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Missionization and the Cult of Domesticity, 1769–1850: Local Investigation of a Global Process

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Historical and Archaeological Perspectives on Gender Transformations

Part of the book series: Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology ((CGHA))

Abstract

Examination of Protestant evangelical and Catholic mission stations from North America, across the Pacific, to New Zealand and Australia suggests that missions were organized into two broadly different types: the “household” mission, mostly associated with Protestant missions in the Pacific, New Zealand, and the East Coast of North America, and the “institutional” mission, found largely in the North American Spanish Borderlands and Australia. However, both types of missions shared a focus on the “cult of domesticity” and the transformation of gender roles in indigenous societies as an essential “civilizing” tool; in this process, the private realm of the family home became public, an arena for teaching the domestic arts and modeling the ideal of the Christian family to indigenous peoples.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks to Ian Smith, University of Otago, and Suzanne Spencer-Wood for comments and suggestions on drafts of this chapter.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, University of Otago, 56, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand

    Angela Middleton

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  1. Harvard University, Cambridge MA, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Oakland University, Rochester MI and Pea, N. Squirrel Road 2200, Rochester, 48309-4401, Michigan, USA

    Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood

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Middleton, A. (2013). Missionization and the Cult of Domesticity, 1769–1850: Local Investigation of a Global Process. In: Spencer-Wood, S. (eds) Historical and Archaeological Perspectives on Gender Transformations. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4863-1_8

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