I found a neat way to compare my digital archive to the predominant media narrative. I used Voyant, the 21st century web-based reading tool that Professor Dumbledore mentioned. First, I input several news media stories about Jonestown from the 1970s (top). Then, I asked Voyant to run the same analysis on my recent critical reflection essay (bottom).
Primary Research
I've included a lot of secondary sources so far, but the peer feedback I received on my first reflection essay suggested that I need to start including more primary sources. Now that I've found a few, I don't know how I managed to overlook them in the first place! The most helpful by far is the website Alternative Considerations of Jonestown. The site is hosted by San Diego State University. It asks some of the same fundamental questions that I included in my "Project Design." Unlike my digital archive, the site offers only minimal analysis of the tragedy at Jonestown. Rather, its purpose is to serve as an open resource for a slew of primary documents, including FBI phone taps, member-recordings, letters, and photographs. Its seems like a more robust, albeit less visually flashy, attempt to capture the essence of an event in the way that the Catonsville Nine website tries to.
One of the more chilling resources there is an FBI audio recording of the "White Night" itself, the almost hour-long sermon Jones preached as he helped distribute the lethal Kool-Aid punch throughout his community.
One of the more chilling resources there is an FBI audio recording of the "White Night" itself, the almost hour-long sermon Jones preached as he helped distribute the lethal Kool-Aid punch throughout his community.
**Critical Reflection: Mass Suicide as Racial Protest?**
Mass-Suicide as Racio-Religious Protest?
Background:
I was struggling to find other contexts from which to analyze Peoples Temple. Professor Dumbledore pointed me towards a sociological text called "Varieties of Black Religious Experience," edited by Baer and Singer. I found the text really helpful, so I'm trying to put it in dialogue with the essay we read in class about Peoples Temple.
Presentation: People's Temple
I generated this presentation to share in class. I'm not very happy with the powerpoint format, but I needed to get working on my project and I wasn't as intimidated by this technology.
The slideshow also helped me decide what dates are relevant to include in the "Timeline" I need to make as part of my archive. So far, this is the research that I have found most helpful.
The slideshow also helped me decide what dates are relevant to include in the "Timeline" I need to make as part of my archive. So far, this is the research that I have found most helpful.
Predacessors to Peoples Temple?
After talking to Professor Dumbledore, I have developed a list of other American religious movements that might help me relate to Peoples Temple:
- Father Divine
- Sweet Daddy Grace
- Elijah Muhammad
So of the groups above, I don't think Elijah Muhammad is a comparison in the direction I am interested in. Father Divine's peace mission, on the other hand, seems like a perfect fit. Here is an article I found on the Peace Movement. And just look at the sense of unity and integration in this news reel about Divine's famous "Peace Banquets" in 1938:
Dionysus and French Surrealists
It turns out that Northwestern is one of just a few libraries in the world that has a complete collection of the journal Acephale, which was a very ambitious but short-lived attempt to create a space for alternative humanist visions during the very trying climate of prewar France in the late-1930s. I found out about the group by searching for "contemporary cults of Dionysus." But I had to go to the special collections at our library to look at the journals. After a few minutes of begging, the archivists there let me take these HD photos to share with the class.
The most prominent contributor to the journal was George Bataille, a famous French Surrealist. From what we know, Bataille's fascination with Acephale (a Dionysus-like god of the group's creation) was probably related to his admiration for Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the great (and perhaps most controversial) philosophers of the nineteenth century.
Below are some of the pages I photographed from the journal. Unfortunately, I must admit that -- aside from being really captivating to look at in all their psychological complexity and gut-wrenching gore -- this artwork is not really helping me recognize my shared humanity with the members of People's Temple. (Neverthless, this was just too cool not to share.)
The most prominent contributor to the journal was George Bataille, a famous French Surrealist. From what we know, Bataille's fascination with Acephale (a Dionysus-like god of the group's creation) was probably related to his admiration for Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the great (and perhaps most controversial) philosophers of the nineteenth century.
Below are some of the pages I photographed from the journal. Unfortunately, I must admit that -- aside from being really captivating to look at in all their psychological complexity and gut-wrenching gore -- this artwork is not really helping me recognize my shared humanity with the members of People's Temple. (Neverthless, this was just too cool not to share.)
My Favorite Text on the Tragedy
After one week of reading, my favorite text about the Peoples Temple is an essay by J.Z. Smith, one of the most prominent theorists in religious studies. Hailing from the nearby University of Chicago, Smith argues that we fail both as scholars and as human beings if we merely dismiss events like this as the actions of madmen.
I have digitized my favorite two pages from his essay, for the class to read:
I have digitized my favorite two pages from his essay, for the class to read:
Media Coverage in 1978
This is the kind of one-sided media coverage that I am trying to move beyond as I begin my own research into the Peoples Temple Movement.
Update one month later:
As I was searching for primary sources on YouTube, I found this video, which was recently "digitally curated" by a fraternity chapter. Note the brief context the fraternity provides, and the free-for-all discussion that follows. This is an illustration of just how enmeshed we are (still, even on university campuses) in the dualistic framework that posits the government as "good" and Jones as "evil."
Update one month later:
As I was searching for primary sources on YouTube, I found this video, which was recently "digitally curated" by a fraternity chapter. Note the brief context the fraternity provides, and the free-for-all discussion that follows. This is an illustration of just how enmeshed we are (still, even on university campuses) in the dualistic framework that posits the government as "good" and Jones as "evil."
Welcome to My Archive
This quarter, my main research project is to curate a digital archive of the Peoples Temple movement. As explained further on the "Project Design" page, this archive is meant to help answer the question How do we make sense of the tragedy at Jonestown?
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