Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Rags without riches? : The historical archaeology of an indentured Sámi household in mid-nineteenth century central Sweden.

Monié Nordin, Jonas LU orcid (2025) p.83-94
Abstract
Proletarization of the countryside featured the birth of modern Sweden. Landless poor, tenants, corvée labourers, indentured servants of the nobility, the freeholders and the industrialists, characterized rural Sweden. This heterogenous group of central Sweden also included a group of Sámi whom, avoiding eviction to the far north, were forced to sign contracts as hunters, butchers, and crafters in exchange for the possibility of staying in a region where their ancestors had lived for generations. This chapter analyses the historical archaeology of the Nilsdotter-Stenlund family and their croft, inhabited between the 1810s and the early 1860s. The material culture and the archival record gives evidence of a distinctly poor and exposed... (More)
Proletarization of the countryside featured the birth of modern Sweden. Landless poor, tenants, corvée labourers, indentured servants of the nobility, the freeholders and the industrialists, characterized rural Sweden. This heterogenous group of central Sweden also included a group of Sámi whom, avoiding eviction to the far north, were forced to sign contracts as hunters, butchers, and crafters in exchange for the possibility of staying in a region where their ancestors had lived for generations. This chapter analyses the historical archaeology of the Nilsdotter-Stenlund family and their croft, inhabited between the 1810s and the early 1860s. The material culture and the archival record gives evidence of a distinctly poor and exposed family navigating between a manifold of socio-economic strategies in order to make a living. Material evidence and oral traditions underlines the family’s strong Sámi traditions that probably created sentiments of identity and tradition, but may also have amplified their marginalized position. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
South Sámi, crofters, hunters, consumer culture, tradition
host publication
Poverty and Plenty in Scandinavia and the North Atlantic : Later Historical Archaeologies of Material Excess and Scarcity - Later Historical Archaeologies of Material Excess and Scarcity
editor
Lucas, Gavin ; Andersen, Vivi Lena ; Edwald-Maxwell, Ágústa ; Monié Nordin, Jonas and Ylimaunu, Timo
pages
12 pages
publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
ISBN
978-1-3504-5583-2
978-1-3504-5586-3
DOI
10.5040/9781350455863.ch-007
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7fe84c5d-6df5-4d66-9902-1a26939efbf8
date added to LUP
2026-01-22 19:00:22
date last changed
2026-02-02 10:48:45
@inbook{7fe84c5d-6df5-4d66-9902-1a26939efbf8,
  abstract     = {{Proletarization of the countryside featured the birth of modern Sweden. Landless poor, tenants, corvée labourers, indentured servants of the nobility, the freeholders and the industrialists, characterized rural Sweden. This heterogenous group of central Sweden also included a group of Sámi whom, avoiding eviction to the far north, were forced to sign contracts as hunters, butchers, and crafters in exchange for the possibility of staying in a region where their ancestors had lived for generations. This chapter analyses the historical archaeology of the Nilsdotter-Stenlund family and their croft, inhabited between the 1810s and the early 1860s. The material culture and the archival record gives evidence of a distinctly poor and exposed family navigating between a manifold of socio-economic strategies in order to make a living. Material evidence and oral traditions underlines the family’s strong Sámi traditions that probably created sentiments of identity and tradition, but may also have amplified their marginalized position.}},
  author       = {{Monié Nordin, Jonas}},
  booktitle    = {{Poverty and Plenty in Scandinavia and the North Atlantic : Later Historical Archaeologies of Material Excess and Scarcity}},
  editor       = {{Lucas, Gavin and Andersen, Vivi Lena and Edwald-Maxwell, Ágústa and Monié Nordin, Jonas and Ylimaunu, Timo}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-3504-5583-2}},
  keywords     = {{South Sámi; crofters; hunters; consumer culture; tradition}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{83--94}},
  publisher    = {{Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.}},
  title        = {{Rags without riches? : The historical archaeology of an indentured Sámi household in mid-nineteenth century central Sweden.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350455863.ch-007}},
  doi          = {{10.5040/9781350455863.ch-007}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}