Gender, Missions, and Maintenance Activities in the Early Modern Globalization: Guam 1668–98

Abstract

This article proposes that early modern globalization took shape through the global circulation of gender ideologies, sexual politics, engendered technologies, and engendered knowledge. It does so by exploring the early years of Jesuit missions in Guam (Mariana Islands) and describes mission policies as engendered sexual policies that fostered the emergence of a new sex/gender system within indigenous Chamorro society. These policies targeted, among others, the sphere of maintenance activities. This concept highlights the foregrounding nature of a set of routine everyday practices that are essential to social continuity. Guam offers an interesting case study to discuss how gender transformations were performed and implemented on the ground, and what they entailed for those who experienced them.

Modern Colonialism and Cultural Continuity Through Material Culture: An Example from Guam and CHamoru Plaiting

“…Various studies of the Marianas have emphasized the changes that occurred during La Reducción (Bayman and Peterson 2016;Montón-Subías 2019;Montón-Subías and Moral de Eusebio 2021;Peña 2020;Russell 1998: 317-322). Indeed, the missions on Guam brought about abrupt and profound changes, as did modern colonialism in the rest of the world.…”

The foundation of island identity: Chamorro maritime practices and resistance in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

“…In doing so, scholars have identified Indigenous agency and different levels of change and persistence during colonial periods. While there is a growing body of robust research on the colonial cultural changes in the Marianas (Amesbury et al, 1989; Amesbury & Hunter-Anderson, 2003, 2008; Bayman et al, 2012; Bayman & Peterson, 2016; Clement, 2011, 2015; de Frutos & de la Rosa, 2012; Diaz, 1994, 2010; Hattori, 2018; Kerr, 2011; Montón-Subías, 2019; Underwood, 1978), these largely focus on Guam and use more general collaborative methods.…”

Reused and Recycled. Archeometallurgical Study of Historical Nails Found in Guam, Mariana Islands, Western Pacific

“…Contacts and exchanges between both parties continued and were even intensified once the Manila galleon route, with a stopover in Guam, was established in 1565. Nevertheless, deep and dramatic changes were only to occur once the mission began, and they became even more pronounced after the population was concentrated in a reduced number of villages or towns located mainly in southern Guam (Bayman & Peterson 2016;Driver 1988;Montón-Subías 2019;Russell 1998: 317-322). As with other regions of the globe, evangelization led to new constructed landscapes.…”