New Book Available
Apostle to the Inuit: The Journals and Ethnographic Notes of Edmund
James Peck - The Baffin Years, 1894-1905
Edited by Frederic Laugrand, Jarich Oosten, and Francois Trudel
University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 0802090427
Price: $75 USD
For further information and to order the book, please go to:
http://www.utppublishing.com/pubstore/merchant.ihtml?pid=8607&step=4
or contact:
Frederic Laugrand
Universite Laval
E-mail: Frederic.Laugrand [at] ant.ulaval.ca
"Apostle to the Inuit" presents the journals and ethnographical notes of
Reverend Edmund James Peck, an Anglican missionary who opened the first
mission among the Inuit of Baffin Island in 1894. He stayed until 1905,
and by that time had firmly established Christianity in the North. He
became known to the Inuit as 'Uqammaq,' the one who talks well. His
colleagues knew him as 'Apostle among the Eskimo.'
Peck's diaries of the period focus on his missionary work and the
adoption of Christianity by the Inuit and provide an impressive account
of the daily life and work of the early missionaries in Baffin Island.
His ethnographic data was collected at the request of famed
anthropologist Franz Boas in 1897. Peck conducted extensive research on
Inuit oral traditions and presents several detailed verbatim accounts of
shamanic traditions and practices. This previously unpublished work is
of great value for a better understanding of Inuit culture and history.
"Apostle to the Inuit" demonstrates how a Christian missionary who was
bitterly opposed to shamanism, became a devoted researcher of this
complex tradition. Editors Frederic Laugrand, Jarich Oosten, and
Francois Trudel highlight the relationships between Europeans and Inuit
and discuss central issues facing native peoples and missionaries in the
North. They also present a selection of fascinating drawings made by
Inuit at the request of Peck, which illustrate Inuit life on Baffin
Island at the turn of the twentieth century. The book offers important
new data on the history of the missions among the Inuit as well as on
the history of Inuit religion and the anthropological study of Inuit
oral traditions.
For further information and to order the book, please go to:
http://www.utppublishing.com/pubstore/merchant.ihtml?pid=8607&step=4