3:15-4:30 p.m., 3201 Hart Hall
"The Spirit of Development: Pentecostal Missionaries and Indígenas in Early 20th Century Peru"
Matthew Casey
Department of History
Abstract: After a raucous period of birth and growth (1906-1909) in Los Angeles, Pentecostalism began its expansion to each of the world’s continents. By 1914 missionaries had arrived in Lima, Peru to save the souls of the then 95% Catholic population. Lima was, at the time, a predominantly mestizo city and the missionaries were quick to set their sights on the more “impoverished” (both spiritually and economically) indigenous populations of the Andean and central coast regions. Going beyond Max Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic,I believe that there was an even more humanitarian aspect of the missionizing work of these Anglo-American Pentecostals. For all of their later conservative stances in various political spheres, Pentecostal denominations came out of a very socially progressive and egalitarian milieu. To the horror of the dominant white society of the early 1900s, men, women, blacks, Latinos, Asians and whites all shared their experiences in the Holy Spirit at the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. Pentecostal missionaries brought these ideals with them as they traveled by train and steam ship across the globe. They also brought with them a notion of economic development that I clumsily describe as “proto-neoliberal.” These men and women were often fairly wealthy and had high standards for quality of life and comfort. The Indigenous peoples that they encountered throughout the globe (in this case in Peru) were attractive converts because of their lack of economic means and their localized religious traditions. Pentecostal missionaries give us an early example of the paternalistic and economically liberal American sentiment towards “undeveloped” peoples of the “Third World.” Like in the case of NGOs today, there have been both positive and negative impacts on Native peoples. I believe that as we continue to look at U.S. and “developing country” relations, an eye must be kept on the blurry line between economic missionaries and missionary economics.
"Figures of Indigenous Nationalism in Martin R. Delany's African-American Nationalist Works"
Erin Hendel
Department of English
Abstract: In the turbulent decade leading up to the U.S. Civil War, many African American intellectuals–most prominently Martin R. Delany–could envision no prospects for African Americans to truly take part in the U.S. national collective. Delany imagined separatist nationalism somewhere in the Americas as the most viable prospect for a free African American future. To promote this vision, he argued that African Americans had more right than any other collective to national claims in the Americas, both by birthright and by contribution to community. In articulating these claims in the novel Blake and the book Condition of the Colored People of the United States Delany relies upon both U.S. colonialist tropes of the “Vanishing Indian” and figures of anticolonial indigenous nationalisms.
Examining these figures, I argue that such contradictory positions reveal a complex network of connections and slippages among separatist nationalisms in antebellum North America. Delany imagines an African American nationalism in relation not only to the United States, but also, to an extent, in relation to indigenous nations and indigenous land claims.
At a time when the borders and shape of the United States were still in dramatic flux, such connections disrupt narratives of monolithic, inevitable U.S. nationalism. My project suggests that 19th century literary scholars would do well to ask deeper questions about connections and disjunctions between indigenous and African American struggles for freedom and sovereignty in this turbulent era.
"The Dynamics of Change in Western Great Basin Prehistory"
Jason L. Edmonds
Department of Anthropology-- Evolutionary Wing
Abstract: The ethnographic record of the western Great Basin suggests that different settlement and subsistence regimes existed throughout the region. In particular, Owens Valley cultural systems are held to be organized in more spatially-restrained territories, with greater political authority and a more specialized subsistence focus on plant resources, than those of surrounding areas. Archaeological investigations have resulted in models of prehistory that alternatively support and question the validity of these historically-documented differences. Proposed work in Fish Lake Valley, which lies just to the east of Owens Valley, has the potential to resolve these questions. Results will help clarify whether ethnographic accounts are adequate for reconstructing traditional lifeways and the role of archaeology in addressing such issues.
Matthew Casey
Department of History
Abstract: After a raucous period of birth and growth (1906-1909) in Los Angeles, Pentecostalism began its expansion to each of the world’s continents. By 1914 missionaries had arrived in Lima, Peru to save the souls of the then 95% Catholic population. Lima was, at the time, a predominantly mestizo city and the missionaries were quick to set their sights on the more “impoverished” (both spiritually and economically) indigenous populations of the Andean and central coast regions. Going beyond Max Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic,I believe that there was an even more humanitarian aspect of the missionizing work of these Anglo-American Pentecostals. For all of their later conservative stances in various political spheres, Pentecostal denominations came out of a very socially progressive and egalitarian milieu. To the horror of the dominant white society of the early 1900s, men, women, blacks, Latinos, Asians and whites all shared their experiences in the Holy Spirit at the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. Pentecostal missionaries brought these ideals with them as they traveled by train and steam ship across the globe. They also brought with them a notion of economic development that I clumsily describe as “proto-neoliberal.” These men and women were often fairly wealthy and had high standards for quality of life and comfort. The Indigenous peoples that they encountered throughout the globe (in this case in Peru) were attractive converts because of their lack of economic means and their localized religious traditions. Pentecostal missionaries give us an early example of the paternalistic and economically liberal American sentiment towards “undeveloped” peoples of the “Third World.” Like in the case of NGOs today, there have been both positive and negative impacts on Native peoples. I believe that as we continue to look at U.S. and “developing country” relations, an eye must be kept on the blurry line between economic missionaries and missionary economics.
"Figures of Indigenous Nationalism in Martin R. Delany's African-American Nationalist Works"
Erin Hendel
Department of English
Abstract: In the turbulent decade leading up to the U.S. Civil War, many African American intellectuals–most prominently Martin R. Delany–could envision no prospects for African Americans to truly take part in the U.S. national collective. Delany imagined separatist nationalism somewhere in the Americas as the most viable prospect for a free African American future. To promote this vision, he argued that African Americans had more right than any other collective to national claims in the Americas, both by birthright and by contribution to community. In articulating these claims in the novel Blake and the book Condition of the Colored People of the United States Delany relies upon both U.S. colonialist tropes of the “Vanishing Indian” and figures of anticolonial indigenous nationalisms.
Examining these figures, I argue that such contradictory positions reveal a complex network of connections and slippages among separatist nationalisms in antebellum North America. Delany imagines an African American nationalism in relation not only to the United States, but also, to an extent, in relation to indigenous nations and indigenous land claims.
At a time when the borders and shape of the United States were still in dramatic flux, such connections disrupt narratives of monolithic, inevitable U.S. nationalism. My project suggests that 19th century literary scholars would do well to ask deeper questions about connections and disjunctions between indigenous and African American struggles for freedom and sovereignty in this turbulent era.
"The Dynamics of Change in Western Great Basin Prehistory"
Jason L. Edmonds
Department of Anthropology-- Evolutionary Wing
Abstract: The ethnographic record of the western Great Basin suggests that different settlement and subsistence regimes existed throughout the region. In particular, Owens Valley cultural systems are held to be organized in more spatially-restrained territories, with greater political authority and a more specialized subsistence focus on plant resources, than those of surrounding areas. Archaeological investigations have resulted in models of prehistory that alternatively support and question the validity of these historically-documented differences. Proposed work in Fish Lake Valley, which lies just to the east of Owens Valley, has the potential to resolve these questions. Results will help clarify whether ethnographic accounts are adequate for reconstructing traditional lifeways and the role of archaeology in addressing such issues.
"Native American Education: Contention over Space and Time"
Douglas Worley (Navajo/Mescalero Apache)
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: This research to be presented is a literature review of how American Indian / Alaskan Native students have actively participated in the spaces of contention between western education and indigenous ways of knowing. In their book To Remain an Indian: Lessons in Democracy from a Century of Native American Education, Lomawaima and McCarty develop the idea of the safety zone, as an explanatory alternative to the pendulum of federal Indian policy. The strategic education of American Indian/Alaskan Native youth has been at the core of the struggle over the safety zone. Beginning with missionaries and continuing through boarding schools Native languages, religions, family structures, cultures, and ways of learning have been in constant contention with the educational institutions.
Two books which demonstrate how Native students were active participants in the contention of their education and the safety zone, during the boarding school era, are Boarding School Seasons by Brenda Childs and They Called it Prairie Light by k. Tsianina Lomawaima. Another book which demonstrates how Native students have strategically negotiated western educational system is First Person First Peoples: Native American College Graduates Tell Their Life Stories, by Andrew Garrod and Colleen Larimore. By employing the safety zone as presented by Lomawaima and McCarthy this research will discuss how students have strategically participated with western education to expand and develop new spaces, which allow for unique ways of knowing within western education.
Department of Native American Studies
Abstract: This research to be presented is a literature review of how American Indian / Alaskan Native students have actively participated in the spaces of contention between western education and indigenous ways of knowing. In their book To Remain an Indian: Lessons in Democracy from a Century of Native American Education, Lomawaima and McCarty develop the idea of the safety zone, as an explanatory alternative to the pendulum of federal Indian policy. The strategic education of American Indian/Alaskan Native youth has been at the core of the struggle over the safety zone. Beginning with missionaries and continuing through boarding schools Native languages, religions, family structures, cultures, and ways of learning have been in constant contention with the educational institutions.
Two books which demonstrate how Native students were active participants in the contention of their education and the safety zone, during the boarding school era, are Boarding School Seasons by Brenda Childs and They Called it Prairie Light by k. Tsianina Lomawaima. Another book which demonstrates how Native students have strategically negotiated western educational system is First Person First Peoples: Native American College Graduates Tell Their Life Stories, by Andrew Garrod and Colleen Larimore. By employing the safety zone as presented by Lomawaima and McCarthy this research will discuss how students have strategically participated with western education to expand and develop new spaces, which allow for unique ways of knowing within western education.