Missionaries doubled as the earliest specialists studying other cultures.

Evidence

Since antiquity, kingdom and empire building, colonial expansionism and commerce have fostered the encounters between peoples that have brought to the fore issues of dialogue among cultures. Since the Renaissance the colonial expansionism of Europe has broadened this issue to global proportions. In this encounter between “Christian Europe” and the rest of the world, missionaries have played a pivotal role not only as agents of evangelization, but also as specialists in the study of other cultures as anthropologists, ethnologists, philosophers and even public intellectuals. For example, Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) in China as well as Francis Xavier (1506 –1552) and Roberto de Nobili (1577– 1656) in India and Japan, all played a significant role in the encounter between East and West. — Frans Dokman, Beyond Bantu Philosophy_…, 659

Categorization

• XREF: Ricci’s accommodation method and the missionary-as-anthropologist theme connects to the reader’s interest in colonial knowledge production. — connects to: Missionary expeditions scripted local converts as guided investigators — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 356; Missionaries read Maori social structure and physiognomy as ancient Israel mirrored; Comparative missionary methodology across the colonized world descended from Lafitau’s 1724 treatise — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 317 (+2 more)
• QUESTION: How directly did these Jesuit accommodation practices inform Tempels’ own missionary method a century later?
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Missionary expeditions scripted local converts as guided investigators — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 356; Missionaries read Maori social structure and physiognomy as ancient Israel mirrored; Comparative missionary methodology across the colonized world descended from Lafitau’s 1724 treatise — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 317 (+2 more)