Inuit Shamanism and Christianity

Download or read book Inuit Shamanism and Christianity written by Frédéric B. Laugrand and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using archival material and oral testimony collected during workshops in Nunavut between 1996 and 2008, Frédéric Laugrand and Jarich Oosten provide a nuanced look at Inuit religion, offering a strong counter narrative to the idea that traditional Inuit culture declined post-contact. They show that setting up a dichotomy between a past identified with traditional culture and a present involving Christianity obscures the continuity and dynamics of Inuit society, which has long borrowed and adapted "outside" elements. They argue that both Shamanism and Christianity are continually changing in the Arctic and ideas of transformation and transition are necessary to understand both how the ideology of a hunting society shaped Inuit Christian cosmology and how Christianity changed Inuit shamanic traditions.