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<P align="justify"> The Saami identi … <P align="justify"> The Saami identity means a cultural expression characteristic of the Saami as an ethnic group. Since an ethnic group is defined by certain cultural features, including language, it is also a chronologically limited entity. Over time, both language and other cultural features change to such an extent that, if one goes back sufficiently far in time, one can no longer directly recognise the historically documented group, although it is evident that one is dealing with the ancestors of this group. Consequently, it is not possible to use the same name for the preceding entity. For the Saami, the chronological limit would logically seem to be located at the beginning of the Modern Age and the accompanying Winter Village Age (A.D. 1550-1600). Then many historically recognised Saami characteristics, such as certain types of dwelling and reindeer husbandry, rapidly took shape and became established, displacing corresponding older features as they did so. At the same time as many of the older features, including religion, clearly survived in the region, one can nevertheless take this to be the point at which the Saami identity began in the historical sense. </P>
<P align="justify"> The previous major change took place at the beginning of the Late Iron Age (A.D. 750-800) when, after the [[Middle Iron Age|Middle Iron Age]] with its scant archaeological material, hunting communities in northern Fennoscandia began to leave archaeological remains that exhibit new features. Contacts with neighbouring agricultural societies would seem to have exerted a strong influence on the hunting communities, and many of the features that were then adopted - in phenomena like clothes, ornaments and religion, for example - survived to create a foundation for ‘typical Saami’ usage as it is known in historical times.</P>
<P align="justify"> The shift from the [[Early Iron Age|Early Iron Age]] to the Middle Iron Age (A.D. 250-300) was another turning point that involved a radical change. The cultural expression of the Early Metal Age, characterized as it is by ceramics, was abandoned and replaced by a completely new one. If the Early Metal Age can be regarded as representing the main Proto-Saami period, the phase in question then constituted a transition to the main Saami period. However, the Saami of the Middle Iron Age were in terms of their cultural expression, and probably of their language also, still far from the ‘full Saaminess’ of historical times.<BR><BR>
[[Archaeology|Archaeology.]] <BR>
[[Ethnic Identification|Ethnic identification.]]<BR>
[[Chronology|Chronology]]
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[[Table of contents: Demography, ethnicity and physical anthropology|Table of contents: Demography, ethnicity and physical anthropology]]<BR><BR>hysical anthropology]]<BR><BR> +
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