Making New Antlers
Depositions of Animal Skulls and Antlers as a Message of Regeneration in South Sámi Grave Contexts
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6094493 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Camilla Olofsson (Wallenberg Wood Science Center, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 97-114 |
| Publication date | 2010-12-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Norwegian Archaeological Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0029-3652 • E-ISSN: 1502-7678 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00293652.2010.531584 |
| OpenAlex | W1968032249 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 16 |
At the grave fields at Krankmårtenhögen and Smalnäset, Härjedalen, 200 bc–ad 200, there were depositions of skull fragments and antlers on top of the graves. Some skulls and antlers have been damaged. For instance, there are some cases where the antlers have been chopped off with an axe. This paper argues that this treatment and the depositions are ways of communicating a message of regeneration to the animals, with whom people had crucial and reciprocal social relations based on trust. By symbolically shedding the antlers, people intended to persuade the animals to make new antlers. Such an interpretation is based on the assumption that the dichotomies between nature and culture, and the religious and the profane, are irrelevant to understanding the conception of the environment of the people who made the grave fields. The depositions were made prior the introduction of reindeer herding, a process with the implication that the relation of trust is transformed into one of dominance. The depositions of animal bones and antlers can be seen as strategic means of maintaining good relations and communicating differences and similarities with animal persons as well as adjacent human groups in the process towards an early ethnic dualism in southern Sápmi. As such, they have a great value of their own and should not be considered as an anomaly from cultural expressions of clearly defined Sámi and Germanic ethnicities
Archaeology · Biology · Dominance (genetics) · Dualism · Epistemology · Ethnic group · Ethnology · Geography · Herding · Interpretation (philosophy) · Linguistics · Sociology · Anthropology · History · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Philosophy · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology
Medieval Literature and Saami in the South
Combining Proto-Scandinavian loanword strata in South Saami with the Early Iron Age archaeological material of Jämtland and Dalarna, Sweden
Zooarchaeological and stable isotope evidence of Sámi reindeer offerings
Archaeology and Animal Persons
The Archaeology of Reindeer Domestication and Herding Practices in Northern Fennoscandia
Animals as Agents
Round or square? Ethnic processes and Saami dwelling practices in Hallingdal, southern Norway
I am the Walrus
Animal offerings at the Sámi offering site of Unna Saiva - Changing religious practices and human-animal relationships
The end of drum-time
Soul HuntersHunting, Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs
Grateful Prey
Ritual and Rationality
Reindeer Herding and History in the Mountains of Southern Sápmi
Capitalism in Central Norrland, Sweden, during the Iron Age
Technology, world view, and adaptive strategy in a northern hunting society
Ritual and Rationality
We Have Never Been Modern
Bringing home animals
Sacred and Profane Livelihood
The Perception of the Environment
Knowledge construction among the Cree hunters
Cosmological Deixis and Amerindian Perspectivism
Totemism, Animism and North Asian Indigenous Ontologies
| Unique citing works | 9 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,6 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2023 (13) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 9 |