CULTURE AND TRADITION

 

Since those early years to the present a lot of performances at public events have made the Maká. The group of dancers is set and fixed, are about 15 dancers, elderly man aged between 60 and 75 years.

 

The dance begins with the sound of a cow's horn in the hands of the head of dance and men united by the forearm move rhythmically, while reproducing music without words with his mouth, like a whisper.

 

Dress for representation, often it composed of the usual clothing, pants and shirt on a kind of skirt or sarong usually red, on it goes a peplum of feathers on the head, a red sash of cotton adorned with ostrich put bracelets, ankle feathers, straps feathers on the head, a red sash of cotton decorated with colored beads, bracelets and necklaces.

CRAFTS

 

At present their crafts are totally different to the one performed when they lived in the Chaco; this craft was the fruit of his life in that environment, with limited resources and a different life. Near the city that have made the acquisition and production of objects and basic elements for survival easier, it is noteworthy that many of the traditional objects of Maká are hard to come by his new location because the caraguatá It is a plant that is difficult to obtain in urban areas, but otherwise the cotton thread is easier to get, has a range of bright colors which is used to create pockets of use and sale. The Maká is excellent weaver, their bags, blankets, belts and other tissue elements colorful threads can be considered a new craft outside the country.

 

Tourism as a system of income became the main livelihood for Maká, proof of this is the fact that 94.88% of the population is engaged Maká production and sale of handicrafts.

HISTORY

 

La Colonia Fray Bartolomé de las Casas of 335 hectares in the department Presidente Hayes was a settlement who occupied the Makás on an island of Paraguay river, opposite the town de Zevallos-Cué, at the height the Botanical Garden and Zoo Asunción. It was established in 1942 with Makás transferred from inside the Chaco by Belaieff after the war del Chaco due to the disappearance of their hunting areas.

 

Subsequently they settled in the colony other dispersed groups and in 1985 to cause of floods were relocated in the Nueva Colonia Maká Indígena.

 

The settlement of the Maká Community, also known as Kenkukue, dates from year 1985 and is in the outskirts of Mariano Roque Alonso, Central Department, Barrio Universo, at kilometer 18 of the Transchaco Ruta and a few kilometers del Puente Remanso.

POPULATION

 

There are 10 acres that comprise the community and live 280 families, approximately 68.33% of the total Maká. The population is composed mostly of men. The predominant age range is 15 to 29 years; 128 men and 138 women about.

 

The houses are characterized as heterogeneous, but bounded across the ground, forming the center of the area occupied by the church, the office, Maká School and Cultural Center, in one side the soccer field is located 2 acres.

 

The constructions vary in size and shape depending on their use. Homes can be wood or brick and tile, and its size is approximately 2 meters wide by 3 meters long.