The Materialization of Native American Religions: Cultural Science in an Era of Assimilation.

Presentation by Sarah E. Dees, Luce Postdoctoral Fellow in Religion, Politics, & Global Affairs, Department of Political Science and Department of Religious Studies

This talk examines the connections between scholars of religion and state power within the U.S. context, and, in so doing, illuminates the unique role American scholars played in shaping the academic study of religion. Dees explores government-funded Smithsonian research on Native American beliefs and practices in the late nineteenth century, during the assimilation era in federal Indian policy. Scholarly and popular interest in Native American religions grew during this era, even as federal Indian policies violently targeted the very traditions under study.

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