Healing in the Sámi North

There is a special emphasis today on integrating traditional healing within health services. However, most areas in which there is a system of traditional healing have undergone colonization and a number of pressures suppressing tradition for hundreds of years. The question arises as to how one can understand today’s tradition in light of earlier traditions. This article is based on material collected in Sámi areas of Finnmark and Nord-Troms Norway; it compares local healing traditions with what is known of earlier shamanic traditions in the area. The study is based on 27 interviews among healers and their patients. The findings suggest that although local healing traditions among the Sámi in northern Norway have undergone major transformations during the last several hundred years, they may be considered an extension of a long-standing tradition with deep roots in the region. Of special interest are also the new forms tradition may take in today’s changing global society

The Western and Eastern Roots of the Saami - The Story of Genetic "Outliers" Told by Mitochondrial DNA and Y Chromosomes

Funding Information: We thank Tatyana Karafet and Boris Malyarchuk, for useful information; Henry Harpending, for the program POPSTR; Vincent Macaulay, for the program SAMPLING; Ille Hilpus and Jaan Lind, for technical assistance; and Charles Kurland and Thomas Gilbert, for helpful discussion and comments. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and advice. The research of R.V. was supported by Estonian basic research grant 514 and European Commission Directorate General Research grant ICA1CT20070006. The research of T.K. was supported by Estonian basic research grant 5574. The work of E.K. was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project number 01-04-48487a) and the Ministry of Sciences and Technology of Russia. M.G., S.Z., and L.O. received support from expedition grants from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1992–1997) and the Russian Foundation of Basic Research (project number 02-06-80524-a), and the research of P.R. received support from project number 0196005 of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Croatia.The Saami are regarded as extreme genetic outliers among European populations. In this study, a high-resolution phylogenetic analysis of Saami genetic heritage was undertaken in a comprehensive context, through use of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and paternally inherited Y-chromosomal variation. DNA variants present in the Saami were compared with those found in Europe and Siberia, through use of both new and previously published data from 445 Saami and 17,096 western Eurasian and Siberian mtDNA samples, as well as 127 Saami and 2,840 western Eurasian and Siberian Y-chromosome samples. It was shown that the "Saami motif" variant of mtDNA haplogroup U5b is present in a large area outside Scandinavia. A detailed phylogeographic analysis of one of the predominant Saami mtDNA haplogroups, U5b1b, which also includes the lineages of the "Saami motif," was undertaken in 31 populations. The results indicate that the origin of U5b1b, as for the other predominant Saami haplogroup, V, is most likely in western, rather than eastern, Europe. Furthermore, an additional haplogroup (H1) spread among the Saami was virtually absent in 781 Samoyed and Ob-Ugric Siberians but was present in western and central European populations. The Y-chromosomal variety in the Saami is also consistent with their European ancestry. It suggests that the large genetic separation of the Saami from other Europeans is best explained by assuming that the Saami are descendants of a narrow, distinctive subset of Europeans. In particular, no evidence of a significant directional gene flow from extant aboriginal Siberian populations into the haploid gene pools of the Saami was found.Peer reviewe

Lávvu and mathematics

International audienc

Lávvu and mathematics

International audienc

Conseil de la coopération culturelle : atelier de recherche pédagogique sur "l'éducation en faveur des minorités", Bautzen (Saxe), 11-14 octobre 1994 : la situation du peuple lapon sur le plan de l'éducation /

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Indigenous Journalism in Academia : Sámi Journalism Education Breaks New Ground

This chapter is based on an analytic assessment of the rationale and process that led to the establishment of an international Master’s education in Sámi Journalism with an Indigenous Perspective in 2014 at the Sámi Allaskuvla/Sámi University of Applied Sciences1 in Guovdageaidnu, Norway. This endeavour started from an international call for strengthening media education and media related research that has been an area of sustained development since the 1990s.Peer reviewe