The spiralling life of Sámi children
Whirls of organism and Indigenous relational philosophies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11952178 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Viktor Magne Johansson (0000-0003-0298-3832, Nord University , Postboks 1490, NO-8049 Bodø, corresponding author), Ylva Jannok Nutti (0000-0003-1023-8269, Sámi allaskuvla/Sámi University of Applied Sciences , Hánnoluohkká 45, NO-9520 Guovdageaidnu) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue | 5-6 |
| Pages | 1130-1147 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Philosophy of Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0309-8249 • E-ISSN: 1467-9752 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jopedu/qhaf074 |
| OpenAlex | W4416890399 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 17 |
The article investigates how meaning unfolds in the movements and entanglements of children, of teachers, of researchers, of animals, and of land—emerging in lived relations of meaning and otherness through the concrete whirls, swirls, and spirals of living together. It is grounded in an ethnographic narrative of an occasion when children from a Sámi Early Childhood Centre visited a reindeer gathering place in the mountains. With this narrative the article explores Stanley Cavell’s reading of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s notion of forms of life as ‘whirls of organism’, alongside anthropologist Tim Ingold’s reference to such whirls. The whirl and the spiral are read as movements of relationality, as emphasized by Indigenous scholars such as Jo-Ann Archibald, Margaret Kovach, Rauna Kuokkanen, Shawn Wilson, and the Sámi poet Inga Ravna Eira. Through this discussion the article extends some of Cavell’s writings about otherness in terms of what relations between we, I, and you can mean when land is regarded as a first form of relation. Thus, the article portrays how Indigenous forms of thinking in practice provide grounds for thinking with Cavell’s whirls in relation to otherness in such a way as to involve relational life with the land
Ethnography · Indigenous · Meaning (existential · Narrative · Relation (database · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |