Joseph Epes Brown
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This book offers a thematic approach to looking at Native American religious traditions. Within the great multiplicity of Native American cultures, the book observes certain common themes that ...
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This book offers a thematic approach to looking at Native American religious traditions. Within the great multiplicity of Native American cultures, the book observes certain common themes that resonate within many Native traditions. It demonstrates how themes within native traditions connect with each other, at the same time upholding the integrity of individual traditions. The book illustrates each of these themes with explorations of specific native cultures including Lakota, Navajo, Apache, Koyukon, and Ojibwe. It demonstrates how Native American values provide an alternative metaphysics that stand opposed to modern materialism. It also shows how these spiritual values provide material for a serious rethinking of modern attitudes—especially toward the environment—as well as how they may help non-native peoples develop a more sensitive response to native concerns. Throughout, the book draws on the author's extensive personal experience with Black Elk, who came to symbolize for many the greatness of the imperiled native cultures.Less
This book offers a thematic approach to looking at Native American religious traditions. Within the great multiplicity of Native American cultures, the book observes certain common themes that resonate within many Native traditions. It demonstrates how themes within native traditions connect with each other, at the same time upholding the integrity of individual traditions. The book illustrates each of these themes with explorations of specific native cultures including Lakota, Navajo, Apache, Koyukon, and Ojibwe. It demonstrates how Native American values provide an alternative metaphysics that stand opposed to modern materialism. It also shows how these spiritual values provide material for a serious rethinking of modern attitudes—especially toward the environment—as well as how they may help non-native peoples develop a more sensitive response to native concerns. Throughout, the book draws on the author's extensive personal experience with Black Elk, who came to symbolize for many the greatness of the imperiled native cultures.
Michael D. McNally
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691190907
- eISBN:
- 9780691201511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691190907.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
This introductory chapter argues for the continued relevance of religious freedom for Native claims. First, Native claims to religious freedom have often failed in court. Indeed, many Native peoples ...
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This introductory chapter argues for the continued relevance of religious freedom for Native claims. First, Native claims to religious freedom have often failed in court. Indeed, many Native peoples are understandably reluctant to speak of their traditions in the language of religion, given that their orientation to place does not conform to the conceptual shape of religion conventionally understood. Native peoples also have good reason to be reluctant because of frequent associations of the sacred with the secret. But the problem of Native American religious freedom goes far deeper. As a growing body of critical religious studies literature has shown, the reason that some religions do not fully count for religious freedom legal protection is because the particular characteristics of Protestant Christianity is naturalized and universalized at the expense of traditions characterized more by community obligations, law, and ritualized practice. A fourth criticism of engaging religious freedom is the legacy of the plain fact that religion has long been used against Native American peoples.Less
This introductory chapter argues for the continued relevance of religious freedom for Native claims. First, Native claims to religious freedom have often failed in court. Indeed, many Native peoples are understandably reluctant to speak of their traditions in the language of religion, given that their orientation to place does not conform to the conceptual shape of religion conventionally understood. Native peoples also have good reason to be reluctant because of frequent associations of the sacred with the secret. But the problem of Native American religious freedom goes far deeper. As a growing body of critical religious studies literature has shown, the reason that some religions do not fully count for religious freedom legal protection is because the particular characteristics of Protestant Christianity is naturalized and universalized at the expense of traditions characterized more by community obligations, law, and ritualized practice. A fourth criticism of engaging religious freedom is the legacy of the plain fact that religion has long been used against Native American peoples.
Michael D. McNally
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691190907
- eISBN:
- 9780691201511
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691190907.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
This chapter considers the relative success of court decisions accommodating certain individual Native American inmates in their religious exercise in prisons, especially the sweat lodge. These cases ...
