The Faith Adaptations in Colonial Mauritius

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Due to its colonial legacy, Mauritius could serve as a laboratory for the present-day globalization in almost every aspect of human activity. Most noticeable and distinguishable is the religious element. Corresponding to their homeland, the colonizers and colonists of Mauritius were followers of Christianity, African traditional beliefs, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or Chinese philosophies. Coming to Mauritius, either as estate owners, merchants, and craftsmen or as slaves and indentured labourers, settlers gradually transformed and reinvented their rituals, festivals, traditions, and ceremonies. This paper presents how religious beliefs and practices have been essential to immigrants for adapting to and reorganizing their domestic and public lives in a new environment. The idea of a congregation and a remake of the original traditional landscape of the settlers became central to the creation of the community. The paper showcases how, through these religious assemblies, original identities, and traditional cultural features could have re-emerged.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Historical Archaeology in the Indian Ocean

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 955