Värro Muorra: The Landscape Significance of Sami Sacred Wooden Objects and Sacrificial Altars
Prior to Christianization, initiated by the Swedish Crown and Church during the seventeenth century, the religion of the native Sami people of northern Scandinavia included animistic beliefs centered on animal ceremonialism. The Sami religion evolved in the framework of hunter-gatherer subsistence,...
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Duke University Press
2008
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2007-044 https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article-pdf/55/1/1/253781/EH055-01-01BergmanFpp.pdf |
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crdukeunivpr:10.1215/00141801-2007-044 2024-06-02T08:12:10+00:00 Värro Muorra: The Landscape Significance of Sami Sacred Wooden Objects and Sacrificial Altars Bergman, Ingela Östlund, Lars Zackrisson, Olle Liedgren, Lars 2008 http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2007-044 https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article-pdf/55/1/1/253781/EH055-01-01BergmanFpp.pdf en eng Duke University Press Ethnohistory volume 55, issue 1, page 1-28 ISSN 0014-1801 1527-5477 journal-article 2008 crdukeunivpr https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2007-044 2024-05-07T13:15:52Z Prior to Christianization, initiated by the Swedish Crown and Church during the seventeenth century, the religion of the native Sami people of northern Scandinavia included animistic beliefs centered on animal ceremonialism. The Sami religion evolved in the framework of hunter-gatherer subsistence, and landscapes were laden with religious significance. The authors of this essay seek to highlight the significance of sacrificial sites as ethnic and religious demarcations in times of conflict between Swedish society and the Sami. We focus especially on sacrificial wooden objects as representations of religious space, discussing three sacrificial sites from different periods and representing a geographical gradient. We conclude that wooden sacrificial sites were still frequent and prominent features of the Sami landscape during the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century in northern Sweden. However, in the following century, the indigenous religion was forced into secrecy. Today, elements of indigenous religious space, as indicated by place names and oral traditions, reflect but fragments of a landscape that was once a coherent whole. Article in Journal/Newspaper Northern Sweden sami Duke University Press Ethnohistory 55 1 1 28 |
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English |
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Prior to Christianization, initiated by the Swedish Crown and Church during the seventeenth century, the religion of the native Sami people of northern Scandinavia included animistic beliefs centered on animal ceremonialism. The Sami religion evolved in the framework of hunter-gatherer subsistence, and landscapes were laden with religious significance. The authors of this essay seek to highlight the significance of sacrificial sites as ethnic and religious demarcations in times of conflict between Swedish society and the Sami. We focus especially on sacrificial wooden objects as representations of religious space, discussing three sacrificial sites from different periods and representing a geographical gradient. We conclude that wooden sacrificial sites were still frequent and prominent features of the Sami landscape during the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century in northern Sweden. However, in the following century, the indigenous religion was forced into secrecy. Today, elements of indigenous religious space, as indicated by place names and oral traditions, reflect but fragments of a landscape that was once a coherent whole. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bergman, Ingela Östlund, Lars Zackrisson, Olle Liedgren, Lars |
spellingShingle |
Bergman, Ingela Östlund, Lars Zackrisson, Olle Liedgren, Lars Värro Muorra: The Landscape Significance of Sami Sacred Wooden Objects and Sacrificial Altars |
author_facet |
Bergman, Ingela Östlund, Lars Zackrisson, Olle Liedgren, Lars |
author_sort |
Bergman, Ingela |
title |
Värro Muorra: The Landscape Significance of Sami Sacred Wooden Objects and Sacrificial Altars |
title_short |
Värro Muorra: The Landscape Significance of Sami Sacred Wooden Objects and Sacrificial Altars |
title_full |
Värro Muorra: The Landscape Significance of Sami Sacred Wooden Objects and Sacrificial Altars |
title_fullStr |
Värro Muorra: The Landscape Significance of Sami Sacred Wooden Objects and Sacrificial Altars |
title_full_unstemmed |
Värro Muorra: The Landscape Significance of Sami Sacred Wooden Objects and Sacrificial Altars |
title_sort |
värro muorra: the landscape significance of sami sacred wooden objects and sacrificial altars |
publisher |
Duke University Press |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2007-044 https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article-pdf/55/1/1/253781/EH055-01-01BergmanFpp.pdf |
genre |
Northern Sweden sami |
genre_facet |
Northern Sweden sami |
op_source |
Ethnohistory volume 55, issue 1, page 1-28 ISSN 0014-1801 1527-5477 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2007-044 |
container_title |
Ethnohistory |
container_volume |
55 |
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1 |
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1 |
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28 |
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1800758526980653056 |