and the Ypety Aché. The four groups often fought with or kidnapped one another. Some anthropologists believe that the various Aché groups' distrust of one another might account for their skittish and reclusive nature around outsiders, which prevented much contact with the tribe until the mid-twentieth century.
The Aché historically lived the simple lives of hunter-gatherers. They hunted small game with bows and arrows and ate from the abundance of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles that lived in their rainforest home. They also gathered food from plant sources native to the area. Anthropologists have determined, however, that the Aché ate only limited varieties of the many types of plant and animal life available in their traditional territory. It is unclear whether they simply preferred these foods or had some type of religious or cultural prohibition against eating them.
Prior to contact with missionaries, the Aché had no defined religion. They did have myths about the origin of the world, a flood myth, and other myths that explained natural and scientific events. They held beliefs about some supernatural spirits that could heal, cause evil and mischief, or control celestial events such as meteors. In contemporary times, many Aché practice Christianity. Some follow Roman Catholicism, while others follow various Protestant traditions.
The Aché have some cultural customs related to significant life events, such as birth and reaching maturity. Boys often have their lip pierced sometime during their later teen years and wear wooden plugs in the piercing. Both boys and girls receive ritualistic body scars as a sign of sexual maturity. In the past, club fights, in which men from various bands of Aché fought with hardwood clubs, were held periodically. Some involved ceremonies during which women were hit by their son or brother. The birth of a newborn and a killing involved ceremonial aspects in traditional Aché practice. Most Aché did not believe in an afterlife, though they did believe deceased people who were powerful in life or who died violently could cause harm to the living. To protect themselves from this wrath, the Aché usually burned, rather than buried, dead bodies. Sometimes small children were sacrificed to appease dead spirits.
Much of what is known about the Aché was unknown until the early twentieth century. For a long time, the Aché were intentionally evasive about their history. They preferred not to interact with outsiders. Instead, they pursued the nomadic lifestyle of hunter-gatherers who lived on what they could find to eat and followed the available food sources. Until about the 1950s, the Aché continued this lifestyle despite outsiders' attempts at contact. They did have some peaceful contact with outsiders who managed to win their confidence. However, contact with outsiders did not go well for the Aché. A small group of Aché who were persuaded to leave the forest to live on a farm contracted diseases for which they had no immunity. About half of them died.
From then on, the lives of the Aché changed dramatically. During the 1960s and 1970s, they were forcibly removed to reservations so the land on which they had lived for centuries could be used for logging and other development. The forests where they hunted and gathered their food quickly began to disappear. People gradually became more aware of the Aché, and many farmers from nearby areas began enslaving the Aché people. Some Aché people were killed, and the women were sometimes raped. In the span of about a decade, the Aché went from living on land that amounted to more than 7,700 square miles (20,000 square kilometers) to living on small reservations of only about 19 square miles (50 square kilometers). Many died from epidemics of diseases they had never faced while living in the forest. The Aché also were victims of massacres by outsiders who wanted to take over their land.
In the twenty-first century, most Aché live on reservation settlements where reservation boundaries, land rights, and access to natural resources remain problematic. Additionally, deforestation, increased agricultural practices, and cattle farming on their ancestral lands increasingly threaten their way of life. By necessity, they have learned to grow food and sometimes work as paid laborers. Some go into the rainforest to hunt or gather food as they did in the past, but the land available for this is limited, and the Aché no longer live in the forests as they once did. Human rights groups are attempting to seek restitution for the Aché and punishment for those who engaged in the oppression and murder of Aché people. In 2022, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) enhanced its monitoring of Indigenous rights in Paraguay in an attempt to counter oppression.
Bibliography
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Hill, Kim. "A Short History of the Northern Aché People." The Paraguay Reader: History, Culture, Politics, edited by Peter Lambert and Andrew Nickson, Duke UP, 2013.
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