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Abstract
Debates over the ethnogenesis of the Sámi and their historical presence in Fennoscandia have long affected scholarly and public discourses. More recently, these debates have been fueled by new propositions launched by Finnish linguists regarding the origin and development of the Sámi language. In this article, we target this corpus of linguistic research and the wide-ranging implications it suggests for the Sámi past. While based on historical and comparative linguistics data, a notable feature of the studies examined is that they also lean heavily on assumptions about the archaeological record in their reasonings. These assumptions, we argue, are, to a large extent, based on very limited or outdated knowledge of archaeological research on the Sámi past, and in particular, that of northern Norway. The article raises critical questions regarding the notions of cultural areas, ancestral homelands, and migrations that abound in these linguistic studies and challenges the a priori primacy assigned to language as the constituent of cultural identity. In conclusion, we outline a Sámi archaeological past that does not concur well with recent linguistic accounts and which, in the end, begs the question of whether this discrepancy can be reconciled and, if so, how this can happen.
Hunters in Transition provides a new outline of the early history of the Sámi, the indigenous population of northernmost Europe. Discussing crucial issues such as the formation of Sámi ethnicity, interaction with chieftain and state societies, and the transition from hunting to reindeer herding, the book departs from the common trope whereby native encounters with other cultures, state societies, and “modernity”, are depicted mainly in negative terms. Far from always victimizing “the other”, the interaction with outside societies played a crucial role in generating and maintaining a number of features considered integral to Sámi culture. At the same time the authors also emphasize internal processes and dynamics and show how these have greatly contributed to the diverse historical trajectories with which this book is concerned.
Listed by Choice magazine as one of the Outstanding Academic Titles of 2014
Listed by Choice magazine as one of the Outstanding Academic Titles of 2014
An Outline of Early Sámi History
Series:
The Northern World, Volume: 63
Hunters in Transition provides a new outline of the early history of the Sámi, the indigenous population of northernmost Europe. Discussing crucial issues such as the formation of Sámi ethnicity, interaction with chieftain and state societies, and the transition from hunting to reindeer herding, the book departs from the common trope whereby native encounters with other cultures, state societies, and “modernity”, are depicted mainly in negative terms. Far from always victimizing “the other”, the interaction with outside societies played a crucial role in generating and maintaining a number of features considered integral to Sámi culture. At the same time the authors also emphasize internal processes and dynamics and show how these have greatly contributed to the diverse historical trajectories with which this book is concerned.
Listed by Choice magazine as one of the Outstanding Academic Titles of 2014
Listed by Choice magazine as one of the Outstanding Academic Titles of 2014
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