Missionaries and Borderlands: «The Mission Play» and Missionary Practices in Alta California
This essay takes up a core question of this issue of Pamiętnik Teatralny: how are we to think about historiography beyond a dualism, settled in time and reflective of the status quo? With respect to the California missions, historical treatments of colonization revolve around a dualism shaped by mor...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Pamiętnik Teatralny |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://czasopisma.ispan.pl/index.php/pt/article/view/982 |
| _version_ | 1819238297431441408 |
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| author | David Melendez |
| author_facet | David Melendez |
| author_sort | David Melendez |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay takes up a core question of this issue of Pamiętnik Teatralny: how are we to think about historiography beyond a dualism, settled in time and reflective of the status quo? With respect to the California missions, historical treatments of colonization revolve around a dualism shaped by moral dimensions of the missionary enterprise—did the missions help California Indians or harm them? Theatrical representations, like the wildly successful early twentieth century pageant drama, The Mission Play, staged a version of mission history that argued for the former. As a representation of the mission past, the play conflated missions, as institutions, with the moral character of missionaries, thus edifying a fantasy and entrenching the dualism. However, attention to missionary practices, like keeping time using the mission bell, reveal how the missions were sites where indigenous and colonial realities were in constant conflict. Through practices, relations between missionaries and indios produced a space that was neither strictly colonial nor indigenous, and yet both—a borderland. As a mode of spatial dialectics, borderlands thinking can unsettle the duality underlying representations of the mission past to question how that dualism has come into being. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T13:33:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6e3832e18e0d4e0f9ae5271e609ec3a7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0031-0522 2658-2899 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T13:33:59Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Pamiętnik Teatralny |
| spelling | doaj.art-6e3832e18e0d4e0f9ae5271e609ec3a72022-12-21T17:45:04ZengInstitute of Art of the Polish Academy of SciencesPamiętnik Teatralny0031-05222658-28992021-12-0170410.36744/pt.982Missionaries and Borderlands: «The Mission Play» and Missionary Practices in Alta CaliforniaDavid Melendez0University of MinnesotaThis essay takes up a core question of this issue of Pamiętnik Teatralny: how are we to think about historiography beyond a dualism, settled in time and reflective of the status quo? With respect to the California missions, historical treatments of colonization revolve around a dualism shaped by moral dimensions of the missionary enterprise—did the missions help California Indians or harm them? Theatrical representations, like the wildly successful early twentieth century pageant drama, The Mission Play, staged a version of mission history that argued for the former. As a representation of the mission past, the play conflated missions, as institutions, with the moral character of missionaries, thus edifying a fantasy and entrenching the dualism. However, attention to missionary practices, like keeping time using the mission bell, reveal how the missions were sites where indigenous and colonial realities were in constant conflict. Through practices, relations between missionaries and indios produced a space that was neither strictly colonial nor indigenous, and yet both—a borderland. As a mode of spatial dialectics, borderlands thinking can unsettle the duality underlying representations of the mission past to question how that dualism has come into being.https://czasopisma.ispan.pl/index.php/pt/article/view/982theater historiographyCalifornia IndiansAlta CaliforniaCritical Mission Studiespageant dramaChicana/o history |
| spellingShingle | David Melendez Missionaries and Borderlands: «The Mission Play» and Missionary Practices in Alta California Pamiętnik Teatralny theater historiography California Indians Alta California Critical Mission Studies pageant drama Chicana/o history |
| title | Missionaries and Borderlands: «The Mission Play» and Missionary Practices in Alta California |
| title_full | Missionaries and Borderlands: «The Mission Play» and Missionary Practices in Alta California |
| title_fullStr | Missionaries and Borderlands: «The Mission Play» and Missionary Practices in Alta California |
| title_full_unstemmed | Missionaries and Borderlands: «The Mission Play» and Missionary Practices in Alta California |
| title_short | Missionaries and Borderlands: «The Mission Play» and Missionary Practices in Alta California |
| title_sort | missionaries and borderlands the mission play and missionary practices in alta california |
| topic | theater historiography California Indians Alta California Critical Mission Studies pageant drama Chicana/o history |
| url | https://czasopisma.ispan.pl/index.php/pt/article/view/982 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT davidmelendez missionariesandborderlandsthemissionplayandmissionarypracticesinaltacalifornia |