Practices of perseverance

Conflicts over Sámi hunting rights in early modern central Sweden. A historical archaeological perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID21418906
AuthorsJonas Nordin (0000-0001-7220-9442, Lund University, corresponding author), Jonas Monié Nordin (0000-0002-5749-6057, Lund University), Sven Olofsson (Mid Sweden University)
Year2026
Volume60
Issue2
Pages1-29
Publication date2026-07-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePost-Medieval Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0079-4236 • E-ISSN: 1745-8137
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00794236.2026.2667154
OpenAlexW7167502463
LanguageEN
References cited16

The seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries saw a growing conflict between the crown, landowners, and nomadic Sámi in central Sweden. Laws and regulations stipulated that non-sedentary Sámi be banished to inland northern Sweden, the ‘lappmarker’, or take up indentured service under the control of the freeholders of the parishes. Reindeer pasture was an economic corner stone for many Sámi in central Sweden, but equally important was the hunt. Hunt for wild game and forest birds had a profound cultural and socio-economic role for the Sámi. It was also a fundamental reason to the conflict. In this paper we analyse material traces of Sámi hunt and the archival sources of the conflicts over the hunt between Sámi, the landowners and the authorities. With archaeological methods we examine the existence of bird-hunting devices in central Sweden and their connections through oral traditions to Sámi use. With historical methods we analyse the archival sources related to these conflicts over the hunt. In both the material and the written sources, Sámi agency, Sámi resistance, and Sámi perseverance are visible through a multitude of means of struggle against the authorities in a process related to an extensive transfer of land

Control (management) · Internal conflict · Multitude · Period (music) · Perspective (graphical) · Service (business) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · Indigenous Studies and Ecology