The Characteristics Of The California Missionization Process

Name: Institution: Course Code: Date: California Mission The characteristics of the California missionization process Missionaries who came to California primarily aimed to serve the spiritual needs of the colonists and convert the indigenous people. However, their efforts were frustrated by strained relationships with the locals which stemmed from soldiers’ behavior and conduct against the locals. The missionaries had soldiers who were supposed to protect them against enemies and help implement government policies, but their behavior adversely affected the missionization process. The soldiers perpetrated despicable and heinous crimes against the local population. They raped the women and often killed them. The Amerindians responded by attacks on the soldiers thought their attacked led to more rapes and murders. The objectives of the missionaries were to civilize and spread Christianity, but due to the violence which ensued primarily because of the soldiers, the people became hostile to the missionaries. Castaneda notes that the locals took to their heels when they saw the soldiers approaching because they perceived them as enemies. Castaneda notes that the rapes and violence were deleterious of the mission projects because such actions belied significant principles of Catholic moral theology they were trying to inculcate. There was also corporal punishment for offenders who threatened the mission. Women were flogged and assaulted physically to be ‘tamed’ from their ‘savagery’ lifestyle and forced to adopt a ‘civilized’ lifestyle and instill virtue and modesty associated with their sex. The effects of rape and sexual violence on the missionization process in California. Sexual violence against the locals led to increased hostility towards the foreigners. The locals started to organize attacks on the foreigners to avenge the despicable crimes they perpetrated against them. The missionaries also found it hard to convince the people to adopt their ideologies on rape, sexuality, fornication, abduction because they were hypocritical bearing in mind the pain the soldiers caused the locals. The locals hid or ran when they sighted the missionaries or soldiers approaching, and it was a hard sell to convince them that their religion supported peace and recognized women as important pillars in the society. The locals only saw rapists and murders who pretended to spread ideologies of peace and modest sexual conduct. The women who were raped and survived were subjected to purification rituals to be accepted back to the society. These rituals were to purge the foreigners ‘spirit’ from them which they argued led to diseases among other misfortunes. The spread of diseases particularly syphilis was rampant during this period. The soldiers spread the diseases to the neop...