Signs, Not Phenomena: Moqoit Cosmo-politics and Alternative Experiences of the Sky

LÓPEZ, ALEJANDRO MARTÍN

Advancing Cultural Astronomy. Studies in Honour of Clive Ruggles

Springer International Publishing

Lugar: Cham; Año: 2021; p. 71 - 104

Western academic astronomy, based on a worldview that assumes the separation between nature / culture / super-nature, understands the events of the celestial space as ´astronomical phenomena´. This leads Western science to think in terms of phenomena, laws and ´physical interactions´. When we approach the conceptions of the sky of other cultures through ethnoastronomy, we implicitly project this conception. In this chapter, based on previous works, we seek to show how this brings about incorrectunderstandings when the experiences and root metaphors of the cultures inquestion are distant from those of Western science. To do so, we will deal withthe case of the Chaco Moqoit aboriginal group,whose experience and theories about the cosmos are based on the socialrelations between diverse intentional beings, which are fundamentally modeledby asymmetries in power (quesaxanaxa). In this context, the Moqoit interestin the sky has different motivations, methods and premises than Western science. The Moqoit perspective is a true cosmo-politic, oriented to set courses of action in relation to the intentions of celestial beings, employing the clues or signs (netanec) that can be observed in the sky.