What Influence Do the Old Sámi Noaidi Drums from Lapland Play in the Construction of New Shaman Drums by Sámi Persons Today?
What Influence Do the Old Sámi Noaidi Drums from Lapland Play in the Construction of New Shaman Drums by Sámi Persons Today?

Summary/Abstract: The suppressed history of the Sámi in Lapland contains within it large gaps which span across lost generations of religious specialists called Noaidi. The Noaidi in Sámi society was a healer, curer, diviner and ritual master. One of the important instruments associated with the work of the Noaidi is the magical drum referred to as goavddis, which was richly decorated with symbols and structures depicting an indigenous worldview and cosmic order. The art of the Noaidi has been one of the main inspirations and influences for the preservation of Sámi culture and heritage, to such an extent that new types of decorative ‘Shaman’ drums are emerging in Finnish and Norwegian Lapland. These new drums reflect both typologies and worldview of the Noaidi from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and provide some level of insight how the transmission of culture continues today.

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