Social and historical aspects of the assimilation of Christianity in Southeast Asia from 1500-1900 with reference to Thailand and the Philippines

Though many have attempted to address the complexities of the encounter between Christianity and non-western societies, the literature has not dealt much with Southeast Asia. This article attempts to help fill that gap by examining some of the factors affecting the assimilation of Christianity in Southeast Asia by looking at two countries in detail: Thailand and the Philippines. These two countries offer strikingly different assimilation results. Thailand was not colonized when Christianity was introduced while in the Philippines colonization and Christianity were intimately linked. As a result, both Thailand and the Philippines are a study in contrasts

Responses to Missionization at Missions San Antonio, San Carlos, and Soledad

The converted populations of Missions San Antonio, San Carlos, and Soledad never participated in an organized revolt against the Franciscan missionaries like other populations did throughout the American West. Yet, the converts were subjected to the same methods of control by the Franciscan missionaries. Because the tribes of the Monterey area were small and relatively unconnected to their neighbors, the groups could not organize as one once they were on the missions. For these missions individual revolt was how the converts responded to the types of control that they were subjected to. This paper analyzes the common threads in the violent revolts throughout the American West and demonstrates that these were present at Missions San Antonio, San Carlos, and Soledad. This paper then demonstrates that the neophytes on these missions did revolt, just on an individual as opposed to a group basis

Death, Mourning, and Accommodation in the Missions of Alta California.In Franciscans and American Indians in Pan-Borderlands Perspective: Adaptation, Negotiation,and Resistance

Spanish missions are seen by many indigenous people and scholars alike as sites of profound loss. Across the Borderlands of North America, the native individuals and families who entered mission establishments faced terrible and often lethal challenges posed by introduced diseases, strict labor demands, corporal punishment, and unsanitary conditions. In California, as elsewhere, death was part and parcel of the mission experience for many indigenous neophytes as well as the resident Franciscan missionaries. This chapter explores how native people and Franciscans in Alta California negotiated their divergent but deeply held views about what constituted proper death, burial, and mourning practices. These issues are examined using evidence drawn from pre-Contact archaeological sites, ethnographic information collected by early anthropologists, mission-era archaeological deposits, and from the writings of the Franciscans and other contemporary observers. I argue that native neophytes in Alta California persisted in honoring their dead in culturally appropriate ways while the Franciscans varied in their attitudes toward indigenous mortuary practices

Graduate Classes to High School Classrooms: A Collection of Lesson Plans Aimed at Teaching History Graduate Content to High Schoolers

As a high school teacher I wanted to create a project that would help benefit my high school students. My project consists of ten lesson plans that incorporate course material from my graduate classes and developed activities to teach this material in a high school setting. The lessons emphasize religious studies, indigenous studies, and different elements of historical method and theory. Each lesson plan is connected to specific Utah core content and literacy standards. The project also contains two papers that I wrote while completing my studies in graduate school. These give a glimpse into the type of research I focused on while working on my MA. Two of the lessons focus on historical tools. The first one goes over the individual parts of the historical method and culminates in students producing their own historiographical essay. The theory lesson exposes students to historical theory. The second set of lessons focus on indigenous studies. The lessons include topics such as forced migration, diversity in cultures, and the impact of colonization. These lead into a set of lessons that focus on religious studies, and the development, diffusion and syncretism of world religions such as Judaism and Christianity. Many of these lessons focus on the intersectionality of indigeneity and religion. While the content typically focuses on religious encounters and the impact of these engagements, they also touch on key literacy standards for 10th graders such as evaluating primary and secondary sources, identifying main ideas and using textual evidence to support their responses

Book Review: Religions in Conflict: Ideology, Cultural Contact, and Conversion in Late-Colonial India

A review of Religions in Conflict: Ideology, Cultural Contact, and Conversion in Late-Colonial India by A. R. H. Copley

Space Shuttle Navigation in the GPS Era

The Space Shuttle navigation architecture was originally designed in the 1970s. A variety of on-board and ground based navigation sensors and computers are used during the ascent, orbit coast, rendezvous, (including proximity operations and docking) and entry flight phases. With the advent of GPS navigation and tightly coupled GPS/INS Units employing strapdown sensors, opportunities to improve and streamline the Shuttle navigation process are being pursued. These improvements can potentially result in increased safety, reliability, and cost savings in maintenance through the replacement of older technologies and elimination of ground support systems (such as Tactical Air Control and Navigation (TACAN), Microwave Landing System (MLS) and ground radar). Selection and missionization of "off the shelf" GPS and GPS/INS units pose a unique challenge since the units in question were not originally designed for the Space Shuttle application. Various options for integrating GPS and GPS/INS units with the existing orbiter avionics system were considered in light of budget constraints, software quality concerns, and schedule limitations. An overview of Shuttle navigation methodology from 1981 to the present is given, along with how GPS and GPS/INS technology will change, or not change, the way Space Shuttle navigation is performed in the 21 5 century

