Interne hierarkier i samisk idrett i Norge

Abstract

Combining interests about Indigenous sports and the Sámi people (the Indigenous people of the North Calotte) in Norway, this paper scrutinizes the hierarchy within the Sámi sport organization in Norway. Theoretically, Bourdieu’s perspectives on symbolic power and Weber’s concepts of dominance and discipline are applied, when locating Sámi sports clubs on the map and comparing with other indications of ‘Sáminess’. Sáminess is indicated by how the Norwegian authorities define core Sámi areas, where formal Sámi institutions are located (the Sámi university, the Sámi branch of the state’s broadcaster, the Sámi parliament, etc.), where it is most common to use the Sámi language, and where reindeer husbandry is most prominent. The main finding is that all indicators cluster together in the inner and eastern parts of Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost county; the same do the sport clubs in the Sámi sport organization. The subjective feeling of Sámi sport representatives outside core areas as inferior to their peers inside core areas, is explained historically by the Norwegian state’s assimilation policy. The assimilation struck hardest in the south and along the coast and especially influenced loss of the Indigenous language in these areas.