Login
Create Account
Canadian Store (CAD)
You are currently shopping in our Canadian store. For orders outside of Canada, please switch to our international store. International and US orders are billed in US dollars.
 |
Masters and StudentsJesuit Mission Ethnography in Seventeenth-Century New France |
eBook Available
The Jesuit Relations re-evaluated in light of two concurrent missions - the Christianization of Amerindians and the extraction of information for France.
The word "mission" can suggest a distant and dangerous attempt to obtain information for the benefit of the home left behind. However, the term also applies to the movement of information in the opposite direction, as the primary motivation of those on religious missions is not to learn about another culture, but rather to teach their own particular worldview.
In Masters and Students, Micah True considers the famous Jesuit Relations (1632-73) from New France as the product of two simultaneous missions, in which the Jesuit priests both extracted information from the poorly understood inhabitants of New France and attempted to deliver Europe's religious knowledge to potential Amerindian converts. This dual position of student and master provides the framework for the author’s reflection on the nature of the Jesuits’ "facts" about Amerindian languages, customs, and beliefs that are recorded in the Relations.
Following the missionaries through the process of gaining access to New France, interacting with Amerindian groups, and communicating with Europe about the results of their efforts, Masters and Students explores how the Relations were shaped by the distinct nature of the Jesuit approach to their mission - in both senses of the word.
In Masters and Students, Micah True considers the famous Jesuit Relations (1632-73) from New France as the product of two simultaneous missions, in which the Jesuit priests both extracted information from the poorly understood inhabitants of New France and attempted to deliver Europe's religious knowledge to potential Amerindian converts. This dual position of student and master provides the framework for the author’s reflection on the nature of the Jesuits’ "facts" about Amerindian languages, customs, and beliefs that are recorded in the Relations.
Following the missionaries through the process of gaining access to New France, interacting with Amerindian groups, and communicating with Europe about the results of their efforts, Masters and Students explores how the Relations were shaped by the distinct nature of the Jesuit approach to their mission - in both senses of the word.
Details
264 Pages, 6 x 9
4 figures
ISBN 9780773545137
February 2015
Formats: Paperback, eBook
“Masters and Students is a remarkable accomplishment and will have wide appeal for many different kinds of readers in different disciplines. Micah True writes with admirable clarity and brings his research together in an innovative and powerful way.” Sara E. Melzer, Department of French and Francophone Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
“Original, important, and based on sound scholarship, Masters and Students provides a key to a new understanding of a fundamental primary source for early America, and a filter through which the raw data and facts the Relations contain can be appreciated and newly used. It is a must for historians and specialists in the field.” Luca Codignola, Department of History, Saint Mary’s University and Università di Genova
“Critical of the tendency of recent scholarship to characterize the Jesuits as proto-ethnographers, True reminds readers that their texts need to be read as the record of two simultaneous missions (learning on the one hand, teaching on the other) in order to grasp their full significance. For True, only renewed attention to the dualistic dynamics present in Jesuit mission ethnography can arrest what he identifies as a historical trend that has increasingly amplified the historical voice of the Jesuits while silencing that of Native peoples. Highly recommended.” Choice
“A solid introduction to Jesuit ethnography for a wide variety of scholars.” American Historical Review
“Original, important, and based on sound scholarship, Masters and Students provides a key to a new understanding of a fundamental primary source for early America, and a filter through which the raw data and facts the Relations contain can be appreciated and newly used. It is a must for historians and specialists in the field.” Luca Codignola, Department of History, Saint Mary’s University and Università di Genova
“Critical of the tendency of recent scholarship to characterize the Jesuits as proto-ethnographers, True reminds readers that their texts need to be read as the record of two simultaneous missions (learning on the one hand, teaching on the other) in order to grasp their full significance. For True, only renewed attention to the dualistic dynamics present in Jesuit mission ethnography can arrest what he identifies as a historical trend that has increasingly amplified the historical voice of the Jesuits while silencing that of Native peoples. Highly recommended.” Choice
“A solid introduction to Jesuit ethnography for a wide variety of scholars.” American Historical Review
Micah True is assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta.
Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii
Chapter One
Introduction: Jesuit Mission Ethnography 3
Chapter Two
Amerindian Languages and the Beginning of the Jesuit Mission to New France 27
Chapter Three
Very Rich and Very Poor: Jesuit Missionary Linguistics in New France 55
Chapter Four
Religious Conversion and Amerindian Cruelty in the Jesuit Relations 83
Chapter Five
Messou the Great Restorer: Questioning Montagnais Religious Knowledge 113
Chapter Six
Travelling Texts: Toward a Decentred Reading of Jesuit Mission Ethnography 140
Conclusion: The End(s) of Jesuit Mission Ethnography 171
Notes 177
Works Cited 223
Index 237
Acknowledgments xi
Preface xiii
Chapter One
Introduction: Jesuit Mission Ethnography 3
Chapter Two
Amerindian Languages and the Beginning of the Jesuit Mission to New France 27
Chapter Three
Very Rich and Very Poor: Jesuit Missionary Linguistics in New France 55
Chapter Four
Religious Conversion and Amerindian Cruelty in the Jesuit Relations 83
Chapter Five
Messou the Great Restorer: Questioning Montagnais Religious Knowledge 113
Chapter Six
Travelling Texts: Toward a Decentred Reading of Jesuit Mission Ethnography 140
Conclusion: The End(s) of Jesuit Mission Ethnography 171
Notes 177
Works Cited 223
Index 237