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This chapter considers the relative success of court decisions accommodating certain individual Native American inmates in their religious exercise in prisons, especially the sweat lodge. These cases reveal a pattern of what officials refer to as “Native American Spirituality.” In the prison cases, Native American Spirituality emerges as a term of art from corrections management, a line on the intake form for religious preference, and keyed to the language of the federal chaplaincy manual. Prison chaplaincy programs use it in an effort to articulate what's often exceptional and irreducibly diverse about Native religious traditions and to articulate what makes them so difficult to pin down. Especially insofar as the cases largely involve a triad of intertribal practices: sweat lodges, pipe ceremonies, and access to medicinal tobacco, sage, cedar, and sweetgrass.Less
This chapter considers the relative success of court decisions accommodating certain individual Native American inmates in their religious exercise in prisons, especially the sweat lodge. These cases reveal a pattern of what officials refer to as “Native American Spirituality.” In the prison cases, Native American Spirituality emerges as a term of art from corrections management, a line on the intake form for religious preference, and keyed to the language of the federal chaplaincy manual. Prison chaplaincy programs use it in an effort to articulate what's often exceptional and irreducibly diverse about Native religious traditions and to articulate what makes them so difficult to pin down. Especially insofar as the cases largely involve a triad of intertribal practices: sweat lodges, pipe ceremonies, and access to medicinal tobacco, sage, cedar, and sweetgrass.
David Rich Lewis
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195100471
- eISBN:
- 9780199854059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195100471.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
When Frederick Jackson Turner reimagined American history in 1893, he considered Native Americans to be of little significance. He demonstrated more interest in the process of heroic, white yeomen ...
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When Frederick Jackson Turner reimagined American history in 1893, he considered Native Americans to be of little significance. He demonstrated more interest in the process of heroic, white yeomen hewing out a corridor of civilization in an environment that all but overwhelmed them, transforming them from immigrants into Americans. This chapter suggests six broad areas of significance for Native Americans in the history of the 20th-century American West and, by extension, the history of the United States. The first four areas of significance—persistence, land, economic development, and political sovereignty—are overlapping and interdependent. The fifth and sixth areas address larger cultural issues: the persistent symbolic value of native peoples, and the contributions emerging from Native American history and literature.Less
When Frederick Jackson Turner reimagined American history in 1893, he considered Native Americans to be of little significance. He demonstrated more interest in the process of heroic, white yeomen hewing out a corridor of civilization in an environment that all but overwhelmed them, transforming them from immigrants into Americans. This chapter suggests six broad areas of significance for Native Americans in the history of the 20th-century American West and, by extension, the history of the United States. The first four areas of significance—persistence, land, economic development, and political sovereignty—are overlapping and interdependent. The fifth and sixth areas address larger cultural issues: the persistent symbolic value of native peoples, and the contributions emerging from Native American history and literature.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter discusses the growing interest in Native North American heritage among both Native and non-Native Americans alike. Underlying many Native Americans' renewed interest in their own ...
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This chapter discusses the growing interest in Native North American heritage among both Native and non-Native Americans alike. Underlying many Native Americans' renewed interest in their own traditions is their increasing disenchantment with a society that for centuries has been presented as the ultimate model of true civilization. Paralleling the disenchantment of Native Americans is the non-Native Americans' questioning of many of the basic premises of their own civilization. The chapter highlights some problems that can arise when non-Natives attempt to adopt Native American traditions without fully understanding them. It also argues that approaches taken to Native American religious traditions should be rigorous and scholarly in the best Western sense. But, in addition to such reification of the subject, it is also essential to understand these traditions as they are lived by human individuals.Less
This chapter discusses the growing interest in Native North American heritage among both Native and non-Native Americans alike. Underlying many Native Americans' renewed interest in their own traditions is their increasing disenchantment with a society that for centuries has been presented as the ultimate model of true civilization. Paralleling the disenchantment of Native Americans is the non-Native Americans' questioning of many of the basic premises of their own civilization. The chapter highlights some problems that can arise when non-Natives attempt to adopt Native American traditions without fully understanding them. It also argues that approaches taken to Native American religious traditions should be rigorous and scholarly in the best Western sense. But, in addition to such reification of the subject, it is also essential to understand these traditions as they are lived by human individuals.
