Extending the âParadigm of Northern Ethnographyâ: Connections, Correspondences, and Common Goals of Mid-19th Century Academics in Fennoscandia

Konsta Kaikkonen

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Chapter 2 Extending the âParadigm of Northern Ethnographyâ

Connections, Correspondences, and Common Goals of Mid-19th Century Academics in Fennoscandia

In: Practices and Mediations of SÃ¡mi Culture

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Konsta Kaikkonen

Konsta Kaikkonen
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 41â56

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004754997-004

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Abstract

This chapter discusses how authors writing about SÃ¡mi Indigenous religion in the mid-19th century were influenced by national romantic ideas and Central European methodologies based on cross-cultural comparisons, and how, in addition, Russian ethnographic traditions influenced the formation of a concept still popular today: the identification of SÃ¡mi noaidis as âshamansâ.

Juha PentikÃ¤inen has labelled the methodology formed in the period as a âparadigm of northern ethnographyâ. I argue that it was the key figure in that âparadigmâ, M.A. CastrÃ©n, who can be credited as the developer of the concept of âSÃ¡mi shamanismâ. His fieldwork expertise, position in the Russian academia, interest in ritual specialists, and comparative methodology resulted in a representation of the noaidi as an exemplar of âAltaic shamanismâ in the late 1840âs and early 1850âs. However, it was J.A. Friis some decades later who brought the shamanic discourse to the field of âLappologyâ in full, with his book about SÃ¡mi mythology published in 1871. Friis took CastrÃ©nâs comparisons even further and wider, presenting the noaidi as a representative of âArctic shamanismâ.

In my chapter, I will discuss how the political situation, the historical context, the international network of researchers and clergymen, as well as the age-old âotheringâ attitudes towards the SÃ¡mi all contributed to the formation of a discourse on âSÃ¡mi shamanismâ. I will also show how CastrÃ©n used previous texts written about SÃ¡mi indigenous religion as sources to âshamanismâ and how his work in turn influenced Friis directly. I will present some comparisons between the texts by Friis and CastrÃ©n as concrete proof of this influence.

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Practices and Mediations of SÃ¡mi Culture

Indigeneity, Ethno-history and Art

Series:Â Arctic Humanities, Volume: 3

Cover Practices and Mediations of SÃ¡mi Culture

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004754997

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 06 May 2026

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- Literature and Cultural Studies
  - General
  - Cultural History

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Chapter 2 Extending the âParadigm of Northern Ethnographyâ

Connections, Correspondences, and Common Goals of Mid-19th Century Academics in Fennoscandia

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Practices and Mediations of SÃ¡mi Culture

Indigeneity, Ethno-history and Art

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Chapter 2 Extending the âParadigm of Northern Ethnographyâ