Lars Ivar Hansen

Hunters in Transition

Hunters in Transition provides a new outline of the early history of the Sami and discusses issues such as the formation of Sami ethnicity, interaction with chieftain and state societies, and the transition from hunting to reindeer herding.

Trade and markets in northern Fenno‐Scandinavia A.D. 1550–1750

Generally, two main opinions have been maintained concerning the age of the markets in northern Fenno‐Scandinavia: One asserting that the markets have their origins well before A.D. 1600, and possibly are dating from the Middle Ages; and the other suggesting that the markets may be constructions of the 18th century. The majority of studies relevant to the question of the markets have, however, been confined within strict geographical limits. Few efforts have been made to view the markets in a broader context, comprising the totality of the trade relations of northern Fenno‐Scandinavia. While giving the written evidence a critical and chronological sifting, the author of this paper stresses this perspective on the markets, as instruments of mediation between what is conceived as the three great trade systems embracing the northern part of Fenno‐Scandinavia.

The ethnic classification in the late 19th‐century censuses

The topic of this paper is the ethnic classification used in the last three censuses of the 19th century, i.e. the censuses taken in 1875, 1891 and 1900. The aim is to study the content of this classification diachronically, based on new and supplementary evidence from the parish of Astafjord in the southern part of Troms county, northern Norway. This evidence primarily comes from the parish registers from one decade which, unusually, contain rather elaborate characterizations of ethnic affiliation. This feature of the parish registers gives a unique opportunity to check the corresponding characterizations in the censuses.

Sami Fisheries in the Pre-modern Era: Household Sustenance and Market Relations

Abstract This article tries to assess the importance of fisheries within the traditional Sami household economy, where market orientation and participation in commercial fishing activities directed at selling stockfish to external partners formed an integral, strategic factor. After an introductory overview of the traditional fishing methods of the Sami, their most common types of fishing gear and the most preferred species, the article focuses on the sources that might highlight Sami fisheries from the Middle Ages and on through Early Modern times. Accounts and tax registers from the late sixteenth century show that the groups of coastal and inland Sami displayed highly different trading profiles. The coastal Sami were heavily dependent on institutionalized forms of trade, not only connected to the Hanseatic trade network with its regional centre in Bergen, but also to other merchant groups, in a way that made them able to take advantage of competition among the merchants. However, in comparison with their Norwegian cohabitants, the Sami showed a greater adaptability and capability of switching between various resource niches, and were not so fundamentally dependent on provisions from outside as the Norwegians.Abstract This article tries to assess the importance of fisheries within the traditional Sami household economy, where market orientation and participation in commercial fishing activities directed at selling stockfish to external partners formed an integral, strategic factor. After an introductory overview of the traditional fishing methods of the Sami, their most common types of fishing gear and the most preferred species, the article focuses on the sources that might highlight Sami fisheries from the Middle Ages and on through Early Modern times. Accounts and tax registers from the late sixteenth century show that the groups of coastal and inland Sami displayed highly different trading profiles. The coastal Sami were heavily dependent on institutionalized forms of trade, not only connected to the Hanseatic trade network with its regional centre in Bergen, but also to other merchant groups, in a way that made them able to take advantage of competition among the merchants. However, in comparison with the...

One people – many names: on different designations for the Sami population in the Norwegian county of Nordland through the centuries

During the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Sami and the Kvens were classified and categorized in different ways by the Norwegian state authorities in their official censuses. The process whereby various categorization principles were applied was heavily imbued with ideological and political considerations. During the eighteenth century, when main concern was establishing and consolidating the borders of the state, a kind of geographical enclosure and delimitation took place. During the nineteenth century and through to the Second World War, however, the overriding ambition was to depict all the inhabitants within these established borders as being as culturally homogeneous as possible. Today, it has once more become desirable to acknowledge the presence of both the Sami and the Kvens.

Just K. Qvigstad's contribution to the study of Sami culture

Sammendrag Artikkelen gir en presentasjon og vurdering av innsatsen til Just Knud Qvigstad (1853–1957) pa kulturforskningens omrade. Med filologisk og teologisk embetseksamen (1874, 1881), var Qvigstad knyttet til Tromso Laererskole (Seminarium) fra 1878; i perioden 1883–1920 som bestyrer/rektor. Han fungerte som bestyrer for den samiske samlingen ved Tromso Museum i tidsrommet 1884 ‐1931. Qvigstads publiserte verker daterer seg i forste rekke fra perioden etter at han gikk av som rektor i 1920, 67 ar gammel. To tredjedeler av hans meget omfattende materialsamlinger innenfor samisk lingvistikk, folklore og folkeminne, samt hans ovrige produksjon, vesentlig innenfor samisk kulturhistorie er utgitt i denne perioden, fram til og med 1954. Qvigstads innsats blir vurdert i forhold til det sprakvitenskapelige feltet, i forhold til den minoritets‐ og kulturpolitiske sektoren, samt i forhold til det kulturvitenskapelige forskningsfeltet. ‐ Pa det sprakvitenskapelige feltet understrekes betydningen av den retningen...

Table of Relations

This chapter presents the table of relations discussed in the book Hunters in Transition. The book provides a new outline of the early history of the Sami and discusses issues such as the formation of Sami ethnicity, interaction with chieftain and state societies, and the transition from hunting to reindeer herding. It provides a new synthesis of Sami history to a broader, English-speaking audience and follows previous work in Norwegian, but the accounts and interpretations have been re-examined, modified, and updated in accordance with recent research.Keywords: chieftain society; English-speaking audience; Norwegian; Sami ethnicity

How to define borders between private and common land in Norway

ABSTRACT This article focuses upon the delimitation between the separate farm units and the collectively exploited common lands (‘allmenninger’) in Southeastern Norway during Medieval times. In these commons, various kind of resources – like pastures, woodland and fisheries – were accessible for exploitation by a majority of farmers in the settlement community, but subject to more restrictions than the resources of the ‘outlying fields’ pertaining to the separate farms. While the majority of the farmers within the community preferred that the extension of the commons should be preserved for their convenience, two groups of farmers might appropriate parts of the original common land area: those cultivating farms bordering to the common area, and who might extend their separate farmland successively into the previous commonly held area, and landless people who wanted to establish new farms (‘clearances’) within the common land. The legislation was also double and ambiguous. On the one hand it stated that ‘the commons [should] stay in the way they have been before’. On the other hand it was declared that a farmer establishing a farm as a new clearing in the commons should become the King’s tenant and thus come under his protection. The processes behind the institutionalizing of boundaries between the commons and private farm properties are highlighted through an analysis of settlement development in two municipalities/parishes in Southeastern Norway.

Perspectives on Sámi historiography

Source at https://doi.org/10.17238/issn2221-2698.2017.27.117 . English version of the article: http://hdl.handle.net/10037/12533 .

Index of Place Names

This index presents a list of place names relevant to the discussion on the Sami ethnicity presented in this book Hunters in Transition. The book provides a new outline of the early history of the Sami and discusses issues such as the formation of Sami ethnicity, interaction with chieftain and state societies, and the transition from hunting to reindeer herding. It provides a new synthesis of Sami history to a broader, English-speaking audience and follows previous work in Norwegian, but the accounts and interpretations have been re-examined, modified, and updated in accordance with recent research.Keywords: chieftain society; English-speaking audience; Norwegian; Sami ethnicity