Intracultural Approach to Reducing the Damage related to Alcohol Dependency among Mbya-Guarani of the Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil
This article presents the action-research that is being carried out since year 2000, with the Mbya-Guarani population of Río Grande do Sul, Brazil. This study is intended to contribute to the programs that are being carried out, to deal with the excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages and their consequences, especially focusing on the identification of the subject being targeted. Traditionally, the substance “alcohol” is treated as the main subject for the design of programs, for reducing accessibility and consumption. This research is considered from an emic standpoint of study in which focalized ethnography enables the identification of explanatory models of beverage consumption by Guarani indigenous population. A fundamental aspect is the understanding of the notion of person and the traditional medical system, where the notion of “spirit” in this binary case enables the apprehension of the association of the alcohol’s spirit that matches with the spirit of the drinker’s telluric nature. In a broader sense, the social interpretation explains that the most exposed communities are those with no healing houses (Opy) because there is no tie with the creator god (Ñanderu) who protects from the dangers of sickness and from becoming alcoholics. Due to the lack of the proper health services to prevent and treat the problem of alcoholism, a network of healers and helpers was set up to operate in all the communities, and up to now, it has succeeded in reducing the consumption of beverages through the restitution of the divine spirit and community meetings. The VIGISUS project is a plan funded by the World Bank to develop a national health surveillance system, in which there is a component to develop the indigenous health system.