Joanna Brooks
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195332919
- eISBN:
- 9780199851263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332919.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The first generation of African American and Native American authors set into motion processes that forever changed the course of ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The first generation of African American and Native American authors set into motion processes that forever changed the course of American literature, religion, and culture. In addition to setting powerful precedents for future authors of color, they established a defining trajectory for the development of American literature in the next century. The most revolutionary aspect of early African- and Native American literatures is their revelation of deep continuities between the past and the present. If the contemporary restoration of these forgotten texts demands a new accounting of American literary and cultural history, it also demands a new understanding of our relationship to that history.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The first generation of African American and Native American authors set into motion processes that forever changed the course of American literature, religion, and culture. In addition to setting powerful precedents for future authors of color, they established a defining trajectory for the development of American literature in the next century. The most revolutionary aspect of early African- and Native American literatures is their revelation of deep continuities between the past and the present. If the contemporary restoration of these forgotten texts demands a new accounting of American literary and cultural history, it also demands a new understanding of our relationship to that history.
Nicholas P. Cushner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195307566
- eISBN:
- 9780199784936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195307569.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The purpose of this book is to explain how Christianity replaced Native American belief systems in 16th-century America. The use of the confessionario was important in Christian evangelization but ...
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The purpose of this book is to explain how Christianity replaced Native American belief systems in 16th-century America. The use of the confessionario was important in Christian evangelization but coercion, the Devil, and Agriculturalist vs. Hunter-Gatherer societies were major elements in the replacement.Less
The purpose of this book is to explain how Christianity replaced Native American belief systems in 16th-century America. The use of the confessionario was important in Christian evangelization but coercion, the Devil, and Agriculturalist vs. Hunter-Gatherer societies were major elements in the replacement.
Denise T. Askin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390971
- eISBN:
- 9780199777099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390971.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Church History
It is a well-known argument that Calvin’s influence, particularly in the New England tradition, is a foundational element of the national literary identity of the United States. A less well-traveled ...
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It is a well-known argument that Calvin’s influence, particularly in the New England tradition, is a foundational element of the national literary identity of the United States. A less well-traveled path, however, is the journey Calvin made into the world of the American Indian, a journey most significantly realized in the preaching and literary efforts of the Mohegan missionary, Samson Occom. Throughout his long career as a Presbyterian minister, Occom preached thousands of sermons, both formal and spontaneous, scholarly and simple. This chapter addresses Occom’s use of literary and rhetorical devices in his sermons, focusing particularly on his style, strategies, and cultural message and distinguishes the several "voices" he used in giving utterance to Calvin’s theology among the Native American and frontier populations of North America at the dawn of its national identity.Less
It is a well-known argument that Calvin’s influence, particularly in the New England tradition, is a foundational element of the national literary identity of the United States. A less well-traveled path, however, is the journey Calvin made into the world of the American Indian, a journey most significantly realized in the preaching and literary efforts of the Mohegan missionary, Samson Occom. Throughout his long career as a Presbyterian minister, Occom preached thousands of sermons, both formal and spontaneous, scholarly and simple. This chapter addresses Occom’s use of literary and rhetorical devices in his sermons, focusing particularly on his style, strategies, and cultural message and distinguishes the several "voices" he used in giving utterance to Calvin’s theology among the Native American and frontier populations of North America at the dawn of its national identity.
Derek B. Scott
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195151961
- eISBN:
- 9780199870394
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151961.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
This chapter focuses on representations of the American Indian in popular styles of Western music from the 18th century to the present. The intention is to show how cultural difference is ...
