“We can best analyse the interconnection by looking at the agents of change: whatstrategies are open and attractive to them, and what are the organizationalimplications of different choices on their part?”

“(i) they may attempt to pass and becomeincorporated in the pre-established industrial society and cultural group; (ü) theymay accept a `minority’ status, accommodate to and seek to reduce their minoritydisabilities by encapsulating all cultural differentiae in sectors of non-articulation,....(iii) they may choose to emphasize ethnic identity, using it todevelop new positions and patterns to organize activities in those sectors formerlynot found in their society, or inadequately developed for the new purposes.”

“First, it is clear that boundaries persist despite a flowof personnel across them. In other words, categorical ethnic distinctionsdo not depend on an absence of mobility, contact and information,but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation whereby discretecategories are maintained despite changing participation and membership in thecourse of individual life histories. Secondly, one finds that stable, persisting, andoften vitally important social relations are maintained across such boundaries, andare frequently based precisely on the dichotomized ethnic statuses. In other words,ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of social interaction andacceptance, but are quite to the contrary often the very foundations on whichembracing social systems are built. Interaction in such a social system does not leadto its liquidation through change and acculturation; cultural differences can persistdespite inter-ethnic contact and interdependence.”

“The critical focus of investigation from this point of view becomes the ethnicboundary that defines the group, not the cultural stuff that it encloses. Theboundaries to which we must give our attention are of course social boundaries,though they may have territorial counterparts. If a group maintains its identity whenmembers interact with others, this entails criteria for determining membership andways of signalling membership and exclusion.”

Flexibility in culture

What is flexibility and it’s nuances?Is it a adaption, a pulsation? Is it a permanent, irreversible change? I was searching for a ‘cultural contour’ or ‘border space’ where the traditional cultural image is challenged.My hypothesis is that this space keeps the culture with both vibrant and protective mechanisms. I think the elements within this space are easily changable and adaptable to reactions of outer or inner changes. One might say that this zone ‘fill up’ the in between space, between the indside and the outside. It is indeed also a creative sphere. It forms tradtional cultural values as more accesible and visible to the outside, as reinterpretations of traditional cultural values. This space also car-ries a potent field of feelings.The flexibility and the protecting maintenance of the contour are controlled within the register of subjective feelings and opinions of the Sami people. In this border zone one also get aware of what distinguishes me from you. You can place yourself inside of what you recognize something else from outside you. In this way it is a zone of differences, exclusion and inclusion.

I have in this diagram distinguished that1) individual reinterpretations or experimentings are pushing this contour2) provocations from ‘outside’ impact the ‘body of the culture’. These provocations tend to collect strong reactions from within the culture.

To look upon the cultural definition as a whole one could acknowl-edge it as a more ‘stable cultural definition’ that individs can acknowl-edge themselve a part of/inside of, and that has sort of a consensus. At the same time, within this ‘more fixed image’ the individual in-terpretations of the shareholders of the culture constantly challenges this view, and those are the ones that define themselves inside of or outside of. This view is challenged by influences in each of the share-holder’s lives.

Extracts from Ethnic Groups and Boundariesby Fredrik Barth

- Da jeg første gang ble klar over en ikkesames forestilling av samer, og hvordan vedkommende forventet at jeg skulle bekrefte denne forestill-ingen ved å fortelle om “samelivet” slik som ikkesamen forestilte seg det.

- Det utløste negative følelser og en bevissthet om at jeg måtte beherske meg for ikke å si hva jeg mente om forestillinger som “primitiviserer” samene som “the nobel savages” eller de “edle ville”.

- Hendelsen utfordret mine egne sentrale forestillinger om det å være same, så da må den vel ligge ganske i sentrum.

Incident

ikkesamen