From research on Sámi handicraft to duodji research

• Main Author: Magga, Sigga-Marja
• Other Authors: Junka-Aikio, Laura, Nyyssönen, Jukka, Lehtola, Veli-Pekka
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2021
• Subjects: /dk/atira/pure/person/fieldofscience2010/5/14/1; name=Sociology; Magga; Sigga; Northern Sámi
• Online Access: https://research.ulapland.fi/fi/publications/9f717e3c-aeb5-4b91-8c29-92adb6271874; https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003090830

Chapter six examines how the shift towards “new” Sámi research has been articulated and experienced in the context of Sámi arts and handicrafts, or duodji (in Northern Sámi). Sámi handicrafts were already at the center of academic attention when Nordic Lappologists collected, categorized and displayed them. However, in the context of Sámi ethnopolitical mobilization, duodji acquired new symbolic value as a central marker of collective identity and Sámi peoplehood, attracting also new kind of academic interest among the Sámi themselves. This chapter, written by a Sámi cultural historian Sigga-Marja Magga, analyzes how academic approaches to the study of duodji have changed over time, from the study of Sámi handicrafts to Sámi-based Duodji research, reflecting broader cultural, political and social changes within the Nordic and Sámi societies. Further, Magga shows that these changes in academic discourses and approaches have also impacted upon the social and cultural meanings of duodji: over time, academic discourses have become increasingly powerful at redefining and reconstructing the social and cultural meanings and character of duodji within the Sámi society.