Page 143 - Panjek, Aleksander, Jesper Larsson and Luca Mocarelli, eds. 2017. Integrated Peasant Economy in a Comparative Perspective: Alps, Scandinavia and Beyond. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 143
livelihood diversification in early modern sami households in northern sweden
and systematic choice for peasants and not as occasional or casual events.
Instead, activities aside from farming represent essential income sources
that are not simply supplementary. In line with this reasoning peasants did
not just produce to consume and take part in other tasks when there was
time left, but they had a systematic approach meaning that other income
bringing activities were used actively and taken into consideration in house-
hold planning. Despite differences in cultural settings and subsistence pat-
terns, the concept of the integrated peasant economy would also seem to
be a useful analytical tool for understanding the Early Modern Sami econ-
omy. Like pre-industrial peasants in marginalised regions the Early Mod-
ern Sami were engaged in primary production that, for many of them, was
self-insufficient. In order to achieve a durable household economy they in-
stead had to rely on a number of other subsistence tasks aside from reindeer
husbandry and fishing. Moreover, from the 16th century Sami had started
to become market oriented which adjusted both their production and con-
sumption patterns. We know from historical sources that many subsistence
activities were important with regards to trade and not merely carried out
to fulfil household consumption needs. However, in order to analyse which
role integrated income sources played in early modern Sami economy, one
must analyse the historical written sources and archaeological evidence re-
lating to Sami subsistence in more detail. The relevant source material will
be described in the following chapter.
2. Sources
In common with the majority of indigenous peoples, the Sami produced
virtually no historical records of their own before the 20th century. Infor-
mation about Sami history must instead be pieced together from a num-
ber of secondary sources, namely State tax records, court records, accou-
nts by priests and travellers, and archaeological material. One source that
describes Sami husbandry in the 17th and 18th centuries consists of accou-
nts by missionaries to Lapland at this time. Six of these date from the 17th
century, most of them prepared on behalf of the Chancellor of the Realm,
Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie and forwarded to the Uppsala professor Jo-
hannes Schefferus for his book project Lapponia (Schefferus 1673). For va-
rious reasons Schefferus did not use all of the accounts in his book, and the
complete collection was edited and published, some of it for the first time,
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Royal Skyttean Society republi-
shed the accounts in compilation in 1983 (Kungl. Skytteanska Samfundet
141
and systematic choice for peasants and not as occasional or casual events.
Instead, activities aside from farming represent essential income sources
that are not simply supplementary. In line with this reasoning peasants did
not just produce to consume and take part in other tasks when there was
time left, but they had a systematic approach meaning that other income
bringing activities were used actively and taken into consideration in house-
hold planning. Despite differences in cultural settings and subsistence pat-
terns, the concept of the integrated peasant economy would also seem to
be a useful analytical tool for understanding the Early Modern Sami econ-
omy. Like pre-industrial peasants in marginalised regions the Early Mod-
ern Sami were engaged in primary production that, for many of them, was
self-insufficient. In order to achieve a durable household economy they in-
stead had to rely on a number of other subsistence tasks aside from reindeer
husbandry and fishing. Moreover, from the 16th century Sami had started
to become market oriented which adjusted both their production and con-
sumption patterns. We know from historical sources that many subsistence
activities were important with regards to trade and not merely carried out
to fulfil household consumption needs. However, in order to analyse which
role integrated income sources played in early modern Sami economy, one
must analyse the historical written sources and archaeological evidence re-
lating to Sami subsistence in more detail. The relevant source material will
be described in the following chapter.
2. Sources
In common with the majority of indigenous peoples, the Sami produced
virtually no historical records of their own before the 20th century. Infor-
mation about Sami history must instead be pieced together from a num-
ber of secondary sources, namely State tax records, court records, accou-
nts by priests and travellers, and archaeological material. One source that
describes Sami husbandry in the 17th and 18th centuries consists of accou-
nts by missionaries to Lapland at this time. Six of these date from the 17th
century, most of them prepared on behalf of the Chancellor of the Realm,
Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie and forwarded to the Uppsala professor Jo-
hannes Schefferus for his book project Lapponia (Schefferus 1673). For va-
rious reasons Schefferus did not use all of the accounts in his book, and the
complete collection was edited and published, some of it for the first time,
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Royal Skyttean Society republi-
shed the accounts in compilation in 1983 (Kungl. Skytteanska Samfundet
141
