Dissecting the Charrúa Extinction Narrative in 2025: Dissonance, Hope, and Misunderstanding

In this thesis, I will discuss my research on the indigenous Charrúa people of Uruguay. My goal was to explore the perception of the general public and Charrúa themselves surrounding the Charrúa extinction narrative. My fieldwork consisted of eleven interviews with indigenous activists, artists, and non-indigenous Uruguayans as well as participation in a full moon ceremony with the Charrúa. My results focused on my qualitative analysis of the interviews. However, using a decolonial lens, I also used textual analysis/close reading, historical research, comparative analysis, and thematic analysis methodologies in my literature review. I ultimately found it to be true in that there was a noticeable dissonance in the understanding of Charrúa society by the public. Although I did not observe outright racism from non-indigenous people, the ignorance to the existence of the Charrúa was prevalent, specifically in the capital and most populous city of Montevideo and the indigenous participants were very aware of this denial. I hypothesize that present-day indigenous Charrúa must defend their own existence and fight for recognition in Uruguay’s educational sector, public sphere, and government despite the country presenting itself as having the most modern and progressive views, the “Switzerland” of Latin America. On a high note, I also found significant effort by the Charrúa collectives in the fight for recognition and the spread of information, so much so that the number of self-identifying Charrúa in Uruguay increases each day.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Global and International Studies, Center for

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Kansas

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Self, Mary

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Metz, Brent

• Cultural Revival
• Erasure
• Montevideo
• Public Education
• Uruguay

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

https://www.proquest.com/LegacyDocView/DISSNUM/32703257

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:kuscholarworks.ku.edu:1808/39504