Tastes of Sovereignty: an Ethnography of Sámi Food Movements in Arctic Sweden
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AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Amanda Sophie Green for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Anthropology presented on June 9, 2016. Title: Tastes of Sovereignty: An Ethnography of Sámi Food Movements in Arctic Sweden. Abstract approved: _____________________________________________________ Joan E. Gross In this dissertation, I examine the process of building a Sámi food movement in northern Sweden. Using 15 months of ethnographic research that included observation of food events (n=100) and semi-structured interviews with food producers and activists (n=47), I describe how Sámi individuals are incorporating global food activism frameworks into their efforts to maintain Sámi cultural and livelihood practices. Two frameworks have become salient to Sámi efforts: food sovereignty and rural food development. I find that on the one hand food sovereignty provides a discourse that enables Sámi activists to address their concerns with land access and climate change, which threaten their food production. On the other hand, the protection and development of their heritage foods, through programs like Slow Food and other third party certifications, enable them to connect with consumers and to address their concern for the cooptation of Sámi knowledge, which equally threatens their ability to make a living selling Sámi foods and culinary knowledge. I demonstrate that new discourses and spaces become available – nutrition science discourses and national food conferences for example – which Sámi activists accustomize for their own ends. This dissertation is one of the first to address how indigenous sovereignty movements and food movements are together enabling indigenous peoples to work towards sovereignty in new discourses and spaces. It advances our understanding of how food movements can contribute to building indigenous sovereignty and economies, at the same time it introduces us to some of the risks inherent to this approach. ©Copyright by Amanda Sophie Green June 9, 2016 All Rights Reserved Tastes of Sovereignty: An Ethnography of Sámi Food Movements in Arctic Sweden by Amanda Sophie Green A DISSERTATION submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Presented June 9, 2016 Commencement June 2017 Doctor of Philosophy dissertation of Amanda Sophie Green presented on June 9, 2016 APPROVED: Major Professor, representing Applied Anthropology Director of the School of Language, Culture and Society Dean of the Graduate School I understand that my dissertation will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signature below authorizes release of my dissertation to any reader upon request. Amanda Sophie Green, Author ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My deepest appreciation goes to the individuals who participated in this research as well as the individuals who welcomed me and my husband, Aaron Schorsch, to Jokkmokk. Without you, this project would not have been possible. I also thank my collaborators on the Jokkmokk Food Assessment and the Jokkmokk Matlandethuvudstad project, Victoria Harnesk and Åsa Labba. Countless others made our lives a joy: the staff and owners of Saltoluokta Fjällstation, Utsi Ren, Café Gasskas, VuovdeSámi Experience, Essence of Lappland, and Jokkmokks Bär. Of course, there are many others who I cannot name for the sake of confidentiality, and I hope you know who you are. Joan Gross, my dissertation adviser, should share credit for the completion of this dissertation. Her unending fascination with this topic and her uncanny ability to force me to meet deadlines were essential. It has been a pleasure to work with her for the past six years. I thank Lisa Price, my minor professor in Food in Culture and Social Justice, for building my knowledge in methodology as well as my confidence in the significance of the social sciences and my own research. I am grateful to committee member Natchee Barnd for giving me many opportunities to assist him in his scholarship and providing a critical sounding board to my own understandings of indigenous studies. I also thank David McMurray and Drew Gerkey for their shrewd insights into theoretical scholarship. To my fellow Oregon State University graduate students (or graduates), including Shannon Caplan, Jamie Petts, Robert Asinjo, Lauren Visconti, Holly Horan, Rebecka Daye, Cayla Hill, Amanda Valora, Sarah Cunningham, the late Adele Kubein, and certainly I’ve missed some of you: thank you for reading over chapters, listening to and improving draft defenses, and collaborating on ideas. Your input and friendships kept me afloat. I thank the American Scandinavian Foundation for their financial support as well as Kathryn and Richard Ross, the Oregon State University Graduate Internationalization Grant, the School of Language, Culture and Society, and the Department of Anthropology. Slow Food Corvallis and the Swedish Women’s Education Association of North Carolina also provided critical support for preliminary research. Umeå University’s Center for Sámi Research (CESAM) was instrumental in securing my visas as well as pushing the boundaries of my thoughts on contemporary Sámi research. Special thank you to Anna-Lill Ledman, Peter Sköld, Per Axelsson, Lena Nilsson, and Patrik Lantto for their thought-provoking seminars and assistance. Finally, I thank my family. To my mother and father who gave me the linguistic tools, who encouraged my curiosity, and who were always willing to come visit me wherever I landed: thank you. To my family in Sweden—mormor, Linda, Sarah, Leif, Johan, Åsa—I owe you a great deal for opening your homes, your stories and your arms. To my daughter Aila: Despite your best efforts to keep me at home with you and to deprive me of any reasonable amount of sleep, I still managed. I wouldn’t trade you for all the sleep and dissertations in the world. To my husband Aaron, this dissertation is for you. Your passion for food, people and stories inspired this research, and your love of Jokkmokk made it an even greater joy to be there. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION: TASTING INDIGENOUS CULINARY POLITICS ......................... 1 Why Food? ............................................................................................................................. 2 Why Jokkmokk? ...................................................................................................................... 8 Why Sámi? ........................................................................................................................... 14 Research Questions ................................................................................................................ 23 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................... 24 Relevance ............................................................................................................................. 24 Outline of the Dissertation ....................................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW: THEORIZING INDIGENOUS FOOD MOVEMENTS ....... 30 Social Movements .................................................................................................................. 30 Indigenous Movements ....................................................................................................... 32 Social Movements and Indigenous Cosmopolitanism ................................................................ 36 Food Movements ................................................................................................................... 40 Slow Food’s Moral Economy ............................................................................................... 42 Is a Moral Economy Enough?............................................................................................... 46 Sovereignty and Food Sovereignty Movements............................................................................ 48 Sámi perspectives on Sámi food organizing ................................................................................ 54 CHAPTER THREE ETHNOGRAPHIC SETTING: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON SÁMI FOODWAYS, LAND AND ACTIVISM ......................................................................... 58 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 58 The Sameby Structure and the Limits of Sámi Food Production ...................................................... 59 Settlement and Colonization of Sápmi ........................................................................................ 63 Sámi Social and Political Movements, 1900s-present .................................................................... 68 The Right to (Use) Land .......................................................................................................... 71 Subsistence Living and Wage Earning in the Arctic ...................................................................... 76 Sámi Foodways and Diets Past to Present ................................................................................... 80 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 87 CHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 89 From