The people Saami is native-born people of a zone which covers the north of the Sweden, the Norway, the Finland, the Siberia and a small portion of the Russia. Saami are one of the greatest indigenous groups in Europe. It is not an ethnicity but people speaking about the languages (same) of Finno-ugric origin .
These people are generally named Lapons , but its members prefer the name Sàmi or Saami , which they use to indicate. The term Lapon is regarded as wounding (to be brought closer to the High-German lapp , meaning idiotic) or pejorative. They call their ancestral grounds Sápmi . Although the traditional occupations of Saami were the fishing and the breeding of reindeers, a minority of the 85 000 Saami lives some still today. The Norwegian territory shelters approximately half of Sami, another group important lives in Sweden. Other smaller groups live in the north of the Finland and the Russia, particularly in the Péninsule of Cola.
Saami have in Sweden, Norway and Finland (but not in Russia) the right to vote in the Parliaments Saami, of the governmental organizations installation by the governments of the three Scandinavian states and which aim at making go up the claims of the communities saami. The members of these Parliaments are democratically elected by the same saami them.
History
See also: History of the people Saami
Saami lived the septentrional areas of the Scandinavia since antiquity. The thesis making of Saami the Scandinavian native-born people of the areas - whose E.G. Geijer was one of the partisans - is supported today by the majority of the historians. Their culture is inherited the prehistoric people and Finno-ugric Sami. See Lapland for the ancient history.
Lapponia, a work written by Johannes Schefferus (1621 - 1679) is the most objective information source covering the Saami culture in old times. He was written thanks to external propaganda (in particular coming from Germany) protesting that Sweden had gained its successes on the battle field by using the Saami magic. Although the position of great power which Sweden had at the time is seen today rather like a lucky coincidence by the historians, these rumors were seen like coarse calumnies towards the Swedish honor and its capacity to make the war and had to be refuted by a veracious account in connection with Saami. The book written in Latin appeared towards the end of the year 1673 and was quickly translated into French, in English, German (then finally in 1956 in Swedish). However, a more recent and adapted version was published shortly after in the Netherlands and in Germany in which chapters on the difficult living conditions in which live Saami, the topography and the environment of their medium were replaced by invented stories of any parts in connection with the magic and sorcery.
The religion
See also: Religion Saami
The Saami religion divides elements with the other religions of the polar regions, such as for example the worship of the Ours, the Sacrifice S, the Chamanisme, etc the men and the women have their own gods. It was majority until the medieval time, where the Christianisme was essential (starting from XI°siècle) to become the religion mainly practiced towards the end of XVIII°siècle. The “white” animals played a particularly important part there. The noaide (chamane) had a strong influence on the “sijdda” (village), as an adviser, doctor and character religious. As at the other circumpolar populations, the Shaman is an intermediary between the world of the men and the supernatural world. It is during extatic fright that the Shaman enters in communication with the spiritual world God's people and of creatures which he questions in order to obtain information or the satisfaction of a request.
The SAMES languages
See also: Languages SAMES
The same belongs to the Finno-ugric languages, related to the Finnois. However, because of the contact prolonged with the Scandinavians, there is from now on a big number of Germanic words in same. The same is divided into new Dialecte S, of which some have their written own language. Saami of the south cannot include/understand Sami of north. The majority of the dialects are spoken in several countries: linguistic borders not corresponding to the political borders.
Literature
During centuries, the literature saami was transmitted only exclusively by oral way. Until the end of the 19th century, one can really find only works religious, dictionaries and grammars. Small catechism Lutheran translated by the missionary Morten Lund is published in 1728. The first novelist to write a novel in same is Anders Larsen. Its book “Bæivve-Algo” (the Paddle) tells the history of a young boy taken between two cultures: its people saami and the Norwegian company. The history of the written literature starts really only in 1910 when the sami Johan Turi publishes “Muittalus sámiid birra”, an account in which it makes the description of the life of its people. It evokes in particular the daily newspaper of the stockbreeders of reindeers and the legends popular saami.This same topic is taken again by the storyteller and Swedish novelist of origin saami Andreas Labba which in its first novel “Anta”, (written in sâme of Luleå) described with much poetry the life of a community sami still little subjected to the Western Acculturation. Its second novel “Anta and Marie” (written in Swedish), reveals, not without bitterness, the transformation of the company saami by the arrival of “progress”: the new railway and its trains killers of reindeers, hydroelectric dam which drowns the pastures, the arrival of the first motoneiges which transforms the ancestral nomadism…
Starting from the Years 1970, the literary production diversifies and takes its rise. Among the contemporary authors, one can quote: The Nile Viktor Aslaksen, Rauni Magga Lukkari, John Gustavsen, Ailo Gaup, Paulus Utsi, Erik-Nilsson-Mankok, Per Idivuoma and Annok Sarri-Nordrå.
Music
See also: Music Saami
One of the Saami traditions particularly interesting is the song Joik (Yoïk delivery). The joiks sing traditionally has cappella , generally slowly and of the bottom of the throat, while making show through anger or pain. The Christian missionaries and the priests qualified them “songs of the Devil”. Nowadays, the joiks are frequently accompanied by instruments.
See too
Related article
External bonds
- Detailed informations on Saami
- the '' Nordic FAQ '' off has a section on Saami
- Saami of Norway
- Sami Siida North America (Bonds, cultural information, blog)
Be-X-old: Саамы Simple: Sami
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