Name of the Group: Ayoreo

Linguistica Family: Zamuco

Social Organization: Their first contact with the Spanish goes back to 1537, when Juan Ayolas came to the Chaco. Then came the unpeaceful encounters with incursions led by Ñuflo de Chávez (1546), Irala (1547) and again Ñuflo de Chávez (1559).
		From 1691 till 1724 the Jesuits had a number of harsh contacts with the Ayo-reo, who adamantly refused to join the mission, with only a few of them even-tually incorporated to a Chiquitana Mis-sion. Father Juan Bautista Zea attemp-ted contact and settlement from 1711 to 1724 when Father Achá finally succeed-ed in gathering several Zamuco clans to found the first Ayoreo mission, San Ignacio de los Zamucos (1724-1745).
Throughout the past century contact with the Ayoreo continued to be sporadic and painful. During the Chaco war the Ayoreo, like the Guaraní Ava and the Izoceño, found themselves caught in the middle and had to abandon their lands when the rival armies occupied their sources for water and salt. The Ayoreo fled to the mountains and entered the domain of the Chiquitano, with whom they managed to establish a relative degree of coexistence.
It wasn’t until the 40’s that a number of Catholic priests regained contact with them, at a time when war broke out between northern and southern Ayoreos. In 1950 the Rincón del Tigre settlement was founded and the Southamerican Mission began to work with Ayoreos from Zapoco, as well as in Santa Teresita from 1957.

The basic social organization, as a result of acculturation, tends to nuclear family individualism although the extended matrilocal (hogasui) family pattern is still found, with authority resting in the asuté, or head of the family.  In the present, settlements are sedentary and scattered but in the past the settlement pattern was itinerant as well.

Land and Territory: The Ayoreo live in diverse habitats, in the humid Chaco, neighboring the swamps (pantanal)and in the chiquitana jungle, bordering the Amazonian region. Those communities that own some lands received them through concessions negotiated for them by the New Tribes and Southamerican missions, as well as by the Vicariate of Chiquitos.
Those who have deeds or titles of ownership over their lands, in different stages of the legal process, are: Poza Verde, Puesto de Paz and Urucú.  All of the titled lands belong either to the missions or the Vicariate. Within the INRA legal framework, Ayoreos have been granted Communitary Original Lands – duly delimited and with titles - in four communities: Zapocó, Rincón del Tigre, Santa Teresita and Tobité.

Economy: The main Ayoreo economic activity is agriculture, mostly for the communities’ consumption, although sometimes surplus is destined to trade.  The main crops are corn, rice, yucca, plantains, sweet potatoes and beans. From their point of view, ownership of the land is collective but production pertains individually to families who work a plot by themselves or together with two or three other closely related families. Communal profit comes into play when foreign institutions introduce cooperative projects.

Agriculture is combined, during certain seasons, with hired labor and with wood extraction (individually or collectively sold to third parties), activities that complement the Ayoreo means of subsistence.

Hunting is another complement, but not as much as in the past, due to the fact that it depends largely on wether the community is up in the mountains or in he valleys. Also due to the increasing number of foreigners who not only scare the animals away but are bent on hunting them indiscriminately.

On the other hand, in recent years the arts and crafts developed by women have gained importance, particularly the colorful bags made of woven vegetable fibers, which are now another economic resource.

Products in Trade: Corn, yucca, plantain, sweet potatoes and beans.

Source: http://www.amazonia.bo/mas_detalle_proi.php?id_contenido=3