Between Good and Dangerous Words: Notes for a Study on Gossip in Daily Life Mbya-Guarani

Abstract

The article explores some ways to understand what world presents itself from gossip and what it reveals of the sociocosmological relations between Mbya-Guarani people. Gossip, by putting words into circulation, emanates as a force, circulates and affects bodies and people, mobilizes aspects that go beyond the limits of human relations involving powers and risks that act on the Mbya world. I try to think how these forces are activated and by what networks of relationships they pass. Among the Mbya people, the position of women as observers attentive to the dynamics of the village connects with the dimension of laughter and gossip as instruments of power in social relations.