Gender Disparities in Guaraní Knowledge, Literacy, and Fashion in the Ecological Borderlands of Colonial and Early Nineteenth-Century Paraguay

This essay analyzes the gender disparities in Guaraní education and literacy in the province of Paraguay during the colonial era through the mid-nineteenth century, based on original Guaraní texts and other archival sources, including school censuses and Guaraní schoolwork. The use of the Native language, in written and spoken forms, proved to be a contentious issue in Paraguay, reflecting the cultural resiliency of the Guaraní, the forces of cultural domination, and the relationship between education, literacy, and gender. Fashion is an element in this analysis as well, because the types of clothing worn reflected the Guaraníes’ changing sense of identity. While the Jesuits encouraged the study and use of the Guaraní language in the mission schools, Bourbon language reforms altered education in the missions in the mid-eighteenth century by the requirements of the colonial state to teach the Guaraní Spanish. Nonetheless, there was a degree of tolerance to the use of the Native language so that the Guaraní could understand their lessons. However, there was no formal education in Paraguay for women and girls until after 1856.