Cecilia Paula Gomez

Cecilia Paula Gómez has an undergraduate degree in Sociocultural Anthropology (Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires) and a PhD in Social Sciences (Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de Buenos Aires). She is currently an Adjunct Researcher at CONICET. She works at the Instituto de Investigaciones de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Católica Argentina (IICS/UCA-CONICET) and is also part of the Centro de Investigaciones Históricas y Antropológicas (CIHA, Museo de Historia, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia).

The project

Title: Lavidá's Drawings. Scenes of Toba-Pilaga Life in the Early 20th Century

The aim of this project is to document and analyse the relationship between the pictorial work bequeathed by the indigenous artist Laviyedat or Lavidá, collected in the field by the ethnologist Alfred Métraux, and the oral history and collective memory of his group of origin, known in Argentina as the ‘Toba-Pilaga’, ‘Western Toba’ or ‘Toba de Sombrero Negro’. The project proposes to analyse a distinct and specific theme in the pictorial material culture of these groups, in order to understand the work of Lavidá and to contribute to a critical reconstruction of the Toba world at the time when Anglican missionaries began their work of evangelisation in the Pilcomayo region at the beginning of the 20th century.

Host institution: UMR9022 Héritages : Culture/s, Patrimoine/s, Création/s (CNRS, CY Cergy Paris Université, Ministère de la Culture)

Selective Bibliography

•  "Asterisms and Time Cycles. Perspectives from Central West Chaco". In: Cultural Astronomy in Latin America. Gullberg S. & Zen Vasconcellos, C. (Eds.) Singapur; World Scientific & Co. (2023): 253- 275.
•  "Zonas cardinales y orientación entre los qomléʔk (tobas del oeste de Formosa, Argentina)". Journal de la Société de américanistes. Musée du quai Branly 107/2. (In collaboration with María Belén Carpio),(2021) : 141-176.
•  "Cielo y Juegos de hilo. Representación de la temporalidad cíclica entre los Pilagá del Pilcomayo". Revista del Museo de La Plata 5/2. Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Facultad Ciencias Naturales y Museo. (In collaboration with José Braunstein), (2020) : 602-617.
•  "Ahéwa likíʔi. El reloj y la jornada entre los tobas del oeste de Formosa (Guaycurú, Argentina)". Espaço Amerindio 12/1. Porto Alegre (2018): 144-173. (In collaboration with María Belén Carpio).
• "Notas para una cartografía oral del cielo entre los tobas del oeste formoseño". Bulletin de l’ Institut français d´études andines 46/2 (2017) : 311-329.