The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
American History ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Religious History ◽  
American Christianity ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Religion And Race ◽  
Christian Myth ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
Music Film ◽  
Race And Religion

The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Race in American History is a reference work in which thirty-seven leading scholars from the fields of History, Religious Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, and others investigate the complex interdependencies of religion and race through American history. The book covers the religious experience, social realities, theologies, and sociologies of racialized groups in American religious history. It explores how religion contributed to their racialization, and race to perceptions about the validity of their religious expressions. Religion played a significant part in creating race. While Euro-American Christianity was hardly the sole force in this process, Christian myth, originating from interpretations of biblical stories as well as speculations about God’s Providence, necessarily was central to the process of racializing peoples in the Americas––to imposing hierarchies upon groups of humans. But if Christianity fostered racialization, it also undermined it. Sacred passages and practices have been powerful but ambiguous, and arguments about God’s Providence in colonization, proselytization, and slavery have always been contentious. Assumptions about race have also helped to define religion in the United States, and what counts as protectable under the First Amendment. Practitioners of indigenous religions, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, humanism, and others have drawn on their traditions to claim religious freedom, foster group identity, challenge racialization, and participate in race-making. Race and religion have also been created and debated through popular culture, and this volume includes considerations of music, film, sports, and photography in addition to the chapters covering theoretical approaches, traditions, and historical periods.

Gender, Marriage, and Sexual Purity in American Religious History

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Dowland
Keyword(s):  
American History ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
American Religious History ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Cultural Attitudes ◽  
American Christianity ◽  
Over Time

Throughout American history, religious people and groups have developed, sustained, or challenged cultural norms around gender, marriage, and sexual purity. Beginning with the earliest English Protestant settlers in the 17th century, American Christians have devoted consistent attention to the proper roles of men and women, and to the proper functioning of families. Throughout American history, religious leaders have assigned men as spiritual leaders of their families. Assessments of women’s piety—and its importance in maintaining social order—have grown more positive over time. Prophetic radicals and political activists have frequently challenged American Christianity by attacking its traditionalism on issues related to gender and sexuality. The ideal of a “traditional family” has, however, proven quite robust. Even as cultural attitudes around gender and sexuality have shifted dramatically in recent years, the presumption that typical American families are heterosexual, middle-class, and Christian has persisted. This presumption developed over time and has remained dominant owing in part to the contributions of American religious groups.

Religion and Race in America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Suzanne Clark
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Ethnic Diversity ◽  
American History ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Identities ◽  
Religion And Race

Religion and race provide rich categories of analysis for American history. Neither category is stable. They change, shift, and develop in light of historical and cultural contexts. Religion has played a vital role in the construction, deconstruction, and transgression of racial identities and boundaries. Race is a social concept and a means of classifying people. The “natural” and “inherent” differences between races are human constructs, social taxonomies created by cultures. In American history, the construction of racial identities and racial differences begins with the initial encounters between Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans. Access to and use of religious and political power has shaped how race has been conceived in American history. Racial categories and religious affiliations influenced how groups regarded each other throughout American history, with developments in the colonial period offering prime examples. Enslavement of Africans and their descendants, as well as conquered Native Americans, displayed the power of white Protestants. Even 19th-century American anti-Catholicism and anti-Mormonism intersected racial identifications. At the same time, just as religion has supported racial domination in American history, it also has inspired calls for self-determination among racial minorities, most notably in the 20th century. With the long shadow of slavery, the power of white supremacy, the emphasis on Native sovereignty, and the civil rights movement, much of the story of religion and race in American history focuses on Americans white, black, and red. However, this is not the whole story. Mexican-Americans and Latinx immigrants bring Catholic and transnational connections, but their presence has prompted xenophobia. Additionally, white Americans sought to restrict the arrival of Asian immigrants both legally and culturally. With the passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the religious, racial, and ethnic diversity of the United States increased further. This religious and racial pluralism in many ways reflects the diversity of America, as does the conflict that comes with it.

