The role of the Sámi in fur trading during the late Iron Age and Nordic medieval period in the light of the Sámi sacrificial sites in Lapland, Northern Sweden

Abstract

Sámi sacrificial sites that have been investigated in Lapland, northern Sweden, all show an increase in deposited metal objects, for example arrowheads, coins and pendants, in late Iron Age and early Medieval times (ca. 700 ‐ 1400 A.D.). The origins of these artefacts suggest there was an active gift exchange taking place between the Sámi hunters and Finno‐Ugrian settlers to the east, in the context of the fur trade. The presence of wealth objects in sacrificial sites is interpreted as a form of “potlatch”, i.e. the result of decisions by local groups (sijdda) to preserve social stability by removing from the society the possibility for an accumulation of wealth and prestige. This interpretation is consistent with the archaeological evidence of settlement patterns, seasonal mobility and a lack of social hierarchy in the interior of northern Sweden. Rituals at sacrificial sites thus helped to maintain a Sámi hunting society that was based on religious principles of animal ceremonialism, social principles of general reciprocity, and an economy centred on cooperative activities, despite the potential of the fur trade to disrupt this society, for example by enhancing the prestige of successful individuals. In this way the egalitarian character of the Sámi sijdda was maintained right up until the transition to reindeer pastoralism in the 16th‐nth centuries.