Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Center of Diversity: Sámi in Early Modern Stockholm in the Light of European Colonial Expansion. A Historical Archaeological Approach

  • Published:
International Journal of Historical Archaeology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper deals with the presence of Sámi in central and southern Sweden in the seventeenth century. The Nordic countries have generally been believed to be ethnically homogeneous, with the** colonial subjects not being present in the center of these empires. If the multicultural aspects of early modern Nordic countries are at all discussed, Sámi and other ethnic groups are understood as peoples living on the outskirts of the empires. This notion has cemented an idea that cities such as Copenhagen or Stockholm were inhabited solely by peoples from southern Scandinavia and the continent. Drawing on the experience of the role and presence of indigenous people from the Americas and the Arctic in cities such as London in the seventeenth century, this paper examines the multi-ethnic aspects of early modern Stockholm, capital of Sweden, as an imperial center.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Äikäs, T., and Salmi, A.-K. (2013). The sieidi is a better altar/the noaidi drum’s a purer church bell: long-term changes and syncretism at Sámi offering sites. World Archaeology 45(1): 64–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amussen, S. D. (2007). Caribbean Exchanges: Slavery and the Transformation of English Society, 1640–1700, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

  • Andersson, B., and Raag, R. (eds.) (2012). Från Nyens skans till Nya Sverige: språket i det svenska riket under 1600-talet, KVHAA, konferenser 78, Stockholm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrén, A. (1997). Paradise lost: Looking for deer parks in medieval Denmark and Sweden. In Andersson, H., Carelli, P., and Ersgård, L. (eds.), Visions of the Past: Trends and Traditions in Swedish Medieval Archaeology, Lund Studies in Medieval Archaeology 19, Lund, pp. 469–490.

  • Arens, I. (1975). Lappmagi i folkuppfattning och inför domstol: några rättsfall från 1600-talets domstolsprotokoll. RIG 58: 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baglo, C. (2011). På ville veger? Levende utstillinger av samer i Europa og Amerika. Doctoral dissertation, University of Tromsø.

  • Baglo, C. (2015). Reconstructing as trope of cultural display: rethinking the role of living exhibitions. Nordisk Museologi 2015(2): 48–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berg, G. (1954). Lappland och Europa: Några anteckningar om renar som furstegårvor. Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv 1953–1954.

  • Bergman, I., and Edlund, L.-E. (2016). Birkarlar and Sámi – Inter-cultural contacts beyond state control: reconsidering the standing of external tradesmen (birkarlar) in medieval Sámi societies. Acta Borealia 33(1): 52–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha, H. K. (1984). Of mimicry and man: the ambivalence of colonial discourse. Discipleship 28: 125–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The Location of Culture, Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Broberg, G. (1982). Lappkaravaner på villovägar: Antropologin och synen på samerna fram mot Dunfjeld sekelskiftet 1900. Lychnos 1981–1982: 27–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cederlund, C.-O. (2006). Vasa 1: The Archaeology of a Swedish Warship of 1628, Statens maritima museer, Stockholm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahlbäck, G., and Nilsson, L. (eds.) (2002). Staden på vattnet, 1252–1850, Stockholmia, Stockholm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dam-Mikkelsen, B., and Lundbæk, T. (1980). Etnografiske genstande i Det kongelige danske Kunstkammer 1650–1800, Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Den franske kammartjänarens resa: Minnen från länderna i norr på 1660-talet, (2013), Oscarsson, I. ed. Atlantis, Stockholm.

  • Dundfjeld, M., and Zachrisson, I. (2002). Sámiska föremål upp ur Stockholms jord. In Upptaget – arkeologi i Stockholm. S:t Eriks årsbok 2002: 159–163.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eriksson, N. (2014). Urbanism under Sail: an Archaeology of Fluit Ships in Early Modern Everyday Life, Södertörns högskola, Stockholm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fara, P. (2003). Sex, Botany and Empire: the Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks, Icon, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fellman, I. (1910). Handlingar och uppsatser angående finska lappmarken och lapparne I–IV, Finska Litteratursällskapets Tryckeri, Helsingfors.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fjellström, P. (1962). Lapskt silver. Studier över en föremålsgrupp och dess ställning inom lapskt kulturliv, Almqvist and Wiksell, Uppsala.

