Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T16:20:27.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Variations of ethnic boundary significance in north Norway

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2012

Trond Thuen
Trond Thuen*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Social Anthropology, University of Tromsø, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway (trond.thuen@uit.no)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In coastal north Norway the Saami people have lived in a close relationship with Norwegians or Norse people for a thousand years or more. This relationship has been articulated in various ways over the centuries, and this article argues that in parts of the region it took a rather intimate form based on the shared exploitation of the dominant marine and terrestrial niches, a common class position as tenant farmers, a varying practice of inter-ethnic marital relations and the effects of a bilateral kinship system. Various forms of inter-ethnic contact and exchange may thus have served to reduce the relevance of ethnic difference in daily life, as suggested by Barth's argument about the integrative effect of transactions, but contrary to his argument about the transactional reinforcement of ethnic boundaries. Contrary to the intention, governmental assimilatory efforts served to reproduce the boundary as the basis for a ranked society and left coastal Saami individuals in some confusion as to how to define themselves, often opting for a mixed category of Norwegian and Saami, labelled ‘Northerner’. Ethno-political emancipation in recent years has tended to put pressure on this identity construction and promoted a dichotomised identity as either Saami or Norwegian.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 48 , Issue 3: THEMED SECTION: CONTESTED BORDERS AND IDENTITIES , July 2012 , pp. 239 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, B. 1983. Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Thetford: Verso.Google Scholar
Barth, F. 1966. Models of social organization. London: Royal Anthropological Institute (occasional paper 23).Google Scholar
Barth, F. 1969. Introduction. In: Barth, F. (editor). Ethnic groups and boundaries. The social organization of culture difference. Oslo, London: Oslo University Press, Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Barth, F. 1994. Enduring and emerging issues in the analysis of ethnicity. In: Vermeulen, H., and Govers, C. (editors). The anthropology of ethnicity. Beyond ‘Ethnic groups and boundaries’. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis: 11–32.Google Scholar
Barth, F. (editor). 1963. The role of the entrepreneur in social change in northern Norway. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Bateson, G. 1979. Mind and nature: a necessary unity. London: Wildwood House (Advances in systems theory, complexity, and the human sciences).Google Scholar
Bentley, G.C. 1987. Ethnicity and practice. Comparative Studies in Society and History 29: 24–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjerkli, B., and Thuen, T.. 1999. Lokalt eller nasjonalt? Divergerende diskurser om legitimering av rettigheter. [Local or national? Divergent discourses on the legitimization of rights]. Norsk antropologisk tidsskrift 10 (3–4): 179–192.Google Scholar
Bjørklund, I. 1985. Fjordfolket i Kvænangen [The fjordal residents of Kvaenangen, north Norway]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Bringa, T. 1995. Being Muslim the Bosnian way: identity and community in a central Bosnian village. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Abner 1969. Custom and politics in urban Africa. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Abner 1974. Two-dimensional man. An essay on the anthropology of power and symbolism in complex society. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Anthony 1994. Self consciousness. An alternative anthropology of identity. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Durkheim, E. 1933 [1893]. The division of labor in society. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press.Google Scholar
Eidheim, H. 1971. When ethnic identity is a social stigma. In: Eidheim, H.Aspects of the Lappish minority situation. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Eriksson, J. 2002. The construction of Sápmi: towards a transnational polity? In: Karppi, K., and Eriksson, J. (editors). Conflict and cooperation in the north. Umeå: Norrlands Universitetsförlag.Google Scholar
