Words in history

Presentation

A study of the colonial and post-colonial history of Brazil and Paraguay through the lens of the Guarani Amerindian language.

In 2022, the United Nations launched the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Languages. Yet their history is forgotten and their writings invisible. Based on a corpus of texts in Tupi-Guarani, this book shows that from the 16th to the 19th century, an Amerindian language ‘made’ the history of Brazil and Paraguay: its words and discourses sealed alliances, launched wars and defined status. During social revolutions, political concepts in Guarani shaped the experience and expectations of Indians, mestizos and Spaniards. The concepts of political modernity are expressed in Guarani and have a history. This original, well-documented and accurate survey offers a new perspective on language practices in colonial and post-colonial situations.

Author

Capucine Boidin Caravias is a university professor of anthropology at the Institut des hautes études d'Amérique latine (IHEAL), a member of the Centre de recherche et de documentation sur les Amériques (CREDA), and vice-president of research at Sorbonne Nouvelle University since April 2023. She teaches Guarani at Inalco. She specialises in linguistic anthropology, particularly of the Tupi-Guarani languages, and in the anthropology and history of representations of interbreeding and ethno-racial hierarchies. She is currently pursuing her research in historical anthropology on Guarani archives.

450 pages
16 x 24 cm
Publication : 03/04/2025
ISBN : 9782858314539