Sámi and Finnish pre-Christian religion

In relation to the rock art research within the content of the dissertation and the ambiguity outlined surrounding the cultural context of the paintings, with regard to the strength and continuity of Sámi pre-Christian religion up until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, I consider it important to in-clude a brief discussion here to take a look at what has been presented through research analysis con-cerning debates about Finnish and Sámi prehistories and pre-Christian religion.

The purpose for this is because in order to further explain the title of the dissertation in relation to rock art research and the relationality between rock paintings in Finland and the symbols on the Sámi noaidi drums from Norway, Sweden and Finland, as systems of embodied knowledge, it is important to take into consideration what has been written about Finnish and Sámi cosmology and origins, due to what has been proposed regarding the cultural context of the rock art being: Finnish, and also because religion plays a central role in relation to identity, cultural memory and ethnicity.

It is my understanding that concerning what has been written about the emergence of Finnish pre-Christian religion, which according to Finnish scholar of Comparative Religion, Juha Pentikäin-en (2004: 1), “it is nowadays commonly agreed by linguistic researchers that a Finno-Ugric or Uralic language had spread to Finland by the time of the Neolithic comb pottery period at the latest (c. 4200 – 2200 BC)”. If this language had come from the east during migrations, one may presume, the settlers probably brought with them various identities and ethnicities as well as religious practices. From these, the theory is that the religious practices to which bear hunting, ceremonialism and sacrifice played a central role and function, appears with many parallels to Siberian shamanism; Siberia as a whole, being viewed as the cradle of shamanism.

In archaeology also, and for example, there are numerous claims regarding how according to Lahelma (2005: 34), “[…] shamanism is a central element of both Finnish and Saami pre-Christian religion, and indeed is present in some form in the entire area populated by Finno-Ugric peoples, extending well into Siberia²⁹. However, and as a starting point for the distinction or division between Sámi and Finnish

pre-28 Original text by Hans Ragner Mathisen, translated from Norwegian to English by Paula Simonsen 2015.

29 According to Lahelma (2005: 44), “The Finnish scholar M. A. Castrén identified shamanism in traditional Finnish folk poetry as early as the mid-19th century (Castrén 1853). Siikala 2002[a] is a comprehensive, well-argued

trea-histories and religion, it is also important to acknowledge what Pentikäinen (1998: 20), states in relation to how and despite “the Sami people speak[ing] a language belonging to the Finno-Ugric linguistic family.

The split away from the Finnish languages occurred about 2,500 – 3,000 years ago”.

In the works of Schefferus from this early time of the study of Sámi culture, heritage and history, there exists ambiguity as to the origins of Sámi religion. In his chapter: Of the Magical Ceremonies of the Laplanders, Schefferus (1971: 45-46), recalls the following.

“It hath bin a received opinion among all that did but know the name of the Laplanders, that they are, people addicted to magic, wherefore I thought fit to discourse next of this, as being one of the greatest of their impieties that yet continues among them. And that this opinion may seem to be grounded upon some authority, they are described both by ancient and mod-ern writers, to have arrived to so great skill in enchantments, that among several strange effects of their art, they could stop ships when under full sail. This judgement of the historians concerning Laplanders is no less verified also of the Biarmi their predecessors. So that we may justly suppose both of them to have descended from the same original: for Biarmi were so expert in these arts that they could either by their looks, words, or some other wicked artifice, so ensnare and bewitch men, as to deprive them of the use of their limbs and reason, and very often bring them into extreme danger of their lives”³⁰.

In the effervescent scholarly works of Professor of Comparative Religion, Veikko Anttonen, in his article:

Litery Representation of Oral Religion: Organizing Principles of Mikael Agricola’s List of Mythological Agents in Late Medieval Finland (2012), Anttonen highlights the complexity involved, in the works of Agricola, for example for compiling and thus presenting a cohesive and intelligible list of Finnish deities and spirits within Finnish paganism in relation to Finnish pre-Christian religion and its origins. Anttonen (2012: 194-195), recalls how

“using all the available sources including a massive body of archaeological evidence from the prehistoric era onwards, linguistic evidence, and collections or oral folk traditions – folklorists, ethnologists and scholars of comparative religion have shown no single, systematic, coherent

‘pagan’ theology or mythology ever existed. In addition to Agricola’s list, this also concerned the national epic Kalevala, compiled and published by Elias Lönnrot in 1835 and 1849”.

tise on the presence of shamanistic elements in pre-Christian Finnish religion. Unfortunately, many other central works on the subject have not been translated into English, but see e.g. Pentikäinen 1999 on Finnish mythology, Bäckman and Hultkrantz 1978 on Saami shamanism and Holmberg’s (1927) old but still very useful work on Fin-no-Ugric religions in general”.

30 Schefferus also describes in his chapter: Of the Original of the Laplanders (pp15-21), there are further discussions concerning the origins of the Sámi in relation to the Finns and Finland. He also notes similarities in the names of de-ities between the Sámi and Finns, for example Schefferus (1971: 15-16), states how “we may also observe that their languages have much affinity, tho they be not the very same, as shall be proved at large in a particular chapter. The Finlanders call God, Jumala, the Laplanders, Jubmal, the Finlanders fire, Tuli, the Laplanders Tolle; they call a hill Wuori, theirs Warra, and so they agree in many other words”. As Anttonen has pointed out in the early works of Agricola, how when studying different provinces in Finland in relation to Finnish folk religion, according to Anttonen (2012: 197), “Ag-ricola did not have reason to differentiate between regional characteristics in different parts of Finland; for instance, between the provinces of Savo and Karelia. Instead he aimed to provide, perhaps for strategic reasons, an overview of pagan folk traditions by juxtaposing deities of Tavastia with Karelian ones on the basis of the knowledge to which he had gained access”. It is important to ask the question as to whether or not, other scholars have used a similar approach in the study of Finnish and Sámi pre-Christian religion and if so, how has this influenced the research?

