Thesis (Ph. D. in Missiology)--Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, 2001. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 685-692) and indexes.

This study offers an overdue exploration of the early years of the deaconess community in Neuendettelsau from a gender perspective. Drawing on rich archival material, it focuses on the process of the formation of a distinctive collective identity. Central to this study is the assumption, drawn from the social sciences, that collective identity is a social construction which requires the participation of the whole group through identification and which is consolidated by developing specific rituals, symbols, codes and normative texts, which facilitate integration, and by constructing external boundaries, which separate from the world and wider church. The centrifugal forces which came into play when deaconesses were sent out in isolation were counterbalanced by a communal life which offered forms of participation and identification for the individual members and which consolidated their sense of belonging. The first chapter introduces the methodology. Chapter Two explores the social, cultural and theological context of the foundation of the Deaconess Institute, and offers a brief outline of the institution's historical development. The third chapter offers an in-depth analysis of the initiation ceremony as a rite which both admitted into the community and conferred an ecclesiastical office. Chapter Four analyses formative and normative texts that shed light on the community's norms, values, and expectations. In the fifth chapter, non-literary means of consolidating and affirming the deaconesses' collective identity are explored. This study concludes that the process of the emergence of a specific deaconess culture was pervaded by bourgeois norms, values, patterns of behaviour and notions about gender roles which measured out the women's radius of action and were at times difficult to reconcile with the deaconess profession.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Na presente dissertação viso analisar e visibilizar a presença e atuação de mulheres teuto-brasileiras evangélicas na família, nas comunidades evangélicas e na sociedade do sul do Brasil, especialmente entre o último quartel do século XIX e meados do século XX, na perspectiva do privado e do público. Por isso proponho (re)escrever uma história do cotidiano de mulheres teuto-brasileiras evangélicas, considerando o cotidiano como lugar vivencial histórico e os espaços privado e público como interativos. No primeiro capítulo apresento os fundamentos teórico-metodológicos-analíticos desta: pergunto pelo lugar das mulheres na história da imigração alemã evangélica, enfoco o privado e o público como perspectiva de análise e abordo questões em torno de uma delimitação temporal. No segundo capítulo procuro reconhecer bagagens culturais que acompanharam mulheres (e homens) da Alemanha ao sul do Brasil (considerando suas experiências plurais) e que continuaram a inspirar o seu cotidiano, num processo de continuidades e descontinuidades, diante de novos contextos sócio-econômico-político-religiosos. Neste sentido abordo as experiências de mulheres (e homens) em torno das causas que conduziram à emigração da Alemanha ao Brasil, bem como da definição de privado e público no cotidiano de mulheres alemãs (evangélicas) no século XIX. Pergunto, ainda, pelas experiências constitutivas de uma espiritualidade de mulheres alemãs evangélicas e as iniciativas daí decorrentes, considerando a confissão evangélica como um diferencial em suas vidas. No terceiro capítulo vislumbro a realidade cotidiana que envolveu teuto-brasileiros/as evangélicos/as, especialmente as mulheres, por conta do processo de colonização no qual foram inseridos/as. Neste sentido pergunto pela presença e participação de mulheres no processo entre a emigração e a imigração, bem como pelo seu cotidiano entre o privado e o público possível. No quarto capítulo me ocupo com o processo de construção de "uma" identidade feminina étnico-confessional, considerando o exercício de um poder por parte de mulheres teuto-brasileiras evangélicas, ainda que dentro de uma lógica de submissão, visto estarem inseridas numa cultura patriarcal, sua relação com o trabalho no âmbito da comunidade teuto-brasileira evangélica e sua atuação na preservação da germanidade, como "mães da nação". Uma análise "da" história do cotidiano de mulheres teuto-brasileiras evangélicas permite vislumbrar circunstâncias, discursos e heranças culturais que marcaram suas histórias, num processo de continuidades e descontinuidades, e foram constitutivas de suas identidades, em permanente processo de construção, diferenciação e ressignificação; permite, ainda, visibilizar a participação ativa de mulheres teuto-brasileiras evangélicas nos âmbitos familiar, comunitário confessional e na sociedade do sul do Brasil, através do exercício de um poder, ainda que dentro de uma lógica de submissão, nos espaços privado e público (possível) e no vai-e-vem entre ambos. / In this dissertation I intend to analyze and give visibility to the presence and actuation of German-Brazilian evangelical women in the family, in evangelical congregations and in the society of southern Brazil in private and public perspective, especially between the last quarter of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century,. Therefore I intend to (re)write a history of the daily life of German-Brazilian evangelical women, considering the daily life as the place of historical being and the interactivity of private and public spaces. In the first chapter I present the theoretical, methodological and analytical basis of this history: I ask about the place of women in the history of German evangelical immigration, I focalize on the private and the public as a perspective of analysis and I raise questions about time delimitation. In the second chapter I seek to recognize that cultural knowledge these women (and men) brought from Germany to the south of Brazil (considering their plural experiences) and that continued to inspire their daily life, in a process of continuities and discontinuities, in a perspective of the new social, economical, political and religious contexts. In this way I approach the experiences of women (and men) examining the reasons which led to the emigration from Germany to Brazil, as well as the definition of private and public in the daily life of German (evangelical) women in the 19th century. Further I examine the experiences that constituted a spirituality of German evangelical women and their initiatives, considering evangelical confession as a differential in their lives. In the third chapter I look at the daily reality which involved German-Brazilian evange1icals, especially about the presence and participation of women in the process between emigration and immigration as well as about the possibilities in their daily life between the private and the public. In the fourth chapter I examine the process of the construction of "a" feminine ethnic and confessional identity, considering the exercise of power by the German-Brazilian evangelical women, even if it was in a logic of submission, because they lived in a patriarchal culture; I examine their relationship to labor within the German-Brazilian evangelical congregation and their activity of preserving Germanism as "mothers of the nation." An analysis of "the" history of the daily life of German-Brazilian evangelical women allows one to glimpse at circumstances, speeches and cultural inheritances that had marked their histories in a process of continuities and discontinuities, and have been constitutive to their identities in a permanent process of construction, differentiation and resignification. It also allows one to visualize an active participation of German-Brazilian evangelical women in family, community and society in southern Brazil, through the exercise of power, even within a logic of submission, in the (possible) private and public spaces and in the seesaw between both of them.