Unearthing Livelihoods: Sámi Trade as an Active Livelihood

Abstract

Many Sámi have been reindeer herders for centuries and their livelihood has usually been understood (solely) in terms of reindeer herding, yet agriculture has also been a typical Sámi livelihood. This chapter investigates trade, another forgotten Sámi livelihood, as portrayed in the journals of two nineteenth-century Nordic clergymen, Jacob Fellman (Finland) and Petrus Læstadius (Sweden). The chapter explores what status Sámi trade had among other livelihoods described in the two journals as well as the practices and functions that Sámi traders carried out in nineteenth-century Arctic and subarctic Europe.