Reindeer pastoralism in Sweden 1550-1950

In the middle of the 16 th century we get the first opportunity to a more det ail d knowledge of reindeer pastoralism in Sweden. At that time the Sami lived in a hunter-gatherer economy. A family had in avera g bout 10-20 domesticated reindeer, mainly used for transp ort. They could also be milked and used as decoys w hen hunting wild reindeer. During late 16 th century the Swedish state and merchants bought lar ge mounts of fur from the Sami. The common payment was butter and fl our. This created a new prosperity, which lead to a considerable increase in population in Swedish Lapl and. The population became too large for a hunter-g atherer economy. A crisis in early 17 th century was the starting point for the transition t a large-scale nomadic reindeer pastoralism. Up to the middle of the 18 th century intensive reindeer pastoralism was success ful. But the pastoralism became gradually too intensive and diseases s tarted to spread when the herds were kept too dense ly crowded for milking in summertime. During the first decades of the 19 th century reindeer pastoralism in Sweden went through a major crisis. The number of reindeer h rding mountain-Sami decreased considerably, main ly because they went to live permanently along the Nor wegian coastline. Intensive reindeer pastoralism st arted to give way for extensive herding towards the end of t he 19 century. In the north of Sweden influences from th e Kautokeino Sami were an important factor, in the so uth extensive reindeer herding started to expand wh en t e market for meat came closer to the Sami. During the 1920s the milking of reindeer ceased in Sweden, ex cept in a few families. At that time Sami families from the n orth had been removed southwards. They further demo nstrated the superiority of extensive herding to the Sami in midand southern Lapland. Reindeer pastor lism is basically a system of interaction between man and a nim l, but it has been heavily influenced by market forces and state intervention during hundreds of years. To a large extent these long-term external influences have made reindeer pastoralism what it is today. That aspect should not be overlooked when assessing the future prospects of reindeer pastoralism in Scandinavia. Renskötseln i Sverige 1550-1950 Sammanfattning: Först vid mitten av 1500-talet finns det källmateri al som ger oss en tämligen detaljerad bild av renskötseln i Sverige. Vid den tiden levde samerna i en jakt, fiskeoch samlarekonomi. En familj ha de normalt 10-20 renar som främst utnyttjades vid transporter. Tamrenarna kunde också mjölkas och fungera som loc kdjur vid vildrensjakt. Under senare delen av 1500-talet köpte svenska staten och handelsmän stora mängder p älsverk av samerna. Den vanligaste betalningen var smör och mjöl. Detta skapade ett välstånd som ledde till en b tydande folkökning i svenska lappmarken. Befolkning e blev för stor för att rymmas inom ramarna för en jaktoch fiskeekonomi. En kris i början av 1600-talet bl ev startpunkten för övergången till en storskalig r ennomadism. Fram till mitten av 1700-talet var den in tensiva renskötseln framgångsrik. Men renskötseln b lev efterhand alltför intensiv. Under senare delen av 1 700-talet började det spridas sjukdomar i de tätt s ammanhållna hjordarna. De första decennierna av 1800-talet inne bar n allvarlig kris i renskötseln. Antalet renskö tande fjällsamer minskade kraftigt, främst genom utvandring ti ll norska kusten. Den intensiva renskötseln med mjö lkning av renarna började ersättas av en extensiv rensköts el inriktad på köttproduktion de sista decennierna av 1800talet. I norr var naturförhållandena och influenser från Kautokeino-samerna en viktig faktor, i söder utvecklades renskötseln i extensiv riktning främst därför att m arknaden för renkött kom närmare renskötarna. Under 1920talet upphörde mjölkningen av renar i Sverige, utom i några enstaka familjer. Då hade förflyttningarna av samer från nordligaste Sverige söderut påskyndat utveckli ngen och ytterligare markerat den extensiva rensköt selteknikens överlägsenhet. Tamrenskötsel är ett samsp el mellan människa och djur, men det är inte bara e n fråga om renskötaren och hans hjord. Externa marknadsfakt orer, beskattning och lagstiftning har haft ett bet ydande inflytande på renskötselns utveckling under hundrat als år. De har till stor del format renskötseln til l vad den är i dag. Detta bör beaktas när man gör bedömningar av r enskötselns framtid.

