Sky travelers: Cosmological experiences among evangelical indians from Argentinian Chaco

ALTMAN AGUSTINA

Congreso; Congress of SEAC Stars and Stones: Voyages in Archaeoastronomy and Cultural Astronomy. A meeting of different worlds; 2011

The Guaycurú aboriginal groups of the Argentinian Chaco region have a rich mythology regarding sky traveling. Celestial beings that descend from the sky or humans that visit the sky are not only common in their myth but in daily narrative of personal experience. In this paper, we aim to address the new ways in which these traveling experiences through the sky occur in complex processes of changes. We are particularly interested in the transformations and continuities among practices and representations of the sky related to the impact of evangelism among one of the most important Guaycurú groups: the Mocoví. In pursuing this objective, we will use our own ethnographic material and also we will also explore written sources by the evangelical missionaries.