NARRATIVES

Since in the seventeenth century no one could make a video recording of a ritual, we only know about the ritual activities of the Sami of that period through narratives. Sami informants spoke, more or less voluntarily, to writers who took down their reports about what was or had been done during sacrifices and drum sessions. But their narratives did not only concern the things that were done. They also tried to explain ideas, to verbalize their own world-views and outlooks on life for their questioners. In the following section, I will try to summarize the information concerning three of the themes in these narratives, thereby presenting how at least some of the South Sami construed the landscape, the human being and the invisible beings.