Creatividad: Enfoques de estudio

Storytelling – as described above – typically takes place in the evening, when a final round of terere begins after the last meal of the day. 78 At this time most members of the household are generally present – seated around the fire in winter and in the clean, open space in front of the house in summer – and an occasional visitor (or visitors) may join the family group. If there are many visitors, the conversation may remain focused on affairs of mutual interest and importance. Equally, attention may be scattered by other matters that occupy the evening gathering: adults listening to football matches or music on the radio, younger people exercising their self-taught skills on the guitar by playing religious tunes or Polcas and Guaranias (Paraguayan folk music), children sitting and playing around their parents, babies crying for their mothers’ breasts. There is no set schedule for storytelling. It is a spontaneous event, one amongst many that entertain evenings in the village. Particularly, though, it is the lack of a busy atmosphere in the immediate surroundings that elicits the willingness of the storytellers – mostly elder members, male or female, of the assembled group – to come up with their stories, just as it predisposes those present – including young children – to listen.

Evenings nonetheless are not the exclusive scenario for the narration of Nanek Anya. In the past, storytelling was performed during boys’ and girls’ initiation rituals (Vaingka and

Yammama, respectively). This, as Andres Tome of the village of La Leona (La Patria)

explained, was “to make people laugh throughout the night, until dawn” (Fieldnotes 23/5/2005). Agapito gave one such storytelling recital in the village of Karova’i, on the night of 19 April 2006. That date is officially recognized as the “Day of the Indian” in most countries throughout the Americas, and was chosen by several Angaité leaders, along with the people involved in the Angaité recovery programme, as a commemorative occasion on which to hold a traditional gathering. The event attracted over 300 people from almost all the Angaité villages of La Patria. As part of the two-day festivities, which included traditional foods (Nanek nentoma) and the traditional game of Latse ava,79

78

Susnik (1977:11) refers to storytelling amongst the Enxet as (formerly) an evening activity conducive to “emotional relaxation” before sleep. She also mentions the prestige that good storytellers enjoyed in the past. 79 _{Latse ava (in Angaité: “maize leaves”) is a projectile made of folded maize leaves, which are plugged with} American ostrich feathers to give the object its aerodynamic properties. It is similar in form to a badminton shuttlecock, but with a somewhat square nose. The game is played by two or more players and consists in throwing the latse ava into the air and, by striking it with the palm of the hand, knocking it from one player to another without it touching the ground.

several elderly singer-drummers – including Agapito – gathered for the occasion to play the vaingka (in Angaité: “short drum/pot”).80

At such public gatherings, the storytellers have a more conspicuous role and they perform with great enthusiasm, sometimes purposely trying to elicit their audience’s laughter and approval. The fact that there are not many who are able and willing to talk in public in Angaité enhances their role. The people present usually respond to the performance, with someone audibly repeating a phrase or detail of the narration, all of which serves to strengthen and prolong the general laughter. Others nod or chip in with interjections such as Hae (in Guarani: “It is so”) or Naksoye (in Angaité: “It is true”). Sometimes the storytellers take turns, stringing their narratives together by referring back to the previous speaker. These serial performances have more the air of a cooperative contest to cheer up the audience than of an individualistic competition for crowd preference. Such was the case during a meeting held in the community of Hugua Chini, formerly part of the New Tribes Mission of San Carlos by the Paraguay River (Fieldnotes 4/1/2006). The meeting was held in the context of a visit that Agapito and I were making in order to exchange views about the situation of the Angaité language. The leaders of Hugua Chini opened the assembly with brief introductions, after which Agapito, Otacio and Juan Mendoza took turns to stand up and tell their stories, which consisted in flamboyant descriptions of the preparations and procedures traditionally involved in Vaingka celebrations. Such storytelling – in conjunction with its associated audience participation – serves as a collective re-enactment of the good life to which the Angaité aspire, in the past as at present.

The stories and myths discussed throughout this work were gathered in the context of specific ethnographic circumstances such as those described above. Those circumstances seem sometimes to have little to do with what the stories actually tell. However, the narration follows a line related to what is being discussed in the context of an everyday situation or gathering – however erratic that line may seem. During the course of the performance, the participants – both narrator and listeners – manifest their emotions, experiences, and reciprocal expectations. Thus, Agapito’s narrative about the first encounter between the Angaité and Paraguayans, which I will call “The Arrival of

Paraguayans”, was addressed to me not only as a historical lesson but also as a metaphorical moral guide. It pointed to how he and I should relate: namely, by overcoming the mutual misunderstanding that marks the encounter described in the narrative. In other words, storytelling is entertaining and pedagogic in the sense that it strengthens interpersonal relations and boosts the communal good life.