24. Gender in Saami Knowledge production

Gender in Saami knowledge production

Convenors: Marko Jouste, Giellagas institute, University of Oulu

Contact: marko.jouste (at) oulu.fi

Seminar room: Stage (Parallel session 4)

Format: Hybrid

The workshop focuses on various methods of Saami knowledge production in traditional and modern cultural contexts. Gender has a vital impact to the essence of data formulated by the Saamis. In the traditional Saami cultures gender roles in everyday life and work were often clearly defined and data preserved from earlier time periods reflect these divisions. During the last decades these definitions have changed alongside the flux of the birth of the modern Saami society. However, gender still offers an important background for Saami knowledge production. Our main interest is to reflect these changes and experiences of gender and offer a platform for examining various case studies in gender research of Saami Culture.

Presentations

Marko Jouste

Päivi Magga

Sigga-Marja Magga

Eeva-Kristiina Nylander

Ilona Kivinen, Felix Mäkelä, Reetta Juntunen

Abstracts

Marko Jouste, University of Oulu, The Giellagas Institute for Saami Studies

Gender in Saami Archive Material in Finland

Saami archive material consist of various collections from historical encounters of Saamis and non-Saamis to indigenous Saami knowledge production. Earliest written documents can be dated to the 17th century but due the emergence of both modern science (e.g., linguistics, culture anthropology and folkloristics) and recording technology during the 20th century, the amount of culture material expanded rapidly. Furthermore, since 1970s modern Saami society has produced notable amount of culture data through various mediums but only a fraction of it have become parts of archive collections.

The role of gender in Saami knowledge production is an important factor and it is evident that there are gender biases in the practices of gathering archive material in different periods. An expected notion is related to the period of early 20th century and to the role of males in academia, and it is mainly men who executed interviews of Saamis. To gather Saami language data, one had to know Saami language and for a non-Saami person that meant to be part of Finno-Ugric studies and practically all linguists in this field were men until the 1970s. An exception to this is the co-operative work of Samuli and Jenny Paulaharju, carrying out an extensive ethnographic fieldwork during 1920s and 1930s.

However, in the archive material both men and women are rather evenly presented, probably due to the instructions on recording language and culture material from both sexes. There are also examples of bias on women informants, e.g., the Skolt Saami material from 1960s and 1970s mainly consist of women informants. Furthermore, the roles in the traditional Saami work are clearly distributed to either sex and as ethnographic interviews focus on the traditional way of living, the material often reflects also on the gender experiences of work and recalling these working environments.

Probably the field where gender has the strongest role in the communication between an interviewer and interviewed are life stories and personal and sensitive experiences. However, form the preliminary analysis of the archive collections, gender is not the only and determinative factor governing the essence of culture material. One can argue that the most important factor governing the Saami knowledge production is cultural competence, ability to use Saami languages, having knowledge on specific cultural context. If these are not presented, the interviews contain mainly rather general and often easy-to-find information of the Saami culture.

Päivi Magga, University of Oulu, The Giellagas Institute for Saami Studies

Gender, Tradition and Change in the Knowledge of Reindeer Sámi Culture Environment

Sukupuoli, perinne ja muutos porosaamelaisten kulttuurimaisemaan liittyvässä tiedossa Saamelaisessa poronhoidossa sukupuolten tasa-arvo on erityinen ja moniulotteinen kokonaisuus. Poronhoidon tasa-arvo ei kuitenkaan tarkoita sitä, että samanlaista työtä tehtäisiin yhtä paljon. Kokonaisuus muodostuu enemmänkin erilaisten töiden kokonaisuudesta. Lähtökohtaisesti poronhoitoperheissä molemmilla sukupuolilla on mahdollisuus samaan kokemusperäiseen tietoon elinkeinosta ja ympäristöstä.

