Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth: Gender, Shamanism, and the Third Sex

by Bernard Saladin d'Anglure, Peter Frost (Translator), Bernard Saladin d'Anglure

Ujarak, Iqallijuq, and Kupaaq were elders from the Inuit community on Igloolik Island in Nunavut. The three elders, among others, shared with Bernard Saladin d’Anglure the narratives which make up the heart of Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth. Through their words, and historical sources recorded by Franz Boas and Knud Rasmussen, Saladin d’Anglure examines the Inuit notion of personhood and its relationship to cosmology and mythology. Central to these stories are womb memories, narratives of birth and reincarnation, and the concept of the third sex―an intermediate identity between male and female. As explained through first-person accounts and traditional legends, myths, and folk tales, the presence of transgender individuals informs Inuit relationships to one another and to the world at large, transcending the dualities of male and female, human and animal, human and spirit. This new English edition includes the 2006 preface by Claude Lévi-Strauss and an afterword by Bernard Saladin d’Anglure.

Genres: Nonfiction, Anthropology, Indigenous, Mythology, History, Anthologies, Spirituality

402 pages, Hardcover

Published November 30, 2018

About the author

Bernard Saladin d'Anglure was a Canadian anthropologist and ethnographer. His work primarily concerned itself with the Inuit of Northern Canada, especially practices of shamanism and conceptions of gender. As an anthropological theorist, he studied under the structuralist Claude Lévi-Strauss, but became most recognized for his innovative methodology and elaboration of the concept of the "third sex". He spoke French, English and Inuktitut fluently. He was Professor Emeritus (Retired) at the Université Laval.

Reviews

[Liisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

An academic account of Inuit myths and stories, including some biographies and photographs of the tellers.

[Ewelina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and insightful book about Inuit myths and beliefs about life, death and human nature, as told by native storytellers. It is full of author's comments on Inuit culture, customs and history, mainly focused on Nunavut and the inhabitants of Igloolik island.

Reading this book, I felt as if the author's friends from Igloolik have become my own.

[MasterSal]

April 2021

References in the book I am currently reading - The Wolf and the Whale - this seems so interesting.

[Jack Ball · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read several times as research for a piece on gender in the Arctic, truly wonderful book, full of so much life and history that could so easily be lost otherwise