When histories and ontologies compose multiples worlds. The past among the Toba people of the Argentinean Chaco

• Main Authors: Florencia Carmen Tola, Celeste Medrano
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Università degli Studi di Cagliari 2020-07-01
• Series: América Crítica
• Online Access: https://ojs.unica.it/index.php/cisap/article/view/3999

For the Toba people (Qom), an indigenous group of the Argentinean Chaco, the world is composed of a great diversity of entities (human and non-human) that communicate with one another. The ability of communication is rooted in a so distant past. In this paper, we will focus on some stories we were told by elders of Central Chaco. These stories refer to key moments of the conquest, colonization, and current indigenous claims. We are interested in the articulation between historicity and ontology, by showing the reconstruction that the Qom people make of their past is rooted in the idea that society and human history cannot be understood aside from some non-human agencies. Keywords: anthropology; history; ethnology; ontology