18th century New York
A01=William B. Hart
Author_William B. Hart
Category=JBSL
Category=JBSL11
Category=NHK
Category=QRAX
Category=QRM
Christian rituals among Native Americans
colonial faith and identity
colonial indigenous agency
colonial missionary impact
colonial New York history
colonial North American religious history
colonial North American spirituality
colonial religious encounters
colonial-era indigenous communities
cross-cultural religious interactions
cultural preservation strategies
cultural reinvention through religion
cultural survival strategies
early 18th-century indigenous history
early American missions
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Haudenosaunee
Haudenosaunee culture
Haudenosaunee Iroquois Confederacy
Haudenosaunee-Christian encounters
indigenous adaptation to European religion
indigenous Christian practices
Indigenous Christianity
indigenous literacy movements
indigenous sovereignty and faith
indigenous-Christian hybridity
Iroquois Confederacy studies
literacy and religion in indigenous communities
missionary-native relations
missionization in North America
Mohawk community resilience
Mohawk cultural endurance
Mohawk history
Mohawk identity transformation
Mohawk life under mission influence
Mohawk reciprocity traditions
Mohawk religious negotiation
Mohawk spiritual life
Mohawk-Christian relations
Mohawks
Native agency in colonial times
Native American baptism
Native American hymn traditions
Native American performative practices
Native American Studies
performance theory and religion
Protestant mission influence
religion and political sovereignty
religious adaptation by Mohawks
Religious history
religious performativity
survival strategies in colonial America
U.S. Colonial History
Product details
- ISBN 9781625344953
- Weight: 460g
- Dimensions: 152 x 226mm
- Publication Date: 31 Jul 2020
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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In 1712, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts opened its mission near present-day Albany, New York, and began baptizing residents of the nearby Mohawk village Tiononderoge, the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy. Within three years, about one-fifth of the Mohawks in the area began attending services. They even adapted versions of the service for use in private spaces, which potentially opened a door to an imagined faith community with the Protestants.
Using the lens of performance theory to explain the ways in which the Mohawks considered converting and participating in Christian rituals, historian William B. Hart contends that Mohawks who prayed, sang hymns, submitted to baptism, took communion, and acquired literacy did so to protect their nation's sovereignty, fulfill their responsibility of reciprocity, serve their communities, and reinvent themselves. Performing Christianity was a means of ""survivance,"" a strategy for sustaining Mohawk life and culture on their terms in a changing world.
William B. Hart is professor of history at Middlebury College.