Viime vuosikymmeninä tässä on kuitenkin tapahtunut merkittävä muutos. Ensinnäkin poronhoidon motorisoituminen 1960-luvulla vaikutti siihen, että naisia jäi pois porometsältä, sillä sen ajan isot raskaat kelkat vaativat fyysistä voimaa. Toiseksi moderni saamelainen yhteiskuntamalli on muuttunut entistä vahvemmin rahatalouteen perustuvaksi ja usein poronhoitoperheenkin tulot koostuvat sekä poronhoidosta että muualta saatavista tuloista. Muutoksen seurauksena huomattava osa naisista onkin nykyään ulkopuolisessa palkkatyössä, mikä rajoittaa naisten mahdollisuuksia osallistua käytännön porotöihin.

Yhteisön ulkopuolelle miesten osallisuus määrittyy usein näkyvinä töinä ja naisten osallisuus jää näkymättömiin. Tämän takia naisten osallisuutta ja työpanosta ei ole valtayhteiskunnan taholta tunnistettu eikä arvostettu. Saamelaiseen kulttuuriympäristöön liittyvässä työssäni kollegoja ovat naiset mutta ”kentällä” olen tekemisissä lähes poikkeuksetta miesten kanssa. Kokemuksiini pohjautuen puheenvuorossani pohdin, jäsentyykö saamelaisen poronhoidon kulttuurimaisemaan liittyvä tieto modernissa ajassa entistä enemmän vain miesten tuottamaksi. Jääkö naisten kokemusperäinen tieto ohuemmaksi, ja mitkä syyt siihen ovat vaikuttaneet?

Sigga-Marja Magga, University of Lapland

Sempiternal Sámi Handicraft as a Source for New Knowledge – The Significance of Duodji-research in Gender Studies

Ikiaikainen saamelainen käsityö uuden tiedon tuottajana – Duodjitutkimuksen merkitys sukupuolentutkimuksessa

Duodjitutkimus, eli saamelaisen käsityön kautta avautuvan saamelaisen todellisuuden tutkimus, on viimeisen parinkymmenen vuoden aikana merkittävästi vahvistunut eri tieteen aloilla. Duodjitutkimus on tieteidenvälinen tutkimussuuntaus, jonka teemat ovat vaihdelleet aina käsityötekniikoiden ja -materiaalien tutkimuksesta länsimaisen taidehistoriankritiikin kautta saamelaisen yhteiskunnan valtakysymyksiin ja saamelaisiin tiedontuottamisen tapoihin eri elämänalueilla.

Vaikka duodji, käsityö, vahvasti symboloi naiseutta ja naisen asemaa saamelaisessa yhteiskunnassa, ei sen merkitys tieteellisen ja kulttuurisen tiedon tuottajana suinkaan ole ollut itsestäänselvyys. Duodjitutkimus on kuitenkin onnistunut raivaamaan tiensä kiinteäksi osaksi saamentutkimusta ja laajemmin alkuperäiskansatutkimusta sen omaperäisten aiheidensa ja kriittisten näkökulmiensa takia.

Omaperäiset aiheet tarkoittavat usein sukupuolten välisen tasa-arvon ja epätasa-arvon teemoja ja saamelaisen naisen näkyvyyttä ja toisaalta näkymättömyyttä historiassa, yhteiskunnassa ja tutkimuksissa. Puheenvuorossani tarkastelen tätä duodjitutkimuksen kautta välittyvän tiedon merkityksellisyyttä erityisesti suhteessa naisten asemaan ja naisten merkitykseen saamelaisen perinteisen tiedon tuottajina ja saamelaisen tulevaisuuden turvaajina.

Eeva-Kristiina Nylander, University of Oulu, The Giellagas Institute for Saami Studies

The rematriation of Ládjogahpir—The Foremothers' Hat of Pride

In my speech I discuss the rematriation project “The Ládjogahpir. Máttaráhkuid gábagahpir. The Foremothers hat of Pride”, by me and Sámi visual artist Outi Pieski. In this project we studied the silent feminine history and how duodji, Sámi crafts is a holistic entity that is first and foremost practical, made in in relationship, interplay and understanding of environment and the materials that are needed and/or available. In addition to beauty, Sámi duodji is a database for those who understand the cultural language interwoven in each object, but it also seems to be a connection to ancestors.

