The Sámi Peoples of the North: A Social and Cultural History by Neil Kent

"This detailed and comprehensive study of a people who have lived for thousands of years on Europe’s northernmost margins reveals an astonishing diversity of language, culture and livelihoods. The lands of the Sámi, as Neil Kent so ably shows, embrace far more than reindeers and Yuletide tourism" – David Kirby, Emeritus Professor of Modern History, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London and author of A Concise History of Finland  

The first comprehensive history of the Sami people of the Nordic countries and northwestern Russia.

The first comprehensive history of the Sámi people of the Nordic countries and northwestern Russia. There is no single volume which encompasses an integrated social and cultural history of the Sámi people from the Nordic countries and northwestern Russia. Neil Kent’s book fills this lacuna.

In the first instance, he considers how the Sámi homeland is defined: its geography, climate, and early contact with other peoples. He then moves on to its early chronicles and the onset of colonisation, which changed Sami life profoundly over the last millennium. 

Thereafter, the nature of Sámi ethnicity is examined, in the context of the peoples among whom the Sámi increasingly lived, as well as the growing intrusions of the states who claimed sovereignty over them. The Soviet gulag, the Lapland War and increasing urbanisation all impacted upon Sámi life.

Religion, too, played an important role from pre-historic times, with their pantheon of gods and sacred sites, to their Christianisation. In the late twentieth century there has been an increasing symbiosis of ancient Sámi spiritual practice with Christianity. Recently the intrusions of the logging and nuclear industries, as well as tourism have come to redefine Sámi society and culture. Even the meaning of who exactly a Sámi is is scrutinised, at a time when some intermarry and yet return to Sápmi (their traditional cultural and geographical homeland), where their children maintain their Sami identity.

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