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This chapter focuses on representations of the American Indian in popular styles of Western music from the 18th century to the present. The intention is to show how cultural difference is represented, when little is known or understood about the culture of those being represented, and to consider how shifting perceptions of the Native American can be related to changes in attitude to the “civilized” and the natural world. The emphasis on the popular sharpens the argument, because this kind of representation needs to be widely understood and easily assimilated in order for it to be popular. The ideology embedded in way the American Indian is represented tells us, predictably, about the attitudes of the person who stands outside Native American culture.Less
This chapter focuses on representations of the American Indian in popular styles of Western music from the 18th century to the present. The intention is to show how cultural difference is represented, when little is known or understood about the culture of those being represented, and to consider how shifting perceptions of the Native American can be related to changes in attitude to the “civilized” and the natural world. The emphasis on the popular sharpens the argument, because this kind of representation needs to be widely understood and easily assimilated in order for it to be popular. The ideology embedded in way the American Indian is represented tells us, predictably, about the attitudes of the person who stands outside Native American culture.
Craig H. Russell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195343274
- eISBN:
- 9780199867745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195343274.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, History, American
This Epilogue sums up the conclusions of the book and puts forward some closiing thoughts. The fundamental lesson that can be learnt from the music of the California padres and their choirs and ...
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This Epilogue sums up the conclusions of the book and puts forward some closiing thoughts. The fundamental lesson that can be learnt from the music of the California padres and their choirs and orchestras, populated by highly trained and impressive Native American artists, is that humble people are capable of astoundingly sophisticated artistry, the final chapter states. There is much we can learn about artistic beauty and the human condition from California mission music.Less
This Epilogue sums up the conclusions of the book and puts forward some closiing thoughts. The fundamental lesson that can be learnt from the music of the California padres and their choirs and orchestras, populated by highly trained and impressive Native American artists, is that humble people are capable of astoundingly sophisticated artistry, the final chapter states. There is much we can learn about artistic beauty and the human condition from California mission music.
Michael D. McNally
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691190907
- eISBN:
- 9780691201511
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691190907.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
From North Dakota's Standing Rock encampments to Arizona's San Francisco Peaks, Native Americans have repeatedly asserted legal rights to religious freedom to protect their sacred places, practices, ...
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From North Dakota's Standing Rock encampments to Arizona's San Francisco Peaks, Native Americans have repeatedly asserted legal rights to religious freedom to protect their sacred places, practices, objects, knowledge, and ancestral remains. But these claims have met with little success in court because Native American communal traditions don't fit easily into modern Western definitions of religion. This book explores how, in response to this situation, Native peoples have creatively turned to other legal means to safeguard what matters to them. To articulate their claims, Native peoples have resourcefully used the languages of cultural resources under environmental and historic preservation law; of sovereignty under treaty-based federal Indian law; and, increasingly, of Indigenous rights under international human rights law. Along the way, Native nations still draw on the rhetorical power of religious freedom to gain legislative and regulatory successes beyond the First Amendment. This book casts new light on discussions of religious freedom, cultural resource management, and the vitality of Indigenous religions today.Less
From North Dakota's Standing Rock encampments to Arizona's San Francisco Peaks, Native Americans have repeatedly asserted legal rights to religious freedom to protect their sacred places, practices, objects, knowledge, and ancestral remains. But these claims have met with little success in court because Native American communal traditions don't fit easily into modern Western definitions of religion. This book explores how, in response to this situation, Native peoples have creatively turned to other legal means to safeguard what matters to them. To articulate their claims, Native peoples have resourcefully used the languages of cultural resources under environmental and historic preservation law; of sovereignty under treaty-based federal Indian law; and, increasingly, of Indigenous rights under international human rights law. Along the way, Native nations still draw on the rhetorical power of religious freedom to gain legislative and regulatory successes beyond the First Amendment. This book casts new light on discussions of religious freedom, cultural resource management, and the vitality of Indigenous religions today.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter focuses on Native Americans' belief about nature. It shows that Native Americans do not dichotomize human and animal, natural and supernatural. Typical Western distinctions between ...
