The silent language of ethnicity

Abstract

The article argues that in everyday life, in ethnically mixed communities in the Arctic region, the concept of Saaminess is dynamic and situated. Social practices that sustain impure identity categories are in existence. People insist on ambiguity as a matter of resistance against Norwegian society as well as against the logic of nationalism, after a century of institutionalized assimilation. In the practice of everyday life, gift exchange becomes a way of visualizing basic recognition and appreciation of the humanity of the other. Objects, values and symbols become the material employed in the creation of a local, collective self-perception that transcends ethnic boundaries. In such a context ethno-political identity categories and any notion of ethnicity that sees ethnic categories as mutually exclusive are poor tools for the analysis of what takes place in this region. There is a need for an opening up of concepts such as ethnicity and identity to encompass differences and antagonisms, both analytically and politically.