Case file · Sacred site
The Land Without Evil
In 1914 Curt Nimuendajú described how Guaraní groups of the Paraguay–Brazil borderlands had migrated eastward for generations, led by shamans, in search of Yvy Marane'ỹ, the 'land without evil'.
1914 CE · -23.00, -55.50 · status: account
The account
The Apapocuva Guaraní he lived with told him the world would end and that a paradise could be reached by dancing and fasting until the body became light. Later scholars such as Hélène Clastres saw the migrations as a religious response to colonisation; others question how ancient the idea is. The pin is symbolic, in the borderlands of Amambay.
The sceptical view
Some anthropologists argue that the concept has been over-generalised from a few sources.