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Author Hart, William B., author

Title "For the good of their souls" : performing Christianity in eighteenth-century Mohawk country / William B. Hart
Published Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2020]
©2020

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, pages) : illustrations and maps
Series Native Americans of the Northeast
Native Americans of the Northeast.
Contents Cover -- Series -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Mohawk Beliefs and the Needs of the Soul -- Chapter 1. "Dwindl'd to Nothing Almost" -- The Mohawks and Their World at 1700 -- Chapter 2. "Ordering the Life and Manners of a Numerous People" -- The Ideology and Performances of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts -- Chapter 3. "Laying a Good and Lasting Foundation of Religion" -- Success and Failure at the Fort Hunter Mission, 1710-1719 -- Chapter 4. Mohawk Schoolmasters and Catechists
Literacy, Authority, and Empowerment at Midcentury -- Chapter 5. "A Single Mission in the Old, Beaten Way Makes No Noise" -- New Strategies for Capturing Mohawk Bodies and Souls, 1760-1775 -- Chapter 6. "As Formerly under Their Respective Chiefs" -- The Mohawk Diaspora into Upper Canada, 1784-1810 -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Index -- Back Cover
Summary "In 1712, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts opened their 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"-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Missions -- New York (State) -- History -- 18th century
Mohawk Indians -- New York (State) -- Religion
History.
History
history (discipline)
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- General.
History
Missions
Mohawk Indians -- Religion
SUBJECT New York (State) -- Church history -- 18th century
Subject New York (State)
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Church history
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781613767405
1613767404