Over the century between the first Oblate mission to the Canadian central Arctic in 1867 and the radical shifts brought about by Vatican II, the region was the site of complex interactions between Inuit, Oblate missionaries, and Grey Nuns – interactions that have not yet received the attention they deserve. Enriching archival sources with oral testimony, Frédéric Laugrand and Jarich Oosten provide an in-depth analysis of conversion, medical care, education, and vocation in the Keewatin region of the Northwest Territories. They show that while Christianity was adopted by the Inuit and major transformations occurred, the Oblates and the Grey Nuns did not eradicate the old traditions or assimilate the Inuit, who were caught up in a process they could not yet fully understand. The study begins with the first contact Inuit had with Christianity in the Keewatin region and ends in the mid-1960s, when an Inuk woman joined the Grey Nuns and two Inuit brothers became Oblate missionaries. Bringing together many different voices, perspectives, and experiences, and emphasizing the value of multivocality in understanding this complex period of Inuit history, Inuit, Oblate Missionaries, and Grey Nuns in the Keewatin, 1865–1965 highlights the subtle nuances of a long and complex interaction, showing how salvation and suffering were intertwined.

In this timely collection, the authors examine Indigenous peoples’ negotiations with different cosmologies in a globalized world. Dussart and Poirier outline a sophisticated theory of change that accounts for the complexity of Indigenous peoples’ engagement with Christianity and other cosmologies, their own colonial experiences, as well as their ongoing relationships to place and kin. The contributors offer fine-grained ethnographic studies that highlight the complex and pragmatic ways in which Indigenous peoples enact their cosmologies and articulate their identity as forms of affirmation. This collection is a major contribution to the anthropology of religion, religious studies, and Indigenous studies worldwide. Contributors: Anne-Marie Colpron, Robert R. Crépeau, Françoise Dussart, Ingrid Hall, Laurent Jérôme, Frédéric Laugrand, C. James MacKenzie, Caroline Nepton Hotte, Ksenia Pimenova, Sylvie Poirier, Kathryn Rountree, Antonella Tassinari, Petronella Vaarzon-Morel

This book draws together anthropological studies of human-animal relations among Indigenous Peoples in three regions of the Americas: the Andes, Amazonia and the American Arctic. Despite contrasts between the ecologies of the different regions, it finds useful comparisons between the ways that lives of human and non-human animals are entwined in shared circumstances and sentient entanglements. While studies of all three regions have been influential in scholarship on human-animal relations, the regions are seldom brought together. This volume highlights the value of examining partial connections across the American continent between human and other-than-human lives.

A reminder of the important history between humans and birds. As they migrated across great distances, ancient humans may have used birdsong and bird sightings to find food and water in unseen territory. Today, attending to birds helps scientists track not only avian migration but also environmental change. Birds remain our sentinels. Feathered Entanglements offers a rich tapestry of human-bird relations across the Indo-Pacific. In this era of uncontrolled industrialization, we have grown increasingly disconnected from the natural world. This book examines how birds feature in the daily life, symbolic systems, and material culture of humans, from pigeon keeping on the rooftops of Amman to the rituals of Indigenous peoples in Taiwan. Through these examples, the authors reveal how we can learn to live with other species amid the challenges of the Anthropocene. In a time of intensifying ecological crisis, we need, more than ever, to protect and appreciate nonhuman lives. Feathered Entanglements embraces the connection between humans, birds, and our shared world.