South American Indian group that has traditionally inhabited eastern Paraguay and adjacent areas of Brazil and Argentina.
Aboriginal Guaraní were formerly warlike and took captives to be sacrificed (and allegedly eaten). Their shifting cultivation required them to move their settlements every few years. The descendants of Guaraní women and Spanish ranchers are modern Paraguay's rural population. Only a few scattered communities of true Guaraní remain, but Paraguay still claims a strong Guaraní heritage, and most of the million peasants living along the Paraguay River near Asunción speak a version of the aboriginal Guaraní language.