Sámi Religion Formations and Proto-Sámi Language Spread: Reassessing a Fundamental Assumption (original) (raw)

Archaeology, Language, and the Question of Sámi Ethnogenesis

Acta Archaeologica

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 These assumptions, we argue, are, to a large extent, based on very limited or outdated knowledge of archaeological research on the Sámi past, and in particular, that of northern Norway.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 prima...

At the frontier: Sámi linguistics gets a boost from outside

The question of the origins of the Sámi people of Northern Scandinavia and Russia has long been contentious. How did they come to speak a Finno-Ugric language? A promising explanation has recently been put forth by Ante Aikio, viz. that speakers of Proto-Sámi merged with and assimilated ancient hunter-gath-erers who had long inhabited the interior of the Scandinavian peninsula and whom Aikio calls Palaeo-Europeans. The present paper finds anthropological, archaeological and genetic evidence that helps corroborate Aikio's theory. There are numerous examples of mutually beneficial contacts between Sámi ancestors and other dwellers on the Scandinavian peninsula; for example, the Sámi produced commodities that were in demand among Germanic (Norwegians, Swedes) peoples living in Scandinavia. The Saami siida system of relatively small groups opened them to outside influence from Proto-Sámi speakers. Finally, phyloge-netic evidence confirms the widespread contacts between the Sámi and others as well as the mutual influence between groups.

Introduction: The Making of Sámi Religion in Contemporary Society

Religions, 2020

This Special Issue of Religions approaches “Sámi religion” from a long-term perspective seeing both the past religious practices and contemporary religious expressions as aspects of the same phenomena. This does not refer, however, to a focus on continuity or to a static or uniform understanding of Sámi religion. Sámi religion is an ambiguous concept that has to be understood as a pluralistic phenomenon consisting of multiple applications and associations and widely differing interpretations, and that highlights the complexities of processes of religion-making. In a historical perspective and in many contemporary contexts (such as museum displays, media stories, as well as educational programs) the term Sámi religion is mostly used as a reference to Sámi pre-Christian religious practices, to Laestadianism, a Lutheran revival movement that spread among the Sámi during the 19th Century, and last but not least to shamanism. In this issue, we particularly aim to look into contemporary c...

Archaeological and Lexical Relevant Indicators of South Sámi Prehistory

RMN Newsletter, 2019

This paper complements my model for combining archaeological and lexical material with relevant indicators, a discipline-neutral tool that provides information on cultural processes enabling comparison of research results of different disciplines. It shows how the model is applied to South Sámi material, and how relevant indicators should be used in the data. I suggest that a degree of probability be added to the concept, distinguishing strong and weak relevant indicators.

The Impact of Materiality on Sámi Burial Customs and Religious Concepts

2011

The belief in cognitive processes has for a long time been an unquestionable a priori in the investigation of Sámi religion. The role played by materiality, however, have to a large extent been ignored, and at best judged as mere side effects of cognition. An examination of Sámi Christian cemeteries demonstrates that a number of pre-Christian features were present long after Christianity became the main religion. Sámi burial sites reveal an unknown part of conversion, indicating that materiality may work as a silent and incorporated ‘actor’ of its own. Given this condition, human dependence on and affection for materiality may be signifi cantly more important for processes and practices in a society than generally conceived. The archaeological evidence of the Christianization of the Sámi strongly indicates a different story than hitherto presented of the process in question.

North/South Encounters at Sámi Sacred Sites in Northern Finland

Historical Archaeology, 2015

7KLV DUWLFOH IRFXVHV RQ WKH XVH RI 6iPL VDFUL¿FLDO SODFHV FDOOHG sieidi (in North Sámi). Their meanings to the Sámi people changed when the indigenous northern tradition collided with the colonial expansion of Christian culture from the south. Sieidi sites have had a long period of use-from the turn RI WKH ¿UVW PLOOHQQLXP $' XQWLO WKH WK FHQWXU\²LQ VRPH FDVHV XS WR WKH SUHVHQW GD\ 'XULQJ WKLV WLPH WKH LQÀXHQFH of the church and agrarian society in the north has increased. Consequently, attitudes toward sieidi and their associated meanings vary widely: some people wish to destroy the ³SDJDQ´ VLWHV RU YLHZ WKHP DV VFLHQWL¿F FXULRVLWLHV ZKLOH others use them, alongside Christian churches, as places to practice indigenous beliefs. Sámi attitudes toward the sac-UL¿FLDO VLWHV RI WKHLU HWKQLF UHOLJLRQ KDYH EHHQ LQ FRQVWDQW dialog with colonial and subsequent neocolonial contacts emanating from the south.