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This chapter focuses on Native Americans' belief about nature. It shows that Native Americans do not dichotomize human and animal, natural and supernatural. Typical Western distinctions between animism and animatism are not necessarily present in the Native American experience, since all forms and aspects of creation are experienced as living and animate. Even “inanimate”rocks are thought to be mysteriously possessed with life. But this experience of the sacred does not exclude a unitary, all-inclusive concept that refers to both a Supreme Being and to all gods, spirits, or powers of creation. The roots of relatedness, Lakota metaphysics, animal beings as teachers, and the cyclical relationships that Native American traditions sustain with nature are discussed.Less
This chapter focuses on Native Americans' belief about nature. It shows that Native Americans do not dichotomize human and animal, natural and supernatural. Typical Western distinctions between animism and animatism are not necessarily present in the Native American experience, since all forms and aspects of creation are experienced as living and animate. Even “inanimate”rocks are thought to be mysteriously possessed with life. But this experience of the sacred does not exclude a unitary, all-inclusive concept that refers to both a Supreme Being and to all gods, spirits, or powers of creation. The roots of relatedness, Lakota metaphysics, animal beings as teachers, and the cyclical relationships that Native American traditions sustain with nature are discussed.
Joanna Brooks
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195332919
- eISBN:
- 9780199851263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332919.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to reconstruct the founding moments of African American and Native American literatures. These American literary traditions ...
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This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to reconstruct the founding moments of African American and Native American literatures. These American literary traditions emerged during the era of the American Revolution, when blacks and Indians faced not only the crushing legacies of slavery and colonization but also the chaos of war, epidemic, resettlement, exile, and the political uncertainties of the new nation. It seeks to advance our understanding of how race was lived and how racial identities were formed in 18th-century America. It shows how the earliest African American and Native American authors used religion and literature as instruments for transforming the meaning of race. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter sets out the purpose of the book, which is to reconstruct the founding moments of African American and Native American literatures. These American literary traditions emerged during the era of the American Revolution, when blacks and Indians faced not only the crushing legacies of slavery and colonization but also the chaos of war, epidemic, resettlement, exile, and the political uncertainties of the new nation. It seeks to advance our understanding of how race was lived and how racial identities were formed in 18th-century America. It shows how the earliest African American and Native American authors used religion and literature as instruments for transforming the meaning of race. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Amanda Barusch
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195173727
- eISBN:
- 9780199893218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195173727.003.0024
- Subject:
- Social Work, Health and Mental Health
Although they represent a tiny fraction of the U.S. population, Native American elders' history and culture lead to distinct opportunities and needs. This chapter examines the status of Native ...
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Although they represent a tiny fraction of the U.S. population, Native American elders' history and culture lead to distinct opportunities and needs. This chapter examines the status of Native American elders in the United States. Following a brief review of current living conditions, it examines the history of forced assimilation and colonization, and the impact of that history on Native American elders. This is followed by a discussion of service approaches that empower elders and improve their quality of life; and a suggestion that the pursuit of culturally appropriate interventions should begin with the employment of Native American service providers.Less
Although they represent a tiny fraction of the U.S. population, Native American elders' history and culture lead to distinct opportunities and needs. This chapter examines the status of Native American elders in the United States. Following a brief review of current living conditions, it examines the history of forced assimilation and colonization, and the impact of that history on Native American elders. This is followed by a discussion of service approaches that empower elders and improve their quality of life; and a suggestion that the pursuit of culturally appropriate interventions should begin with the employment of Native American service providers.
Richard A. Bailey
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195366594
- eISBN:
- 9780199894109
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195366594.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
As colonists made their way to the northern British colonies in the early seventeenth century, they hoped their efforts would stand as a “citty upon a hill.” In doing so, they often relied on the ...
