The Milky Way and its structuring functions in the worldview of the Mocoví of Gran Chaco

LÓPEZ, ALEJANDRO MARTÍN; GIMÉNEZ BENÍTEZ, SIXTO

Archaeologia Baltica

Klaipeda University Press

Lugar: Klaipeda, Lituania; Año: 2008 vol. 10 p. 21 - 24

1392-5520

This paper analyses the structuring role that the Milky Way performs in the world view of the Mocoví of the Southern Chaco (Argentina, South America). Originally hunters and gatherers, the Mocoví belong to the Guaycurú linguistic group and are strongly related to the Tobas, an ethnic group that also belongs to the same linguistic stock. The Mocoví underwent several changes during colonial times (e.g. the adoption of the horse); however, they managed to forestall European advance until the turn of the twentieth century, when Argentine national society carried out a systematic campaign of expansion within their traditional territory. Nowadays, the Mocoví have a population of twelve hundred and survive by working as rural labourers. Since 1998, we have been working on a research project that involves anthropological fieldwork in order to understand Mocoví ethnoastronomy and its relationships with other regional indigenous systems of astronomy. Through analysis of historical chronicles, early ethnographic literature and data from our own fieldwork, the present paper shows how the different interpretations the Mocoví give to the Milky Way relate among themselves. As the tree of the world, as a path, and as a river, the Milky Way performs a crucial role as a structuring element in Mocoví cosmology. Among the different images we can identify: 1)               The idea that the white clouds in the Milky Way would be the riches of the sky. 2)               The Milky Way as the celestial “river of given fish” where the Mocoví would go fishing. 3)               The Milky Way as a cosmic tree that links the different cosmic levels. 4)              The Milky Way and its dark clouds like the mythical mañic (rhea americana). 5)               The Milky Way as the path of a pair of rheas (progenitors of the great amount of            chicks that served the Mocovíes as food in spring), or the mythical rhea. In order to understand the subject of this paper it is necessary to summarize the main elements of traditional Mocoví cosmology as we know it through the testimonials of missionaries, chroniclers and the first ethnographers. According to these sources, the Mocoví World would be formed by three different levels: ´laua, the central level where the Mocoví dwell, the earth; the underworld (a similar inhabited region illuminated by the sun while it is night on earth); and the sky or piguim. Traditionally, the Mocoví made reference to several catalysms3: a devastating fire due to the collapse of the sun; a huge flood caused by the destruction of the Tree of the Sky and another one as a consequence of a downpour. We examine how the representation of the Milky Way as a “path” structures their oral narrative. The Mocoví paths manifest the idea of going deep into the non-human space, along which a sequence of markers unfold and indicate the celebration of pacts with the ruling powers of the world. The Mocoví word nayic and its equivalents in other Guaycurú languages (e.g. nak´aik in Toba) means lane or path. For the Wichí, a neighboring indigenous group not Guaycurúres, the word nayih refers to the paths or lanes that go from the their communities or their surroundings, which constitute the space of the known world of the human, the familiar and the nearby reality, and get deep into the woodland, the space of the non-human, governed by strange and dangerous entities. Thus, the path constitutes a bridge that allows them to make a journey into the woodland, a land beyond their control, in order to obtain the necessary resources for survival. It is by celebrating pacts with the non-human powers ruling the woodland that they are allowed to travel the path. Secondly, the idea of a path works as a narrative structure used to understand and organize both the personal experience of life and the mythical events. So in this way experience is seen as a path marked with pacts that make it possible to relate with the unknown. Among the Mocovíes and the Wichí, the word nayic is also used to describe a very important aspect of the sky at night: the Milky Way Thus, Mocoví cosmological notions are closely related to the process of world recreation by its narrative forms as well as both personal and collective histories. The Milky Way works as a central thread in the organization of Mocoví systems of asterisms. In this context, we examine the importance of the notion of a vertical axis within Mocoví cosmology and symbolism –and particularly the relationship between the Tree of the World and the Milky Way. The idea of a tree as an axis for the three