Saami

ETHNONYMS: Self-designations: Saam', Same; Lapps, Lopari

Orientation

Identification. The Saami (Lopari) of Russia number 1,800, about 85 percent of them living in their ancient territory on the Kola Peninsula in the Murmansk Oblast of Russia; 40 percent live in cities. The name "Lopari" apparently comes from neighboring Finns and Scandinavians—from whom the Russians also took it. The name "Lappia" appears in Saxus Grammaticus (end of the twelfth century). In Russian sources the term "Lop'" appears toward the end of the fourteenth century. Finnish linguists derive the word "Lop'" or "Lopas'" from the Finnish "Lape" or "Lappea" (T. Itkonen) or relate it to the Swedish "Lapp" (E. Itkonen). Sometimes the Saami are called the "Kola," after the peninsula. Recently, both in the literature and in everyday life, they have preferred to be called by their own name of Saami.

The Saami are of a singular physical type that combines features of the European and Mongoloid races, with a predominance of the former. There is a series of hypotheses for the genesis of this type. One of these rests exclusively on ancient mestization (metizatsia ) of the Europeans by a Mongoloid population that had penetrated the European North in the Mesolithic and early Neolithic periods. According to another hypothesis, the specific character of the Saami type cannot be explained by mixture alone. The proponents of this hypothesis raise the possibility of a third component reflecting certain ancient physical characteristics of the populations of eastern Europe and Scandinavia.

Location. The Saami are the original people of the extreme north of Europe. In the past their ancestors occupied regions significantly to the south and east of their current distribution, but they were gradually pushed northward by other peoples (Russians, Karelians, Finns, Scandinavians). As various sources indicate, the Saami at the turn of the first to second millennia had settled a very wide area, including the northern regions of Scandinavia, the Kola Peninsula, and a significant part of Finland and Karelia, including the shores of Lakes Ladoga and Onega. To the east the basins of the Onegin, Northern Dvina, and, possibly, the Mezen rivers were apparently part of Saami territory. Into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Kola Saami occupied the land of contemporary Karelia. We find evidence of this in the Novgorodian cadastres, which mention the Lopskie pogosts (a complex of country church, churchyard, and cemetery) in the Zaonezh' area. By the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, the Saami occupied almost all the Kola Peninsula, with the exception of the southern part—the Terpsk shore of the White Sea, where Russians predominated. At present the Saami live primarily in the Lovozersk region of the Murmansk Oblast of Russia, with their center in the village of Lovozer.

All of the territory that is settled by Russian Saami today lies beyond the Arctic Circle in the zone of tundra and wooded tundra or the border of the northern taiga. The climate is cold but relatively gentle and moist owing to the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream. The year-round average is about 0° C but the average in July, the hottest month, is 13.7° C. The flora of the tundra is dwarf birch, willow, bushes, mosses, and lichens; in the wooded zone it is fir/spruce, birch, pine, alder, aspen, and rowan. Animal life is quite varied, consisting of diverse mammals: the wild northern reindeer; furbearing animals such as Arctic foxes, red foxes, rabbit, stoats, musquashes, and so forth; ptarmigan; and waterfowl. The natural reservoirs are rich in fish: in the lakes there are whitefish, perch, pike, trout, and the kumzha; in the rivers that fall into the Arctic Ocean, the syomga salmon.

Linguistic Affiliation. The Saami language belongs to the Baltic-Finnic Branch of the Finno-Ugric Language Family but occupies a special place. Linguists have revealed a substratum within it going back, in their opinion, to the Ugro-Samoyedic languages. The language of the Kola Saami falls into four main dialect groups (Iukangsk, Kil'dinsk, Notozersk, and Babensk) and a series of other dialect divisions, the differences among which are sometimes so great as to preclude mutual intelligibility. All the Russian Saami today know Russian.

