For most of its past, a dichotomies series characterized Paraguayan society. A difference between urban and rural Paraguay, even more emphatically between Asunción as the economic, political and social rise and the rest of Paraguay.

In rural Paraguay the gap between those who have title to land, usually the owners of large estates dedicated to commercial agriculture, and the mass of peasant squatters largely crop production for subsistence their families. Similarly, there is a chasm between the elite - educated, rich, city-based, and - bred - as well as the nation's poor, both rural and urban areas. Finally, while most of Paraguayans keep their dominance of the indigenous language Guarani and continued to play a crucial role in the life, there was a continuum of smoothness in Spanish than in parallel (and reflected) the social hierarchy.

Paraguayans of all classes of view of family and relatives as the social center of the universe. Anyone who is not related by blood or marriage was regarded with reservation, if not distrust. People expect to be able to call on extended family for assistance when needed and have them unswerving loyalty. Godparents (whether they were family members) were also important in strengthening social ties within the kinship network.

Migration was a constant fact of life: changed farmers' fields, the men were working in plantations, factories and river boats; the women migrated to cities and towns to find employment in domestic service. Since the mid-nineteenth century also had a large contingent of Paraguayan migrants in Argentina.

In the 1970s, the region of the eastern border of Paraguay - long unpopulated and undeveloped - replaced neighboring Argentina as the main destination of most migrants in Paraguay. Historically, land in the region was held in huge plantations, the indigenous inhabitants of the largely tropical forest Indians and mestizo peasants. From the 1960's, however, the government land reform projects were established about 250,000 rural Paraguayans in agricultural colonies in this area. Many others ignored completely the government and settled in the region on their own.

The pace of urbanization - modest world and Latin American standards - quickened during the boom years. Economic growth enabled the cities to absorb large numbers of rural Paraguayans who had been displaced by the pressures of population growth and the country's land distribution skewed. The economic crisis in the 1980s, however, stirred up unrest among workers and peasants.