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The sense of time in the north: a Sámi perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2012

Nuccio Mazzullo
Nuccio Mazzullo*
Affiliation:
Leibniz-Institut für Länderkunde, Schongauerstraße 9, 04329 Leipzig, Germany and Arctic Centre, University of Lapland, PL122, 96101 Rovaniemi, Finland (nuccio.mazzullo@ulapland.fi)
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Abstract

This paper refers to some aspects of the theoretical anthropological debate on the perception of time and I shall argue, following Ingold (2000) that amongst the Sámi people time is understood as an unfolding of interrelated tasks, rather than as a linear succession of standardised and arbitrary units. I also argue that the Sámi perception of time is not opposed to the western perception, but rather entails a different approach to the significance of clock time. The results of my fieldwork, conducted among the Sámi people in Finnish Lapland, lend support to the idea that the basis for a people's shared understanding and subjective experience of time lies in the interaction of skilful agents in carrying out diverse but interrelated tasks. It is not sufficient to live in a place, to belong to a particular ethnic group or to be engaged in the same subsistence activity to perceive time in a certain fashion. No matter how much we change the combination of actors, the perception of time is generated in each case through situated activity within the landscape.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 48 , Issue 3: THEMED SECTION: CONTESTED BORDERS AND IDENTITIES , July 2012 , pp. 214 - 222
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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