  • Fur, G. (2006). Colonialism in the Margins: Cultural Encounters in New Sweden and Lapland, Brill, Leiden.

  • Hansen, L.-I., and Olsen, B. (2014). Hunters in Transition: An Outline of Early Sámi History, Leiden, Brill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horning, A. (2013). Ireland in the Virginian Sea: Colonialism in the British Atlantic, The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Immonen, V. (2006). Sámi spoons as artefacts of ethnocity: Archaeological reflections on an ethnographic artefact group. In Herva, V.-P. (ed.), People, Material Culture and Environment in the North. Proceedings of the 22nd Nordic Archaeological Conference, University of Oulu, 18–23 August 2004, Studia Humaniora Oulensia 1, Gummerus, Oulu, pp. 42–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johannsen, J. W. (2012). Voldgravens Fuglespyd. Skalk 2012(3): 3–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, M. (2002). Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Renaissance, Routledge, London.

  • Jónsson, M. (2009). Denmark-Norway as a potential World power in the early seventeenth century. Itinerario 33(2): 17–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kopytoff, I. (1982). Slavery. Annual Review of Anthropology 11: 207–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Körningh, J. F. (1956). Berättelse om en missionsresa till Lappland 1659–60. Översatt från latin av John Granlund, Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kouri, E. I., and Olesen, J. E. (eds.) (2016). The Cambridge History of Scandinavia. Volume II, 1520–1870, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuoljok, S. (2007). Carl von Linné i samisk dräkt. Norrbotten 2006: 7–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsson, L.-G. (2012). Sámiska. In Andersson, B., and Raag, R. (eds.), Från Nyens skans till Nya Sverige: Språket i det svenska riket under 1600-talet, KVHAA, konferenser 78, Stockholm, pp. 89–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehtola, V.-P. (2002). The Sámi People: Traditions in Transition, Kustannus-Puntsi, Inari.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindin, L., Packalén, S. and Svanberg, I. (1982). Nicolaus Örn (1683? – 1716?), en biografisk skiss. In Örn, Nicolaus, Kort beskrivning av Lappland, Två förläggare, Umeå, pp. 47–81.

  • Lindmark, D. (2013). Colonial encounter in early modern Sápmi. In Naum, M., and Nordin, J. M. (eds.), Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity: Small Time Agents on a Global Arena, Springer, New York, pp. 131–146.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Lindmark, D., and Sundström, O. (eds.) (2016). De historiska relationerna mellan Svenska kyrkan och samerna, Artos/Norma, Skellefteå.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindström, D. (1993). Skråhantverket. In Dahlgren, S., Florén, A., and Karlsson, Å. (eds.), Makt och vardag: Hur man styrde, levde och tänkte under svensk stormaktstid, Atlantis, Stockholm, pp. 197–214.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linneaus, C. (1965[1732]). Carl Linneaus Lapplandsresa år 1732. Ed. M. von Platen and C.-O. von Sydow. Wahlström and Widstrand, Stockholm.

  • Loeffler, D. (2015). Surreptitious Sámi – Suppressive Swedes: maintaining Sámi identities through the use of religion and stone circles. Arctic Anthropology 52(2): 67–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lundius, N. (1983 [1674]). Descriptio Lapponiae. Uppsala.

