LSE Monographs on Social Anthropology

Changing Lapps A Study in Culture Relations in Northernmost Norway is a study of culture contact between the Saami and the Scandinavians, chiefly Norwegians, in an historical perspective. This study is based primarily on literary sources and official records supplemented by field work. In order to correct the stereotype of the Saami as being a homogeneous people and entirely nomadic reindeer breeders, Gjessing describes Saami social structure and the functional aspects of the contact in terms of three Saami sub-cultures, those of the sea Saami, Reindeer Saami, and the permanently settled inland Saami. Gjessing points out that there is an increasing feeling of solidarity following economic lines rather than the local and cultural lines among the Saami.