Sted, etnisitet og fortelling

• Main Author: Mathisen, Stein R.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Novus forlag 2002
• Subjects: etnisitet og sted; samisk kulturminnevern; samiske veiskilt; Norway; Northern Norway; sami; samisk
• Online Access: http://ojs.novus.no/index.php/TFK/article/view/470

The article discusses conflicts connected to the location of ethnicity in a multicultural area of Northern Norway. After a history of heavy Norwegianization, the Sami history of this geographical area is hidden, or even suppressed. Hegemonic narratives refer to Sami history in the area as immigration, displacement, and subsequent acculturation into the Norwegian majority culture. Discourses related to Sami cultural heritage on one hand, and the choice of language for naming places and road signs on the other, show that Sami culture is associated with the past and marginalized, while Norwegian culture is associ­ated with modernity, development and future. It is also significant that contemporary discourses on the localization of ethnicity have textual references to contexts situated outside the places where conflicts actually are placed geographically.