  • Lundmark, L. (1982). Uppbörd, utarmning, utveckling: Det Samiska fångssamhällets övergång till rennomadism i Lule lappmark, Arkiv, Lund.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montecuccoli, R. (1924). I Viaggi, Società tipografica modenese, Modena.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mordhorst, C. (2009). Genstandsfortællinger: Fra Museum Wormianum til de moderne tider, Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulk, I.-M. (1995). Samernas roll i pälshandeln. Norrbotten 1995: 156–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mundal, E. (2007). Kristninga av samane i lærebøker og faglitteratur – og kva kjeldene frå mellomalderen seier. In Lyngman, S. (ed.), Om Sørsamisk historie: Foredrag fra seminar på Røros 2006 og Trondheim 2007, Snåsa, Saemien Sijte, pp. 110–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Naum, M., and Nordin, J. M. (2013). Introduction: Situating Scandinavian colonialism. In Naum, M., and Nordin, J. M. (eds.), Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity: Small Time Agents in a Global Arena, Springer, New York, pp. 3–16.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Nordin, J. M. (2015). Metals of metabolism: The construction of industrial space and the commodification of early modern Sápmi. In Leone, M. P., and Knauf, J. (eds.), Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism (revised edition), Springer, New York, pp. 249–272.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Nordin, J. M. (2016). The world in a nutshell: a historical archaeology of early modern entanglement of Scandinavia and India studied through the life course of the Danish nobleman Ove Gjedde, 1594–1660. Journal of Post Medieval Archaeology 50(2): 244–263.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nordin, J. M. (in press). ’Samer i imperiets mitt. In Lamberg, M., and Götlind, A. (eds.), Tillfälliga Stockholmare, Stockholmia förlag, Stockholm.

  • Nordin, J., and Ojala, C.-G. (2015). Collecting Sápmi: Early modern collecting of Sámi material culture. Nordisk museologi 2015(2): 114–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nordin, J. M. and Ojala, C.-G. Forthcoming. Collecting, Connecting, Constructing: Early Modern Commodification and Globalization of Sámi Material Culture. Forthcoming in Journal of Material Culture.

  • Nordlander, J. (1938). Johan Graan: Landshövding i Västerbotten 1653–1679, Thule, Stockholm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Norstedt, G. (2011). Lappskattelanden på Geddas karta: Umeå lappmark från 1671 till 1900-talets början, Thalassa, Umeå.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nurmi, R. (2009). The others among us? Saami artefacts in a 17th century urban context in the town of Tornio, Finland. In Äikäs, T. (ed.), Máttut – Máddagat: The Roots of Saami Ethnicities, Societies and Spaces/Places, University of Oulu, Oulu, pp. 68–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ojala, C.-G., and Nordin, J. M. (2015). Mining Sápmi – Colonial histories and postcolonial perspectives on the exploitation of natural resources in northern Sweden. Arctic Anthropology 52(2): 6–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Regnard, J.-F. (1681[1805]), Voyage de Laponie, Regnard, Jean Francois: Œvres. Paris, 194-365.

  • Rydving, H. (1993). The End of Drum-Time: Religious Change Among the Lule Saami, 1670s–1740s, 2nd ed. Uppsala University, Uppsala.

  • Rydving, H. (2010). Sámiska överhetspersoner i Sverige och Finland under 1600-talet. In Mundal, E., and Rydving, H. (eds.), Samer som “de andra”, samer som “de andra”. Sámi dutkan/Sámiska studier, Umeå universitet, Umeå, pp. 259–264.

    Google Scholar 

  • Said, E. (2003). Orientalism, Penguin, Harmondsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schefferus, J. (1956 [1673]). Lappland, Uppsala.

  • Schefferus, J. (1971 [1674]). The History of Lapland (facsimile), Rediviva, Stockholm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, A. (2003). On ‘appropriation’.: a critical reappraisal of the concept and its application in global art practices. Social Anthropology 11(2): 215–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • StG, Stockholms gatunamn, 2015., ed. Stahre, N.-G., Nyström, S., and Westlund, B., Stockholmia förlag, Stockholm.

