Why Sami Sing: Knowing through Melodies in Northern Norway

Why Sámi Sing explores the anthropological significance of the Sámi yoik, a singing practice among the Indigenous Sámi people in northern Europe. It demonstrates how the yoik is a vocal power received from the environment, revealing its possibilities through practice and experience. The book establishes a conversation between Indigenous and Western epistemologies and introduces the yoik as a way of knowing in its own right, with both convergences and divergences from academic ways of knowing.

Format: Hardback
Length: 168 pages
Publication date: 30 December 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Why Sámi Sing? is an anthropological inquiry into a singing practice found among the Indigenous Sámi people, living in the northernmost part of Europe. It explores how the performance of melodies, with or without lyrics, can be a way of altering perception, relating to human and non-human presences, or engaging with the past. According to its practitioners, the Sámi yoik is more than a musical repertoire created by humans; it is a vocal power received from the environment, one that reveals its possibilities with parsimony through practice and experience. This book establishes a conversation between Indigenous and Western epistemologies and introduces the yoik as a way of knowing in its own right, with both convergences and divergences vis-à-vis academic ways of knowing. It will be of particular interest to scholars of anthropology, ethnomusicology, and Indigenous studies.

Why Sámi Sing? is an anthropological inquiry into a singing practice found among the Indigenous Sámi people, living in the northernmost part of Europe. It explores how the performance of melodies, with or without lyrics, can be a way of altering perception, relating to human and non-human presences, or engaging with the past. According to its practitioners, the Sámi yoik is more than a musical repertoire created by humans; it is a vocal power received from the environment, one that reveals its possibilities with parsimony through practice and experience. This book establishes a conversation between Indigenous and Western epistemologies and introduces the yoik as a way of knowing in its own right, with both convergences and divergences vis-à-vis academic ways of knowing. It will be of particular interest to scholars of anthropology, ethnomusicology, and Indigenous studies.

Weight: 494g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032328690