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A product of the conquest of an Arawakan population by Tupi-Guarani migrants, Chiriguano society offers a clear instance of 'indigenous hybridity' that has received inadequate scholarly attention. We suggest that the assimilation of the Chiriguano case to Tupi-Guarani sociopolitical models demonstrates a process of 'Guaranization' that has influenced scholars as much as--if not more than-the Chiriguano themselves. By means of an ethnohistorical analysis of the Chiriguano political system, we attempt to recover the Arawakan heritage of this truly mestizo society in which different cultural traditions are both counterposed and combined. The reading we offer of the 'Chiriguano case' is a new one, oriented specifically to the ethnically diverse frontier territory of the South American Gran Chaco but having broad comparative value.

The article focuses on presence of racial discrimination and discourses of informational lack access to important information about inequality. It states that privileged actors lack the skills to ask the right questions about these things and to understand how strong informational dynamics are for fair assessment of global governance. It mentions that the essay shows that critical writing on race is deeply relevant to library and information studies.