Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes the relevance of the agency of nonhumans, things, and words in the heritagization of the Jesuit-Guarani Mission in São Miguel, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, as intangible heritage culture of the Guarani people.

Paper long abstract:

Heritage is a political arena that has been appropriated by indigenous peoples to assert their identity and rights in the face of internal colonialism and coloniality. An example of this is the recent institutional classification of the Jesuit-Guarani Mission in São Miguel, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, as intangible heritage culture of the Guarani people. Less discussed is how heritage is also a cosmopolitical arena that brings to the fore the agency of nonhumans and things. The Mbya-Guarani are texoaxy (imperfect beings) that follow the signs of the gods (Nhanderu Kuery) to live a good life and to reach aguyje (perfection, immortality), without going through death, even though this is almost impossible nowadays. Therefore, the way of life of the Mbya-Guarani is focused on the perfection of their bodies, understood as a bundle of affects, that can be transformed through the agency of other Guarani (especially elders), nonhumans (the gods, but also spirits, animals and plants) and things, including words. In this context, words can nurture children to become adults and touch the heart, i.e., the perspective embedded in the body, of the jurua (nonindigenous people). In conclusion, I revisit the heritagization process of the Jesuit-Guarani Mission in São Miguel to explain its cosmopolitical importance for the Guarani as a way to touch the hearts of the jurua, and as a site to live in and to visit because of its agency in the aguyje of their body.