Continuing my pre-research story, I had just figure out what the signs and symbols around the silver box were. From that time, I started looking for everything I could find about handicraft, Sámi objects and culture. It was right in the middle of my dissertation writing, which was a turbulent time.
Nevertheless, I ended up reaching a book called “The Skolt Lapps Today”, by Tim Ingold. I have read some of his writings before, especially “Lines”, from 2007. I was fascinated by this kind of writing, a mix between philosophy, short stories, and mathematics. It was a huge turning point in my own writing style as well. I felt that, even being an academic, I could find ways to write much more fluid, and enjoyable than mainstream thick and heavy ethnography and anthropological theory. But, back to the Laps – actually, Sámi is the more suitable name.
I immediately got in touch with professor Ingold, who was also very amused by the small silver box. To keep this story shorter, I designed a project for a PhD. This project would not look at the Sámi people through the known “reindeer husbandry, herders of the tundra”, but would touch the very core of the traditional handicraft and objects, as beacons for significance. In other words, I would look at the material culture of the Sámi as a exhibited counterpart of their herding stereotype.
This project would eventually be developed in two lines of research: museums and handicraft workshops, having the museum part in a much more central place than the workshop. That didn’t last long though, and in the end, I would have a project – and a Master dissertation – on how handicraft could be a very complex and strong pillar on Sámi identity.
And handicraft and art is now the main trail I am currently tracking. It was a roller-coaster ride until I could figure out what was the right path for me to follow, but, despite all the hard times, tries, and turmoil, it was worth it to find a light in this mesh-work of tunnels I might have followed.
Don’t know how my thesis will end up being like, nor how it will be received by the academic environment, but one thing I do know: I am doing what pleases me, and something I find interesting.
Hope you enjoyed my brief back story, and if you are interested in more, please follow my Facebook page and this blog, where I share my fieldwork experience. Thank you.
the unfinished anthropology 