The Sámi Peoples of the North: A Social and Cultural History by Neil Kent (review)

Neil Kent’s introduction to Sámi culture and history is aimed at both academics and general readers, and seeks to provide a foundation for further explorations of Sámi culture. It is a useful and engaging text for the general reader, and possibly useful in the context of a college introductory course on Sámi culture and history. Specialists in Sámi studies will find it uneven in terms of coverage, although its robust inclusion of Russian-language scholarship is salutary. It is a work that any scholar of Sámi studies will want to read.

The text is divided into seven chapters in addition to a general introduction and conclusion. The chapters are entitled (1) “Ethnicities, the Law, Repressions and War,” (2) “Religion,” (3) “Health, Family, Sexuality and Education,” (4) “Sámi Dwellings, Arts and Crafts,” (5) “Literature,” (6) “Music, Sport and Film” and (7) “Reindeer Herding and Other Livelihoods.” Conspicuously absent is any detailed discussion of Sámi language(s), apart from noting the Finno-Ugric context and some details of language attrition (e.g., p. 50). Discussion of some of the distinctive features of Sámi languages—for instance, the highly developed lexicon in relation to traditional economic exploits like herding and fishing—the differentiation of a proto-language into distinct dialects or languages, and more discussion of the threatened nature of these languages as a result of colonization should be considered for a future edition.

The introduction and chapter 1 present archaeological as well as historical evidence of ancient Sámi life, with particularly valuable discussions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the experiences of Sámi people on the Kola Peninsula during the Soviet era. Chapter 2 presents a sketch of Sámi pre-Christian deities and religious concepts, as well as a detailed account of Danish-Norwegian, Swedish-Finnish, and Russian missions. Particularly valuable are discussions of Thomas von Westen, Lars Levi Læstadius, and the various Russian Orthodox missionaries. Chapter 3 provides a readable and interesting overview of Sámi epidemiological history and health challenges, with details regarding the development of some important institutions of Sámi higher education. Chapter 4 discusses Sámi artists from Johan Turi and Nils Nilsson Skum down to important modern counterparts like Lars Pirak and Britta Marakatt-Labba. Chapter 5 details the history of the Sámi-language press and publishing; milestones in the development of Sámi literature and theater; discussions of Olaus Sirma, Anders Fjellner, Matti Aikio, and Nils-Aslak Valkeapää; as well as briefer discussions of a wide range of male and female authors, poets, and playwrights from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Chapter 6 contains extended discussion of figures such as Mari Boine, and of the band Angelit, the films Ofelaš (1987; Pathfinder) and Kukushka (2002: The Cuckoo), as well as overviews of the history of Sámi radio, television, and film industries. Chapter 7 presents a detailed history of the development of Sámi reindeer herding along with discussions of mining, hunting, border closings, Soviet-era collectivization, fishing, urbanization, and tourism.

In each of the chapters, readers will note a strong reliance on the late eighteenth-century travelogue of Giuseppe Acerbi as a device for describing norms of past Sámi culture, and detailed coverage of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century political and military history in connection with the kingdoms of Denmark-Norway and Sweden-Finland. The text also provides careful discussions of historical and cultural events connected with Sámi on the Kola Peninsula, from the medieval period through the Soviet era and to the present. Discussion of more recent developments in Sámi politics and culture in any of the four countries in which Sámi live are more uneven, with relatively little discussion of the nineteenth or early twentieth century apart from the period of the world wars, with textual attention reviving for the period of the late twentieth century and the present.

An introduction cannot...