Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T07:57:48.842Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The sense of time in the north: a Sámi perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2012

Nuccio Mazzullo
Nuccio Mazzullo*
Affiliation:
Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, Schongauerstraße 9, 04329 Leipzig, Germany and Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, PL122, 96101 Rovaniemi, Finland ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper refers to some aspects of the theoretical anthropological debate on the perception of time and I shall argue, following Ingold (2000) that amongst the Sámi people time is understood as an unfolding of interrelated tasks, rather than as a linear succession of standardised and arbitrary units. I also argue that the Sámi perception of time is not opposed to the western perception, but rather entails a different approach to the significance of clock time. The results of my fieldwork, conducted among the Sámi people in Finnish Lapland, lend support to the idea that the basis for a people's shared understanding and subjective experience of time lies in the interaction of skilful agents in carrying out diverse but interrelated tasks. It is not sufficient to live in a place, to belong to a particular ethnic group or to be engaged in the same subsistence activity to perceive time in a certain fashion. No matter how much we change the combination of actors, the perception of time is generated in each case through situated activity within the landscape.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 48 , Issue 3: THEMED SECTION: CONTESTED BORDERS AND IDENTITIES , July 2012 , pp. 214 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adam, B. 1994. Perceptions of time. In: Ingold, T. (editor). Companion encyclopaedia of anthropology. Humanity, culture and social life. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1963. The attitude of the Algerian peasant toward time. In: Pitt–Rivers, J. (editor). Mediterranean countrymen: essays in the social anthropology of the Mediterranean. Paris: Mouton: 55–72.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1977. Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1990. The logic of practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans–Pritchard, E.E. 1940. The Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Eriksen, T.H. 2004, What is anthropology? London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Feit, H. 1994. The enduring pursuit: land, time and social relationship in anthropological models of the hunter–gatherers and in sub–arctic hunters’ images. In: Burch, E.S., and Ellanna, L.J., (editors). Key issues in hunter–gatherer research. Oxford: Berg: 421–439.Google Scholar
Harrison, B. 2001. Collaborative programs in indigenous communities:from fieldwork to practice. Walnut Creek: AltaMira PressGoogle Scholar
Ingold, T. 1993. The temporality of the landscape. World Archaeology 25 (2):152–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingold, T. (editor). 1994. Companion encyclopaedia of anthropology. Humanity, culture and social life. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ingold, T. 1995. Work, time and industry. Time and Society 4 (1): 5–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingold, T. 2000. The perception of the environment. Essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ingold, T., and Kurttila, T.. 2000. Perceiving the environment in Finnish Lapland. Body and Society 6 (3–4): 183–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Itkonen, T.I. 1984 [1948]. Suomen Lappalaiset Vuoteen 1945 [The Finnish Lapps until 1945]. Vols. I–II. Porvoo: WSOY.Google Scholar
Kant, I., 1998 [1781] The critique of pure reason. In: Guyer, P., and Wood, W.A.. The Cambridge edition of the works of Immanuel Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lévi–Strauss, C. 1974. The savage mind. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.Google Scholar
Mazzullo, N. 2005. Perception, tradition and environment among Sámi people in northeastern Finland. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Mazzullo, N., and Ingold, T.,. 2008. Being along: place, time and movement among Sámi people. In: Bærenholdt, J.–O., and Granås, B. (editors). Mobility and place: enacting European peripheries. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.Google Scholar
Mazzullo, N., 2010 More than meat on the hoof? Social significance of reindeer among Finnish Saami in a rationalized pastoralist economy. In: Stammler, F., and Takakura, H. (editors). Good to eat, good to live with: nomads and animals in northern Eurasia and Africa. Sendai: Tohoku University (Center for Northeast Asian Studies): 101–119.Google Scholar
Mbiti, J.S. 1969. African religions and philosophy. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Sommier, S. 1886. Due comunicazioni fatte alla Società di Antropologia sui Lapponi e sui Finlandesi. Firenze: Estratto dall'Archivio per l'Antropologia e l'Etnologia.Google Scholar
Valkeapää, N.-A. 1983. Greetings from Lapland. The Sami – Europe's forgotten people. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Wagner, R. 1981 [1975]. The invention of culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar