Dissolving Views: The Tsimshian Community of Metlakatla
England’s Church Missionary Society sent missionary William Duncan to Victoria, BC in 1856. His task was to convert the native Tsimshian who lived in the Fort Simpson area to Christianity. Grouped together with other historical accounts of the conversion of indigenous peoples, the story of Metlakatl...
| Published in: | Material religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis
[2020]
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| In: |
Material religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Church Mission Society
/ Metlakatla
/ Tsimshian Indians
/ Conversion (Religion)
/ Cultic object
/ Material popular culture
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| RelBib Classification: | BB Indigenous religions CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations KBQ North America RJ Mission; missiology |
| Further subjects: | B
Material Religion
B Metlakatla B Alaska B Conversion |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | England’s Church Missionary Society sent missionary William Duncan to Victoria, BC in 1856. His task was to convert the native Tsimshian who lived in the Fort Simpson area to Christianity. Grouped together with other historical accounts of the conversion of indigenous peoples, the story of Metlakatla is often characterized as a story of loss. However, this article posits a different reading of this history, one based on the idea that the material practices and beliefs of the peoples of Metlakatla suggest an ongoing engagement with this past, making for a living, transcendent historical trajectory. In examining the ways that the Metlakatlans engaged with and repurposed material religion in the Tsimshian and Anglican contexts, I demonstrate the significance of this alternate form of history. A material religion reading of a Chilkat dancing blanket, or gwishalaayt, helps illuminate the sometimes uncomfortable overlap between indigenous and colonizing perspectives, raising further questions about the boundary-lines and completeness of acts of conversion. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-8342 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Material religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/17432200.2020.1843956 |