This article analyses the role of material culture in the enforcing of a colonial order in early modern Sápmi (Land of the Sámi, the indigenous people in northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula in Russia). In addition, the article focuses on the unequal power relations created through the collecting and cultural appropriation of Sámi objects. The 17th century saw a rapid growth of interest in the Sámi and their material culture. Clothing, sledges, ceremonial drums and other objects were collected for royal and noble courts of Europe, as well as for scholars and other collectors. This Eurocentric process of constructing Sáminess was concurrent with colonial attitudes towards non-European peoples. Empirically, the article explores the collecting of Sámi objects, clothes and religious/sacred material culture such as ceremonial drums and sieidis, as well as models and mannequins, and their role in the colonial rule and imperial representations of Sápmi.

This paper presents the research project Collecting Sápmi. Early modern globalization of Sámi material culture and Sámi cultural heritage today, financed by the Swedish Research Council 2014–18. The aim of the project is to examine early modern collecting of Sámi material culture and early descriptions of Sámi culture, primarily in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We aim to study early modern networks of scholars and collectors interested in Sámi material culture, to investigate how and why the collecting was conducted, and to follow the movement of Sámi objects between collections and collectors around Europe. Furthermore, the project aims to discuss the importance of early modern collecting and the collected objects in today’s society. Here, critical issues are raised concerning colonial histories and relations in Sápmi, motivations and ideologies of collecting over time, as well as the rights to Sámi cultural heritage and its management today and in the future.

No abstract

This article examines northern connections in the Nordic Bronze Age, focusing on interregional contacts in middle and northern Sweden. In the article, we argue that it is important to incorporate a northern perspective in the discussions about the Scandinavian Bronze Age and its networks. We focus on the Mälaren Valley region, especially the province of Uppland, and the northern parts of Sweden, in particular the coastal areas of northern Sweden. We discuss some aspects of the archaeological material, which have been used in earlier discussions of interregional contacts in middle and northern Sweden during the Bronze Age, such as the Håga mound outside of Uppsala, and burial cairns and bronze artefacts in northern Sweden. Furthermore, we discuss eastern contacts with areas in present-day Finland and Russia, and how these have been interpreted in middle and northern Sweden. In our view, there is a need to critically examine interregional contacts and the construction of regional entities and borders in the Bronze Age. In order to better understand the relations between north and south, it is necessary to critically examine the research history behind the present-day conceptions of regions and borders, as well as the political dimensions and power relations involved.

No abstract