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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

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Copyright 2007

Daymon Mickel Smith
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For the gem, the philosopher,
the muse, and the unnamed
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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.
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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
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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.

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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

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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

PART TWO: Mind and Body

Chapter Six..................................................................................... 189
On Oaths and Covenants in Marriage and Politics...........................................190
Belief and Practice............................................................................................197
Types of Reported Speech and Thought..........................................................199
Belief as a real mental thing..............................................................................201
Examination Strategy........................................................................................206
The Federal Response.....................................................................................211
Speech becomes real because reflective of Mind.............................................218
Mind as Defense and Refuge ...........................................................................220
Verbs of Speaking and Thinking in other Media...............................................224
Conclusion........................................................................................................229

Chapter Seven ............................................................................... 231
A Brief on Grammar and Analogy.....................................................................232
Mormon Theology.............................................................................................240
On or Of Faith...................................................................................................241
Intelligence in Brigham Young..........................................................................245
The Pratt Brothers on elements........................................................................248
Celestial Beings According to Pratt...................................................................253
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Young on God(s) ..............................................................................................256
The Pratts on Worlds of Spirit...........................................................................262
Intelligence(s), God, and Holy Ghost as nouns.................................................268
Conclusion........................................................................................................274

Chapter Eight ................................................................................. 276
Articles of Faith.................................................................................................276
The Great Synthesizer......................................................................................282
Rationalizing Intelligences................................................................................286
Of like Minds.....................................................................................................292
The Mystery of the Word...................................................................................296
Conclusion........................................................................................................305

PART THREE: Fundamentalist Historiography

Chapter Nine.................................................................................. 311
Inner Circles......................................................................................................312
Smoot and Smith in Washington.......................................................................316
Public supplants Private....................................................................................322
Official Removal of Interpreters of Private Utterance........................................326
Speaking as Doing or Thinking.........................................................................328
Conclusion........................................................................................................346

Chapter Ten ................................................................................... 348
Creating the role of rebel polygamist................................................................349
Final Matters: Cowley and Taylor .....................................................................359
Conclusion........................................................................................................368

Chapter Eleven............................................................................... 373
Abducting Culture From Ambiguity...................................................................374
Specific Lines of Authority Emerge...................................................................376
A New History of Priesthood.............................................................................379
From Rumor to Dialogue...................................................................................383
The New Power of Tradition .............................................................................394
A New Mormonism ...........................................................................................403
Speaking for the Priesthood..............................................................................409
Conclusion: Old Wine in New Bottles ...............................................................412

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PART FOUR: Latter-day Saint Historiography

Excursus on Church and Priesthood.............................................. 416

Chapter Twelve.............................................................................. 424
To Simplify and Reduce....................................................................................425
Correlation of Spirit and Priesthood..................................................................430
Private Cautions ...............................................................................................433
Unrestrained Priesthood Correlation.................................................................436
Mind written into Church...................................................................................444
A Correlated History..........................................................................................446
Conclusion........................................................................................................452

Chapter Thirteen ............................................................................ 457
Preparations: a new manual.............................................................................457
Preparation: A List of Ideas...............................................................................463
Preparation: Topics as Shields against History.................................................466
The Mind and Correlation.................................................................................469
Preparation: Refined Ideas...............................................................................471
Production: Ideas turned into texts, and vice versa ..........................................473
The Final Product in Analysis ...........................................................................476
Props for Study and Discussion........................................................................479
Pronouns of Collective Unconscious ................................................................484
Revising the Priesthood....................................................................................486
Conclusion........................................................................................................498

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