Cultural change and resistance : Huron/Jesuit relations in the early-mid seventeenth century : [an honors thesis (HONRS 499)]

The Huron Confederacy was one of the many indigenous cultures of North America, which was profoundly changed by European influence. The Hurons resisted some changes in the culture, but embraced many aspects of European economics. Despite resistance to religious and social change, the Hurons had lost much of their cultural identity by the onset of the Iroquois Beaver Wars. The relationships between the Hurons and Jesuit missionaries can be reconstructed from writings from the time period, including the Jesuit Relations. Later scholars to gain a better picture of the mechanisms of acculturation have examined these relationships. This study will address the cultural changes the Hurons suffered in the early seventeenth century, and their reactions to those changes. In particular, it will focus on the role the Jesuit missionaries and French fur traders played in the changes to Huron culture, and the reactions of the Hurons to those changes.