Ayoreo

ETHNONYMS: Ayoreóde, Moro, Tsirakaua, Zamuco

Cultural Relations

The Ayoreo were geographically and socially isolated owing to natural obstacles, scarcity of roads, and their longtime hostile relationship with criollos. These prevented the Indians from being receptive to Western cultural ideas and material goods until recently.

Settlements

The local Ayoreo group ( gagé ) establishes a semipermanent camp ( gidái ) near a stream during the planting season. The camp is made up of approximately six dome-shaped houses arranged more or less in a circle. Each house shelters up to ten occupants.

Bibliography

Bernard-Muñoz, Carmen (1977). Les ayoré du Chaco Septentrional: Etude critique à partir des notes de Lucien Sebag. Paris: Mouton.

Bórmida, M. (1984). "Cómo una cultura arcaica concibe su propio mundo." Scripta Ethnologica (Buenos Aires) 8.

Bórmida, M., and M. Califano (1978). Los indios ayoreo del Chaco Boreal, 13-161. Buenos Aires: Fundación para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura (FECIC).

Bugos, Paul E., Jr. (1985). An Evolutionary Ecological Analysis of the Social Organization of the Ayoreo of the Northern Gran Chaco. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University Microfilms International.

Fernández, Distel A. A. (1983). "La cultura material de los ayoreo del Chaco Boreal." Scripta Ethnologica (Buenos Aires), Supplement 3, 5-78.

Kelm, H. (1960). "Zur Frage der ethnographischen Einordnung de Ayoré, Moro und Yanaígua im ostbolivianischen Tiefland." Baessler-Archiv, Beiträge zur Völkerkunde, n.s. 8(2): 335-361.

Wilbert, Johannes, and Karin Simoneau, eds. (1989). Folk Literature of the Ayoreo Indians, Los Angeles: University of California, Latin American Center.

MARIO CALIFANO (Translated by Ruth Gubler)