Religions
April 7, 2021
Tiina Äikäs, Trude Fonneland
In this paper, we study the role of power animals in contemporary Saami shamanism and how past and present are entwined in the presentation of power animals. In the old Saami worldviews, in addition to animals, spirits and sacred rocks (sieidi, SaaN) were also considered to be able to interact with people. Animals were an important part of offering rituals because livelihood and rituals were...
Religions
July 23, 2018
Trude Fonneland
To choose a terminology for an investigation of shamanism in contemporary Norway is not entirely without problems. Many shamans are adamant in rejecting the term religion in connection with their practices and choose broader rubrics when describing what they believe in. When shamanism was approved as an official religion by the Norwegian government in 2012, the tensions ran high, and many...
Oxford Scholarship Online
March 22, 2018
Trude Fonneland
The cultural creation developed by practitioners of shamanism in Norway provides insight into processes of religious creation and creativity. These developments and increasing spiritual inventiveness are the focus of this chapter. I am particularly interested in how and what happens when the global culture of shamanism interacts with a specific local culture, in this case, Norwegian society....
Oxford Scholarship Online
March 22, 2018
Trude Fonneland
The figure of the shaman seems to fit exceptionally well into contemporary structures of needs and motivations in different cultural areas beyond the religious-spiritual field. By exploring the stories and images that are the focus of the spiritual entrepreneur Esther Utsi, I elaborate how, in the wake of Sámi shamanism, a variety of hybrid products have been established, catering for broader...
Oxford Scholarship Online
March 22, 2018
Trude Fonneland
Religion is a core unit in terms of how gender stereotypes are produced and realized. By exploring how shamans in Norway use the past to construct narratives of gender in the present, my presentation in this chapter represents an attempt to localize religion and culture in a social and gendered reality.