A bizarre, yet very popular entertainment in Europe from late 19th century gave the indigenous Sami from Scandinavia some unexpected exposure. They were put in human zoos, on display for city dwellers in the biggest capitals of Europe.
Around 400 Sami from Norway, Sweden and Finland were picked up and traveled to the biggest cities in Europe with their reindeers, dogs and family between 1822–1950. They came all this way just to be in their re-created “Lapland Village” created for them by for example Carl Hagenbeck in 1874 as the first massively successful ethnological exposition, or human zoo. Cultures from all over the world were gathered in a park on display in their “natural state” for big crowds and it became big business. This was fueled by the idea where Western Europe saw themselves as the most developed part of the world, and certain other human groups such as indigenous cultures “savage” and inferior. It fitted right into Imperialism and the growing number of colonies that brought exotic things back home. Scandinavia and Sami were the closest to “the wild people” and such — on the same line as natives from South America, Pacific Islands or Africa.
And the Norwegianization policies of the Sami in Norway were a direct consequence of the ideas explained above. Many Sami individuals felt the consequences of being forcefully implemented into the governance of the Norwegian state: reindeer pastures were gradually taken from them, their children taken away for school, and their traditional everyday life were seen as something primitive that had to be removed. Many became short on money and so when they were offered to travel to the cities in Europe with their reindeer and family, they said yes. While they were seen as “types of primitive people of nature” by Europeans, the Sami on display felt pride in showing their traditions for a crowd. They didn’t see themselves as victims of entertainment, but as a continuation to live what was left of their lifestyle. But how did for example Hagenbeck get in touch with the Sami? He had a Norwegian agent, skipper Johan Adrian Jacobsen from Tromsø. The Jacobsen siblings were active in trade and shipping to Germany, while also recruiting and photographing the indigenous peoples from the expositions in their studio. The photographs were also sold by the Sami themselves together with hand-made items.
The Europeans who ran different expositions had an idea to give the audience that authentic feeling of Sami acting like they were home in Lapland. There were however demands which would seem questionable today, such as strict control of movement for the Sami in the Zoo, and the need to remove everything “civilized” from the Sami — they could not use names that wasn’t sounding Sami, couldn’t wear contemporary hairstyles or be too clean. A Sami from Västerbotten told ethnographer Ernst Manker in 1930’s about the experience:
“Well, that was in 1876, and I was twelve years old. There came a German, called Böle, and because we didn’t understand what he said, he had an interpreter with him. He [..] promised a lot of money. It wouldn’t be difficult either; we would only be allowed to walk around and be beautiful at an exhibition [..]. But that exhibition was probably the most like a circus, because Böle soon thought that we didn’t look wild enough, so we got painted completely brown in the face and dressed up as Eskimos”
A resource of income for the Sami too
Most Sami that left for the expositions in winter time got a contract which involved what they would bring, mandatory care for their items, medical care and a place to stay. At the Chicago World Fair in 1893 some South Sami from Norway negotiated to stay in a First Class Hotel instead of the exposition site, while in other cases Sami preferred to live with their reindeer in the Zoo and tend to them. The Zoos usually had opening hours with a set program for the Sami and the audience, veterinarian on place and after closing hours, free-time for the exhibited people. Payment and good treatment from the concessionaire such as Hagenbeck were usually on par, but some Sami also experienced being tricked to live in poor conditions and no pay, like what happened to a Sami family in Budapest Zoo in 1913. It didn’t mean that the Sami were left helpless by the concessionaire, or were not capable of taking care of the situation they were in: it was a big demand for live expositions all over Europe and so a family could easily move from one place to another and setting up new contracts. Some Sami became almost professional actors and made a good fortune from the expositions, while others only did it once in their lives.
The golden age for Human Zoo’s were between 1874–1910, and for the Sami it would bring cultural influences back home which later helped to form a political resistance against the Norwegianization policies. Many Sami’s traveled to expositions to learn languages, take education and meet other indigenous peoples. In Chicago they met Native Americans such as Sioux, other places Inuits and indigenous from Asia or Pacific Islands which created cultural bonds that became increasingly more important as time passed. Many scientists also went to the expositions with their students to study the foreign indigenous people there, as it wasn’t common for anthropologists or ethnographers to travel out in the world. The expositions were seen as a legitimate way to study and collect cultural, physical and scientific examinations of the exhibited peoples, and Sami were brought into the universities in Berlin, photographed and studied into details. This unfortunately didn’t help change the view of them as “primitive people of nature” and a “lower ranked race”.
In the 1910’s and ’20s criticism against the expositions grew internationally, and many closed between 1930 to 1950. The Sami themselves took control over the tourism industry the expositions had created, and brought it back home — tourists traveling to Northern Norway could arrange a meeting with a Sami outside of town and take photographs with them for a small sum of money. Often Sami would drop by when moving between winter and summer pasture with their reindeer, to sell photographs of themselves and hand-made items to tourists passing by. That type of tourism grew and changed to what we have today, where some Sami families can host a group of tourists on their terms.
Sources:
“Exhibition of Sami” UiT : https://site.uit.no/smartstien/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2012/02/Utstillinger-av-samer.pdf
“The Sami Never Sold Their Souls” Science Norway : https://partner.sciencenorway.no/archaeology-cultural-history-ethnicity/the-sami-never-sold-their-souls/1463896
“Slekta hennes ble stilt ut i dyrehager fordi de var samer” NRK: https://www.nrk.no/sapmi/400-samer-ble-utstilt-i-dyrehager-og-pa-sirkus-1.14723292
