Mutual Influences in Orthodox Missions among the Nanai People in the Russian Far East

Abstract

Among the Nanai in the Russian Far-East, the Russian Orthodox Church has been conducting missions in two villages since 2011. In this article, I analyze the usage of Nanai iconography in the printed Gospel of Luke and of oral myths to tell the Nanai version of the Christian message. A specific Nanai Christianity is thus perceptible, rooted within shamanism, that is, the emic perception of powerful forces at play in the world, with whom humans are in constant negotiations. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Amur region, this analysis will highlight the Indigenous agency in the appropriation of the Christian doctrine.