Thesis--Helsinki. / Includes bibliographical references.

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The title of this essay is ”A place forgotten by the world – the image of the Other and the Elsewhere in Forty Days Without Shadow by Oliver Truc”. Olivier Truc is a French-born journalist living in Stockholm, where he works as a correspondent for Le Monde and Le Point. He has also produced TV documentaries and non-fiction books. Forty Days Without Shadow is his first fictional work, a crime novel published in 2012. The story is settled in the Norwegian and Swedish parts of Lapland, and Sami people are in focus. In this essay, a postcolonial reading is used to interpret the novel, based mainly on the fact that the Sami are or were victims of Scandinavian colonization. The aim of the essay is therefore to examine whether the novel comprises colonialist or anti-colonialist attitudes, or perhaps both, and whether it contains exoticism and othering of the Sami. In particular it is examined how Lapland as a geographical place is described, and how Sami people are depicted compared to people of other origins in the novel. Another fact that is discussed, is how stereotypical characterisation is a common trait of crime novels, an aggravating circumstance for the analysis. The conclusion is that the novel has a strong anti-colonialist perspective, seen mainly in the treating of themes like the colonization of Lapland and its effects on some of the characters. At the same time, the physics of the Sami are described in recurring terms such as “high cheekbones”, whereas the faces of the normative Norwegian and Swedish characters are not described in the same way. In certain places in the novel there is a colonialist focalization which contributes to exoticism and othering of Sami people.

<p>Lake sediments are frequently used as archives of climate and environmental change. Minerogenic sediment variability in alpine lakes is often used to reconstruct past glacier and slope process activity. Alpine lake sediments can however have many different origins, which may induce errors in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The aim of this project was to enhance the understanding of minerogenic lake sedimentation in alpine lakes and improve their use as environmental archives.</p><p>Catchment geomorphology and Holocene sediment sequences were analysed for five alpine lakes. Several minerogenic sediment sources were detected in catchments and sediment sequences. Slope-, fluvial-, periglacial-, nival- and aeolian sediment transportation processes contribute to create complex lake sediment patterns. Large variations in sedimentation rates were discovered within and between lakes, which has implications for sampling strategies and age-model constructions. Similar fine-grained minerogenic laminations were found in four of the investigated lakes, despite large differences in setting. The demonstrated similarity between glacial and non-glacial lakes may complicate interpretations of glaciolacustrine sediment signals.</p><p>The main conclusion is that lake sedimentation in alpine environments is highly dependent on several geomorphological factors. All lakes should therefore be viewed as unique and the geomorphology should be thoroughly investigated before environmental reconstructions are based on lake sediment proxies. This study has confirmed the multi-source origin of alpine lake sediment, which also opens possibilities of more multi-faceted paleoenvironmental studies. Different process-proxies could potentially be used to separate different climate signals, e.g. precipitation, temperature and wind, in lake sediments. Analysis of grain-size distribution, detailed mineralogy and magnetic mineralogy in combination with X-ray radiography are suggested methods for such reconstructions.</p>

Lake sediments are frequently used as archives of climate and environmental change. Minerogenic sediment variability in alpine lakes is often used to reconstruct past glacier and slope process activity. Alpine lake sediments can however have many different origins, which may induce errors in paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The aim of this project was to enhance the understanding of minerogenic lake sedimentation in alpine lakes and improve their use as environmental archives. Catchment geomorphology and Holocene sediment sequences were analysed for five alpine lakes. Several minerogenic sediment sources were detected in catchments and sediment sequences. Slope-, fluvial-, periglacial-, nival- and aeolian sediment transportation processes contribute to create complex lake sediment patterns. Large variations in sedimentation rates were discovered within and between lakes, which has implications for sampling strategies and age-model constructions. Similar fine-grained minerogenic laminations were found in four of the investigated lakes, despite large differences in setting. The demonstrated similarity between glacial and non-glacial lakes may complicate interpretations of glaciolacustrine sediment signals. The main conclusion is that lake sedimentation in alpine environments is highly dependent on several geomorphological factors. All lakes should therefore be viewed as unique and the geomorphology should be thoroughly investigated before environmental reconstructions are based on lake sediment proxies. This study has confirmed the multi-source origin of alpine lake sediment, which also opens possibilities of more multi-faceted paleoenvironmental studies. Different process-proxies could potentially be used to separate different climate signals, e.g. precipitation, temperature and wind, in lake sediments. Analysis of grain-size distribution, detailed mineralogy and magnetic mineralogy in combination with X-ray radiography are suggested methods for such reconstructions.

