Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries

Part of: Society for Historical Archaeology 2019

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries," at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The global mission project begun by Society of Jesus soon after the order’s founding in 1534 brought Jesuit priests and lay brothers into intimate encounters with diverse groups of people. Jesuits established missions, plantations, parishes, colleges, and other institutions, supporting their evangelical efforts through agricultural and industrial ventures across the Americas. Archaeologists investigate the material traces of these institutions, aided by research in the extensive archival records kept by the Society of Jesus and the colonies and states where they operated. Yet a synthesis of the archaeology of Jesuits and Jesuit properties in the Americas has not yet been attempted, in part because of projects’ vast geographic scope, language barriers, and the seemingly incongruous variety of sites established by Jesuit missionaries. This session brings together historical archaeologists who study the Jesuit presence in the Americas in order to explore associated landscapes, economic production, intercultural interaction, and evidence of religious belief.

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  • Documents (9)

Documents
  • Farmer Priests: Capitalism, Slavery, and the Middle Atlantic Jesuit Mission (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Laura Masur.

    This is an abstract from the "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Like French and Iberian Jesuits, English members of the Society of Jesus established plantations in North America to fund missions and educational institutions. It was "a fine poor man’s country," but the Society’s ten plantations never realized significant profits until the mid-nineteenth century. Evidence from St. Inigoes Plantation in...

  • Formulaic and Ad Hoc: Variability Among Society Of Jesus Missions in North America’s Middle Atlantic Region (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only James Gibb. Maevlyn A. Stevens.

    This is an abstract from the "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Singular in purpose and variable in implementation, Jesuit missions in the Middle Atlantic region assumed a variety of forms, influenced by local needs and the degree of participation of local Catholic communities. Spatial data from identified mission sites of the mid-17th through 19th centuries document the degree of variability and...

  • Introduction: Jesuit Archaeology in the Americas (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Steve Lenik. Laura Masur.

    This is an abstract from the "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. An historical archaeology of Jesuit sites in the Americas reveals how these missions impacted the diverse peoples with whom Jesuits sustained daily interactions, as well as the priests and lay brothers themselves. From its headquarters in Rome, this Catholic religious order built and maintained a global mission program that consisted not...

  • ‘The Jesuits Mission Proves We Were Here’: 18th Century Jesuit Missions Aiding 21st Century Tribal Recognition. (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew R Beaupre.

    This is an abstract from the "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Records indicate that during the French colonial period, Jesuit fathers established four mission congregations within the territory now known as Vermont. These missions were established to preach to both French colonists and Native converts on Ilse La Motte, on the Missisquoi River in Swanton, at Fort Saint-Frederic on Lake Champlain and in...

  • Jesuits Missionaries Establishment in French Guiana: Archaeological Potential and Research Perspectives (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Antoine Loyer Rousselle.

    This is an abstract from the "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. From 'flying' missions, to more fixed establishment, Jesuits missionary activities have had a profound impact on the development of the colony of Cayenne and its inhabitant, more particularly to the Natives groups. For now, Jesuits plantations have been documented from the archaeological perspectives. But concerning mission's sites, none...

  • Measuring Success in the Jesuit Cause (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael Nassaney. José António Brandão.

    This is an abstract from the "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The site of Fort St. Joseph in southwest Michigan began as a mission in the 1680s when the Jesuits were granted a tract of land by the French crown along the St. Joseph River. For nearly a century a Jesuit priest tended to the souls of the Fort St. Joseph community. The presence of a marriage and baptism register testify to their religious...

  • Slavery and the Jesuit Hacienda System of Nasca, Peru, 1619-1767 (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Brendan J. M. Weaver.

    This is an abstract from the "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Multi-scalar archaeological exploration offers new insights for understanding Jesuit estate systems and the slavery they depended on for agroindustrial production. Since 2009, I have conducted ethnohistorical and archaeological research on two Jesuit haciendas, San Joseph and San Francisco Xavier de la Nasca, in south coastal Peru’s Ingenio...

  • The Society of Jesus in the Kingdom of the Calusa (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Victor Thompson.

    This is an abstract from the "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. In 1567, the Jesuit Juan Rogel traveled to Calos, the capital of the Calusa kingdom. We now know that the capital was the archaeological site of Mound Key, located in Estero Bay, Florida. There, Juan Rogel interacted with Calusa kings and other inhabitants of the capital. This would be the first of several outposts setup by the Spanish...

  • Spatial analyses and 3-D Interpretative modelling at Loyola Habitation (1730-1768) (2019)
    DOCUMENT Citation Only Raphaelle Lussier-Piette.

    This is an abstract from the "Jesuit Missions, Plantations, and Industries" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. The Loyola Habitation was a Jesuit plantation founded in 1668 for the purpose of financing missions in South America and as a place of respite for missionaries in French Guiana. Archaeological research at Loyola, conducted by Université Laval and a local French association (APPAAG) since the 1990s, has focused primarily on the residential...