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Between Utopia and Dystopia: Colonial Ambivalence and Early Modern Perception of Sápmi
Abstract
The northernmost regions of Fennoscandia attracted attention of travellers and geographers for centuries. These regions were often imagined in ambivalent terms as homelands of evil and dearth or as places of true happiness. From the seventeenth century onwards, Sápmi (Lapland) became a destination of regular exploration undertaken by Swedish and foreign travellers. These travels made it possible to verify, dismiss, or authorize all that what was previously only speculated about, and ultimately led to the construction of new sets of representations. This paper studies the modes of imagining Sápmi in early modern writing, explores how these were intertwined with state programs in the region, and how the rhetoric and ideological underpinnings of the representations authored by the domestic authors differed from the visions of Sápmi produced by contemporaneous foreign travellers.
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“This also came to strip the authority of situational and 'indigenous' knowledge and ways of knowing the world, which contributed to the disempowerment of the northerners subjected to the Swedish Crown's material and symbolic conquering of Lapland (see also Naum 2016, 503).”
From Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden (2018) · cites this paper as Naum 2016
In the citing paper
“This kind of ambiguity was, as discussed earlier, not only characteristic of the images of Lapland/Sápmi, but also typical of colonialist perceptions of indigenous people in general (see Naum 2016).”
From Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden (2018) · cites this paper as Naum 2016
In the citing paper
“Lapland/Sápmi thus emerged as an arena for the Crown's dreams of transforming an 'uncultivated' land and its 'savage' inhabitants into a civilized and productive part of the realm (see Naum 2016).”
From Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden (2018) · cites this paper as Naum 2016
In the citing paper
“This was manifested, for instance, in the intensified planting of Lutheranism and other 'civilizing projects' in the North, entangled with colonialist policies and practices (Naum 2016, 491).”
From Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden (2018) · cites this paper as Naum 2016, 491
In the citing paper
“At the same time, however, the tedious travelling into unknown North in itself and the very experience of a half-mythical northern land-literally and symbolically something of an 'otherworld' where 'Swedish and foreign visitors alike experienced a feeling of disorientation and unfamiliarity' (Naum 2016, 496)mediated the reception and interpretation of the mysterious stone.”
From Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden (2018) · cites this paper as Naum 2016
In the citing paper
“Both saw the region as exotic, but foreign travellers put an emphasis on the marvels of the North and had little interest in northern pasts, whereas the Swedish (authorities) were preoccupied with northern resources on the one hand, and the deep histories of the northerners on the other (Naum 2016, 495-6).”
From Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden (2018) · cites this paper as Naum 2016, 495-6
In the citing paper
“At the same time, in 1638, Olof Tresk (d. 1645) was sent to conduct a survey of Lapland where silver ore had recently been discovered in Nasafjäll near the Swedish-Norwegian border, and the Swedish Crown was anxious to ensure its claim for this and other sources of wealth in the North (Naum 2016, 491).”
From Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden (2018) · cites this paper as Naum 2016, 491
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Metadata
- Authors
- Naum, M.
- Affiliations
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Corresponding author
- Naum, Magdalena
- ORCID
- Naum, Magdalena
- Venue
- Itinerario
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2016-12
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 489-521
- ISSN
- 0165-1153 (ISSN-L)
- 2041-2827
- OpenAlex
- W2564316655
- Cited by
- 25
- References
- 84
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 40.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Itinerario (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Travel Writing and Literature
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › European Cultural and National Identity
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › History of Science and Natural History
- Keywords
- Sápmi, Lapland, early modern travel writing, utopia and dystopia, representation of the North, Swedish colonialism, foreign travellers, indigenous peoples, Fennoscandia
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