The History of Lapland and the Case of the Sami Noaidi Drum Figures Reversed

Abstract

The Sami are the indigenous peoples of northern Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Up until the periods between the 17th and 18th centuries the Sami practiced an indigenous form of shamanism, characterised by hunting and animal cer- emonialism. After the crusade against the Sami and the practice of their an- cient nature religion by the Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish priests and mis- sionary workers, a subsequent number of Noaidi-Shaman drums were collected and in time exhibited in different museums throughout Europe, where many still remain today. The Noaidi drums have been vital sources of information for scholars out- side Sami culture, as well as the Sami themselves. In the 1670s, Johannes Schefferus, the German scholar and linguist wrote about the history of Lapland which was translated into Latin under the uniform title Lapponia. English, French and Dutch editions soon followed as did a German edition. This article discusses some of the implications for researchers due to a number of signifi- cant errors recently identified in these original manuscripts and furthermore, what this means for the Sami history, religion and culture today? In the winter of 2002, I travelled to Finland to undertake studies in Circumpolar and sub-Arctic animism and shamanism, as an exchange student at the Uni- versity of Helsinki, and a student of comparative religion. This was under the auspices of Juha Pentikainen, professor of comparative religion, whom I had met in the fall of 2001 when he was visiting Bath Spa University in the UK, to present a series of lectures about Sami and Siberian shamanism, where I was a first year student, studying religious studies and European history. Soon after the arrival in Helsinki, an invitation arrived concerning a con- ference on Finno-Ugric Shamanism about the minority peoples of Siberia. The title of this event was From Taiga to Tundra, and was to be held at the Mu- seum of Cultures in Helsinki, organised by Institute for Cultural Research, Department of Finno-Ugric Studies in University of Helsinki, and the M. A