different levels of the Mocoví world has been recognized by the first chroniclers as one of the key aspects of Mocoví cosmology. The word that they use to refer to their chief, lashí, is the same that they use to name a vertical stick or pole, showing that the concept of vertical axis has great importance in Mocoví world view. In the context of Protestant missions, the word lashiilec makes reference to the “idols” in biblical stories and it is connected to the idea of statues craved in tree trunks. By climbing the Nalliagdigua, name given in the seventeenth century to the tree of the sky, the Mocoví would find their way to go fishing in the Milky Way. The tree of the sky would be the link for the three levels of the Mocoví world. The fact that the vocabulary to refer to the sacred and power is connected to the idea of a vertical axis suggests the significance of the Mocoví cosmic tree as the ontological basis of the world and shows its sacred feature full of power.  There are a number of elements that seem to indicate that there is a connection between the Milky Way and the Tree of the World. On the one hand, the Milky Way is considered to be a source of wealth for its fluvial feature and related to the story of the original tree inside which there is water. On the other hand, some versions gathered by Guevara point out that by climbing up the Tree of the World the ancient Mocovíes were able to fish from a river, apparently the Milky Way. In addition, the Mocoví referred to an old carob tree constellation (Mapiqo´xoic), whose roots are dark clouds of the Milky Way, that could possibly be connected to the Tree of the World. We describe how the uses of the positions of the Milky Way, both for night orientation and time conception, show that it constitutes a spatial and temporal point of reference to Mocoví cosmology. Not long ago, the positions of the Milky Way in the sky were important for finding the way in the woodland at night. At present, due to deforestation and difficulty to access to hunting areas, this use of the Milky Way is of less importance. However, its use as a temporal marker is still significant to these days. The Mocoví are able to indicate its direction both at several moments along the year and at different times at night. Also, Mocoví world expectations (based both on traditional ideas of world cyclical destruction and Christian millenarism) appear to be connected to the expectation of astronomical signs, among which a “new position” of the Milky Way is the most frequently mentioned. We go on to show how the relationships between the Milky Way and shamanic initiation, and the capacity of the religious specialists to “see” the structure of the universe, allow us to understand important links between cosmological and astronomical conceptions and the operation of power, social control and social organization. Today, just as in ancient times, the tree allows the coexistence of cosmic levels. Nowadays, this only occurs in an oneiric level or in encounters with powerful deities, which in a concentrated time and space dimension make it possible to experience the way of being of the origins[1], that is to say, they reveal the ontological importance of cosmic structure. Guevara’s writings about the souls climbing up the tree of the world to go fishing can be re-interpreted under the light of these ideas. The dead, powerful beings belonging to the non-human, are part of the entities that go up and down the tree and give power to it. In this sense, the tree of the world is like a “tunnel” that allows communicating with other levels of the Mocoví world, the paradigmatic case of a system of “tunnels for communication” that go from one end to the other of the Mocoví cosmos. The whirlwinds are seen as an external show of the mouths of these tunnels which the pi’xonaq or Mocoví shamanes are able to feel even in the absence of whirlwinds. Finally, we discuss the dynamic and adaptive aspects of these ethnoastronomical conceptions by examining their interactions with cosmological ideas conveyed by the national society through several religious missions, formal schooling and the mass media. Not only do we examine the biblical images related to ways of having access to heaven, to the paradise tree and to the ideas of path and pilgrimage in connection with the Israeli history, but also how formal schooling and access to higher education are revealing more and more Mocovíes concepts and illustrations related to the solar system, the galaxies, etc. In this context, there are several strategies to build a new world view. By means of analyzing these strategies we show the great adaptive aspect of Mocoví cosmology, the challenges that its continuity faces and the role the Milky Way has in building these new concepts. [1] Mocoví space-time have a locally qualified nature