Ethnicity, Religion, and Gender: The Women of Block, Kansas, 1868-1940

Authors

Carol K. Coburn, University of Kansas

Date of this Version

1988

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in Great Plains Quarterly [GPQ 8 (Fall 1988): 222-2321. Copyright 1988 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Abstract

Ethnicity, religion, and gender shape our past, providing a richness and texture to individual and group experience. This experience creates identities and communities that in tum educate the young and ensure the transmission of values, beliefs, and culture across generations. The women of Block, Kansas, provide an opportunity to examine the complex relationship of ethnicity, religion, and gender. Beginning in the late 1860s, this German Lutheran enclave used its ethnic heritage and its religious doctrine to create a separate, distinct community in south central Miami County, Kansas. Trinity Lutheran Church and School served as focal points in the development of this rural community.