| TekstiThis property is a special property in this wiki.
|
<p>Research on the Saami has been ca … <p>Research on the Saami has been carried out from many different standpoints. The standpoint of the earlier approach known as Lappology was external; the research was done on the terms of the dominant culture and from its point of view. The concept Saami studies was created when a new approach was adopted in the 1970s. Scholars in the field claim that the methodology of Saami studies should be developed according to the requirements and ethics of Saami culture; this means that a Saami is involved either as the researcher or as a member of a research team, and that the research should benefit the Saami and their society. </p>
<p> In the early 1970 there arose a debate among the indigenous peoples of North America and Scandinavia concerning the appropriation of culture. That time also saw the emergence of a university-educated Saami intelligentsia, who participated actively in the indigenous peoples movement, and who began to demand that Saaminess and research about the Saami should be redefined. A Saami research centre, the àSaami Institute, was founded in 1973. Alf Isak Keskitalo, a researcher at the institute, read a paper in Tromsø in 1974 in which he criticized the research currently being done on the Saami and the Saami culture and language. He and scholars who followed him claimed that researchers from outside the culture had seen it as an overly homogenous, monolithic and static phenomenon. The Saami and Saami communities have often been the objects of external research. The definition of what is worth studying and reporting and of what category the history of a small oppressed people belongs in has also been externally imposed. Phenomena have usually been seen according to the norms and values of the majority. Research has been carried out from the Eurocentric and ethnocentric standpoint of the humanities and social sciences. The traditional research approach of Lappology saw the Saami as other, a group whose cultural significance had usually been disparaged and even negated. The terms Lappology and Lapp have aroused criticism among the Saami, who feel these terms imply pejorative attributes that have become attached to them in the course of history. The criticisms of the Saami have in fact been directed against the foundations of a colonialist exercise of power and a concomitant inequality. The Saami, like other indigenous peoples, want the right to name and control their own culture. Today the terms Saami and Saami studies have replaced Lapp and Lappology, and their use has become established in legislation, administration and also in the academic world. The term Lapp is nowadays used only marginally, most often in historical and juridical literature.</p> <p> Prior to 1965, Oslo, Uppsala, and Helsinki were the centres for the Saami studies on language and culture, the linguistic approach being mostly that of traditional comparative Finno-Ugric. When the new universities were founded in the northern parts of Fennoscandia, new departments with Saami studies were established: Oulu (Finland), Tromsø (Norway), and Umeå (Sweden). Some of the Saami scholars at these new universities were themselves Saamis, for example Nils Jernsletten (Tromsø), Tuomas Magga (Oulu), Mikael Svonni (Umeå). Equally important was the founding the research centres and colleges in the Saami area, the Saami institute (Sámi Instituhtta) in 1973 and the Saami teachers college ( Sámi Allaskuvla) in Kautokeino (Norway). Ole Henrik Magga (1947-) started his scientific career as professor of Finno-Ugric linguistics at the University of Oslo (1986 1989), but left it to continue this post in Sámi Allaskuvla. The discipline of Saami studies has grown from the 1980s to the present day. Two doctoral dissertations in the Saami language have been published: Vuokko Hirvonen s study in 1999 of the writing career of a Saami woman, and Nils Øivind Helander s linguistic investigation into the use of the illative case in North Saami in 2001 and some fifteen dissertations by the Saami researchers in other languages than in Saami have been published as well. </p> <p>Work in the field of Saami studies continues to be done in many different languages and also by non-Saamis. Respect for the culture and weltanschauung of indigenous peoples has grown. Today it is regarded as important that research is done from a standpoint that is internal within the culture. The development of scientific study of the Saami reflects the cultural contacts between the Saami and their neighbouring peoples in the whole of Fennoscandia and the important economic and political power relations that have obtained between them. Saami studies have become an important part of the modern culture and political development of the Saami. The growth in Saami studies correlates with the demands of indigenous peoples for greater political power and thus the power to decide about their own cultural property and heritage, their socio-economic welfare and their territorial rights. The Saami favour the kind of research that has practical applications. Saami scholarship must continue to strive to achieve formal recognition for its own research findings from the surrounding academic world, for the Saami scholars see it as their duty to support the aspirations of the Saami people. However, few Saamis with a university education go into research, and in consequence it is still sometimes difficult to find Saami applicants for research appointments in Saami Studies. On the other hand, there are many other disciplines competing for them, one being administration, which has become popular in recent times partly because of the the fact that it opens the way to senior posts. </p> <p> Nevertheless, Saami studies has grown as a subject in universities in the Nordic countries; there are courses in it in the Universities of Oulu, Tromsø, Umeå and Helsinki and in the centers and institutes attached to them.</p>
[[Saami Studies: Finland|Saami studies: Finland]]<BR>
[[Saami Studies: Norway|Saami studies: Norway]]<BR>
[[Saami Studies: Sweden|Saami studies: Sweden]]<BR>
[[Saami Studies: Russia / Soviet|Saami studies: Russia]]<BR>
<BR>ami studies: Russia]]<BR>
<BR> +
|