Forces far away from the practice of reindeer husbandry have had a considerable impact on its development.Conditions of trade, foreign politics and changes in society at large have played a major role in making reindeer pastoralism in Scandinavia what it is today.This aspect should not be overlooked when we assess its future.
This paper will limit itself to Sweden during the last 400 years.Reindeer husbandry is ancient but I leave the question of its origin to archaeologists, ethnographers and, may be, historically inclined biologists.We have some written sources from the Viking Age and Medieval times, but they do not inform us about the proportions and practice.In the 16 th century we reach safer ground.From that time the Swedish crown kept extensive tax-records and trade-registers regarding the Sami (Fig. 1).They give us the first comparatively detailed information about the practice of reindeer husbandry. 1he Sami society was based on a hunter-gatherer economy in the middle of the 16 th century.One of the proofs is the old village-pattern, which can be reconstructed from the tax-registers.The villages shown in Fig. 2 cannot have been based on large-scale nomadic reindeer pastoralism.Then they would have formed a pattern more similar to the long and narrow villages of present-day reindeer herders.
In mid-16 th century domesticated reindeer was used for transport, milking and as decoys during hunts for wild reindeer.A family had in average about 20 reindeer.Counts of reindeer were made by the authorities in 1605 and 1609.Such counts of course cannot be expected to provide exact numbers, but other sources confirm that they give a fairly good indication of the general pattern of ownership of domesticated reindeer. 2e know that hunter-gatherer societies must be sparsely populated and that they are sensitive to disturbances.During the 16 th century there was a large demand for exclusive furs in all parts Europe.Prices were high and the Swedish state was active in the European fur-trade.The Sami were important providers of furs from wild animals.The state had a constant fear of the Sami fleeing to Norway or   (Vorren, 1980).
Russia.Therefore the tax burden on the Sami was not heavy.The normal tax was 40 squirrel furs or one pelt of marten per family and year.If the state wanted more furs it had to buy them.
The furs were bought by the bailiffs, the transactions were registered and the records were carefully checked by superior authorities.Furs were generally paid with butter and flour.We have reliable registers of how much foodstuff the bailiffs handed over to the Sami as payment for furs. 3The amounts were considerable.Furthermore the Sami sold furs to Swedish, Karelian and Russian traders.We know very little about the extent of these transactions, but they could have brought even more foodstuff to the Sami.
The consequence was a sharp increase in population, which upset the balance between population density, economic system and resources.We have reliable reports that a crisis occurred in the first decades of the early 17 th century when the Sami no longer had furs to sell for foodstuff.Bailiffs reported to the king that the fur-bearing animals had "disappeared".That may be an exaggeration, but we know that a breakdown in fur-trade occurred.Not even the fur-tax could be paid and many Sami fled to the Norwegian coast, which functioned as something of a safety net when there was a crisis in Swedish Lapland.
The disruption of the balance between population and resources was the main factor behind the crisis.But additional factors worsened it.When the crown no longer could get furs as tax it demanded large amounts of dried fish, which hit the food-sector in a way that fur-tax had not. 4The crown also demanded reindeer from the Sami and started to keep its own herds in Lapland.The purpose was meat production.Salaried Sami were employed as herders.One herder could have 30-40 reindeer.When the project was at its peak the state had over 1000 reindeer in its herds in Lule lappmark alone. 5The project was in force between 1601 and 1620.Then it collapsed but it could have inspired new directions of thought.
The rise in population caused by fur-trade was most apparent in central Lapland.It could have caused an overexploitation of wild reindeer as well.We know very little about the number of wild reindeer in Lapland until about 100 years later, but at least at that time it seems to have been most scarce in central Lapland.(Lundmark, 1982, p. 191 sqq.; Bergström, 2000).
From the middle and late 17 th century we have extensive and reliable sources regarding Sami economy and culture in Swedish Lapland.They confirm that large-scale reindeer pastoralism was widespread at that time.The disruption of the hunter-gatherer society had forced the Sami to find new means of existence.The expansion of their small herds of domesticated reindeer became the solution.The first step towards large-scale intensive reindeer husbandry had been taken.We now enter a period of expansion for intensive reindeer husbandry in Sweden.It lasted for 100-150 years, roughly between the middle of the 17 th century and the last decades of the 18 th century.At that time products from reindeer husbandry comprised about 20 per cent of the export from the towns along the northern coast of the Baltic.Hides from reindeer and dried fish (mostly pike) were the major posts.Shoes, boots, gloves and fur coats made from hides of reindeer were popular in Stockholm during the 18 th century.Tanned hides were in great demand.The Sami were considered expert tanners.These were products from the winter markets in Sweden.A considerable trade also took place in markets along the Norwegian coast during summer.A valuable commodity brought there was reindeer-cheese.When the Sami had a strong position in the market they were also respected by the authorities.The most apparent sign is the border convention between Sweden and Norway 1751.It gave the Sami rights of reindeer herding as if no borders existed.Between Lapland and the Baltic coast a border was drawn in the 1750s. 7Its major purpose was to defend Sami hunting and fishing rights and certain matters of taxation.But gradually the border became more important regarding grazing rights.Within the Swedish Sami villages certain families also had a strong exclusive right to smaller areas called taxlands (lappskatteland).8But there were also common lands where poorer Sami tried to create a herd for themselves in the hope of eventually getting a tax-land.
Towards the end of the 18 th century there occurred a crisis in intensive reindeer husbandry in Sweden.Diseases started to decimate herds.The most probable cause was that the herds were kept too closely gathered during milking season.At that time the competition for tax-lands had intensified and they had become much smaller than before, especially in the summer area.
Furthermore, there are many reports that wolves caused exceptional damages during the first decades of the 19 th century.The diseases and the wolves hit reindeer pastoralism hard.Between 1780 and 1840 the number of taxpaying Sami in Lule lappmark decreased from almost 400 to about 150.Some of them became settlers and were no longer registered as Sami, but the vast majority of them left to stay along the Norwegian coast. 9ami products became less important when farm produce and products from small saw-mills gained a bigger role in the regional economy.From the late 18 th century the number of settled farmers increased considerably in Lapland and in the forest area further down towards the Baltic coastline.A consequence was increased problems of winter grazing.Some settlers demanded money from the Sami to allow them to graze their reindeer.There were no regulations governing this.It all depended on the personal relations between the individual settler and the reindeer pastoralist. 10round 1800 general ideas about inferior cultures reached Sweden.Both the nomadic culture and the Sami people were considered doomed to extinction.This view lead to a contemptuous attitude from the authorities.The Sami rights to their tax-lands were weakened.In Jämtland in the south the Sami were deprived of large areas of grazing-land.
There were also signs of moral decline in Sami society at that time.The drinking of alcohol had been restricted mainly to the short visits to the markets.Now settlers brought the Sami spirits all year round and made use of it to exploit them in business-dealings.
From the middle of the 19 th century the Sami got better conditions in Sweden.During the same period religious revivals improved the moral climate.Especially laestadianism in the north is well known.A new policy gained support among the authorities.It stated that even if the Sami were doomed to extinction, it was a civil and Christian duty not to speed up the process.The improvements for the Sami first came about in Jämtland, where they got better rights to their remaining lands in 1841.Later the state bought back some of the lands that had been taken from the Sami in early 19 th century.The whole of this area is today called the reindeer-grazing mountains (Renbetesfjällen) in Jämtland (Fig. 4).After a decision in parliament 1867 a borderline (Odlingsgränsen) was drawn in Lapland in 1871 and 1890.To the west of that line the Sami could keep their reindeer basically wherever and whenever they wanted.In 1886 they got the right to graze their reindeer in winter down to the coast, but only in places where they had done so before.A similar right came about outside the reindeer-grazing mountains in Jämtland in 1889.In laws at the end of the 19 th century the Sami got a monopoly in practising reindeer husbandry and their traditional rights to hunting and fishing were confirmed.The possibilities for non-Sami to own reindeer were restricted.
