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Sámi Prehistories: the Politics of Archaeology and Identity In OCCASIONAL PAPERS IN ARCHAEOLOGY 47 Carl-Gösta Ojala Sámi Prehistories The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in Northernmost Europe INSTITUTIONEN FÖR ARKEOLOGI OCH ANTIK HISTORIA UPPSALA UNIVERSITET 2009 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Geijersalen, Centre for the Humanities, English Park Campus, Uppsala, Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 10:00 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Abstract Ojala, C-G. 2009. Sámi Prehistories. The Politics of Archaeology and Identity in Northernmost Europe. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History. Occasional papers in archaeology 47. 353 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 978-91-506-2096-2. Throughout the history of archaeology, the Sámi (the indigenous people in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in the Russian Federation) have been conceptualized as the “Others” in relation to the national identity and (pre)history of the modern states. It is only in the last decades that a field of Sámi archaeology that studies Sámi (pre)history in its own right has emerged, parallel with an ethnic and cultural revival among Sámi groups. This dissertation investigates the notions of Sámi prehistory and archaeology, partly from a research historical perspective and partly from a more contemporary political perspective. It explores how the Sámi and ideas about the Sámi past have been represented in archaeological narratives from the early 19th century until today, as well as the development of an academic field of Sámi archaeology. The study consists of four main parts: 1) A critical examination of the conceptualization of ethnicity, nationalism and indigeneity in archaeological research. 2) A historical analysis of the representations and debates on Sámi prehistory, primarily in Sweden but also to some extent in Norway and Finland, focusing on four main themes: the origin of the Sámi people, South Sámi prehistory as a contested field of study, the development of reindeer herding, and Sámi pre- Christian religion. 3) An analysis of the study of the Sámi past in Russia, and a discussion on archaeological research and constructions of ethnicity and indigeneity in the Russian Federation and the Soviet Union. 4) An examination of the claims for greater Sámi self-determination concerning cultural heritage management and the debates on repatriation and reburial in the Nordic countries. In the dissertation, it is argued that there is a great need for discussions on the ethics and politics of archaeological research. A relational network approach is suggested as a way of opening up some of the black boxes and bounded, static entities in the representations of people in the past in the North. Keywords: Sámi, Sápmi, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russian Federation, Soviet Union, history of archaeology, ethnogenesis, origins, South Sámi prehistory, ethnicity, nationalism, indigeneity, indigenous archaeology, ethnopolitics, cultural heritage management, repatriation, reburial, ethics, actor-network theory Carl-Gösta Ojala, Archaeology, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Box 626, Uppsala University, SE-75126 Uppsala, Sweden © Carl-Gösta Ojala 2009 ISSN 1100-6358 ISBN 978-91-506-2096-2 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-108857 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-108857) Cover illustration: Lake Lovozero on the Kola Peninsula. Photograph by author. Printed in Sweden by Edita Västra Aros, Västerås 2009. Contents Acknowledgements....................................................................................................... 9 A note on language ..................................................................................................... 13 Introduction to the dissertation ................................................................................ 15 Aims ......................................................................................................................... 16 Outline of the dissertation.................................................................................... 17 About the structure of the study ......................................................................... 19 PART I: Networks of Archaeology Chapter 1. Ethnicity and identity in archaeological research ............................... 25 “One-entities” and “black boxes”: the delimiting of culture and people ..... 26 Approaches to ethnicity ........................................................................................ 28 Ethnicity as an archaeological concept............................................................... 30 Ethnicity and other forms of identity ................................................................. 32 Chapter 2. Nationalist, internationalist and indigenous archaeologies ............... 34 Nationalism and internationalism in archaeology............................................. 34 Indigenism in archaeology.................................................................................... 37 Discussion and critique of the concept of indigenism ............................... 40 Indigenous archaeology ................................................................................... 44 Chapter 3. Outline of a network approach to archaeology and identity ............ 47 Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and archaeology.............................................. 48 Archaeological networks....................................................................................... 50 A network approach to identity and ethnicity in archaeological research .... 52 Networks of Archaeology – Discussion.................................................................. 55 PART II: Mapping the North in the West Chapter 4. The North – cartographies of prehistory and identity....................... 64 Norrland, the North Calotte and the Barents Region...................................... 66 Northern Sweden as an archaeological field of study ...................................... 67 Sápmi – land and culture....................................................................................... 71 Who is Sámi?........................................................................................................... 74 Sámi prehistory and the Kven movement ......................................................... 78 Chapter 5. Representing the Sámi – a short historical outline............................. 82 Early written sources: ethnonyms and the Sámi people .................................. 83 The missionary accounts from the 17th and 18th centuries...................... 86 Lapponia by Johannes Schefferus.................................................................... 88 Colonization, missionary activities and exploitation of natural resources .... 89 Views on the Sámi in the late 19th and early 20th century ............................. 94 Revitalization, cooperation and globalization.................................................... 97 Chapter 6. Scientific discourses on Sámi prehistory and Sámi archaeology .... 103 The 19th century and early 20th century: from an indigenous to a foreign people....................................................................................................... 104 After the Second World War: modernization and assimilation.................... 106 Sámi prehistory in the 1980s: new debates on ethnicity and archaeology .. 109 Sámi archaeology in recent years: pluralism and internationalization.......... 112 Chapter 7. Debates in Sámi archaeology ............................................................... 115 The origin of the Sámi – the search for origins and authenticity................. 115 Autochthons or immigrants? ........................................................................ 116 The debates from the 1980s: the emergence of Sámi ethnicity............... 129 Sámi languages and Sámi origins.................................................................. 134 Genes, origins and ethnicity.......................................................................... 137 Sámi perspectives? .......................................................................................... 139 South Sámi prehistory – contested archaeology ............................................. 141 The theory of the late arrival of Sámi groups in the South Sámi area.... 143 Vivallen............................................................................................................. 145 Hunting-ground graves.................................................................................. 148 Archaeology in the legal courtrooms: The Härjedalen case..................... 155 New perspectives on South Sámi (pre)history........................................... 160 The emergence and development of reindeer herding and pastoralism ..... 164 Stalo-foundations and social change............................................................ 165 Sámi pre-Christian religion................................................................................. 169 Mapping the North in the West: Discussion ........................................................ 173 PART III: Mapping the North in the East Chapter 8. Identity, archaeology and the peoples of the North ........................ 182 The indigenous peoples of the North............................................................... 182 Archaeology and conceptions of the Northern peoples in pre-revolutionary Russia ..................................................................................... 188 Archaeological research
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