Daniel T. Reff's Books

Plagues, Priests, and Demons

Sacred Narratives and the Rise of Christianity in the Old World and the New

By: Daniel T. Reff

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Plagues, Priests, and Demons

Sacred Narratives and the Rise of Christianity in the Old World and the New

By: Daniel T. Reff

Drawing on anthropology, religious studies, history, and literary theory, Plagues, Priests, and Demons explores significant parallels in the rise of Christianity in the late Roman empire and colonial Mexico. Evidence shows that new forms of infectious disease devastated the late Roman empire and Indian America, respectively, contributing to pagan and Indian interest in Christianity. Christian clerics and monks in early medieval Europe, and later Jesuit missionaries in colonial Mexico, introduced new beliefs and practices as well as accommodated indigenous religions, especially through the cult of the saints. The book is simultaneously a comparative study of early Christian and later Spanish missionary texts. Similarities in the two literatures are attributed to similar cultural-historical forces that governed the 'rise of Christianity' in Europe and the Americas.

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Page Count

312

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1139442783

ISBN 13

9781139442787

American Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Social and Economic Histories

By: Daniel H. Usner, Jr.

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American Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Social and Economic Histories

By: Daniel H. Usner, Jr.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the Native peoples inhabiting the Lower Mississippi Valley confronted increasing domination by colonial powers, disastrous reductions in population, and the threat of being marginalized by a new cotton economy. Their strategies of resistance and adaptation to these changes are brought to light in this perceptive study. An introductory overview of the historiography of Native peoples in the early Southeast examines how the study of Native-colonial relations has changed over the last century. Daniel H. Usner Jr. reevaluates the Natchez Indians? ill-fated relations with the French and the cultural effects of Native population losses from disease and warfare during the eighteenth century. Usner next examines in detail the social and economic relations the Native peoples forged in the face of colonial domination and demographic decline, and he reveals how Natives adapted to the cotton economy, which displaced their familiar social and economic networks of interaction with outsiders. Finally, Usner offers an intriguing excursion into cultural criticism, assessing the effects of popular images of Natives from this region.

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Page Count

228

Publisher

U of Nebraska Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0803295634

ISBN 13

9780803295636

Plagues, Priests, and Demons

Sacred Narratives and the Rise of Christianity in the Old World and the New

By: Daniel T. Reff

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Plagues, Priests, and Demons

Sacred Narratives and the Rise of Christianity in the Old World and the New

By: Daniel T. Reff

This comparative interdisciplinary study of the rise of Christianity in the late Roman Empire and in colonial Mexico reveals that epidemic disease undermined pre-Christian societies, contributing respectively to pagan and Indian interest in new forms of social and religious life. Christian clerics and monks in early medieval Europe and, later, Jesuit missionaries in colonial Mexico, reacted by introducing new beliefs and practices and accommodating indigenous religions as well.

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Page Count

306

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0521840783

ISBN 13

9780521840781

History of the Triumphs of Our Holy Faith Amongst the Most Barbarous and Fierce Peoples of the New World

By: AndrŽs PŽrez de Ribas

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History of the Triumphs of Our Holy Faith Amongst the Most Barbarous and Fierce Peoples of the New World

By: AndrŽs PŽrez de Ribas

Considered by historian Herbert E. Bolton to be one of the greatest books ever written in the West, AndrŽs PŽrez de Ribas's history of the Jesuit missions provides unusual insight into Spanish and Indian relations during the colonial period in Northern New Spain. First published in Madrid in 1645, it traces the history of the missions from 1591 to 1643 and includes letters from Jesuit annual reports and other correspondence, much of which has never been found or cataloged in historical archives. Daniel T. Reff, Maureen Ahern, and Richard K. Danford have now prepared the first complete, scholarly, and fully annotated edition of this important work in English. PŽrez de Ribas was the first permanent missionary to the Ahome, Zuaque, and Yaqui Indians. After fifteen years on the mission frontier he was recalled to Mexico City, where he held various posts, including Jesuit Provincial. Addressed to novitiates ignorant of the challenges they would face in the field, his Historia was a virtual textbook on missionary work in the New World. Also written to encourage ongoing support of the Jesuit missions, it reflected the author's deep grasp of what rhetorically soothed and moved Church and Crown officials. Perhaps of greatest interest to the modern reader are PŽrez de Ribas's often detailed comments on indigenous beliefs and practices. These firsthand observations provide a rich resource of ethnographic and historical data concerning everything from native subsistence, settlement patterns, and myths to the dynamics of Jesuit-Indian relations. The many cases of conversion that PŽrez de Ribas describes are especially rich in ethnographic data, clarifying the values and beliefs from which the Indians were "rescued." History of the Triumphs is a primary document of great importance, made more valuable here by an exceptionally fluid translation and painstaking annotations. It will be a standard reference for all engaged in research on New Spain and a captivating read for anyone interested in this chapter of American history.

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Page Count

778

Publisher

University of Arizona Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0816517207

ISBN 13

9780816517206

Book's by Daniel T. Reff

Plagues, Priests, and Demons

Plagues, Priests, and Demons

American Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley

American Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley

Plagues, Priests, and Demons

Plagues, Priests, and Demons

History of the Triumphs of Our Holy Faith Amongst the Most Barbarous and Fierce Peoples of the New World

History of the Triumphs of Our Holy Faith Amongst the Most Barbarous and Fierce Peoples of the New World

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