Cosmology of development: humanitarian narratives and missionary work in the Argentinean Gran Chaco

CERIANI CERNADAS, CÉSAR

Conferencia; 69th Annual Conference Center for Latin American Studies University of Florida; 2021

Center for Latin American Studies University of Florida

This work explores the historical and ideological relationships between missionization experiences and social development projects in Argentine Gran Chaco indigenous communities. The inquiry is rooted in anthropological studies on religious and cultural change of Chaco natives peoples, a pioneering research space on indigenous Christianity in South America. The study seeks to understand another dimension: the intersection between humanitarian and development narratives in the action of outside religious organizations that have worked on the social and moral transformation of the indigenous peoples. In particular, my research aims to discuss humanitarianism as a moral narrative of modernity and how Christian missions and faith-based NGOs build a “cosmology of development” on indigenous societies in the Gran Chaco. This cosmology, entangles definitions of culture, person, nature and gender in cultural imaginaries about modernity, development and social change sustained in Christian values and actions. The notion of “cosmology of development” is a heuristic device, an intuitive theoretical tool that allows me a comprehensive interpretation of Argentinean Gran Chaco missionary and development processes.