Faith+-+CA+-+SP11

27 January 2011 __The Sami__ The Sami speak their own language which has many types of many dialects. Although there are about nine dialects, the language can be more generally categorized into three: North ern, Central and South ern Sami. Because of these different dialects, comprehensions of the differences get difficult. It is a Finno-Ugric language, which is related to many languages that are hardly known. The language varies greatly based on the Sami's lifestyle, rather than location. The language had many words to describe important aspects of their life, but had no words for things that were not as important, such as things that do not dwell in the area. For example, m any words describe reindeer, their main source of food. Snow is also greatly described in their language since they live in the northern region of Europe.
 * Language**

Unfortunately, recently, the language has started to die away. Some don't know the Sami language at all, others know how to speak it, but cannot read or write the language.

**Beliefs** The Sami believe in divination and Sami shamanism. Priests and shamans would be called upon to speak to the dead via some instruments and a chant. They believe that all things, animate or inanimate, had a soul. They believed that life after death was like life continued, with the same daily actions occurring. They also believed in many gods and goddesses that represented the main aspects of living. The Sami eventually converted to Christianity or some form of it through choice or force. The Sami believed in spirits that looked over certain locations and also over the dead.

There is folklore that was written for several things that they believed in. The story of the creation of the world said that a giant had two shovels that made the environment where the Sami live unbearable, but the shovel that created wind broke, allowing the Sami to live in that region. The Sami folklore also says that they were ancestors of the sun.

Modern day Sami had different values than the original Sami. The original Sami would have women as the higher authority. Reindeer are a material value that the Sami have. Reindeer are used for everything from meat to clothes. The hide is used to make all sorts of clothes to wear and the reindeer meat is used to eat. They use a number of tools in shamanism, such as drums. The drums are made of reindeer hide on a wooden base. On various drums there are pictures of reindeer and pictures that represent their religion.
 * Values**

The Sami believe that the family is a very important part of their being. Much attention is focused on the children and each family has its own mark to distinguish from other families' reindeer. Because of this, women had high authority because they were the ones who stayed at home and took care of the children. After the forced changed to Christianity, however, the belief of men having more power took over. Though women have fought back.

The Sami have traditions of reindeer herding. Every year they take a 110 kilometer trip to herd these animals. Originally, the Sami would herding in their traditional clothes, however with modern technology, they wear gear. Snowmobiles are used here as well now, different than that of olden days when more women would accompany. It is apparent that the Sami know a lot about reindeer because they know exactly what to do to accomplish reindeer herding.
 * Behaviors**

The Sami have their own kind of music and poetry form called yoiking. There are different terms for this kind of music in each dialect. Their use yoiking is a way of connecting to animals, nature and other people. It is a way of storytelling as well.

Mellott, Joey. "Sami Journal." //The University of Texas at Austin//. Web. 27 Jan. 2011. < [] >.
 * Sources**

Journal : This journal of a student reviewing what he saw in a video called Pathfinder. Details of the Sami belief were elaborated on more.

Nurden, Robert. "Roaming with reindeer: joining the indigenous Sami reindeer herders for their 110-kilometre annual migration, author Robert Nurden became one of the few outsiders to experience this gruelling and dangerous journey into Norway's frozen north.(REINDEER MIGRATION)." //Geographical// Feb. 2006: 58+. //Student Resource Center - Gold//. Web. 27 Jan. 2011.

Primary : This article showed a real life experience of a traditional annual journey that takes place in the Sami culture. It is rare that anyone comes, therefore it means that it is not something they like to share.

"Russian Road Trip: Driving Across Siberia: Saami Museum." //Bicycle Touring Around the World//. 05 July 2010. Web. 27 Jan. 2011. < [] >.

Primary: The site showed several artifacts of Sami culture, including many drums which showed the same kind of pictures. I used the correlation between these drums to draw the conclusion that many drums have are about the same things on them.

"Sami." //Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life//. Ed. Jeneen Hobby and Timothy Gall. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 430-434. //Gale Virtual Reference Library//. Web. 27 Jan. 2011.

Print : This encyclopedia entry gave great insight on the Sami language and folklore. It also gave general overviews of several other things to give me an idea of what to look from specifically.

"Sami - Introduction, Location, Language, Folklore, Religion, Major Holidays, Rites of Passage, Relationships, Living Conditions." //Countries and Their Cultures//. Web. 27 Jan. 2011. < [] >.

Secondary : This elaborated on folklore more than some of the other sources that I had found, which is a belief. The examples of stories in this text were used in the report.

"Yoiking." //Www.eng.samer.se//. 22 Nov. 2006. Web. 27 Jan. 2011. < [] >.

Secondary : This site gave more insight about what yoiking was and how it was used. It spoke of the differences in yoiking between dialects as well.

Due to new technology, commercialization and travel our culture has drastically in such a short amount of time. With new technology, such as texting, grammar and speaking skills have declined greatly. In texting to type fast, as if speaking face to face, one needs to type quickly and type just enough to get the message of their thought across. Because of the need to do this, people do not take the time to check punctuation, grammar and spelling. Because texting only requires typing and is in a sense more convenient than speaking on the phone, people do not have as great of speaking skills as before. Another piece of new technology that has changed our culture are cars. Because of these machines, people are able to travel to more places faster, thus giving availability to resources much easier. The downside is that the CO2 emissions have us looking for a way clean up the environment more than ever.
 * The Impact of Culture Change **

Travel affects us because we are able to anywhere in the world at pretty much any time. This means that exposing ourselves to new cultures is much easier and therefore the mixing of cultures is something that would occur much easier via tourism. Due to easier travel, it means that easier transport of goods can occur. This means that commercialization comes into play. We buy goods from other countries such as China and that means that we do not have to work as hard to get things because we do not need to make them by ourselves. As a result, the country as a whole does not need to as hard, giving that lazy factor to us.