Guérison et transformations rituelles dans les mondes autochtones au Québec : l’expérience de la loge à sudation (sweat lodge) comme acte politique chez les Atikamekw Nehirowisiwok

Abstract

In this article, we will analyze the political significance and the dynamics of transformation related to the sweat lodge ritual in the indigenous context of Quebec. While tracing the historical context of this ritual practice, which is well known throughout the Americas, we will show how it can be understood through the relational dynamics that it allows to set up : relations between the actors of the ritual, between the participants and the territory, between human and non-human world, between the present and the colonial history, between future perspectives and the heritage of ancestors. This relational perspective of ritual allows us to question the way in which it is inscribed in different healing initiatives while referring to current processes of political affirmation in the indigenous context.