Joiker med ett motiv

– en etnosentrisk misforståelse?

Abstract

There are different ways to understand how the Sami yoik melodies are constructed. In a previous article (STM 2007) I have argued that there are no unstructured melodies, even if this has been presumed by several researchers. There has also been a general agreement that yoik melodies with just one single musical motive exist in the Sami tradition. In this article I will try to challenge this view and give an alternative understanding of such melodies. I therefore examine melodies with one motive that have been published from different collections. I conclude that it seems that all yoik melodies are constructed with both motives and contrast motives in certain combinations as the normal way.