Abstract The two rhetorical approaches to Finnish Lapland are the mythical and the miserable produced in the realms of tourism and politics respectively. The locals comply with neither. In this research the notion of beauty is used in seeking to understand how life is perceived as good-enough by particular villagers of a remote northern village. The scope of this research is novel theoretically and methodologically. The combination of everyday life aesthetics and education outside of institutional art education is rare and the method of data collection, collective correspondence, is created for the purposes of this research. Education is approached in this research as our perpetual growing in everyday life. Education and aesthetics receive support from sociology and human geography as well as environmental ethics. The theoretical frame leans on Ludwig Wittgenstein's notions of language use: language is woven into the actions of ordinary life, used not only to describe but to act on and transform the world. The objectives of this research in brief are to 1) complement art-centered definitions of the notion of beauty, 2) argue for the significance of diversity of habitable places, and 3) to contribute positively to the prevailingly negative research rhetoric on life in northern Finnish villages. These objectives are tackled with research tasks unfolding as descriptive, interpretative and methodological respectively: 1) of what kind is perceived beauty in everyday life led in a small northern village? 2) What is the significance of considering beauty in everyday life? 3) What kind of data does correspondence yield on perceived beauty? There are four women participating in this research. They exchanged letters on the topic of everyday beauty once a month for a year. Together they comprise a group that varies in ages, education, employment, family structures and the length of stay in the village. What they share is a view of their home village as a good-enough place to live in. The main data consists of 44 letters supplemented by 10 interviews. The letters have been read as one correspondence and as four individual sets of letters. Recurring themes, the temporal and spatial evolving of them as well as the performative aspects of writing have been addressed. Beauty has been found to reside in an iterative linguistic process rather than fixed in objects or even themes. Beauty articulates condensations of significant relations the perceiving individual holds in her life. As such beauty in everyday life is relational, active and pertains to steering of one's life. The ability to relate to the environment in which you live in a personally meaningful and creative way is found to be facilitated by an environment of diversity. Rather than keeping the rural North habited I argue for ensuring that it is habitable for those who wish to live there. This means realizing that people craft good-enough lives in different ways relative to their everyday life environments. / Tiivistelmä Lapista puhutaan kahdella tavalla, joista kumpikaan ei tavoita täysin lappilaisten itsensä arkikokemusta: Lappia värittää paikkana joko myyttisyys tai kurjuus. Näitä kahta kuvaa ylläpitävät pääasiassa turismi ja politiikka. Tässä tutkimuksessa käytetään ilmausta "kaunis" yritettäessä ymmärtää elämää pohjoisessa pienkylässä riittävän hyväksi koettuna. Tutkimus on sekä teoreettisesti että metodologisesti monitieteinen ja uutta luova. Arjen estetiikan ja kasvatustieteen yhdistäminen taidekasvatuksen sisältöalueen ulkopuolella on harvinaista. Tutkimuksessa on käytetty aineistonkeruumenetelmänä kirjeenvaihtoa, ja erityisesti sen kollektiivista muotoa, joka on kehitetty tätä tutkimusta varten. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan kasvatustieteen avulla arkeen kietoutuvaa kasvua ihmisenä. Sosiologia, kulttuurimaantiede ja ympäristöetiikka täydentävät kasvatustiedettä ja estetiikkaa. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys nojaa Ludwig Wittgensteinin huomioihin kielen käytöstä arjessa. Kieli on kietoutunut arjen toimintoihin ja on käytössä paitsi maailman kuvaamisessa myös sen muuttamisessa. Tutkimuksen tavoitteet ovat lyhyesti: 1) laajentaa "kauniin" taidemaailmaan nojautuvaa määrittelyä, 2) argumentoida ihmisen elinympäristöjen monimuotoisuuden puolesta sekä 3) täydentää lähtökohtaisesti positiivisella tutkimusotteella pohjoisen pienkylien elämästä tuotettua pääosin negatiivista tutkimusretoriikkaa. Tavoitteita lähestytään kolmella tutkimustehtävällä, jotka jakaantuvat kuvailevaksi, tulkinnalliseksi ja metodologiseksi. Tutkimustehtävät ovat: 1) minkälaista on kaunis pohjoisen pienkylän arjessa? 2) Mitä merkitystä on kauniin pohtimisella arjessa? 3) Minkälaista aineistoa kirjeenvaihto tuottaa kauneudesta? Tutkimukseen on osallistunut neljä naista. Jokainen heistä on kirjoittanut kirjeitä kauneudesta arjessaan ja vaihtanut kirjeitä kerran kuussa vuoden ajan. Naisten iät, koulutustaustat, työllisyystilanteet, perherakenteet sekä kylässä asuttu aika vaihtelevat. Heitä yhdistää näkemys kotikylästään riittävän hyvänä asuinpaikkana. Tutkimuksen pääasiallinen aineisto koostuu 44 kirjeestä, joita täydentää kymmenen haastattelua. Kirjeaineisto on luettu sekä yhtenä kirjeenvaihtona että neljänä osana, kunkin osallistujan kirjeet erikseen. Kirjeistä on tavoiteltu toistuvia teemoja ja näiden ajallista ja tilallista muotoutumista. Lisäksi kirjoituksia on pohdittu harkittuina esityksinä. Kaunis on todettu jatkuvaksi itseään korjaavaksi kielelliseksi prosessiksi sen sijaan, että se olisi paikantunut kiinteästi esineisiin, asioihin tai edes teemoihin. Arjen kaunis kiinnittyy kunkin elämässä merkityksellisiin suhteisiin. Kielellisenä prosessina kaunis ilmentää aktiivista ja luovaa toimijuutta ja liittyy elämän ohjailemiseen. Monimuotoisuus tukee kykyä muodostaa ja tiedostaa merkityksellisiä ja luovia suhteita elinympäristöön. Sen sijaan, että tutkimuksessa argumentoitaisiin pohjoisten kylien asuttamisen puolesta tutkimus esittää että pienkylien asuttavuus tulisi turvata sellaisille jotka haluavat asua kylissä. Tämä edellyttää ymmärrystä siitä, että ihmiset tekevät elämästään riittävän hyvää laadullisesti eri tavoilla erilaisissa ympäristöissä.