Invisible Grace

2020 ◽  
pp. 130-146
Author(s):  
Lauren R. Kerby
Keyword(s):  
American History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sojourner Truth ◽  
American Christianity ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Dynamic Relationship ◽  
Narrow Definition ◽  
Black Christians ◽  
White Evangelicals ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter examines the implications of white evangelicals’ dynamic relationship to the United States, characterized by the four roles they play: founders, exiles, victims, and saviors. Christian tourists move easily among these roles during their time in D.C., just as white evangelicals move among them in a broader context. When they want to play an insider role, they appeal to the prominent place of white Christians at key moments in American history. When they want to play an outsider role, they identify potential threats to American Christianity to position themselves on the margins. The Museum of the Bible offers a new example of this phenomenon. This chapter also considers how white evangelicals’ narrow definition of Christianity, which includes only white conservative Protestants, support white supremacy and obscure other important forms of Christianity in American history, including Black Christianity. Black Christians such as Martin Luther King Jr., Sojourner Truth, and Rosa Parks are also commemorated in D.C., and they offer far different ways of thinking about marginality, sacrifice, and the nation. Understanding white evangelicals’ lived history is essential to understanding their politics, but so is understanding what that history omits.

Longing for Home: The Impact of COVID-19 on Cambodian Evangelical Life

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-297
Author(s):  
Briana Wong
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Leadership ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Phnom Penh ◽  
Mass Displacement ◽  
Interpersonal Connectedness ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
The Impact

In Cambodia, the government's response to the COVID-19 crisis intersected with religious practice this year, as April played host both to the Christian Holy Week and the Cambodian New Year holiday, rooted in Cambodian Buddhism and indigenous religions. Typically, the Cambodian New Year celebration involves the near-complete shutting down of Phnom Penh, allowing for residents of the capital city to spend the New Year with their families in the countryside. Many Christians stay with their parents or other relatives, who remain primarily Theravada Buddhist, in the rural provinces throughout Holy Week, missing Easter Sunday services to participate in New Year's festivities at their ancestral homes. In light of the government's precautionary cancellation of the all-encompassing festivities surrounding the Cambodian New Year this spring, Christians who have previously spent Easter Sunday addressing controversial questions of interreligious interaction notably focused this year, through online broadcasting, on the resurrection of Jesus. In the United States, the near elimination of in-person gatherings has blurred the boundaries between the ministry roles of recognised church leaders and lay Christians, often women, who have long been leading unofficial services and devotionals over the phone and internet. In this article, I argue that the COVID-19 crisis, with its concomitant mass displacement of church communities from the physical to the technological realm, has impacted transnational Cambodian evangelicalism by establishing greater liturgical alignment between churches in Cambodia and in the diaspora, democratising spiritual leadership and increasing opportunities for interpersonal connectedness within the Cambodian evangelical community worldwide.

Racialized Political Consumerism in the United States

2018 ◽  
pp. 680-698
Author(s):  
Bo Yun Park
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American History ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Consumerism ◽  
White Supremacist ◽  
Political Tradition ◽  
Democratic Societies

In the United States, political consumerism has evolved alongside the country’s racial struggles. Throughout American history, ethnoracial minority groups have used different forms of racialized political consumerism in order to advance their rights. White supremacist groups have also taken part in boycotts to promote their cause. Addressing the need to assess the meaning and significance of a tactic that is considered to be a longstanding political tradition, this chapter provides an analytical guide for the study of racialized political consumerism in democratic societies. It does so by (1) illustrating the historical and contemporary uses of political consumerism in racial struggles in the United States, (2) examining the different forms of political consumerism used by ethnoracial minorities, and (3) discussing the theoretical value of the concept of racialized political consumerism.

Novel Approaches for Assessing the Preservation of Historic Silks: A Case Study of the First Ladies' Gowns

MRS Bulletin ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Becker ◽  
Noreen Tuross
Keyword(s):  
American History ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Museum ◽  
First Ladies ◽  
Current Conservation ◽  
Unique Challenge ◽  
Conservation Project ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Friable natural products are often used in articles of personal adornment, and the perishable nature of these materials presents a unique challenge to museums. At the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, a collection of gowns worn by the First Ladies of the United States is a popular display of historical and sentimental import. Opened to the public on February 1, 1914, fifteen gowns were displayed as part of a “Period Costumes“ exhibit in the U.S. National Museum (now known as the Arts and Industries Building). Within just a few years, the exhibit was recognized as “one of the most interesting and popular in the Museum.” A First Ladies' Hall was created in the mid-1950s to exhibit the gown collection in period room settings. This design theme continued when the Hall moved to the Museum of American History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) in 1964. The First Ladies' Hall was closed for renovation in 1987, allowing the curatorial staff to reassess the collection's use and conservators to perform long overdue examinations and treatments. Reinstallation of the exhibit is scheduled for spring 1992.The First Ladies' conservation project includes a history of each gown's use and exhibition as related to its physical condition and also includes stabilization treatments to meet the demands of future display. The current conservation project provided an unusual opportunity for extensive research into fabric deterioration of a popular and important collection. The goals of the research are twofold: first, to determine each object's state of preservation by studying the effectivenss of several analytical approaches with minimal destructive sampling and, second, to begin investigating the mechanisms involved in the degradation of silk, the material predominant in this collection.