History and Cultural Relations

The first contacts of the Saami with Russians were in the thirteenth century, specifically in 1216, when there is mention of the payment of tribute by the population of the Terpsk shoreland to the Novgorodians. After the fifteenth century and the fall of Novgorod, Lapland began to gyrate toward the Great Principality of Moscow and later became part of the Russian state, which was then forming. With the onset of the sixteenth century, the Christianization of the Saami began; the Pechengsk monastery, founded in 1550, played a major role. The expansion of Christianity among the Kola Saami was also related to the activity of the Solovetsk, Antonievo-Siisk, Krestr, and Voskresensk monasteries.

Contacts by the Kola Saami with neighboring peoples have been occurring for many centuries. Toward the end of the nineteenth century the Saami interdigitated with other peoples. Particularly close were the contacts with Russians. Also of many years' duration were contacts with the Karelians and Finns, particularly on the southwestern part of the peninsula. Moreover, in the 1880s, groups of Komi and Nenet reindeer breeders came to the Kola Peninsula from the Pechora River; these contacts had a significant influence on those aspects of Saami life that were related to reindeer breeding. In the twentieth century the national constituency of the Murmansk Oblast became even more mixed. The large influx of an immigrant population—among whom were a significant number of Ukrainians, Belarussians, Tatars, and other nationalities—was connected with the intensive development of industry in the area in the 1930s. The influx continues to this day, and contact with other peoples has become very extensive. Ethnically mixed marriages constitute about 50 percent of all marriages.

Settlements

Busy with their work, especially hunting, the Saami traditionally led a seminomadic form of life. Every Saami social group had its regular winter and summer quarters, the pogost, and, in addition, a number of spring and autumn stopping places in hunting areas. The winter quarters were most often situated in the interior of the peninsula, close to the edge of the forest, where the winter pastures of the reindeer were located. The summer quarters were on the shores of lakes or rivers or on the seacoast.

Traditional dwellings were of three basic kinds. The oldest and most distinctive structure was the vezha, a transportable dwelling with a frame of poles and a covering made of skin and turf; it had the shape of a truncated tetrahedral pyramid. In the previous century this was, apparently, the basic dwelling of the Saami, but in the twentieth century it has become a dwelling used in spring and autumn stopping places. Sometimes they also lived in vezhas in their summer camps. The winter quarters, by the end of the nineteenth century, consisted basically of small, one-room log cabins with flat roofs or huts of the Russian type. The third type of Saami dwelling was a light transportable structure, conical in form, with a frame of poles covered with skin or tarpaulin. This was the basic dwelling during nomadic migrations. Even today reindeer herders and fisherman use it as a portable dwelling. In the main settlement, most Saami today live in contemporary brick five-story buildings or in private homes of the log-cabin type.

Economy

The distinctive traditional culture of the Saami developed over centuries under the diverse influences, especially the natural environment. The ancient economic culture of the Saami was characterized by a combination of hunting, fishing, and (later) reindeer breeding. For those Saami who live near the seashore, the hunting of sea mammals, particularly the nerpa (a kind of freshwater seal), has always been important; among the Saami living far from the sea, the hunting of northern reindeer was particularly developed. Toward the end of the nineteenth century the role of hunting in the economy lessened because of the exhaustion of game in the region. The basic source of subsistence became reindeer herding, with fishing for "black" fish from inland lakes (vodoyom ) and for the syomga salmon at the mouths of large rivers falling to secondary importance; there were also other, nontraditional occupations such as working on the Kirov railroad or as guides for geological groups. Today about half of all the Saami living in Lovozer are reindeer breeders. In addition, Saami are employed in many nontraditional forms of work, including dairying, construction, education, and service industries.

The traditional system of reindeer breeding of the Kola Saami has characteristics that set it off as a special type among the reindeer-breeding systems of the Peoples of the North and Siberia. These are small herds, free pasturing of the reindeer in the summer with the use of brands (dymokur ), reindeer barns and fences (izgorod' ), and the use of herding dogs. The Saami used the reindeer as pack animals when traveling on foot or harnessed them to a very distinctive one-runner sleigh-carriage (Russian: bezkopyl'nyl ) similar in appearance to a boat with a truncated poop and a sharply raised prow. They sat in this sleigh-carriage with their feet extended forward or with the right foot extended and the left hanging overboard. They drove with the help of reins running along the left side of the reindeer from a halter around its head. They sometimes hitched two reindeer to a freight sleigh-carriage.

