THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST AND THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST: DISCOURSE AND MORMON HISTORY Daymon Mickel Smith A DISSERTATION in Anthropology Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2007 _________________________________ Dr. Asif Agha, Supervisor of Dissertation _________________________________ Dr. Melvyn Hammarberg, Supervisor of Dissertation _________________________________ Dr. Robert L. Schuyler, Graduate Group Chairperson 172 Copyright 2007 Daymon Mickel Smith ii For the gem, the philosopher, the muse, and the unnamed iii Acknowledgements Research and writing were funded by the following institutions: The Wenner-Gren Foundation; The University of Pennsylvania Department of Anthropology and School of Arts and Sciences; and The Charles Redd Center for Western Studies. Their generosity made this quite enjoyable effort possible, and they have my gratitude. People acknowledged here contributed in various ways to this dissertation. Not all thanked here may agree with my argument, however, and for it I alone bear responsibility. I wish to thank Asif Agha, Mel Hammarberg, Greg Urban, Stanton Wortham, and David Knowlton, who all taught me anthropology, and whose acumen is matched only by their goodwill. Also, the graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania; their more advanced understanding in culture, semiotics, linguistics, and history provided constant reminders of how broad one can stake down the tent of knowledge. I also wish to thank two Mormons who out of kindness provided historical resources without which the following work would not be. And I wish to thank Jon Moyer, a true friend and scholar whose understanding of Mormonism is without comparison. iv ABSTRACT THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST AND THE FIRST SHALL BE LAST: DISCOURSE AND MORMON HISTORY Daymon Mickel Smith Dr. Asif Agha Dr. Melvyn Hammarberg The writing of history has been treated as a cultural practice. Yet what relation does historiographic practice have to historical process? To investigate that relation I reconstruct the uptake of modernity in Mormonism. I argue that an effect of transition into modernity is the use of distinct norms regarding discourse. Called “language ideologies,” these norms reflexively shape interpretations of historical processes. In such ways history might be spoken, but not necessarily accurately retold. So historiography reflects historical process, though often by presupposition of ideology rather than by accurately reporting past practices. Such presupposition conceals transitions into modernity by mapping back its dominant view of language as a medium for expressing thought. Positioning one’s reconstruction of historical process, however, within the contexts of entailed historiographic interpretations enables tracking of changing language ideologies. I argue that a dialectic approach to the history of modernity, which treats distinct historiographic practices as outcomes, alone can canvass the semiotic and discursive v changes wrought by modernization. To support this claim I present four treatments of intertwined temporal swatches drawn from Mormon history. I first document how a Mormon Underground developed during the U.S. government’s anti-polygamy raids of the 1880s. A space of resistance to federal intervention in Mormon plural marriage, theocracy, and communal economics, the Underground was built using discourse as a tool to misdirect investigation. Mormon resistance withered by 1910, however, and polygamy was officially abandoned. Second, I reconstruct the effects of the Mormon Church’s justification for publicly renouncing polygamy. Church leadership distinguished between “belief in” and practice of plural marriage. The argument for jettisoning plural marriage entailed broad theological changes in Mormonism stemming from this uptake of mind-body dualism. Third, I recount responses to these changes among self-described Fundamentalists who claimed to preserve history by embodying it. Finally, I analyze bureaucratic shifts in the modern Church which presuppose mind-body dualism and write such into historiographic curriculum. vi Table of Contents PART ONE: Discourse and the Mormon Underground Chapter One....................................................................................... 1 Semiotics and Social Life......................................................................................4 Meta-semiosis and Protestantism.........................................................................5 Abductivity, Culture Change, and Historiography .................................................7 History and Theory .............................................................................................11 Language and History.........................................................................................15 Historiography and Discourse.............................................................................23 American History and Mormonism......................................................................26 Anti-polygamy legislation and Mormon resistance..............................................29 The 1880s: Conflict and Change ........................................................................31 Anti-polygamy Raids, the Underground, and Historiography ..............................35 Summary ............................................................................................................38 Chapter Two..................................................................................... 41 Papers and Truth ................................................................................................42 Everywhere Spies and Spotters..........................................................................46 Abductions and Panic .........................................................................................53 Arrests in narratives and reports.........................................................................55 From Narrative to Summary................................................................................62 Passive Saints and Factual Summaries..............................................................66 The Public Sphere and Positivism ......................................................................68 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................69 Chapter Three .................................................................................. 72 Avoiding Observation and Arrest ........................................................................73 Hiding Underground............................................................................................75 Hearing rather than Seeing.................................................................................79 An Elite Underground..........................................................................................81 Church Presidency Underground........................................................................86 Mistaken Identities ..............................................................................................91 Active Avoidance of Marshals.............................................................................93 Discussion: Detaching Rumor from Referents ....................................................95 Life Underground ................................................................................................98 Conclusion ........................................................................................................112 vii Chapter Four .................................................................................. 114 Teaching a New Tradition.................................................................................115 Writing the New Tradition..................................................................................119 A Man Underground .........................................................................................124 Reading Silences..............................................................................................129 Arranging appointments in Utah .......................................................................132 Trust and Truth .................................................................................................135 Mistrust and Politics..........................................................................................142 The Underground Strained ...............................................................................144 A Discursive Divide Precipitates Cultural Schism .............................................149 Conclusion ........................................................................................................151 Chapter Five................................................................................... 154 Church and State, Belief and Practice ..............................................................155 Statehood and Temporal Salvation...................................................................161 The Statehood Lobby........................................................................................166 Desperate Measures.........................................................................................171 The Year of Public Prostration ..........................................................................181 The Manifesto of 1890 ......................................................................................184