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<P align="justify"> <i>Sieidi& … <P align="justify"> <i>Sieidi</i> (Finnish: <i>seita</i>) means a natural object that is worshipped, usually a stone. A <i>sieidi</i> can also be among other things a sacrificial spring, and <i>sieidi</i> poles were erected particularly in fishing grounds.</p>
[[Tiedosto:pyhapai3.jpg|thumb|600px|map of sacred places]]
<P align="justify"> Corresponding forms of the word <i>sieidi</i> are found in most Saami languages including eastern Saami ones. Only among the most southern and Skolt Saamis is the word missing. Other words for the same concept include <i>storjunkare</i> (in Swedish Lapland), (<i>ihti</i> in Inari Saami), and <i>bassi</i> ( holy ), as well as words for god : <i>jubmel</i> or <i>ibmel</i> (Samuel [[Rheen, Samuel (engl. ver.)|Rheen]]: <i>kiedke-jubmel</i> rock god and <i>muorra-jubmel</i> wood god ). It has been suggested that it is derived from the same root as [[Siida, Saami village|<i>siida</i>]], which means a traditional local Saami community. This etymology emphasizes the local might of the <i>sieidi</i>. Another suggestion is that it is of Scandinavian origin: <i>seidr</i> meant the act of ecstatic prophesying by an ancient Scandinavian woman. The etymology is not a particularly strong one because the word <i>sieidi</i> is not found in South Saami, while it does exist in eastern Saami languages. The word <i>ihti</i>, on the other hand, is thought to come from the same root as the Finnish word <i>hiisi</i>, which originally meant a sacred grove.</P>
<P align="justify"> A <i>sieidi</i> was probably originally a cult or sacrificial site connected with the practice of some livelihood. It was thought that through the <i>sieidi</i> it was possible to influence some unnamed natural force, on which a means of livelihood, in particular hunting, was dependent. According to some statements, the spirit of the <i>sieidi</i> could appear in human or animal form it is related that this happened particularly when the <i>sieidi</i> was abandoned but this was not common. A rock on a lake shore or in a lake guaranteed a good catch of fish if it was regularly daubed with fish oil and it was given fish heads as offerings. The fish <i>sieidi</i> of the fishing Saami of the coast might also take the form of a cliff of singular shape. The rock <i>sieidis</i> in the fells generally guaranteed success in hunting wild reindeer or in reindeer herding, and whole animals or parts of them (most commonly antlers) were sacrificed to them. The <i>sieidis</i> of the fells were dominant features of the landscape, single individual rocks that were visible from afar but had no other distinguishing features, though quite frequently it was possible to discern the traits of a human visage in a <i>sieidi</i>, or the shape of the rock might resemble that of an animal. Sometimes a whole rock face could serve as a <i>sieidi</i> if it was possible to discern a divine visage in it as on the Slopes of Saana Fell or a whole island, as in the case of Ukonsaari island in Lake Inarinjärvi. Wood <i>sieidis</i> were sometimes considered less powerful than rock ones. Probably wood <i>sieidis</i> were second-resort solutions, and they were used particularly in fishing grounds where there was no suitable rock available. </P>
<P align="justify"> The <i>sieidi</i> sites varied in rank and at the same time also in power according to the size of the community they served. The largest <i>sieidis</i> were places of worship of a whole <i>siida</i>, or even of a number of <i>siidas</i>. At least Ukonsaari Island in Lake Inarinjärvi and Pelkosenniemi on Pyhätunturi Fell are thought to have been such sites. Clan and family-level <i>sieidi</i> sites were worshipped by families that were engaged in the same semi-nomadic clan cycle, and below them were the <i>sieidi</i> sites of one or more individuals. After the advent of Christianity, the sacrificial modes that were lower in the hierarchy survived longer, and the first to disappear were the sacrifices of large communities, which were difficult to keep secret. It was probably not merely a matter of external control but rather of the fact that the larger the sacrificing community, the faster it lost its unanimity and ability to celebrate rituals as Christian missionary activities intensified. Even after the <i>sieidi</i> cult was criminalized, it lived on in the form of worship at the individual level, probably for a long time certainly until after the Second World War.</P>
<P align="justify"> <i>Sieidi</i> stones sometimes also had an oracular function; people sought advice about problems from them. A person might pick up a tiny stone and from its weight decide the right answers to questions that were posed to them. The hand might also remain closed over the stone and only release it when the enquirer himself was able to suggest the correct alternative in answer to his question.</P>
<P align="justify"> In the later tradition, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it is known that <i>sieidis</i> were consulted on matters unrelated to livelihood such as health and other aspects of success. Probably the scope of the <i>sieidis</i> expanded, and they took over the functions of the [[Pre-Christian gods|Saami pre-Christian gods]] after the latter were criminalized. It is also known that metal objects, tobacco and liquor were offered up to the <i>sieidis</i>. These, too, probably belonged to the later tradition, and by these offerings services unrelated to livelihood were solicited. In this later tradition, women too were admitted to the cult in some places.</P>