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As colonists made their way to the northern British colonies in the early seventeenth century, they hoped their efforts would stand as a “citty upon a hill.” In doing so, they often relied on the seemingly contradictory theological convictions of puritanism to organize colonial society. Complicating life in this new society was the fact that it included colonists from Europe, indigenous Americans, and enslaved Africans. This book investigates the ways these New Englanders used, constructed, and reconstructed their puritanism to make sense of their new realities. As they did so, they created more than a tenuous existence together. They also constructed race out of the spiritual freedom of puritanism. Revising the timing of the construction of race in America, this book contends that as New Englanders of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries offered spiritual redemption, they then found it necessary to define how they differed from one another, especially from Native Americans and Africans. The book explores how proponents of the New England variant of puritanism made race out of their offers of spiritual freedom, setting the stage for similar processes when physical and social freedom became more accessible to New Englanders of color in the generations following the American Revolution.Less
As colonists made their way to the northern British colonies in the early seventeenth century, they hoped their efforts would stand as a “citty upon a hill.” In doing so, they often relied on the seemingly contradictory theological convictions of puritanism to organize colonial society. Complicating life in this new society was the fact that it included colonists from Europe, indigenous Americans, and enslaved Africans. This book investigates the ways these New Englanders used, constructed, and reconstructed their puritanism to make sense of their new realities. As they did so, they created more than a tenuous existence together. They also constructed race out of the spiritual freedom of puritanism. Revising the timing of the construction of race in America, this book contends that as New Englanders of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries offered spiritual redemption, they then found it necessary to define how they differed from one another, especially from Native Americans and Africans. The book explores how proponents of the New England variant of puritanism made race out of their offers of spiritual freedom, setting the stage for similar processes when physical and social freedom became more accessible to New Englanders of color in the generations following the American Revolution.
Virginia DeJohn Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195158601
- eISBN:
- 9780199788538
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195158601.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This study presents colonial American history as the story of three-way interactions among Indians, English colonists, and livestock. By situating domestic animals at the heart of the colonizing ...
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This study presents colonial American history as the story of three-way interactions among Indians, English colonists, and livestock. By situating domestic animals at the heart of the colonizing process in 17th-century New England and the Chesapeake region, the book restores contingency to a narrative too often dominated by human actors alone. Livestock were a central factor in the cultural clash between colonists and Indians as well as a driving force in expansion west. By bringing livestock across the Atlantic, colonists assumed that they provided the means to realize America's potential, a goal that Indians, lacking domestic animals, had failed to accomplish. They also assumed that Native Americans who learned to keep livestock would advance along the path toward civility and Christianity. But colonists failed to anticipate that their animals would generate friction with Indians as native peoples constantly encountered free-ranging livestock often trespassing in their cornfields. Moreover, concerned about feeding their growing populations and committed to a style of animal husbandry that required far more space than they had expected, colonists eventually saw no alternative but to displace Indians and appropriate their land. This created tensions that reached boiling point with King Philip's War and Bacon's Rebellion, and it established a pattern that would repeat time and again over the next two centuries.Less
This study presents colonial American history as the story of three-way interactions among Indians, English colonists, and livestock. By situating domestic animals at the heart of the colonizing process in 17th-century New England and the Chesapeake region, the book restores contingency to a narrative too often dominated by human actors alone. Livestock were a central factor in the cultural clash between colonists and Indians as well as a driving force in expansion west. By bringing livestock across the Atlantic, colonists assumed that they provided the means to realize America's potential, a goal that Indians, lacking domestic animals, had failed to accomplish. They also assumed that Native Americans who learned to keep livestock would advance along the path toward civility and Christianity. But colonists failed to anticipate that their animals would generate friction with Indians as native peoples constantly encountered free-ranging livestock often trespassing in their cornfields. Moreover, concerned about feeding their growing populations and committed to a style of animal husbandry that required far more space than they had expected, colonists eventually saw no alternative but to displace Indians and appropriate their land. This created tensions that reached boiling point with King Philip's War and Bacon's Rebellion, and it established a pattern that would repeat time and again over the next two centuries.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter focuses on Native American language and song. It looks at the progressive compromising of tribal languages by the Western world. It discusses the value of oral traditions, the special ...
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This chapter focuses on Native American language and song. It looks at the progressive compromising of tribal languages by the Western world. It discusses the value of oral traditions, the special role of elders in society as keepers of oral tradition, and the art of storytelling.Less
This chapter focuses on Native American language and song. It looks at the progressive compromising of tribal languages by the Western world. It discusses the value of oral traditions, the special role of elders in society as keepers of oral tradition, and the art of storytelling.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter focuses on the unity of experience in Native American religious traditions. Native American traditions stress a unity of experience. Where such traditions are still alive and spiritually ...
