CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

This paper will discuss the ways in which social relations build the sky among several aboriginal groups of the Argentinean Chaco, creating a space that can be described in topological terms. Shaped by power relations between humans and non-humans, the sky of the Mocoví, Toba and Wichí is a real map of the symbolic struggles for identity and leadership among these groups. Originally hunters and gatherers, Mocoví, Toba and Wichí are three of the most relevant aboriginal groups in the Argentinean Chaco. The Mocoví and the Toba belong to the Guaycurú linguistic group, and the Wichí to the Mataco-Mataguayo linguistic group. These aborigenes underwent several changes during colonial times (e.g. some of them adopted the horse), however, they retained an important autonomy degree until the 20th century, when the Argentine national society carried out a systematic campaign of expansion within their traditional territory. Nowadays, a population of fifteen thousand Mocoví, seventy thousand Toba and forty thousand Wichí survive by working as rural labourers and by developing a variable amount of hunting and gathering. Since 1998, we have been working on a research project that involves anthropological fieldwork and ethno-historical research in order to understand the astronomy of these groups, focusing on the Mocoví ethnoastronomy. The celestial space should be addressed in the context of the study of the ethno-territory among these groups. The concept of ethno-territory refers to a socially constructed spatiality, essential to the collective identity. These ethno-territories are the basis in which indigenous movements and power relations -that flow through them- are articulated. Among many South American indigenous groups, the ethno-territories acquire a distinctly relational feature, based on a conception of space linked to the human body, a body with appetites or desires that establish relations with other bodies. The ethno-territory is, therefore, an arena of disputes and power relations between groups in unequal conditions. There you can see struggles for material and symbolic resources, including the links with the sacred. The celestial space, conceived as the region that is the source of wealth and power, is transformed by the groups studied in the centre of their ontological idea of territory. Therefore, we intend to draw a topology of the cosmos of these groups. As the term suggests, it means to delineate a qualitative description of the "geometry" of a space that is characterized by its ability to be "deformed" or "distorted" continuously. It is a space tensioned by the actors who occupy it, and their linkages. In the cosmos constructed by the ethno-territoriality of Mocoví, Tobas and Wichí, space is a real social field in Bourdieu´s terms. A field whose "geometry" is largely shaped by capitals and trajectories of those who inhabit it, human and non-humans. In the social play of spatial relationships in these groups, one of the dominant forms of capital is power. So our topology of the cosmos among the Mocoví, Tobas and Wichí not only it will be a mapping of their ethno-territories conceived and lived by them but also, it will be a cartography of power and power relations from their perspective. To feel the texture of these territories is to perceive the roughness, the tensions generated by these links. It is thus a quite mobile and changing "topography", but not a capricious one. In order to pursue this endeavour, we will discuss the idea of power, and its links with different world-view styles. We will establish what we think are the core features of power as it is conceptualized among the people whom we are concerned. Also, we will explore the idea of meetings as the unit of experience in this space-time continuum, meetings organized according to the scale of power of the actors involved. Due to the fact that we are not only referring to native theories about the nature of celestial space, but also the implicit ideas about it, body, language and habitus plays a main role in our work. We will explore how concepts about the body among these aboriginal groups are related to how they perceive and construct the celestial space. In addition, we will demonstrate how these topologies are transmitted to the practical conscience trough the constitution of habitus. In this sense we will pay attention to the role of the Chaco languages structures, for example their emphasis on the evidenciality: the grammatical indication of the direct or indirect nature of the source of information. Through these languages, the central role of the path idea as a central organization structure is constructed, and it shapes the temporal dimension of cosmos. In addition, we will discuss the image of a cosmos made up of three layers, and a tree that connects them. We will strive to differentiate the concept of layer from the idea of plane or flat strata, showing what it will mean in our case the election of the term layer. What is more, we will think the spatial images and metaphors of these groups in terms of real world-models, and not as if they were "candid pictures". For example, the world tree that connects these layers is much more than a ?naive mystical tree?. It is a true artery of the world where resources and beings travel up and down, a fundamental communication to life on earth. Moreover, we will show the flexible "topology" of the layers and the tree that connects them. On the one hand, the layers can change their shape from a storyteller to another. On the other hand, this universe is interconnected by a tangled network of tunnels, in which the world tree is the most important. Associated with lagoons, swirls of dust, and still completely invisibles and only detectable by shamans, these tunnels create a very dynamic and porous universe. Furthermore, we will discuss how non-human beings, known as dueños ?masters- and poderosos ?powerful beings-, who guard the vital resources, make up domains of authority and influence in this territory. Due to their presence in these areas, the space takes a "texture" that refers to the time of origins. The relations between these beings and humans are fundamental in the understanding of the economy of power that shapes the space of heaven in these communities. We consider that it is important to incorporate the study of the social construction of space and celestial experience what might be called, according to Henry Corbin, Mundus imaginalis or visionary space. The way in which the territory is conceived among the communities we studied it is not only based on the evidence of the senses in the waking state but also, on three other types of experiences: dreams , altered states of consciousness and ?active imagination?. The role of shamanic experiences and dreams in the conceptualizations of space that we studied, and the ideas about the constitution of the person and experience in these groups, makes particularly relevant Corbin?s suggestions. Moreover, the connections between the astronomical and the night and between the night and the dreams, creates important links between astronomy and the dream world, providing to the celestial space many features of the oniric reality. Shamans, men full of power, are the human equivalent of the non-human masters. Their ability to "see" and "travel" through the different layers of the world makes them the main characters in the contest for leadership and the definition of identity. In particular, the sky is not an open region, not everyone can access it. This unique cosmic experience of the shamans makes them the most important cosmologists in these groups. In this context we will illustrate how the topology of the celestial space among these groups, being fundamentally shaped by the scales of power of the beings that inhabit it and their relationships, it becomes essential to the experience of inhabiting. In this sense, perceiving the ?texture? of the celestial space means to be able to account the types of beings that inhabit it. Thus, the topology turns into a mapping of these groups? social space, which involves the bounds between humans and non-humans. And again it is not mainly a theoretical understanding but a corporeal experience based on everyday habitus. In this sense, the idea of pacto ?pact- as a mechanism for managing unequal power relations, is transformed into another nucleus of organization of experience and relationships. The theories of these groups concerning the circumstances under such pacts can be made provides to the shamans one of the main axis in the construction of their social role. We will discuss how and under which conditions these pacts are carried out and their link with the opening and closing of spaces. This will lead us to argue the relations between shamans and other leaders. Finally, we will discuss the changes introduced by the Christian churches in this context. We will observe how the topology of celestial space as it is transmitted by the Christian scriptures, especially the drawings that illustrate the translations into these groups? languages, have created ?areas? of interaction and symbolic resignification. New characteristics of these celestial topologies have emerged under the interaction between biblical texts and the preaching of creoles and aboriginal ministers.

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