<P align="justify"> The relationship of the Saami to their <i>sieidi</i> divinities was relatively egalitarian and reciprocal ([[The sacred|sacred]]). Both men and <i>sieidi</i>s had their responsibilities. Man made offerings and respected the place of worship, and it was the <i>sieidi</i> s duty to provide success for man in his livelihood. If either party broke this unspoken agreement, a punishment ensued. If a man behaved badly against a <i>sieidi</i>, the punishment might be a loss of success in his occupational activities. Likewise a poor, ineffectual <i>sieidi</i> might also be punished. There are numerous accounts of how, during the intensive period of religious conversion ([[Missionary history of Lapland|history of missionary work]]) in Lapland, the converts abandoned their <i>sieidis</i>, and then, when no punishment ensued, many other members of the community also converted. In his Weltanschauung, the Saami thus had a kind of built-in readiness to change his allegiance to a more powerful lord without any direct change in his world view, for in this particular situation he indeed believed the Christian God to be more powerful that the <i>sieidi</i> ([[Peaivvas|Päiviö]]). This dimension becomes particularly clear in a phenomenon of the later tradition in which the Christian churches not only assumed the functions of the <i>sieidi</i>s but also received their offerings. A stone <i>sieidi</i> lost its power if it was burned in a fire of nine different species of tree. In this rite, it was often related that the spirit of the <i>sieidi</i> fled in the form of a bird, and when threatened it might assume a human form and promise to provide better assistance as a reward for being spared from annihilation. There was also a custom of simply chipping off a piece from the side of the rock in order thereby to mark it as having no significance. The People of the Teno region are kn own sometimes to have birched their fishing deities to make them perform their duties better. When a <i>sieidi</i> was abandoned, a new one was chosen, for example on the basis of a sign given in a dream, and the rock was inaugurated with chants and by anointing it with reindeer fat, for example. Thus a clear life cycle can be distinguished for many<i>sieidi</i> sites: inauguration, use, abandonment.</P>
<P align="justify"> Interpretations based on comparative religion. None of the scientific interpretations of the <i>sieidi</i> cult that have been proposed can be considered definitive in itself, although they all make some significant contribution to the study of the phenomenon. For example, the <i>sieidi</i> cult has been linked to ancestor worship within a framework of both [[Animatism|animatism]] and [[Animism|animism]]. Prof. Louise Bäckman, a South Saami, has claimed that the <i>sieidi</i> simply defined a place where a person might in a special way be in contact with a sacred sphere irrespectively of whether this supernatural significance emanated from the clan's ancestors, a [[Sáiva (engl. ver.)|sáiva]], nature deities or the spirits of hunted animals. Uno [[Holmberg, Uno (engl. ver.)|Holmberg]] linked the <i>sieidi</i> cult to ancestor worship. He justified this by the family or clan association of <i>sieidi</i> worship, He also linked the <i>sieidi</i> to the <i>sáiva</i>, but he interpreted the <i>sáiva</i> spirits as simply being the spirits of family or clan ancestors. He also used claims that the spirit of the <i>sieidi</i> might appear in human form to support his theory. Edgar [[Reuterskiöld, Edgar (engl. ver.)|Reuterskiöld]] considered that <i>sieidi</i> worship belonged to the nomadic cultural period. According to him, the Saami personified nature. In the evolution of religion, animatism was thought to precede animism (the attribution of a soul to natural phenomena). According to Reuterskiöld's definition, the <i>sieidi</i> was originally the concentration of the living force of the location. The animatistic force of nature could be concentrated in the <i>sieidi</i>. The proponents of animatism thought that it was in the peaks of objects that people experienced a concentrated organic force. Thus the <i>sieidi</i> rocks were the local representations of the <i>sáiva</i> of the year. In the spirit of evolutionism, Reuterskiöld further proposed that it was only at a later, animistic, stage that the Saami began to attribute a personal divine nature to <i>sieidi</i> sites. In this context he cites those statements that speak of a <i>sieidi</i> in animal form. He links this to the main assistant of the witch ([[Shamanism|shamanism]]), the supernatural bird (<i>sáiva leddie</i>), which in the western Saami region that [[Reuterskiöld, Edgar (engl. ver.)|Reuterskiöld]] was writing about was thought to reside in the mountain <i>sáiva</i>. Rafael [[Karsten, Rafael|Karsten]] considered the sieidi cult to be simply an indication of animism and [[Fetischism|fetishism]]: the force in the <i>sieidi</i> was seen as a personal spirit, a soul endowed with divine power. In accordance with the typical Saami concept of the sacred, however, there was nothing totally other about this divine power; rather it ultimately obeyed the same rules of the game as natural beings, albeit to a varying degree depending on how sacred it was. This made it possible to manipulate, placate, threaten, punish and abandon even a <i>sieidi</i> that was relatively close to the supernatural. And this indeed is the basic idea of fetishism. </P> [[Tiedosto:O-760_II_1_Seitakivi.jpg|thumb|600px|Somasjärvi sieidi-stone in Somaslompolo.]] <BR><BR> Bibliography:<BR><BR>t;BR> Bibliography:<BR><BR> +
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