Second world war as a trigger for transcultural changes among Sámi people in Finland

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article analyses the consequences of the Lapland War (1944–45) and the reconstruction period (1945–52) for the Sámi society in Finnish Lapland, and provides some comparisons to the situation in Norway. Reconstructing the devastated Lapland meant powerful and rapid changes that ranged from novelties of material culture to increasing Finnish ideals, from a transition in the way of life to an assimilation process. The war was a trigger to an accelerated development in which otherwise long-term processes happened in a very short time frame in the post-war period. The post-war development was characterized by economic, political and cultural processes that integrated Sámiland to Finland and the Finnish nation. These processes can be interpreted as a classic modernization process, even “finnicization”, in which the traditional Sámi culture was forced to switch over to the modern large-scale society. In addition to problematic changes, however, the consequences of the war are also considered to have created new possibilities for the Sámi to influence the majority society both as individuals and as ethno-political actors. This was reflected in Sámi ethnopolitical activism, which started in Finland only after WWII. Also, the role of the majority education system had two-fold consequences: strong assimilation features, but also helping to build the educated Sámi “radical” generation that challenged the prevalent Sámi politics in the 1960s.