  • Styffe, C.-G. (ed.) (1896). Axel Oxenstiernas skrifter och brefvexling II-1, 1606–1624, Kungl. Vitterhets- Histories och Antikvitetsakademien, Stockholm.

  • Svanberg, I. (1981). Sockenlappar: En etnologisk studie av bofasta samer och deras nomadiska förfäder i Mellansverige, Etnologiska institutionens småskriftserie, Uppsala universitet, Uppsala.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svanberg, I. (1999). Hästslaktare och korgmakare: Resursutnyttjande och livsstil bland sockenlappar, Johan Nordlander-sällskapet, Umeå.

    Google Scholar 

  • Svonni, M. (2008). Samerna i språkhistorien. In Westergren C. and Silvén, E. eds, För Sápmi i tiden. Nordiska museets årsbok 2008, pp. 32–42.

  • Toft, P., and Seiding, I. H. (2013). Circumventing colonial policies: Consumption and family life as social practices in the early nineteenth-century Disko Bay. In Naum, M., and Nordin, J. M. (eds.), Scandinavian Colonialism and the Rise of Modernity: Small Time Agents in a Global Arena, Springer, New York, pp. 105–129.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Tuderus, G. (1983). En kort underrättelse om de Österbothniske Lappar som under Kiemi Gebiet lyda. In Wiklund, K. B., Berättelser om samerna i 1600-talets Sverige, Kungl. Skytteanska samfundets handlingar 27, Umeå.

  • Vaughan, A. T. (2006). Transatlantic Encounters: American Indians in Britain, 1500–1776, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

  • Wade, M. R. (2017). Ballet, Kunstkammer, and the education of Princess Hedwig Eleonora of the Gottorf Court. In Neville, K. and Skogh, L. (eds.) Queen Hedwig Eleonora and the Arts; Court Culture in Seventeenth-Century Northern Europe. Routledge, London, 159–178.

  • Westerdahl, C. (2008). Sydsamer: Från Bottenhavet till Atlanten. En historisk introduktion till samerna i Ångermanland och Åsele lappmark med angränsande delar av Jämtland och Norge, Båtdokgruppen, Skärhamn.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westermark, N. (1970). En studie i Djurgårdens äldsta historia: Kulturlandskapets utveckling, Björkmans eftr, Stockholm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitelocke, B. (1777). Dag-bok öfver dess ambassadet til Sverige, åren 1653 och 1654, Edmans, Uppsala.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiklund, K. B. (1930). Olof Rudbeck d.ä. och lapptrummorna. Rudbecksstudier, festskrift vid Uppsala universitets minnesfest, Uppsala universitet, Uppsala, pp. 87–115.

  • Zachrisson, I. (1997). Möten i gränsland. Samer och germaner i Mellanskandinavien, Statens Historiska Museum, Stockholm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zachrisson, I. (2015). Sámiska väskor på svenska örlogsskepp: Tusen år av kulturmöten. In von Arbin, Staffan et al. (eds.), Tjop tjop: Vänbok till Christer Westerdahl med anledning av hans 70-års dag den 13 november 2015, Båtdokgruppen, Skärhamn, pp. 321–330.

Download references

Acknowledgements

This study is a result of the research project Collecting Sápmi funded by the Swedish Research Council (421-2013-1917). I want to thank Carl-Gösta Ojala, Uppsala University, for fruitful discussion and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this text. I am indebted to Professor Klas Tollin at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, for enlightening me on the complex history of the Lappkärrsberget place name.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology or drums Ancient History, Uppsala University, Box 626, SE-751 26, Uppsala, Sweden

    Jonas M. Nordin

Authors
  1. Jonas M. Nordin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonas M. Nordin.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Nordin, J.M. Center of Diversity: Sámi in Early Modern Stockholm in the Light of European Colonial Expansion. A Historical Archaeological Approach. Int J Histor Archaeol 22, 663–685 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-017-0430-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-017-0430-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation