Memory Eternal: Tlingit Culture and Russian Orthodox Christianity Through Two Centuries by Sergei Kan

Library Journal

This book brings together quality ethnography and history to illustrate the impact and dynamics of interaction between the Tlingit people and the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska. Kan, who teaches anthropology and Native American studies at Dartmouth and has over 20 years of research experience with Tlingit Orthodoxy, provides the reader with a detailed exposition of Tlingit culture, economy, society, and history. The text covers important historical events from 1834 to the 1990s: the smallpox epidemic, the sale of Alaska, the large Tlingit conversion to Russian Orthodoxy (1886-95), and the development of Tlingit Orthodoxy as a significant component of their cultural system. Expertly weaving anthropological and ethnographic theory with an understanding of Tlingit traditional beliefs and practices, Kan has written a book that is essential for cultural anthropologists, students of religion, and those deeply interested in the dynamics of traditional belief systems. For academic libraries.--John Dockall, Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

Kan (anthropology, Dartmouth College) portrays the meeting between the Tlingit Indians and the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska in the late 1700s and analyzes the indigenous Orthodoxy that developed over the next 200 years. Examinations of Russian Orthodox theology, ritual practice, and missionary methods, as well as descriptions of Tlingit culture enhance this story of the synthesis of two cultures. Kan concludes that the Tlingit and Russians tended to act in mutually beneficial ways, but for completely different reasons. He goes on to explore the ways the Tlingit used the Orthodox tradition to resist Americanization with the arrival of Presbyterian missionaries in the 1880s. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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