Bridging Divides: Ethno-Political Leadership Among the Russian Sámi - Hardcover

Overland, Indra; Berg-Nordlie, Mikkel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0857456679 ISBN 13: 9780857456670

Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS INC, 2012

Synopsis

The Sami are a Northern indigenous people whose land, Sapmi, spreads over the territories of four states: Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia. For the Sami of the Nordic countries, the last decades of the 20th century were a renaissance of sorts: their indigenous rights were partially recognized, they experienced a cultural and linguistic revival and Sami parliaments were established. The Soviet Sami, on the other hand, had little opportunity to develop independent ethno-political organizations and were isolated from their ethnic kin across the closed border. This book tells the story of what happened in the two decades that followed: the Russian Sami attempted a linguistic revival, sought to mend the Cold War scars across Sapmi, and established their own independent ethno-political organizations.

About this title

Review:

"[These] excellent chapters detail the emergence of cross-border ties between Russia's Sámi communities and Nordic Sámi, and assess their contributions to cultural renewal . . . The socioeconomic and cultural portrait [drawn] will likely seem all too familiar to scholars of other Arctic and subarctic indigenous populations in northern Eurasia, but some of the information is unique to Russia's Sámi, making this an indispensable contribution to the documentation of northern peoples. Essential." - Choice

"The Sámi political movement, although mentioned in many works, has been a central topic in very few publications. This makes Overland's and Berg-Nordlie's monograph a long-awaited study . . . Bridging Divides, with its wide representation of diverse and often conflicting local opinions and societal attitudes toward the Sámi political movement, that cross ethnic borders and limitations, is emblematic of the establishment of 'multivocality' and democratization gaining ground." - Acta Borealia

"The work offers an important case study . . . of an indigenous revitalization movement and thereby allows for comparison with similar developments not only among the officially recognized forty 'Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia, and the Far East of the Russian Federation' but also with other indigenous peoples in industrialized countries . . . It is a valuable contribution to the literature on language loss and bilingualism and the phenomenon of gender shift frequently discussed in recent anthropological literature about the Russian North." - Stephan Dudeck, Arctic Centre, University of Lapland

"The authors give the reader a close and sophisticated analysis of the almost impossible project of restoring a cultural tradition, a lost language, and way of life [while] balancing precariously under harsh and marginal ecological and economic conditions . . . [It is] well written, well organized as a text, and well documented." - Jens-Ivar Nergaard, University of Tromsø

About the Author:

Indra Overland completed his PhD at the Scott Polar Research Institute of the University of Cambridge, UK. He is currently Acting Head of the Department of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and has previously worked for the Norwegian Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development (2000 - 2001), the Norwegian Refugee Council (2003) and the Nordic Research Board (2005 - 2006). His recent publications include Caspian Energy Politics (co-edited, 2009) and Russian Renewable Energy (co-authored, 2009). Mikkel Berg-Nordlie holds a Master's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Oslo and has a background in Russian Studies from the University of Tromso. He is a researcher at the Department of International Studies of the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research (NIBR). His research is focused on indigenous and ethnic minority-related issues - in the Russian North, Siberia and Far East, the Caucasus, Nepal and the Nordic Countries. Berg-Nordlie is a Sami from Norway, and has previously lived in North-Western Russia.

About this edition

• Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS INC
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0857456679
• ISBN 13: 9780857456670
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 162