But the special rights for the Sami came with a price.To deserve the "Lapp-privilegies", as the authorities called them, the Sami must remain nomads.According to the racist thinking of the time, the Sami were only fit for reindeer husbandry.If they tried to do something else it would unavoidably lead to poverty and misery.Therefore the state gradually imposed a strict separation between reindeer husbandry and hunting-fishing on the one hand, and other means of support on the other.Especially the combination of farming and reindeer husbandry was to be prevented at all costs.
Cultural and educational measures were also taken to prevent Sami from leaving reindeer husbandry.Children of nomadic Sami were forced to attend schools of inferior quality.Their parents were forbidden to live in wooden houses, which would weaken them and tempt them to abandon nomadism.They were also discriminated when the state distributed rather generous support to those who wanted to set up a small settlement with farming in Lapland.This policy had its greatest influence in the 1910s and 1920s.It lost influence during the 1930s.
The Sami in Sweden stuck to the milking of reindeer even after the crisis in early 19 th century.But they now had larger tax-lands and probably did not keep the reindeer as closely crowded in summer as before.The crisis had also meant that there was room for larger herds among the rich Sami.11Milking became more cumbersome as the herds grew.In the middle of the 19 th century reindeer-cheese lost its importance as a source of income during summer.The increase of settlers in Norway made it difficult to bring reindeer and goods to the markets along the coast and the trade with Sami from Sweden virtually disappeared.Already in the early 19 th century the milking of reindeer had ceased among the Finnmark Sami, who had their winter grazing areas in Finland.The reindeer pastoralists in the extreme north of Sweden milked their reindeer to a lesser extent than other Swedish Sami.They kept their reindeer in Troms county in Norway during summer and even used islands close to the coast for summer grazing.There they could allow the reindeer to roam freely. 12hen the border between Norway and Finland was closed for Norwegian reindeer in 1852, many Kautokeino-Sami registerered themselves as Swedes to be able to keep on using their winter grazing areas in Finland.From 1889 the border to Finland was closed for Swedish reindeer as well.The winter grazing areas in northernmost Sweden soon became overexploited.Sami from the north were forced to move southwards in a drawn-out process up to the 1930s.By that time the grazing convention with Norway 1923 had considerably diminished the old summer-grazing areas in Norway. 13here was a successive transition to extensive reindeer pastoralism in Sweden.Towards the end of the 19 th century there were complaints that the rich Sami let their herds roam free in summer without respect for the boundaries of tax-lands.That indicates that the milking of reindeer was decreasing.At that time we also got a movement away from tax-lands in central Lapland.On the one hand the crown did not want to give the Sami rights to tax-lands, on the other hand the Sami themselves considered the tax-lands incompatible with extensive herding.
Successful extensive reindeer husbandry needs access to a market for meat.Towards the end of the 19 th century the improvement of transports made it possible to establish a meat-market of a new kind.In Jämtland in the southernmost area the railroad up to the mountains was finished in 1882 and further to Trondheim in 1886.It changed patterns of migration and stimulated the tendency towards extensive husbandry.In the north the railroad from Gällivare to Luleå was finished in 1888, the whole distance from Luleå to Narvik in 1902.The relocation of Kautokeino-Sami from the north gave a further push towards extensive husbandry in the early 20 th century.During the 1920s the milking of reindeer virtually ceased in Sweden.
