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Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism pp 249–272Cite as

Metals of Metabolism: The Construction of Industrial Space and the Commodification of Early Modern Sápmi

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Part of the book series: Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology ((CGHA))

Abstract

In 1634, silver was found in inland Sápmi, on the present border between Norway and Sweden. The Swedish Crown had the ore extracted and a works for refining the silver was established in Silbojokk the following year. During the coming decades, two more works and many mines were opened in Sápmi. Sámi, Swedish and Dutch/German migrant workers were employed under restrictive conditions and in a harsh climate. A colonial discourse was developed, viewing Sápmi as the Americas of the Swedes and the Sámi as distinctly non-Swedish/non-European. Expectations of rapid economic and political gain created a metabolic relation to natural resources. The precious metals were exploited at whatever cost. This process caused a change in the perception of man, landscape and nature. Soon, the metal ores were exhausted and all the woods cut down. The three works studied here were all abandoned during the seventeenth century. The metabolic relation to the landscape and the process of commodifying nature prevailed and laid the foundation for later industrial expansion during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Silbojokk is a Swedification of the Arjeplog Sámi place-name Silbbajåhkå, meaning the silver river. The place-name derives from the establishment of the works in 1635 and no Swedish name is known (SOL 2003, p. 272). In this study, the established Swedified names have been used since they are common in practice. The Swedification of place-names was part of the colonial policy and thus captures parts of the colonial practice of the seventeenth century.

  2. 2.

    Kvikkjokk is a Swedification of the Luleå Sámi place-name Guojkkajåhkå, meaning the streaming river. The present Sámi name for Kvikkjokk is Huhttán which is a Sámification of the Swedish word Hytta—Furnace (SOL 2003, p. 178).

  3. 3.

    Kengis is a Swedification of the North Sámi place-name Geavnnis, meaning big water fall (SOL 2003, p. 164).

  4. 4.

    Nasafjäll is a Swedification of the Arjeplog Sámi name Násavárre—the mountain with the shape of a nose (SOL 2003, p. 220).

  5. 5.

    Kedkkevare is a Swedification of Gierggevárre in Lule Sámi, Geađgi—stone mountain. Personal communication Torbjörn Söder, Department of Finno-Ugrian Languages, Uppsala University, 16 May 2014.

  6. 6.

    Junosuando is a Swedification of a Finnish place-name derived from North Sámi Čunusavvon—calm water in a river (SOL 2003, p. 154).

  7. 7.

    Svappavaara is Finnification of a now lost North Sámi name (SOL 2003, p. 304).

  8. 8.

    N.B. most of the Sámi, especially the Fjällsamer (Mountain Sámi) were nomadic in the early modern period—the term “village” thus meant, and still means, a community with access to a certain area, including, mountains, lowlands and coastal region.

  9. 9.

    Alkavare is a Swedification of the Lule Sámi name Álggavárre (SOL 2003, p. 20).

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Acknowledgements

This study has been anabled by genersous support by Magnus Bergwalls stifelse. I also want to thank Carl-Gösta Ojala for fruitful comments on this text.

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  1. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

    Jonas M. Nordin

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Correspondence to Jonas M. Nordin .

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  1. University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

    Mark P. Leone

  2. Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Jocelyn E. Knauf

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Nordin, J. (2015). Metals of Metabolism: The Construction of Industrial Space and the Commodification of Early Modern Sápmi. In: Leone, M., Knauf, J. (eds) Historical Archaeologies of Capitalism. Contributions To Global Historical Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12760-6_11

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