The hunter-gatherer period of Sámi history is still characterized by dependence on the reindeer, but in a different way than that of later epochs.
(Ingold 1976: 18) Extensive herding systems are conversely characterized by maximization of the profits produced by the sale of reindeer bulls at slaughtering time in the fall. Intensive herding is characterized by a maximization of herd size through controlled reproductive increase. The difference between a hunter-gatherer society and a pastoral society is fairly obvious, but the juxtaposition of intensive herding systems with extensive herding systems is a crucial one therefore, that nomenclature will be used whenever possible. The third period was that of large-scale reindeer herding, also known as extensive reindeer herding. This type of herding is characterized by a yearly pattern of migration in which the herders accompany their deer along their grazing routes: up into the mountains for the summer and the rut, and down to the coast when the chill of winter comes. The second period was the period of reindeer pastoralism, also referred to as reindeer nomadism, or intensive reindeer herding.
They were adept trappers and even tamed a few reindeer to use as hunting decoys and draught animals. During this period, the Sámi subsisted entirely on wild foods: wild game including wild reindeer, bear, moose, elk, fish, and berries and nuts that could be gathered from the natural environment which surrounded them. The first stage is the hunter-gatherer period of Sámi history. It was a very slow process for the Sámi to go from hunting only wild reindeer to herding their animals with snowmobiles and helicopters, and turning a sizable cash profit each autumn in the process.Įssentially, there are three periods of Sámi history relating to reindeer herding, and though each stage played itself out with slight variations in each of the nation-states making up Sápmi, the three-stage model is helpful to understanding how the role of reindeer herding in Sámi society has changed through the course of history. In order to understand the role of the reindeer in the present-day Sámi and Finnish societies, especially in the complex arena of environmental politics and legislation, one must first understand the historical processes that have shaped this current configuration. Though the importance of the reindeer has changed little for the Sámi over thousands of years, the particular role played by the reindeer has changed as Sámi society has changed and been forced to adapt to Western incursion, absorption, assimilation, and appropriation.
The reindeer and the Sámi have sustained one another. They have been a source of food, clothing, shelter, and inspiration from time immemorial, as well as occupying a central position in ancient Sámi shamanism and iconography. There is no question that in the Sámi culture, there are few things as important as the reindeer.
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