scholarly journals Human security as biosecurity

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Craig Albert ◽  
Amado Baez ◽  
Joshua Rutland
Keyword(s):  
International Security ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Security Threat ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Case Study Analysis ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Research within security studies has struggled to determine whether infectious disease (ID) represents an existential threat to national and international security. With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), it is imperative to reexamine the relationship between ID and global security. This article addresses the specific threat to security from COVID-19, asking, “Is COVID-19 a threat to national and international security?” To investigate this question, this article uses two theoretical approaches: human security and biosecurity. It argues that COVID-19 is a threat to global security by the ontological crisis posed to individuals through human security theory and through high politics, as evidenced by biosecurity. By viewing security threats through the lens of the individual and the state, it becomes clear that ID should be considered an international security threat. This article examines the relevant literature and applies the theoretical framework to a case study analysis focused on the United States.

U.S. Immigration Policy in the Early 21st Century

2012 ◽  
pp. 93-102
Author(s):  
G. Nikol'skaya
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Policy ◽  
American History ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Immigration Reform ◽  
President Obama ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
New Immigrants ◽  
Significant Movement ◽  
The Subject

U.S. immigrant population (legal and illegal) reached 40 millions in 2010, the highest number in American history. Nearly 14 millions of new immigrants settled in the country from 2000 to 2010, making it the highest decade of immigration in American history. For the United States, the immigration has always been both crucial to the economic growth and a source of serious conflicts. There has been no significant movement toward federal immigration reform since bipartisan project blocked in 2007. But it has been the subject of fever legislation at a state level, and President Obama made a decision to return to this question in the coming presidential campaign.

Before American History: Nationalist Mythmaking and Indigenous Dispossession

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christen Mucher
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
American History ◽  
New Spain ◽  
The United States ◽  
Material Base ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
The Past ◽  
British America ◽  
The Us ◽  
Ruling Elites

Before American History examines the project of settler nationalism from the 1780s to the 1840s in two of North America’s republics—the US and Mexico—through an analysis of historical knowledge production. As the US and Mexico transformed from European colonies into independent republics—and before war scarred them both—antiquarians and historians compiled and interpreted archives meant to document America’s Indigenous pasts. Before American History approaches two iconic imaginings of the past—the carved Sun Stone and the mounded earthwork—as archives of nationalist power and Indigenous dispossession as well as objects that are, at their material base, Indigenously-produced but settler-controlled and settler-interpreted. In making the connection between earthworks built by an allegedly vanished people merely peripheral to US citizens and the literal touchstone of Mexicans’ history, Before American History details how Mexican and US nationalists created national histories out of Indigenous pasts and thereby wrote Indigenous pasts out of their national histories and out of national lands. It uncovers how the manipulation of Indigenous pasts and (mis)interpretations of “American Antiquities”—Indigenous documents, objects and monuments—served the purposes of a trans-imperial/transnational network of creole ruling elites, first in New Spain and British America, and later in Mexico and the United States, as they struggled to construct new political, geographic, and historical orders.

Whose History?: The Americas and Music Curricula in the United States

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 457-460
Author(s):  
M. Leslie Santana
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
Undergraduate Curriculum ◽  
The United States ◽  
Concert Music ◽  
Music Department ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Western European ◽  
Teaching Music

One moment from the much-discussed 2017 curriculum reform in the Music Department at Harvard University has stuck with me and transformed the way I approach teaching music in higher education. In one of the meetings leading up to the revision, graduate students in the department led an activity in which attendees—who included undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty alike—got into small groups and discussed the relative merits of three hypothetical models for the new undergraduate curriculum. Each of the models involved decentering to some extent the existing curriculum's emphasis on the history of Western European music and dominant music theoretical approaches to it. After a short while, we all gathered back together and one person from each group shared a bit about what had transpired. From the circle of desks nearest the door, an undergraduate student rose to speak and expressed enthusiasm for a broadening of curricular coverages. But, they said, their group also had some reservations about jettisoning the overall focus on Western European concert music altogether. “We still need to learn about our history,” they said, while a faculty member nodded behind them.

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