VV16: The First VEGA Rideshare Mission Flight

The SSMS (Small Spacecraft Mission Service) program is a new multi-launch concept for the Vega and Vega C launchers, thanks to a new modular dispenser for the Small Satellites Market. The Vega Proof of Concept (POC) flight using the SSMS hardware was developed in the context of ESA LLL Initiative (Light satellite, Low cost, launch opportunities) to provide solutions and services for the 1-400 kg mass class. The SSMS POC mission is foreseen to fly on VEGA VV16 flight on August 2020, following the last flight VV15 in July 2019. The paper describes the lesson learned of this first rideshare mission flight due to late definition or evolution of the satellites aggregate. On one hand the missionization process needs to become more standardized and with increased genericity (ad-hoc margin policy) in order to cover the continuous changes. On the other hand, the satellites should try to adapt to the standardized SSMS interfaces to simplify and shorten the mission preparation time. Based on the accumulated experience of the previous flights, the development of the multi-Payload mission concept started from the analysis of the activities to fly a single payload mission adapted to the needs of multi payload rideshare missions. Aggregation activities partially performed in Europe for the first time and completed in French Guiana, assembling, testing and integration into the Payload fairing, as well as relationships with clients and operators during the flight preparation campaign are not reported in this paper. Vega SSMS first Mission carried 43 different satellites ranging from 1 to 150 Kg from more than 10 different operators; this milestone represents a major advancement towards the goal to provide access to space for Small Satellite

Harden Not Your Hearts: An Examination of Conversion to and Indigenization of Christianity Among the Māori of New Zealand

This paper studies the Christianization, and consequent indigenization of faith, by the Māori on the North Island of New Zealand in the nineteenth century. The Christianization of the Māori illuminates the process of indigenization by which foreign faiths are adopted by native populations. In examining the Christianization of the Māori, one can come to understand the process of indigenization, that is the adoption of a foreign faith by a native population. Understanding the conversion process by the British on an indigenous population allows contemporary scholars to not only acknowledge the truth of the past, but also move forward with explanations regarding the current state of relations between settlers (Pākehā) and the indigenous (Māori), as well as between the Māori and their varying faiths. Specifically, in this paper Iargue that the process of conversion, as well as the impact of missionization and Pākehā desire for land, contributed to the development of Māori prophetic movements, an indigenized form of faith, which exemplified the complexities of British missionization in the nineteenth century.

Spanish Missionization and Maya Social Structure: Skeletal Evidence for Labor Distribution at Tipu, Belize

The cultural and human biological outcomes of Spanish colonization of the Americas were diverse. This dissertation examines the effects of Spanish colonization on Maya social structure using skeletal evidence for the distribution of labor at Tipu, a mission site in west central Belize. Skeletal remains of indigenous Maya buried in the context of a church, and in accordance with European Catholic burial customs, were examined for enthesis development and the cross-sectional morphology (CSG) of upper and lower limb long bones. Nothing besides burial placement in relation to the church (inside or outside the walls) denotes social status among individuals. Bone functional adaptations were used to examine the distribution of labor at Tipu and determine whether activity patterns varied by burial placement, and therefore social status. The bone functional adaptations of samples of pre-contact Maya elite and non-elites were also examined to determine whether the activity patterns of high and low status individuals at Tipu varied in the same way as those of Classic/Postclassic Maya of different social tiers. A 3D laser scanner was used to measure the surface areas of entheses on the humerus, radius and ulna, as well as CSG of the humerus (at 35% of length), femur and tibia (at midshaft). Detailed in this dissertation are: 1) a pilot study testing the reliability of the new 3D method for quantifying enthesis development, 2) an investigation of the distribution of labor at Tipu using entheses as indicators of habitual upper limb muscle use, and 3) an investigation of labor distribution at Tipu using CSG as indication of habitual upper limb use and mobility patterns. The pilot study presented in Chapter 2 supports the use of the 3D method for quantifying enthesis development. Chapters 3 and 4 demonstrate that both patterns of enthesis development and CSG at Tipu suggest Maya social structure changed with missionization. The activity patterns of high and low status individuals did not replicate those of pre-contact elites and non-elites. In general, the activity patterns of Tipuans of different social status were more similar. There were no drastic differences in the bone functional adaptations of inside and outside burial groups. However, some notable exceptions to this finding in both enthesis development and CSG suggest there may have been some task specialization among higher status Tipu men and women