| Summary: | Using ontological anthropology as a theoretical framework, this thesis aims to better understand the continuities and transformations in the rites of passage among the Inuit of Nunavik, since their conversion to Christianity until today. The rites of pregnancy, childbirth, and birth, are described in detail, as well as the naming process of the child, and the rites of the first time. This ethnography uses a regional comparative approach, and is based on several collaborations with some institutions of Nunavik. The sequences of these rites of passage are therefore analyzed both as a highlight of the construction of the person, and as witnesses to the resilience shown by the Inuit culture. At the heart of the socialization of children, these rites indeed appear to have contributed to convey certain cultural principles by which different elements of the Christian cosmology could be adapted and incorporated. These rites would thus have been instrumental in updating the Inuit cosmology of the twentieth century, and more precisely in reorganizing of relationships that humans have with various non-human beings. Passing on, until today, the ontological principles underlying these relations, and after incorporating several elements of the Christian tradition, these rites suggest the importance of acknowledging the socializing role played by many non-human beings – foetuses, deceased, animals, spirits - in early education. It therefore implies to address a sensitive question, that is, the extension of the notion of person to non-humans beings. Dans la perspective d’une anthropologie ontologique, la thèse vise à mieux comprendre les continuités et les transformations au sein des rites de passage chez les Inuit du Nunavik, depuis leur conversion au christianisme jusqu’au contexte actuel. Les rites de la grossesse, de l’accouchement, et de la naissance, y sont décrits en détail, tout comme le processus de dénomination de l’enfant, puis les rites de la première fois. Cette ethnographie mobilise une démarche comparative ...
|
|---|