The pack saddle, like the harness, was also different from analogical elements of the culture of other reindeer-breeding peoples. It was marked by great simplicity of construction, consisting of two small arch-shaped boards that dropped down along the sides of the reindeer. Their lower ends were fastened with a thong that passed under the belly of the animal, whereas the upper ends were fastened together and the loads, in special sacks, were hung from them. At present the harness and carriage have been replaced by the practical and convenient reindeer sleigh (Russian: narta ) of the Samoyed type, on a high, slanted sleigh-carriage.

The techniques of fishing resemble in many ways those of the neighboring Russian and Karelian fisherman. Since time immemorial the most widely used equipment have been the stationary (stavnaya ) net, harpoon or fish spear, the fishing hook, and, for syomga trout, the "locks" constructed of poles and containing snares made out of withies, with which the Saami used to block off rivers.

The most widespread means of hunting the wild reindeer in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was the drive or battue with fences. They drove the reindeer into huge traps made of branches covered with snow. Later they began to hunt with firearms—in the fall with the help of reindeer decoys, but in the spring on a special kind of ski (Russian: lyzhy-golenitsi ) on the crust (the so-called Russian gon'ba ). Furbearing animals were hunted with firearms and diverse traps.

Industrial Arts. The basic materials for the preparation of clothing were reindeer hides and tanned skins, procured locally, but also cotton cloth, linens, and calico obtained from traders at the annual fairs in the district city of Kola. Fox, rabbit, and bear skins were used for adornment. Some kinds of footwear were prepared from water-resistant seal skin (Russian: nerpa and tyulen' ). The Saami also knitted socks and mittens and wove belts from sheep's wool.

The basic upper garment, which was the same for men and women, was in use until the early twentieth century; made of reindeer hide with the fur on the outside, it was put on over the head and came down to below the knees, with the skirt spreading out. This was worn with a fur or cloth cap, of which there are many variants in the various regions of Lapland. Men cinched their coats with a leather belt from which they suspended a knife in a leather sheath, whereas women used colored belts woven of wool. The Saami also wore clothes of a similar cut but made of cloth, which served as outerwear in summer and in winter was donned under the coat. Clothing made of textiles, particularly that of the women, was strongly influenced by neighbors, especially the Russians. Thus there appeared the sleeveless tunic dress (sarafan ) of the Saami women, with a skirt (stiaps ), a calico jacket, and a kerchief over the head.

The Saami sewed footwear out of reindeer skins or tanned leather. This footwear could be high, with a legging running up to the crotch, or low, barely above the ankle. A characteristic of all Saami footwear was that the tip of the toe was turned sharply upward, allowing Saami to step easily into leather bands on their skis and ski without their feet slipping out.

At the end of the nineteenth century, the appearance on the Kola Peninsula of Komi and Nenet reindeer breeders precipitated the diffusion to Saami culture of many Izhem-Samoyedic elements, including clothing. This led to the adoption of the Komi-style cowl (malitsa ) and a combination sock-sandal made of fur. This clothing remains the basic garb for hunting and similar work in the settlements, but the general population wears purchased factory-made clothing. Footwear of deerskin enjoys great popularity.

Kinship, Marriage, and Family

Kinship. The entire Saami population of the Kola Peninsula at the turn of the century consisted of seventeen societies or communes (Lovozersky, Iokangansky, Semiostrovsky, etc.), constituting territorial associations of sorts. Each society had permanent settlements and its own territory for production (pastures, fishing sites, hunting grounds), the use of which accorded with ancient Saami norms. No information has been preserved about the existence of a clan structure among the Saami. Seventeenth-century sources, however, distinguish three groups of Lopi on the Kola Peninsula and Karelin that perhaps correspond to their earlier division along clan or tribal lines. These are the Konchanskaya Lop' in the western regions of the peninsula, the Terskoya Lop' in its eastern regions, and the Leshoya Lop' in northern Karelin.

