Some Fundamental Problems of Cosmology Among the Moqoit of the Chaco

Abstract

ABSTRACT Indigenous cosmologies are frequently portrayed in anecdotal and superficial terms, a tendency that exoticizes them and frames them as products of irrationality or as beliefs. Such perspectives obscure the profound intellectual efforts these cosmologies represent—attempts to comprehend the structure of the cosmos and to live accordingly. This article proposes an alternative approach by engaging with key cosmological questions from the standpoint of Moqoit intellectual traditions in the Argentine Chaco. The Moqoit , originally a hunter‐gatherer group, were subjected to forced sedentarisation in the late 19th century and today primarily inhabit southern Chaco Province and central to northern Santa Fe Province, Argentina. Drawing on nearly three decades of ethnographic and ethnohistorical research, I will explore some of the underlying logics and fundamental problems in Moqoit cosmological models and their implications for understanding how this Indigenous group conceptualises and inhabits the world. This perspective seeks to contribute to a broader dialogue on human cosmological production that takes Indigenous thought seriously as a form of rigorous intellectual inquiry.