Wind’s interpellations. Guarani Mbya reflections on distancing and vulnerability during and beyond the pandemic

abstract

In this paper, reflections and experiences of Guarani Mbya’s interlocutors are reunited to address the topic of vulnerability in the pandemic context and beyond it. Particularly, Covid-19 and other illnesses are thematized based on reflections on spaces and the relationality they enact (involving people, spirits and other agents or materialities) through the flows of the winds. Our interlocutors brought up issues that have crossed them since primordial times. However, during the pandemic period, these questions became more poignant within its political, sanitary, and environmental adversities. As part of a collective investigation engaging indigenous and non-indigenous, we also elaborate our argument from guarani questioning about individualized and indiscriminate distancing. Instead of “staying in your own home”, the village’s collective life was strengthened in parallel to distancing from the urban centers, rising reflections about vulnerability management in these spaces.

keywords  Guarani Mbya; Pandemic; Vulnerability; Social Distancing; Covid-19