Book

The religion of the Samke: ancient beliefs and cults of the Scandinavian and Finnish Lapps

E.J. BrillLeiden • Published In 1955 • Pages:

By: Karsten, Rafael.

Abstract
This monograph, with an environmental determinist point of view, is a detailed summary of Saami religion written with a view to testing a general theory of religion. Although Karsten collected his data primarily through his field observation, he used extensively the literary sources in Danish, Swedish, Finnish, and Russian for comparative purposes. This rather intensive comparative study of the ancient beliefs and cults of the Scandinavian Saami covers topics such as nature worship, the worship of personal gods, shamanism, the system of sacrifice, and the worship of the dead. Karsten's conclusions, dealing with general characteristics of the Saami belief system, constitutes a significant contribution to the development of a theory of primitive religion.
Subjects
Religious beliefs
Religious practices
culture
Saami
HRAF PubDate
1996
Region
Europe
Sub Region
Scandinavia
Document Type
Book
Evaluation
Creator Type
Ethnologist
Document Rating
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
Hesung Koh ; 1961
Field Date
no date
Coverage Date
not specified
Coverage Place
Norway, Sweden, and Finland
Notes
Rafael Karsten
Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-133) and index
LCSH
Sami (European people)