penn state university press - Pennsylvania State University Press

Ethnographies and ExchangesNative Americans, Moravians, and Catholics in EarlyNorth AmericaEdited by A. G. RoeberAlso of InterestThe Moravian Mission Diaries ofDavid Zeisberger: 1772–1781Edited by Hermann Wellenreutherand Carola Wesselisbn 978-0-271-02522-3 | cloth: $65.00sMax Kade German-AmericanResearch Institute SeriesEarly Europeans settling in America would never have survivedwithout the help of Native American groups. Thoughhistories of early America acknowledge this today, thathas not always been the case, and even today much workneeds to be done to appreciate more fully the nature of theinteractions between the settlers and the “First Peoples”and to hear the impressions of, and exchanges between,these two groups. We also have much to learn about NativeAmericans as people—their cultures, their languages,their views of the world, and their religious beliefs—andabout their impressions of the early settlers. One avenueto recovering the history of these relations examines earlyrecords that sought to understand the First Peoples scientifically.Missionaries were among those who chronicled theexchange between early settlers and Native Americans. Thediaries, letters, and journals of these early ethnographersare among the most valuable resources for recovering thelanguages, religions, cultures, and political makeup of theFirst Peoples. This volume explores the interactions of twoseventeenth- and eighteenth-century European settlementpeoples with Native Americans: German-speaking MoravianProtestants, and French-speaking Roman Catholics. Itis among these two European groups that we have some ofthe richest records of the exchange between early settlersand Native Americans.Editor A. G. Roeber introduces the volume, whosechapters—by an international cast of contributors—aregrouped in three parts: Texts and Interpretive Perspectives,Missions and Exchanges, and Indigenous Perspectives.A. G. Roeber is Professor of Early Modern History and ReligiousStudies and Co-Director of the Max Kade German-American Research Institute at Penn State University. Heis the author of Palatines, Liberty, and Property: GermanLutherans and Colonial British North America (1993), whichwas co-winner of the American Historical Association’s1993 John H. Dunning Prize.216 pages | 6 x 9 | Juneisbn 978-0-271-03346-4 | cloth: $45.00sMax Kade German-American Research Institute SeriesHistory/Religion1-800-326-9180 | 23