Rock, Paper, Saints and Sinners
Might the first Native American Catholic saint have been influenced in her faith by a board game? New Generation Thinker Gemma Tidman explores the power games of C17 missionaries.
A 1660s board game made by a Jesuit missionary sent to the Mohawk Valley in North America is the subject of New Generation Thinker Gemma Tidman's essay. This race game, a little like Snakes and Ladders, depicts the path of a Christian life and afterlife. Gemma explores what the game tells us about how powerful people have long turned to play, images, and other persuasive means to secure converts and colonial subjects.
Dr Gemma Tidman is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University London and a New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to put research on radio. You can hear more from her in Free Thinking discussions about Game-playing, and Sneezing, smells and noses.
Producer: Torquil MacLeod
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- Wed 27 Mar 2024 22:45Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 3
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