The nuns’ story: Empirical research into religious, post/colonial, and gender power issues as illustrated by the lives and work of the missionary congregation, the Zusters van de Jacht

This article is based on interviews carried out with sixteen members of the Zusters van de Jacht, a congregation founded in Belgium, and whose Belgian Sisters are today a mainly retired community. The Sisters served abroad as missionaries throughout the world, during and in the aftermath of colonial rule, and this article investigates issues of power using a three-fold lens of religion, post/colonialism, and gender. As nationals of the colonising country of Belgium and as members of an established church, the Sisters had a certain power and authority in the mission field, which they exercised in different ways. As foreign women and members of a religious congregation, they held roles of leadership and influence abroad, which allowed them to be effective bringers of change and help as well as active entrepreneurs. These roles transcended the gendered roles of submission they would have held as religious Sisters in the Roman Catholic Church back in Belgium. This article examines where and how power was exercised and experienced in their frequently adventurous, sometimes dangerous, missionary lives. It situates the life stories of the Zusters van de Jacht in the context of ongoing debates about the role and influence of missionary women. It makes a contribution to the oral history of religious missionary women by presenting extracts from their life stories in their own words.

Interethnic Relationships in Nineteenth-Century Chinatowns

In the mid- and late-nineteenth century, Protestant missionaries evangelized urban Chinatowns, seeking not only to convert Chinatown residents to Christianity but also to provide education and related social services. This study analyzes meeting records from the Presbyterian San Jose Woman’s Board of Missions, which formed in 1874 to evangelize residents of the Market Street Chinatown in San Jose, California. Missionary women recorded details of home life in Chinatown, generating rare eyewitness accounts of material practices, including spatial use, architecture, home furnishings, eating and dining, dress and adornment, illness and death, and opium and addiction. Combined with the results of archaeological investigations, these accounts provide nuanced information about how Chinatown families negotiated the challenges of everyday life in the United States. The chapter closes with reflections on how this study of daily life in San Jose’s historic Chinatowns may contribute to transnational archaeologies of the Chinese diaspora.

A Parting of the Ways

This chapter explores the different perspectives held by Rachel Saint and Elisabeth Elliot on what it meant to be a missionary among the Waorani, differences that in 1961 led Elliot and her daughter to leave the mission. The distinct perspectives were evident in the books associated with each woman: The Dayuma Story, written by Ethel Emily Wallis in collaboration with Saint and Dayomæ, and The Savage My Kinsman, by Elliot, with help from photographer Cornell Capa. Saint viewed the Waorani in traditional evangelical terms as a people lost in spiritual darkness and needing redemption. Elliot raised questions about how such an isolated group could understand the gospel message. The two missionary women were unable to collaborate on their primary task of Bible translation, leading to Elliot’s departure. Shortly thereafter, nine Waorani, including four of the five surviving Palm Beach killers, were baptized.