Inuit Shamanism and Christianity: Transitions and Transformations in the Twentieth Century

Using archival material and oral testimony collected during workshops in Nunavut between 1996 and 2008, Frederic 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.
Inuit Shamanism and Christianity is particularly useful in distinguishing between the influence of Anglican, Catholic, and, more recently, Pentecostal and Evangelical movements and in delineating the ways in which Shamanism still influences modern life in Inuit communities.

Fr?d?ric B. Laugrand is professor of anthropology, and director of the Centre Interuniversitaire d’?tudes et de Recherches Autochtones (CI?RA), Universit? Laval.

Jarich G. Oosten is associate professor of anthropology, Leiden University, and the author