Spaces of Resilience and Resistance: Sámi Habitation in Southern and Central Sweden During the Late Medieval and the Early Modern Period

Abstract

This paper examines traces of Sámi habitation in southern and central Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, addressing the late medieval period to the end of the nineteenth century. It begins with Swedish judicial policy against Sámi nomadism in central Sweden, followed by a discussion of medieval Sámi material culture in southern Scandinavia. Further analysis addresses so-called Parish-Lapp indenture, which allowed nomadic Sámi to escape eviction to the far north (as decreed in 1671) by serving the parish. Yet, Sámi groups maintained and developed ritual practices, foodways, and language in a society parallel to the majority society and in resistance to it.