ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the encounter between two ideologies of kinship—“natural” or blood kinship and Christian “spiritual” kinship— among newly established Nenets evangelical communities in the Polar Ural and Yamal tundra. Christian kinship, emerging from “spiritual rebirth,” often conflicted with and supplanted ancestral kin ties. Yet Nenets kinship became the framework for conversion. Missionary initiatives and Nenets religiosity operated as kin-based activities. Missionary outreach followed kinship routes, was shaped by exogamy and reciprocity, and was mediated by indigenous guides, who translated Christian messages and regulated missionary access through family dynamics. Missionaries engaged in “participant conversion,” acting as mediators within kin networks. Over time, evangelical missions became embedded in clan-based structures, giving rise to “clan churches” that mirrored traditional clan compositions.
