Entanglements of Empire

<div>The first Protestant mission was established in New Zealand in 1814 initiating complex political cultural and economic entanglements with M?ori. Tony Ballantyne shows how interest in missionary Christianity among influential M?ori chiefs had far-reaching consequences for both groups. Deftly reconstructing cross-cultural translations and struggles over such concepts and practices as civilization work time and space and gender he identifies the physical body as the most contentious site of cultural engagement with M?ori and missionaries struggling over hygiene tattooing clothing and sexual morality. <i>Entanglements of Empire</i> is particularly concerned with how as a result of their encounters in the classroom chapel kitchen and farmyard M?ori and the English mutually influenced each other's worldviews. Concluding in 1840 with New Zealand's formal colonization this book offers an important contribution to debates over religion and empire.<br></div>