As Sámi objects travel through time and space they are made with care and love, used, sometimes remodelled, and abandoned. In other cases, like in the case of ládjogahpir, they are made with care and love, used, removed almost totally from Sápmi, taken to museum collections, classified, marked with a number to separate them from the flock of other objects. During this process objects are segregated from the Sámi land, knowledge systems, philosophy, and ways of knowing.

At the age of repatriation some of this duodji, like the ládjogahpir are returned home to Sápmi. In the case of ládjogahpir, knowledge from archives and museum collection have been returned to the society. The ládjogahpir and its history, intertwined with the history of Sámi women are returned and through collective workshops the hat has been resocialized to the Sámi society.

The ládjogahpir has received new meanings through relearning and the bodily movements that are repeated in collective workshops. Museum duodji has a great potential for relearning, empowering people and initiating discussions while working with them. It can be a means for decolonization and indigenization in Sámi societies it is intertwined with the history of this hat used by Sámi women in a certain place and time.

Ilona Kivinen, Felix Mäkelä, Reetta Juntunen, University of Helsinki

Gender differencies in the use of adjectives in early 20th century

One could assume that the use of adjectives would differ between genders. Presupposedly the men would use adjectives less than women. Is this so? And do men use different types of adjectives than women?

This study concerns J.K. Qvigstad’s collection of Saami stories, Lappiske eventyr og sagn (1927–29), and the adjectives used in that. Mostly the speakers in such old and traditional collections tend to be men, but there are also some women in Qvigstad’s material. This study covers two idiolects as there are especially two persons who have told many stories in the books; femail Ellen Ucci from Guovdageaidnu (Kautokeino) and male Efraim Pedersen from Omasvuotna (Storfjord). Both speakers speak the western dialect, although Pedersen’s dialect is even more western than Ucci’s. In this presentation I will look how these two persons use adjectives and compare them to each other and to some extent to other speakers in Qvigstad’s texts.

The central questions are: Do they use different adjectives? How do they use the adjectives semantically and grammatically? There are, of course, also dialectal differences, but still it seems that mostly the differences also in grammatical use are more idiolectal than dialectal. Material: Qvigstad, J. K. 1927–29: Lappiske eventyr og sagn I–IV. Oslo.

FM Felix Mäkelä, University of Helsinki

Production and use of Northern Saami terms regarding LGBTQ-people

The dynamics of knowledge production within language policy and planning center around several variables like status, political culture, age, and gender. In language policy and planning it is always relevant to ask who (what kind of actors) are involved in decision-making and to what extent are the decisions being respected and by whom. There is very little research about this in the Saami context.

In my master’s thesis (Mäkelä 2022) I have made a preliminary sketch and analysis of the power relations in knowledge production of specialized terminology in Northern Saami. In a dialogue with Ulrich Ammon’s (2003) theory, based on theory about social dynamics, several interesting aspects arise: there seems to be more of a democratic process in making specialized terminology in Northern Saami than in many other pluricultural languages e.g., German. Still, it is mainly people with certain status and knowledge: teachers, journalists, linguists, professionals in the field in question and editors of dictionaries, but also people with deeper knowledge through hobbies or personal experience. In addition to the general analysis of the production of terminology, the thesis dives into term for LGBTQ-people. I analyze who (what kind of actor) has produced terms regarding sexual and gender minorities and which terms have they produced or chosen to use.

The material consists of two lists from 2018 and 2019, 11 paper dictionaries published 1979-2022, 118 news articles from state media (NRK, Yle, SR) from years 2007-2021 and two larger translations from 2013 and 2017. The analysis reveals several gender-related aspects. Dictionaries, which in this case are more often written by men, contain terms seldom (or barely at all) used. The news material is mostly written by women and is by far the most generative (and inconsistent), but also seems to follow the discourse in the queer community.

The list of 2018 and the translation from 2013 provide a bit deeper analysis in the dynamics in LGBTQ-terminology. The people behind the work consist mainly of women. In the translation of the groundbreaking work Queering Sápmi (2013) the terms used in the translation are decided upon and made or chosen together with the persons interviewed for the content of the book. This kind of co-created knowledge with the community in question sets an example within terminology planning in situations where there is a lack of terms, but the power dynamics are uneven on a societal level. The research provides a preliminary analysis and opens for further research and discussion.