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The Saami of Lapland: How Paths Converge in the European Arctic
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12759 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
3 / 1987 |
4,272 Words |
| Author
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Myrdene Anderson
Myrdene Anderson, a graduate of the University of Hawaii and
Yale University, is associate professor of anthropology at
Pudue University. Since 1972, she has lived for six years in
Norwegian Lapland, carrying out research in ethnosemantics,
folk ecology, human-animal relations, demography, and
political marginality. |
In Europe's Arctic periphery, one people straddle four nation-states. The Saami, of the boundless and amorphous tracts called Lapland, occupy the northern reaches of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and a sliver of the Kola Peninsula of the Soviet Union.
In English, we used to call the Saami, their culture, and their language (a Finno-Ugric one) 'Lapp' simply because their nearest neighbors did. Those neighbors, members of the dominant culture of the nation-states in which the Saami reside, have responded over the past several decades to the Saami preference for being called by their own name, a sign that dominant cultural and national groups are more sensitive to Saami and other vocal Fourth World minorities.
Global events conspire to call our attention to the Saami, a cultural group familiar to most of us only in their stereotypical role as reindeerherding no-mads. The popular media have singled out the Saami as actors and victims in several instances recently, most notably the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, often without affording us a glimpse of the flavor and texture of Saami life.
Regionalism, reindeer, and radiation
In the past decade, Saami and other Fourth World peoples have convened a number of conferences to discuss their experiences as indigenous ethnic minorities in First World, Second World, and Third World nation-states. These ethnic minorities hope to educate other citizens of the world about their often disadvantaged situations. Even though the Saami reside in relatively benevolent countries - and do not face the genocide
... (1994 of 27044 Characters)
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