The utopia of a missionary family: adventist bodies, mission and modernity among the Moqoit people of Chaco

Abstract

In this paper we aim to address a series of relationships between Adventists and an extended family of Moqoit people from the southwest of the Province of Chaco during the 1950s.

We will explore how Adventists, driven by their specific ethos, sought not only to propagate their dogmas among the Moqoit, but all their "lifestyle", understood as an inescapable expression of one's own sanctity. In addition, we propose to address their practices and representations of the extraordinary expressions of sacred power. Last but not least, we will analyze how the differences with the previous ideas of the moqoit constituted an insurmountable task that prevented this incipient missionary enterprise from prospering.