Gaski, L. 2008. Sami identity as a discursive formation: essentialism and ambivalence. In: Gaski, H., Jentoft, S., and Midré, G. (editors). Indigenous peoples: self-determination, knowledge, indigeneity. Delft: Eburon Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Hansen, L.I., and Olsen, B.. 2004. Samenes historie fram til 1750 [Saami history until 1750]. Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Harrison, S. 1999a. Cultural boundaries. Anthropology Today 15 (5): 10–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, S. 1999b. Identity as a scarce resource. Social Anthropology 7 (3): 239–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hovland, A. 1996. Moderne urfolk. Samisk ungdom i bevegelse [Modern aboriginals. Saami youth in motion]. Oslo: UNGforsk/NOVA, Cappelen Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Ingold, T. 2000. Ancestry, generation, substance, memory, land. In: Ingold, T.The perception of the environment. Essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill. London, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jenkins, R. 1997. Rethinking ethnicity. Arguments and explorations. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Kramvig, B. 1999. I kategorienes vold [Categorical violence]. In: Eidheim, H. (editor). Samer og nordmenn. Temaer i jus, historie og sosialantropologi [Saami and Norwegians. Themes in law, history and social anthropology]. Oslo: Cappelen Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Kramvig, B. 2005. The silent language of ethnicity. European Journal of Cultural Studies 8 (1): 45–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minde, H. 2003. Assimilation of the Sami – implementation and consequences. Acta Borealia 20 (2): 121–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nash, M. 1989. The cauldron of ethnicity in the modern world. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Okamura, J.Y. 1981. Situational ethnicity. Ethnic and Racial Studies 4 (4): 452–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, K. 2008. Identities, ethnicities and borderzones: examplars from Finnmark, northern Norway. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. Bergen: University of Bergen.Google Scholar
Paine, R. 1974. Second thoughts about Barth's models. London: Royal Anthropological Institute (occasional paper).Google Scholar
Paine, R. 2003. Identitetsfloke: Same-same. [Identity puzzle: Saami-Saami]. In: Bjerkli, B. and P. Selle (editors). Samer, makt og democrati. Sametinget og den nye samiske offentligheten, [Saami, power and democracy. The Saami Parliament and the new Saami Public order]. Oslo Gyldendal Akademisk.Google Scholar
Pehrson, R. 1964. The bilateral network of social relations in Könkämä Lapp district. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Scott, J.C. 1998. Seeing like a state. How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Storaas, K. 2007. ‘Finland er bak oss, Norge er vårt land’. Konteksters betydning for etniske endringsprosesser i Sør-Varanger. [’Finland is behind us, Norway is our land.’ The significance of contexts for processes of ethnic change in SouthernVaranger]. Unpublished PhD dissertation.Tromsø: University of Tromsø.Google Scholar
Stordahl, V. 1997. Same i den moderne verden. Endring og kontinuitet i et samisk lokalsamfunn [Saami in the modern world. Change and continuity in a Saami local community]. Karasjok: Davvi Girji O.S.Google Scholar
Thuen, T. 1989 ‘Mixed’ descent and ethnogenesis – some comparative considerations of contact situations in the north. Acta Borealia 6 (1): 52–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thuen, T. 1995. Quest for equity. Norway and the Saami challenge. St. John's, Nfld.: ISER Books.Google Scholar
Thuen, T. 2002. In search of space: challenges in Saami ethnopolitics in Norway 1979–2000. In Karppi, K., and Eriksson, J. (editors). Conflict and cooperation in the north. Umeå: Norrlands Universitetsförlag.Google Scholar
Thuen., T. 2003 Lokale diskurser om det samiske [Local discourses on Saamihood]. In Bjerkli, B., and Selle, P. (editors). Samer, makt og demokrati. Sametinget og den nye samiske offentligheten [Saami, power and democracy. The Saami Parliament and the new Saami public order]. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.Google Scholar
Thuen, T. 2007. Noen problemstillinger i studiet av etnisitet i samhandlingskontekster [Some problems in the study of ethnicity in interactional contexts]. In: Lindgren, A.R., Niemi, E., Hauan, M.A., Niiranen, L., and Thuen, T. (editors). Kvener og skogfinner i fortid og nåtid [Kvens and Saami in the past and the present]. Tromsø: Speculum Boreale.Google Scholar
Thuen, T. 2009. La gestion interne de la diversité. La relation de l’État avec les Sames et les Norvégiens. Ethnologie française 39 (2): 265–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tonkin, E., MacDonald, M., and Chapman, M. (editors). 1989. History and ethnicity. London: Routledge (ASA Monograph 17).Google Scholar
Verdery, K. 1994. Ethnicity, nationalism and state making. ‘Ethnic groups and boundaries’: past and future. In: Vermeulen, H., and Govers, C. (editors). The anthropology of ethnicity. Beyond ‘Ethnic groups and boundaries’. Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis: 33–57.Google Scholar
Werbner, P., and Modood, T. (editors). 1997. Debating cultural hybridity. Multi-cultural identities and the politics of anti-racism. London and New Jersey: Zed Books.Google Scholar