From Lapland to S疳mi: Collecting and Returning S疥i Craft and Culture

A cultural history of S疳mi and the Nordic countries as told through objects and artifacts

Material objects--things made, used, and treasured--tell the story of a people and place. So it is for the Indigenous S疥i living in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, whose story unfolds across borders and centuries, in museums and private collections. The objects created by the S疥i for daily and ceremonial use were purchased and taken by Scandinavians and foreign travelers in Lapland from the seventeenth century to the present, and the collections described in From Lapland to S疳mi map a complex history that is gradually shifting to a renaissance of S疥i culture and craft, along with the return of many historical objects to S疳mi, the S疥i homeland.

The S疥i objects first collected in Lapland by non-Indigenous people were drums and other sacred artifacts, but later came to include handmade knives, decorated spoons, clothing, and other domestic items owned by S疥i reindeer herders and fishers, as well as artisanal crafts created for sale. Barbara Sjoholm describes how these objects made their way via clergy, merchants, and early scientists into curiosity cabinets and eventually to museums in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo, and abroad. Musicians, writers, and tourists also collected S疥i culture for research and enjoyment. Displays of S疥i material culture in Scandinavia and England, Germany, and other countries in museums, exhibition halls, and even zoos often became part of racist and colonial discourse as examples of primitive culture, and soon figured in the debates of ethnographers and curators over representations of national folk traditions and "exotic" peoples. Sjoholm follows these objects and collections from the Age of Enlightenment through the twentieth century, when artisanship took on new forms in commerce and museology and the S疥i began to organize politically and culturally. Today, several collections of S疥i objects are in the process of repatriation, while a new generation of artists, activists, and artisans finds inspiration in traditional heritage and languages.

Deftly written and amply illustrated, with contextual notes on language and Nordic history, From Lapland to S疳mi brings to light the history of collecting, displaying, and returning S疥i material culture, as well as the story of S疥i creativity and individual and collective agency.

Author: Barbara Sjoholm
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: 03/21/2023
Pages: 352
Weight: 2lbs
Size: 9.06h x 7.24w x 1.26d
ISBN: 9781517911973