THE TERENA AND THE CADUVEO OF SOUTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL — OBERG 



tween the Mbaya and Guana can be thus corre- 

 lated with the historical juxtoposition of a warlike 

 hunting tribe and a less warlike agricultural tribe. 



The introduction of the horse into the Chaco 

 both altered and accentuated the already existing 

 relationships between the Mbaya and Guana. 

 Quite characteristically the warlike Guaicuru- 

 speaking people were the first to adopt the horse. 

 The Mbaya are said to have had the horse by 1672 

 (Azara, 1923, vol. 2, p. 58). To the Mbaya bands 

 the horse gave increased mobility and striking 

 power. The more distant tribes and even the 

 Spanish outposts could now be i-eached and raided 

 with impunit}'. The use of iron for making spear- 

 heads, knives, and axes added to the power of the 

 individual warrior. With increased military 

 power came increased wealth in war captives, 

 horses, cattle, and other loot. The social distinc- 

 tions based on birth, military exploits, and wealth 

 became more pronounced. War captives became 

 so numerous that they could no longer be absorbed 

 and became, in reality, a slave class. The leading 

 chiefs and their relatives adopted a proud and arro- 

 gant attitude in keeping with their wealth and 

 prestige and their freedom from the mundane 

 tasks of hunting and fishing. 



The Guana, too, adopted the horse. Wliether 

 all the Guana groups became horsemen is not clear. 

 The Terena, at least, adopted the horse, took to 

 raiding, captured slaves, and developed a warrior 

 class and marked distinctions of social rank. This 

 development, however, did not break the relation- 

 sliip between the Guana and Mbaya. Yet, it would 

 seem that the relationship between the two horse- 

 using groups could be scarcely defined as one exist- 

 ing between lord and serf or even one of symbiosis. 

 On the basis of what the Terena and Caduveo say 

 today, it would appear to have been much closer 

 to a form of alliance in which the Mbaya held the 

 superior position. Until the pacification of the 

 northern Chaco toward the end of the eighteenth 

 century the Mbaya and their Guana henchmen 

 remained nomadic horsemen dependent on raid- 

 ing and to some extent on stock raising and, in the 

 case of the Guana, on limited agriculture. An 

 incipient territorial state never grew out of 

 Mbaya supremacy. To the last they remained 

 raiders. 



Warfare between the Mbaya and the Spaniards, 

 who had settled in what is now Paraguay, began 



in the sixteenth century and continued until 1756, 

 when the southern and eastern Mbaya bands made 

 peace with the Spaniards. The Mbaya on the 

 western side of the Paraguay River, however, 

 pushed northward and began raiding other Indian 

 tribes and the Portuguese settlers in Mato Grosso. 

 Allied with the Payagua, another Guaicuru- 

 speaking tribe, some of the Mbaya, taking to 

 canoes, continued to raid the Portuguese thi'ough- 

 out most of the eighteenth century, concentrating 

 on the river traffic along the upper Paraguay, 

 Taquary, and Cuiaba Rivers. In 1791 the Mbaya 

 made peace with the Portuguese, and by the end 

 of the century many of their bands were found 

 settled near Coimbra in Portuguese territory. 



During the eighteenth century the Caduveo, 

 then known as the Cadiquegodi, seem to have car- 

 ried on their raids on both sides of the Paraguay 

 River. In the nineteenth century the Caduveo 

 were ranging in the territory between Rio Branco 

 and Miranda River on the east of the Paraguay 

 River where they finally settled. During the 

 Paraguayan War, from 1865 to 1870, what were 

 left of the Mbaya fought with the Brazilians 

 against the Paraguayans. At the beginning of the 

 twentieth century the Caduveo were granted pos- 

 session of an area of land in southern Mato Grosso, 

 Brazil, between the Nabileque and Aquidaban 

 Rivers, bounded on the west by the Paraguay River 

 and on the east by the Serra Bodoquena. It is in 

 this reservation, rich in agricultural and grazing 

 land and plentifully supplied with fish and game, 

 that some 150 Caduveo are now living in three 

 villages under the protection of the Brazilian Gov- 

 ernment. 



The Guana, too, by the end of the eighteenth 

 century had moved northward and had settled 

 near the present site of Corumba. In 1845 Cas- 

 telnau described a Guana settlement in this area 

 as consisting of 65 houses made after the Brazilian 

 pattern, and he stated that the people were hard- 

 working agriculturists, growing rice, beans, 

 maize, manioc, sugarcane, and cotton (Castelnau, 

 1850-59, vol. 2, p. 396). In the same year Cas- 

 telnau visited a Terena settlement near Miranda. 

 He stated that the Terena had just arrived from 

 the Chaco and were located in four villages, the 

 total population being about 3,000. He says of 

 the Terena, "This is a nation of warriors who have 

 preserved all the customs of their fathers. . . . 