This master´s degree essay aims to analyze and confront two travel memoirs on the Sami people, an indigenous group living in the geographical area of Northern Norway, Swedish and Finnish Lapland and Kola Peninsula in Russia. The descriptions were taken out of a Swedish work by Gustaf von Düben Om Lappland och lapparne, företrädesvis de svenske (1852) and a Polish one written by Faustyna Morzycka Z dalekiej północy: Norwegja, Szwecja, Danja, Islandja i Laponja (1896). The study focuses on the narrative aspects of the actual human representations on the examined topic. The working hypothesis is that the images of Sami people vary strongly depending on the specific bias of the writer i. e. nationality, background or gender. Additionally, the study points out the specification of two different political, social and historical contexts and shortly discusses the model reader´s role in the writing process. The results of the study indicate that there are several differences appearing in the examined travel literature depending on the author.

This thesis primarily discusses the development of late Iron Age Saami settlement patterns in greater Norrland's forest area, from the establishment of the Settlements through to historical times. The Settlements are chiefly characterised by hearths, but it is also important to study Saami sacrificial sites when trying to understand the significance of the settlement patterns. Central to the thesis is how the archaeological material can be applied to questions concerning the introduction of reindeer herding. During the early Viking period a significant change in the settlement pattern of greater Norrland's inland occurs. New niches start to be exploited, moving away from the earlier shore-bound model. The Settlements are relocated to areas with good reindeer grazing land, by small streams, bogs and small lakes. The principal features are concentrations of hearths, which arise in large numbers, most often in groups of three to ten. A number of the artefacts found at the settlement sites are also found at Saami sacrificial sites from between 800 to 1350 AD, suggesting that the hearths should be studied in the context of Saami culture. A wide range of artefacts have been discovered during excavation of the Settlements, which suggests extensive contacts, mainly to the east and the Ladoga area, but also with Norway to the west. The artefacts display a continuity from the Viking period into the 1700's, and the dating of the hearths show a similar chronological spread. The study area has supported a reindeer herding forest Saami society during historical times, the settlement pattern of which has close similarities to that found under the Viking period. This implies that the settlement pattern that emerged during the Viking period can probably be related to an emergent reindeer herding system. Reindeer herding was undertaken in combination with hunting and fishing - so called semi-nomadism. It is suggested that the forest land Saami society become so dependent on reindeer herding during the Viking period, that it controlled the settlement pattern. / digitalisering@umu

This thesis deals with a medieval material from Rounala in Karesuando parish, Norrbotten county, Lapland. The aim is to reconstruct the diet and mobility patterns. It is through carbon, nitrogen and sulphur stable isotopes and radiocarbon that both pastoralist traits and whether which part Christianity played in the burial traditions of these human remains is being studied. Another aim is to discuss the repatriation issue as these remains are subjected to. The results mainly show that all individuals had a mixed diet and no pastoral way of living has been established. Furthermore, individual 3 is suffering from pathological changes. With radiocarbon dates ranging from 1300 to 1720 AD, two groups can be distinguished as to whom had been buried before and after the construction of the church. And repatriation is being discussed as an issue to who have ownership over ancient remains.

This study aims to unfold and explain the historical Swedish view upon the Samic people. The fundamental question asked is: ”In which manner, or manners, are the Samic people in the so called Lappmarkerna portrayed by Swedish missionaries during the 17th century? The study makes use of five Swedish missionaries’ written accounts of their travels in Lappmarkerna during the 17th century. The primary sources are examined through a hermeneutic method and the results are analyzed from a postcolonial theoretical framework based mostly on Edward Said’s Orientalism and Ania Loomba’s Colonialism/postcolonialism. The results unfold a view of the Samic people as indeed something other than the rest of the Swedes. The Samic people were described as cowardly, lazy, small in stature, not particularly strong, vigorous, fairly intelligent, disgraceful in the context of trade and very skilled with a bow and at hunting in general, but lacking any inclination towards war. The view of the Samic people as the other is however mostly not based on a suggestion that there were any ontological differences between the Samic people and the Swedes. On the contrary, the described differences were mostly ascribed to historical and cultural causes. It’s plausible that the explanation for the limited claims about any fundamental differences is found in the Swedish missionaries’ purpose of producing accounts of their travels. The Swedish missionaries were probably inclined to emphasize the basic similiarities in order to establish that the Samic people were possible to convert to Christianity as well as foster into becoming proper Swedish subjects.