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This chapter focuses on the unity of experience in Native American religious traditions. Native American traditions stress a unity of experience. Where such traditions are still alive and spiritually viable, the dimension and expression of the sacred is present in all of life's necessary activities. When the elements of time, place, language, art, and the metaphysics of nature come together, however, as they do in ritual activities, the experience of the sacred is intensified. The three cumulative possibilities that must be accomplished by spiritually effective rites: purification, expansion, and identity are mentioned, as are initiation rites, and humor in Native American rites.Less
This chapter focuses on the unity of experience in Native American religious traditions. Native American traditions stress a unity of experience. Where such traditions are still alive and spiritually viable, the dimension and expression of the sacred is present in all of life's necessary activities. When the elements of time, place, language, art, and the metaphysics of nature come together, however, as they do in ritual activities, the experience of the sacred is intensified. The three cumulative possibilities that must be accomplished by spiritually effective rites: purification, expansion, and identity are mentioned, as are initiation rites, and humor in Native American rites.
Michael Pasquier
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195372335
- eISBN:
- 9780199777273
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372335.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter describes how French missionary priests extended the global missionary revival of the nineteenth century to the United States. French missionary priests retained strong connections to ...
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This chapter describes how French missionary priests extended the global missionary revival of the nineteenth century to the United States. French missionary priests retained strong connections to Catholics in their homeland and exhibited a reluctance to trust the future of the Catholic Church in the United States to anyone other than European ecclesiastics. A study of the transnational epistolary and literary culture that developed between priests in America and France demonstrates the desired image of life as a missionnaire étrangère among Protestants and Native Americans, an image that only partly matched actual experiences of missionary life but that nonetheless appealed to the imaginations of young men interested in becoming missionaries.Less
This chapter describes how French missionary priests extended the global missionary revival of the nineteenth century to the United States. French missionary priests retained strong connections to Catholics in their homeland and exhibited a reluctance to trust the future of the Catholic Church in the United States to anyone other than European ecclesiastics. A study of the transnational epistolary and literary culture that developed between priests in America and France demonstrates the desired image of life as a missionnaire étrangère among Protestants and Native Americans, an image that only partly matched actual experiences of missionary life but that nonetheless appealed to the imaginations of young men interested in becoming missionaries.
Joel W. Martin and Mark A. Nicholas (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807834060
- eISBN:
- 9781469606316
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807899663_martin
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
This book reconsiders the complex and often misunderstood history of Native peoples' engagement with Christianity and with Euro-American missionaries. Surveying mission encounters from contact ...
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This book reconsiders the complex and often misunderstood history of Native peoples' engagement with Christianity and with Euro-American missionaries. Surveying mission encounters from contact through the mid-nineteenth century, the book looks at both American Christianity and indigenous religion. Chapters here explore a variety of postcontact identities, including indigenous Christians, “mission friendly” non-Christians, and ex-Christians, thereby exploring the shifting world of Native-white cultural and religious exchange. Rather than questioning the authenticity of Native Christian experiences, the chapters reveal how indigenous peoples negotiated change with regard to missions, missionaries, and Christianity. This book challenges the pervasive stereotype of Native Americans as culturally static and ill-equipped to navigate the roiling currents associated with colonialism and missionization.Less
This book reconsiders the complex and often misunderstood history of Native peoples' engagement with Christianity and with Euro-American missionaries. Surveying mission encounters from contact through the mid-nineteenth century, the book looks at both American Christianity and indigenous religion. Chapters here explore a variety of postcontact identities, including indigenous Christians, “mission friendly” non-Christians, and ex-Christians, thereby exploring the shifting world of Native-white cultural and religious exchange. Rather than questioning the authenticity of Native Christian experiences, the chapters reveal how indigenous peoples negotiated change with regard to missions, missionaries, and Christianity. This book challenges the pervasive stereotype of Native Americans as culturally static and ill-equipped to navigate the roiling currents associated with colonialism and missionization.
