The Qom people are considered one of the most important ethnic groups of the Guaicurú group. Most of them are settled in northern Argentina (about 70,000). Some other Qom communities live in southern Paraguay, while in Bolivia a few of them live near the border. They are also known as the Toba.

Their language is Qom l'aqtac, which is usually included in the group of the Guaicurú languages. Bilingual education in native languages is guaranteed in Argentina by National Law No. 23302 (1985) on Indigenous Policy. In the case of Qom, bilingual education has been regulated in the provinces of Chaco since 1987 and in Buenos Aires since 2007. However, only 29% of the Qom in Chaco and 1% of those in Buenos Aires have attended this type of school.

Up until the 19th century, the Qom were predominantly a semi-nomadic group of hunter-gatherers. From an early age, the men hunted and fished while the women harvested. Hunting big game (e.g. tapirs, peccary, deer) was the main source of food, with fruit picking and honey extraction completing their basic subsistence.

Horticultural agriculture was largely influenced by Andean and Amazonian influences. Cultivation included nachitek (pumpkins), oltañi (maize), avagha (beans), sweet potatoes, and manioc.

The climatic conditions in the area are extreme, with temperatures of up to 50 °C on summer days, and cold winter nights. During the hot months, the Qom wore almost no clothing except for some simple loincloths. During the cold months, they wore fur coats, usually capybaras. The women, according to Pedro Lozano, “are covered from head to toe with blankets of animal hair and the most important are covered with fabrics of leathery grass thicker than pita, which in this province we call chahuar, and is born wild, from which they make a thread similar to that of shoemakers and weave their dress, to which the daughters and wives of the most important add black and white decorations.”

During the festivities, both men and women wore bracelets and necklaces made of feathers, flowers and leaves, while men adorned their heads with a headdress made of feathers and caraguatá fibres.

Marriage and lineage were the basic foundations of social organisation for the Qom. The so-called 'band' brought together several extended families, which were then organized into tribes under the command of a chief. Intertribal marriage was permitted.
Women played an important role in Qom society as they exercised political, economic and religious functions. With the implementation of Reduciones and the interference of Western missionaries, a patriarchal order was thus established, forcing women in a subordinate position.

Among the peculiarities of the Qom culture is their fear of certain words, such as those referring to diseases and misfortune. Among the Qom, there is yet another tradition that testifies their respect for the power of language. In the past, it seems that one could not pronounce the name of a person for a certain time after they had died. Afterwards, the name would be inherited by a baby to replace the dead person.

The coming of the Spanish revolutionised the Qom’s world. On one hand, they encountered a new and powerful enemy. On the other hand, the Spanish unintentionally made a great contribution to their culture. In the 17th century, the Qom began to use horses and became skilled horsemen despite the fact that their territory was largely covered by forests and jungles (they used leather armour to protect themselves from tree thorns and attacks by jaguars and pumas). From their horses, armed with bows and arrows, they hunted native species of animals, as well as the cattle that the Spanish has brought from Europe.
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The Qom turned out to be one of the ethnic groups in the Chado region that resisted Western transculturation and usurpation most effectively. The white men arrived in the area in 1858, threatening the city of Santa Fe. However, in 1880 they could no longer cope with the campaigns of the Argentine Army, which cornered them in the Chaco.

The Qom's last military resistance took place in the aboriginal colony of Napalpí, in the Chaco province, where 200 of them were massacred by the police and ranchers.
In the second half of the 20th century, when they ceased to serve as agricultural labourers, mass expulsions from their territory took place and, sadly enough, many of them were forced to work in cotton plantations or as loggers in mills.

In 1954, the national government recognised the rights of the original peoples to their occupied territories, granting them ownership, however, after the 1955 coup d'état, the handover was revoked and the land auctioned off.

The gradual process of urbanisation in the Gran Chaco forced Qom families to settle in sedentary farming communities or migrate to the cities. Since the second half of the 20th century, subsistence patterns changed to a sedentary agricultural model, combined with the marketing of hides and crafts, as well as seasonal work in cotton harvesting and wage labour.

The Qom religion includes the cult of natural beings and faith in a supreme deity. Their doctrine is still kept alive via a resistant tradition of oral transmission. However, many Qom have converted to Christianity, especially Pentecostalism, with many of their shamans turning into Protestant pastors. Despite this, a large part of the population continues to seek advice from shamans or pio'oxonak, namely therapists and healers.

Some Qom, forced into misery in their ancestral rural areas, find themselves living in the slums of cities such as Salta, Resistencia, Formosa, Rosario, Santa Fe and Buenos Aires (La Plata district).

In 2003, the situation of the Qom in the province of Chaco was described as a “real humanitarian disaster” and “genocide”, with dozens of cases of indigenous people dying from malnutrition and starvation. The bishop of Resistencia, the capital of Chaco, asked the governor to intervene when ten indigenous people died of starvation. The current economic situation of most of the Qom is precarious, with many cases of malnutrition and tuberculosis.

Currently, in the area between the Teuco and Bermejito rivers, many Qom families have gained land back from the Argentinean government. These families have joined together in the Megusouchi association, appealing against an old law from 1915, which has never been applied, and obtain 50,000 hectares as legally recognised community property.
A group of researchers from UBA's Faculty of Agriculture (FAUBA), together with members of 'La Primavera' Qom community, are working to reintroduce some 60 indigenous maize breeds, which had been wiped out by monoculture.

Recently, a new injustice took place: since October 2021, the Qom people have been claiming back their ancestral right to water, which in the meantime was privatised by Chinese pork companies. There are three industrial plants that produce 12,000 pigs each, contaminating the already scarce water resources and requiring even more GMO soybean and maize crops.

"There is potable water in the Pampa del Indio,” say Qom leaders from the Chaco, “but we don't have access to it in the community. They forbid it. We know there is drinking water in Campo Medina, in Pampa Chica, but when we complain they tell us it is private. And we know very well that it is a public work that was done seven or eight years ago. They used to bring it to us in cisterns, but not anymore. They don't even give us water from the National Park."