Bradley Blankemeyer

Research Topic

Multiplex est modus’: Elements of Accommodation in the Early Jesuit Missions to India, 1545-1575 

Supervisor: Alan Strathern

My work explores the interaction between missionaries of the Society of Jesus and local populations (both indigenous and immigrant) in sixteenth and seventeenth century southern India under the Portuguese Empire, focusing on proselytization methodologies and the practise of accommodation. In analysing missionary tactics and activities, I look at why certain methods produce converts while others fail and how local individuals exhibit agency in the face of coercion. On a general level, I am most interested in the subsequent cultural and epistemological exchange arising from global movement of people during the early modern period.