Hansen, Lars Ivar: The Sámi, State Subjugation and Strategic Interaction

Individual mobility within multicultural networks

During the second half of the 16th century, there were still no fixed borders drawn in northern Fennoscandia, but the surrounding states (Denmark-Norway, Sweden & the principality of Moscow) collected tax from the Sámi in a common taxation area. Merchants from the trading networks attached to these three states also met regularly with the Sámi, in order to buy demanded products from the Sámi, and furnish them with provisions. – How was this situation for the Sámi?

Focusing upon the Sámi residing along the coast of Finnmark in Norway, and in the northernmost Sámi communities in present-day Sweden, this book investigates the economic profile, the trade connections and the mobility of the Sámi. Through a detailed analysis of the preserved Swedish tax records (1551–1600), this investigation also displays the diverse strategies applied by the Sámi, and shows how they made the best out of their position, and took advantage of the different value assessments in the various trading networks. Various kinds of mobility or migrations are also displayed: 1) Permanent resettling in other communities than where the taxpayer is first observed; 2) Seasonal mobility, as well as 3) mobility with subsequent stays or intervals at various sites.

This investigation is a result of the international and interdisciplinary research project Early Networking in Northern Fennoscandia, hosted by the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo, during the academic year 2008–2009.

Lars Ivar Hansen is a historian specializing in medieval and early modern history; professor emeritus at the Department of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology of the University of Tromsø – the Arctic University of Norway.

Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture (IFSK), Series B: 170

Focusing upon the Sámi residing along the coast of Finnmark in Norway, and in the northernmost Sámi communities in present-day Sweden, this book investigates the economic profile, the trade connections and the mobility of the Sámi. Through a detailed analysis of the preserved Swedish tax records (1551–1600), this investigation also displays the diverse strategies applied by the Sámi, and shows how they made the best out of their position, and took advantage of the different value assessments in the various trading networks. Various kinds of mobility or migrations are also displayed: 1) Permanent resettling in other communities than where the taxpayer is first observed; 2) Seasonal mobility, as well as 3) mobility with subsequent stays or intervals at various sites.

This investigation is a result of the international and interdisciplinary research project Early Networking in Northern Fennoscandia, hosted by the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo, during the academic year 2008–2009.

Lars Ivar Hansen is a historian specializing in medieval and early modern history; professor emeritus at the Department of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology of the University of Tromsø – the Arctic University of Norway.

Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture (IFSK), Series B: 170


Contents

Foreword

1. Approach, source material and context
   1.1. Introduction
   1.2. New approach
   1.3. The Sámi, their habitat and way of living in earlier times
   1.4. Emerging states, taxation and trade networks
   1.5. The source situation
   1.6. The purpose of the case study
   1.7. Methodological considerations: The structure of the data
   1.8. The grouping of registered tax-payers: Reflecting individual settlement sites, real social collectivities or imposed common places for tax collecting, trade and church sites?

2. Diversity in overall strategies
   2.1. The Sámi communities between self-sufficiency and commercialization
   2.2. Number of taxpayers
   2.3. Average tax-yield pr. individual
   2.4. Network participation in the light of the commodities used for paying the Swedish tax
      2.4.1. Anár siida and the Varanger area: Diametrical opposites
      2.4.2. Altafjord – an intermediary position
      2.4.3. Diversity in the role played by exchange and barter
      2.4.4. Diversity in the coastal area
   2.5. The trade transactions with the Swedish tax collectors

3. Diversified strategies on the individual and sub-group level
   3.1. Mobility between various sites and communities/siidas
      3.1.1. Seasonal mobility
      3.1.2. Permanent resettling between various siida and fiord areas
   3.2. Mobile and stationary settlement within the Altafjord
      3.2.1. Delimitation of social units of lesser extension within the fiord

Connections between sites
      3.2.2. Diversity in mobility patterns: Comparative analysis of the mobile and stationary tax-payers in the Altafjord

Economic parameters
      3.2.3. Changes in economy, transaction and mobility patterns, as well as resource exploitation during the last quarter of the 16th century

Consolidation of settlement and lesser weighton mobility
      3.2.4. The movements of the mobile taxpayers in Altafjord in their social setting
      3.2.5. Some suggestions for explaining the changing relative proportion between ‘stationary’ and ‘mobile’ taxpayers

4. Conclusion

Appendix

Appendix

References

Abstract


ISBN 978-82-7099-916-3, 93 pp., hardcover
Format: 17x24 cm, weight 0,5 kg, year of publication 2018, language: English