Introduction: Decentering War

Hunter-Gatherers’ Self-Governance: Untying the Traditional Authority of Chiefs from the Western Toba Civil Association

“…In this article, I introduce some qualities of the traditional leadership among the Western Toba (to give a measure of the extent to which these people have changed and adapted to current political circumstances), discuss some of the immediate antecedents of the law for Indigenous people (describing the political milieu in which the Indigenous people's vote made a difference), and compare the provincial law to the Paraguayan Law 904 for Indigenous Communities-both policies were the product of local populism and indigenismo (supporting or promoting Indigenous cultures) that gradually displaced militarized conservatism in Paraguay and Argentina (Foote & Horst, 2010;Stunnenberg, 1993). I also analyze the steps taken by the Western Toba to comply with the governance requirements in Law 426, show how they formed a civil association and were able to obtain title over a considerable parcel of land-larger than the pieces of land secured by other groups.…”