Marriage and Domestic Unit. Toward the end of the nineteenth century the Saami lived in small families. The son, after marriage, would separate from his father and run his own household economy. In rare cases, a young husband had to work with his father-in-law, sometimes for as long as one year, before setting up his own household. An only son would remain with his parents until their deaths. The parents always selected the spouses of their children, although this was usually done with the agreement of the children. The groom and the bride were usually related but of different settlements. Weddings generally took place in the winter, after Epiphany, when the entire population was free from work. Saami couples entered into marriage at the age of 20, and it was not unusual for the bride to be older than her groom.

Division of Labor. In the past the head of the Saami family was always the man, but, at the same time, the position of the woman was rather free. Women, according to old notions of the Saami, were considered unclean and, in connection with this, faced a series of prohibitions and constraints. Thus, they could not be in the part of the home (vezha) where the so-called clean/pure place was located and could not participate in the general meal. When guests were in the home, women only served. They could not approach sacred sites. (Whether the Sammi actually regard women as "unclean" is controversial and hinges on the gloss for the Saami word mugga, which can also be translated "spiritually powerful, magically efficacious, dangerous." Women were and are seen as having the potential for special connections with the Mistress of Game, and it may well be that it was for this reason their actions were ritually circumscribed.) Despite these prohibitions, the relationship of the spouses and the allocation of respective duties and obligations were determined by the necessities of the Saami way of life, particularly the day-to-day economic routine under conditions imposed by the severe northern environment. The family actually spent a great deal of time out of touch with the other families of its settlement. Under these circumstances, a wife had to participate on equal terms in the domestic economy, including raising the children and obtaining the basic means of subsistence (catching fish, sometimes even herding reindeer). There was thus no strict gender-based division of labor, although some kinds of work were usually carried out by men (e.g., care of the reindeer, preparing firewood), and others were carried out by women (e.g., preparation of food, sewing, repairing clothing, catching small fish in the lakes).

Religion

The Saami of the Kola Peninsula were considered Russian Orthodox. Their Christianization, however, was rather superficial and did not destroy their pre-Christian religion. Of the pre-Christian beliefs, those most characteristic of the Saami were reverence for heavenly bodies (sun, moon) and the deification of diverse aspects of nature. Especially widespread was a belief in the divine patrons of the hunt. Particular respect, for example, was enjoyed by the Mistress of the Reindeer Herds, Luot-Khozik. Reindeer herding was also protected by the Guardians of Grass, or Razi-aike. Other guardian gods were Pots, Khozin, and Pots'-khozik. Saami mythology included numerous spirits, who resided everywhere—on the earth, in the water, in the air, under the earth. In the past, devotion to sacred stones (seids ) was also widespread. The seids were large anthropomorphic stones or small mounds of small stones, usually located near water and hunting sites. Offerings were brought to the seids (Saami rubbed the stone with the blood of a slain animal, with fish fat, and so forth). The cult of the seids was related both to ancestor rituals and to hunting rituals. At present the Saami are not especially religious. Members of the older generation continue to preserve in memory the legends about the origin of specific seids, and they believe in a life after death.

Bibliography

Charnoluski, V. V. (1930). Materialy po byto Loparey (Material on the way of life of the Lapps). Leningrad.

Haruzin, N. N. (1890). Russkiye Lopari (Russian Lapps). Moscow.

Lukyachenko, T. V. (1971). Materialnaya kultura Saamov (Loparey ) Kolskovo Poluostrova v Konste (Saami [Lapp] material culture at the tip of the Kola Peninsula). Moscow.

TANYA V. LUKYACHENKO (Translated by Paul Friedrich and Sharon Stevens)