ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the adoption of Christianity by the Inuit of the Canadian Central Arctic from the very first contacts to the 1970s. It discusses the religious changes from a historical as well as an anthropological perspective. The chapter focuses on angakkuit, shamans, and missionaries and explores how Inuit integrated shamanism in the context of Christianity. At the end of the nineteenth century, but especially between 1883 and 1894 when the CMS opened a permanent mission, Churchill gradually became a place where Inuit could be in direct contact with Christian ideas, practices and values. Inuit especially welcomed new Christian principles and rules integrating them in their own traditions. For Piugaattuq the transition from the old to the new life creates a distinction between Christian rules and Satan's rules. Clearly some elements from the Christian tradition were quite meaningful for the Inuit.