Emotions as Practice in the early modern Jesuit missions in the Asia-Pacific

Project Information

EMOPractices

Grant agreement ID: 101028277

DOI

10.3030/101028277

Project closed

EC signature date 1 April 2021

Start date 1 October 2021

End date 30 September 2024

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 257 209,92

EU contribution

€ 257 209,92

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA CA' FOSCARI VENEZIA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EMOPractices (Emotions as Practice in the early modern Jesuit missions in the Asia-Pacific)

Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2024-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project “Emotions as Practice in the early modern Jesuit missions in the Asia-Pacific” (EMOPractices) analyses the sixteenth-eighteenth century writings of Jesuit missionaries to shed new light on the encounters between European and Asian peoples and to uncover how their emotional practices normalized the subordination and stereotyping of Asian peoples.
To address the lack of research on the role of emotions in the early emergence of stereotypes in the context of the first modern contacts between European and Asian people, EMOPractices analyses manuscript texts by key actors and cultural brokers in these exchanges, the Catholic missionaries of the Society of Jesus. Asserting the higher rationality of Christianity, Jesuits strove to present it as the basis of their policies. Still, the analysis of Jesuit textual production shows that the emotional dimensions of missions were not less essential and could sensibly impact missionary policies and the image of the Other produced by missionary literature. EMOPractices approaches Jesuit enterprises through the lens of emotions to reveal the previously disregarded role of Jesuit emotional practices and their impact on the creation of stereotypes of peoples of the Asia-Pacific region.
(Image: Cleveland Museum of Art, "Arrival of the 'Southern Barbarians'," detail, c. 1600; Japan, Momoyama period (1573-1615))

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the outgoing phase, I have determined some of the emotional typologies used by early modern Jesuit missionaries to classify Asian people, focusing especially on Japanese and Tibetan people. I have identified the emotional practices created and implemented by the Jesuits to attempt bridging cultural divides, to further evangelization, and to build new emotional communities. This process allowed the missionaries to offer new models to foster behavior among their Japanese catechumens, that the Jesuits found more desirable. I have presented part of the results of this research in a book chapter that focused on seventeenth-century models of martyrdom that circulated, were accepted, and modified by Japanese Catholics; and in various papers presented in international conferences and workshops. A workshop on emotions and gender has been organised to further the study of these interconnected aspects of the Japanese pre-modern Catholic mission.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

I have progressed beyond the state of the art by analyzing the impact and use of emotional practices in the Jesuit missions in early modern Japan. In the future, I expect to compare more extensively this mission with others in Asia, to unveil the emotional elements of their depictions by Europeans and understand the historical roots of stereotypes of Asian people that are tied to European understandings of emotions. The final monograph will develop the research on Japan according to specific themes to fruitfully understand the way in which Japanese Christians adapted and embodied emotional practices, modeled by the missionaries, in their daily lives.

cleveland-museum-of-art-arrival-of-the-southern-barbarians.png