Jesuit Scientific Activity in the Overseas Missions, 1540-1773

Bibliographic Data

ID3593459
AuthorsSusan J Harris (0000-0003-1217-0202, Harvard University, corresponding author), Steven J Harris
Year2005
Volume96
Issue1
Pages71-79
Publication date2005-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueIsis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-1753 • E-ISSN: 1545-6994
PublisherUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/430680
PMID16114802
OpenAlexW1977992633
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited8

Within the context of national traditions in colonial science, the scientific activities of Jesuit missionaries present us with a unique combination of challenges. The multinational membership of the Society of Jesus gave its missionaries access to virtually every Portuguese, Spanish, and French colony. The Society was thus compelled to engage an astonishingly diverse array of cultural and natural environments, and that diversity of contexts is reflected in the range and the complexity of Jesuit scientific practices. Underlying that complexity, however, was what I see as a unique combination of institutional structures; namely, European colleges, overseas mission stations, and the regular circulation of personnel and information. With this institutional framework as a backdrop, I briefly trace what I see as the most salient themes emerging from recent studies of Jesuit overseas science: (1) the Societys ability to use scientific expertise to its advantage amid the complex web of dependencies upon which it missionary activities rested; (2) the ability of its missionaries to become intimate with a wide range of cultures and to appropriate natural knowledge held by indigenous peoples, especially in the fields of material medica and geography; and (3) the different ways Jesuits used published accounts of "remote nature" (i.e., natural histories of overseas colonies) to advance their corporate and religious causes

Archaeology · Biology · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Diversity (politics · Environmental ethics · Indigenous · Multinational corporation · Natural (archaeology · Political science · Portuguese · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Ecology · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law

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