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dc.contributor.authorGrini, Monica
dc.date.accessioned2023-08-21T13:06:06Z
dc.date.available2023-08-21T13:06:06Z
dc.date.issued2023-04-19
dc.description.abstractThe article centres around a well-known artefact in Sámi history, the more than 300-year-old drum that once belonged to Poala Ánde/Anders Poulsen, that has recently been returned to Sápmi after a long restitution process. Sámi drums were deemed sorcerers’ devices and routinely confiscated and destroyed during seventeenth century Danish autocracy; their users prosecuted and sometimes executed. In the early 1690s, the drum was seized and sent to Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Art Chamber, whereas the owner was killed in custody while awaiting the judicial decision. The case involves one of very few preserved Sámi drums accompanied by a contemporaneous indigenous voice conveyed in the trial document. Paradoxically, at the same time as Sámi drums were confiscated and, in many cases, destroyed, some were embarking on journeys as attractive collectors’ items. Today, Sámi drums are frequently “arrested” in museum exhibitions as “shamanistic devices”, often echoing old tools and tropes of othering. The article argues that there is a tendency to translate actors like Poala Ánde/Anders Poulsen and the drum into categories that immobilise them, and which prevent historical configurations to enter the narrative. It also contends that discussions about what the figures on the drumhead represent have dominated the reception and steered attention away from individual aspects of the drum and its vibrant materiality. In line with the biographical approach of the exhibition Ruoktot ­– The Return of the Sámi Drums by the Sámi Museum in Kárášjohka, I explore the entangled agency of the drum to help consider material aspects and concurrent meanings.en_US
dc.identifier.citationGrini MG. Arresting Actors: A Sámi Drum and its Complex Relations. Konsthistorisk tidskrift. 2023en_US
dc.identifier.cristinIDFRIDAID 2143873
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/00233609.2023.2200763
dc.identifier.issn0023-3609
dc.identifier.issn1651-2294
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10037/30139
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherTaylor & Francisen_US
dc.relation.journalKonsthistorisk tidskrift
dc.relation.projectIDNorges forskningsråd: 303429en_US
dc.relation.projectIDUniversitetet i Agder: Claimed Pastsen_US
dc.relation.projectIDCarlsbergfondet: The Art of Nordic Colonialismen_US
dc.relation.projectIDUiT Norges arktiske universitet: Worlding Northern Art (WONA)en_US
dc.rights.accessRightsopenAccessen_US
dc.rights.holderCopyright 2023 The Author(s)en_US
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0en_US
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)en_US
dc.titleArresting Actors: A Sámi Drum and its Complex Relationsen_US
dc.type.versionpublishedVersionen_US
dc.typeJournal articleen_US
dc.typeTidsskriftartikkelen_US
dc.typePeer revieweden_US


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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)