Project leader: Minerva Piha
In this research project the use of the Saami terms in the archaeological research concerning the past of the indigenous Saami is studied. The study includes Saami archaeological research in Finland, Norway and Sweden as carried out during the period from 1970 to 2019. By term is meant the names that are used to refer to the archaeological cultural heritage of the Saami, for example, different types of sacred sites, dwelling sites and artifacts.
In recent decades, the control over Saami cultural heritage has in many cases been handed over to the Saami. Yet, archaeological research concerning the Saami is mainly carried out by non-Saami archaeologists and published in Scandinavian languages, Finnish or English, and even terms used to naming archaeological cultural heritage are foreign. This may estrange the Saami from their own past. The Saami languages have names for archaeological cultural heritage, and these names explain the functions and nature of the archaeological findings in a more authentic and familiar manner than the foreign terms.
Thus, it is important to study how Saami terms have been used in the research and how their usage has changed over the decades. Also the reasons for using or not using Saami terms will be examined. Another research question is how the use of the Saami terms has influenced, changed, renewed and created archaeological discourses. The approach of the study is based on the thoughts and theories of Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Archaeologies.
This research is connected with the cultural heritage rights of the Saami people as well as with minority language policies and politics. The aim is to find solutions to the problematic issues related to the use of the Saami terms in the archaeological research and, as an outcome, to present a Nordic-wide practice for the use of the Saami terms in the archaeological research. This will make it easier for researchers to reflect and, if needed, change the ways of using the Saami terms in their archaeological research. Thus, the research is an important step towards further advancing the rights of the indigenious Saami people to their own language and history.
The data material includes, first, the Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish publications that concern the archaeological cultural heritage of the Saami and were carried out in 1970–2019, and, second, the responses to a questionnaire survey targeted to archaeologists who are working with the archaeological cultural heritage of the Saami. The methods of conceptual content and discourse analyses will be applied to these two datasets. A conceptual content analysis for the published research is conducted to investigate the use and non-use of the Saami terms. The analysis will enable the examination of which Saami terms have been used in archaeological research and how the use of the Saami terms has changed over the decades. The aim of the questionnaire is to collect researchers’ views on the matter, which often are not articulated in the published research. By applying discourse analysis, the change in the discourses around the archaeological cultural heritage of the Saami will be studied.