Religious Conversion and Social Networks in Seventeenth-Century New Mexico: A Case Study from Pecos Pueblo

Summary

The religious conversion of Native North Americans was a fundamental goal of European colonizers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Native experiences of missionization have often been framed within a concept of religious conversion as ontological transformation that descends from Christian doctrine. Many Native ‘converts’ doubtless eluded encounters with the transcendent leading to fundamental inner change, and archaeologists have often been frustrated in the search for convincing evidence of such a phenomenon. What utility does the notion of conversion have for understanding Native experiences of evangelization? Should it be discarded, as some anthropologists have claimed? Or do more recent perspectives on conversion give new insights into religious and social transformations in Native individuals and communities? We examine how shifting away from psychological models towards an emphasis on social explanations offers useful ways to consider past religious change in the Native New World. Using new data from northern New Mexico, we investigate the relationship between conversion and social networks in the early historic U.S. Southwest.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Mediating Spirit Worlds in Native North America

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