Perhaps the matter of distinction and variations between the religious practices, traditions, and deities in terms of religion is best described in the works of Schefferus (1971: 21), who says that

“for there were Laplanders, or at least some inhabitants of Lapland before the Christian religion was introduced: such as the Finni, Lappofinni, Scridfinni, or Biarmi, as is above said, but it was very long before the Laplanders properly embraced the Christian Religion. At first, there is no doubt that they were Pagans, as all Northern Nations were, but being all Pagans were not of the same Religion, it may be enquired which the Laplanders protest”.

It is important to recognize how the Finns and Sámi, despite having similar beliefs and practices in rela-tion to what is defined as pagan religion, worship and sacrifice, did not necessarily depict their religious beliefs and practices in the same way. To say so would, in my opinion, be a mistake, especially in relation to their worldviews, which are intimately linked with religious practices and identity. The value of ac-knowledging these variation is because they provide clear examples regarding how the Finns and Sámi, as Schefferus (1971: 21), has stated “[…] but being all Pagans were not the same Religion […]³¹.

In the works of Juha Pentikäinen (1998: 44-46), in relation to Sámi shamanism and cosmology, throughout the chapter titled: “Parallels in Finnish Folklore and Pictographs”. Pentikäinen proposes a basic vocabulary shared in relation to what he sees as parallels between Finnish, Sámi and Siberian sha-manism and the division of the cosmos into a three levelled structure. In this sense, he follows similar approaches to other scholars such as Siikala and Lahelma in the ways he juxtaposes figures from the Finnish Kalevala poetry with Sámi shamanism and rock paintings in Finland and Siberian shamanism.

The question arises as to why it seems so difficult for scholars of religion not to apply a type of historical revisionism, where history is revised in order to suit the nation state of Finland and Finnish scholarly dis-course, in order to advance Finnish pre-Christian religion and the development of its culture, but somehow at the same time, maintain ties with the Sámi? This to me sounds like a furthering of the colonialism ideol-ogy. It may well be the case that the Finns, Sámi and Siberian tribes share a similar worldview and they are related through language, but at the same time, is it not critical that we allow the Sámi authority over their own culture and its history in terms of religion and cosmology, despite these similarities?

Therefore, as we move across the centuries within the research, it is important to acknowledge how what has chiefly been written about Sámi shamanism, up until the present time belongs to the past and it has been thrown into the melting pot of inter-mixed cultures, which to me can be viewed as a paradigm,

31 According to Encyclopædia Britannica (2016), “The problem of the concept of a Finno-Ugric religion. Since it is not possible to find a single formula to cover Finno-Ugric cultures and religions and since the relationship between the peoples is often distant both geographically and historically, it may well be asked whether there is any utility in attempting, by means of comparative methods, to discover some common or basic substratum in Finno-Ugric religion. Many earlier scholars attempted this enthusiastically, but today there is general agreement that a hypo-thetical reconstruction representing the “original religion” of a single language family is virtually impossible. That ancient tradition may have been preserved in different regions, although fragmented and adapted to new con-ditions, is, of course, possible, and indeed seemingly trustworthy discoveries have been made that substantiate this view. One must, however, be extremely circumspect in projecting hypotheses applying to the entire linguistic group. Genetic-historical considerations are of great importance when dealing with those areas of the language family where a cultural connection has subsisted long and late. The search for a common historical tradition is not, however, the most rewarding aspect of the study of Finno-Ugric religions. The religio-phenomenological approach is equally interesting and significant. In the course of conducting non-historical studies of similarities and differences in Finno-Ugric religious material, scholars have uncovered a spectrum of basic religious forms running from Arctic hunting and fishing cultures to southern cattle breeding and agriculture”.

which could be seen as serving the interests of the Finns for political reasons. Moreover, if the rock paintings in Finland have been created by duel ethnicity, Sámi and Finns, is it the case all the information what was known about the art from within literature sources, was wiped out during the great fire of Turku in 1827?

Given the fact the Sámi are such a small population by contrast to the Finns, we would need to ask that if it is the case that the forefathers of both the Sámi and Finns have created the art, why is it that the art, which reflects both rock paintings in Finland and carvings in Sweden and Norway, is not found in Finnish culture from the same time the missionaries were converting the Sámi to Christianity, given the fact there were over 70 drums with such embedded forms of knowledge illustrated onto them? These are difficult but at the same time, relevant questions that need to be considered.

With regard to the study of Sámi shamanism and pre-Christian religion, the focus turns to what has emerged from within implementation of Christianity in the north, in relation to Sámi shamanism concerning tradition. What this means is that despite how the various branches of Christianity and Scandinavian religions have impacted and shaped Sámi religion from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at this point emphasis is placed on what scholars have said regarding Sámi shamanism and cosmology for the purpose of understand-ing why, in relation to rock art research and also what has been written about the adaptation of symbolism from Scandinavian religions to the noaidi drums, obstacles exist in relation to the cultural origins of the art.