AbstractReading scripture in the vernacular forged a unique discursive community in colonial New England, just as it had in post-Reformation England and elsewhere. But just as important were the many ways the bible functioned as a physical object imbued with special power, serving as talisman as much as text. In the colonial context, missionary activity among New England Indians introduced both aspects of scripture to indigenous communities, which in their turn, endowed it with meanings of their own. This essay first reviews the role of the Bible as physical object among the English colonists, before turning to its reception, rejection, and uses among New England’s Algonquian peoples. Examining bibles as items of material culture in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut reveals the creativity and creolization inherent in the introduction of the Bible to this colonial context. The intellectual, practical, and talismanic properties of the Bible so familiar to the English were cast into new relief in the colonial contest between Europeans and Indians, between literate and oral cultures, and between these vastly different religious systems.
