Masters and Students: Jesuit Mission Ethnography in Seventeenth-Century New France

Micah True

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Masters and Students

Jesuit Mission Ethnography in Seventeenth-Century New France

Micah True

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2015

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About this book

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.

Author / Editor information

Contributor: Micah True Micah True is professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies at the University of Alberta.

Reviews

“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

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"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

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Front Matter
i

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Contents
vii

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Illustrations
ix

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Acknowledgments
xi

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Preface
xiii

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Introduction: Jesuit Mission Ethnography
1
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Amerindian Languages and the Beginning of the Jesuit Mission to New France
27
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Very Rich and Very Poor: Jesuit Missionary Linguistics in New France
55
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Religious Conversion and Amerindian Cruelty in the Jesuit Relations
83
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Messou the Great Restorer: Questioning Montagnais Religious Knowledge
113
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Travelling Texts: Toward a Decentred Reading of Jesuit Mission Ethnography
140
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The End(s) of Jesuit Mission Ethnography
171
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Notes
177
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Works Cited
223
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Index
237

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

May 17, 2023

eBook ISBN:

9780773581999

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780773581999

eBook ISBN: 9780773581999

Audience(s) for this book

For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research

Masters and Students

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Front Matter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction: Jesuit Mission Ethnography

Amerindian Languages and the Beginning of the Jesuit Mission to New France

Very Rich and Very Poor: Jesuit Missionary Linguistics in New France

Religious Conversion and Amerindian Cruelty in the Jesuit Relations

Messou the Great Restorer: Questioning Montagnais Religious Knowledge

Travelling Texts: Toward a Decentred Reading of Jesuit Mission Ethnography

The End(s) of Jesuit Mission Ethnography

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Bibliographic data