Abstract
When writing about politically and culturally sensitive topics, term use is of great relevance. Sámi religion is a case in point. Words organise and create the world around us, and labels have direct consequences on how religious phenomena are perceived. Even labelling a phenomenon or an action “religious” carries certain baggage. Term use is, of course, easier when writing about historical materials and describing rituals whose practitioners have been dead for centuries. Nonetheless, contemporary practitioners of age-old rituals or people who use ancient symbols in their everyday lives often see themselves as carriers of old tradition and wish to identify with previous generations regardless of opinions that might deem their actions as “re-enacting”, “neoshamanism”, or “neopaganism”. If, for example, outsider academics wish to deem modern-day Indigenous persons as “neo”-something, issues of power and essentialism blend in with the discourse. This paper critically explores terms used around the Sámi religion in different time periods and attempts to come to suggestions that could solve some of the terminological problems a student of modern practitioners of indigenous religions inevitably faces.
Highlights
Why Care about What Terms Are Used?The Sámi are an Indigenous people living in Sápmi, an area stretching across the state borders of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia
Sjöblom’s observations show that the use of etic, heuristic terms leaves plenty of space for interpretations and skewed translations, but that it is inevitable. It is exactly these interpretations and theory-laden assumptions that I am going to discuss in the following, as I take some of the most common labels used for Sámi religion in academic English into critical consideration
I will discuss the problems arising from dichotomies that are created by setting Sámi indigenous religion and Christianity directly as opposing polarities
Summary
The Sámi are an Indigenous people living in Sápmi, an area stretching across the state borders of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. As I have demonstrated elsewhere (Kaikkonen 2019, forthcoming), an exoticist fascination towards the age-old beliefs and practices of the Sámi, that existed previous to as well as alongside Christianity, has often focused the interest of majorities in the Nordic states—and beyond—towards the Sámi This has resulted in several written descriptions of Sámi religion, where the beliefs and practices I have decided in this article to label “Sámi indigenous religion” have been translated according to the prevailing zeitgeist as “witchcraft”, “sorcery”, or “idolatry” before the 18th century; “superstition”. Sjöblom’s observations show that the use of etic, heuristic terms leaves plenty of space for interpretations and skewed translations, but that it is inevitable It is exactly these interpretations and theory-laden assumptions that I am going to discuss in the following, as I take some of the most common labels used for Sámi religion in academic English into critical consideration. I will problematise the most common terms used in historical studies of Sámi religion, basing myself on a critical and historically oriented approach and following a rough division into three different ways of speaking about Sámi indigenous religion in the academia
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