In general the Swedish authorities were opposed to extensive reindeer husbandry.They considered it being on a "low cultural level".The milking of reindeer was closer to the "high cultural level" of the farming society.The 1920s was a good period for reindeer husbandry, herds grow and there were complaints from settlers about damages on crops and hay, there were also conflicts between intensive and extensive reindeer pastoralists.The state initiated a commission, which had directives based on the old ideas about cultural levels.Some of the problems with damages from large herds solved itself during the catastrophic winters 1934-35 and 1935-36 when about 50 per cent of the reindeer in central and northern Lapland starved to death.When the commission published its recommendations in 1936 the idea about cultural levels had lost its appeal among Swedish politicians.The report was also rejected by the Sami on the grounds that the commission's compromise between intensive and extensive husbandry simply was not convenient.At a meeting in 1937 Sami pastoralists from the whole Swedish reindeer husbandry area declared that extensive herding was superior to intensive.
In the 1920s the illusion that all Sami in Sweden were reindeer pastoralists could not be upheld any more.When the authorities could not change reality, they changed the definitions.The category of "Lapp" (Sami) based on ethnic origin was exchanged for an administrative definition of "Lapp" in the new reindeer husbandry law of 1928.The old position had been that you had to be a "Lapp" to be a reindeer pastoralist, now you had to be a reindeer pastoralist to be a "Lapp".Only those whose grandparents were reindeer herders could be "Lapps" with a formal right to practise reindeer pastoralism.But to exercise that right you had to become a member of a "Lapp-village", which was not allowed to practise any other economic activities than reindeer husbandry.By changing the definitions the state had succeeded in upholding the illusion that all "Lapps" were reindeer pastoralists.These administrative manoeuvres changed the structure of the Sami society and caused internal conflicts that are still in the forefront of internal Sami politics in Sweden.
Such is the order that is still governing reindeer husbandry in Sweden.From 1928 up to the 1950s there were no basic changes in either the laws or the practise of reindeer husbandry.After the catastrophic winters 1934-35 and 1936-37 there was a certain pessimism about the future of reindeer pastoralism among the Sami.But during the Second World War there was of course a high demand for meat and the state encouraged reindeer husbandry.Immediately after the war the authorities started to look at reindeer husbandry as an industry among others.Commissions gave recommendations based on opinions about small-scale industry in general.But the ethnic factor could not be eradicated and got more attention from the 1970s and onwards.International pressure regarding the rights of minority cultures has also started to influence politics and will probably do so to a larger extent in the future.
It is time to make an attempt at some conclusions.Reindeer pastoralism is a system of interaction between man and animal, but it is to a large extent governed by high level political and legal decisions.The majority of these decisions have had very little to do with biological conditions or the needs of the reindeer and the pastoralist.
Reindeer pastoralism could have been very different if political history had taken another course.If the unions between Sweden and Finland and Sweden and Norway had developed in another direction we could have had a federation or even a common state.What would reindeer pastoralism have been like under such circumstances?Had we seen a reindeer husbandry carried out regardless of stateboundaries, exploiting the grazing resources according to the needs of the reindeer?
What had happened in Sweden if the state had not enforced a total separation of Sami reindeer husbandry from other economic activities?We could have had a completely different structure of small-scale diversified industry in northern Sweden.On the other hand we could have had a gigantic Scandinavian Reindeer Husbandry Incorporated, with hundreds of herds.A large scale company like that could have had the economic power and political influence to direct reindeer husbandry according to its interests.
The unforeseen twists of history teach us that the future will take turns that we probably cannot imagine today.My prediction is that many decisions regarding reindeer husbandry will be moved even further away from the immediate practice.Today the rights of indigenous minorities are a growing concern in international politics.I guess that, whether we like it or not, the legal and administrative framework of reindeer husbandry might be determined in places like the United Nation's headquarters in New York or at some international conference in Geneva.This puts new demands on us who are doing research related to reindeer husbandry.If we want to influence its future, our insights must attract attention in the corridors of power where global decisions are made.That means taking on challenges reaching even further beyond those in laboratories and academic seminars.

Fig. 1 .
Fig. 1.The areas covered by the Swedish king's registers for tax and fur-trade 1550-1620.

Fig. 4 .
Fig.4.The present distribution of Sami villages in Sweden.Reindeer is allowed at any time of the year west of the Odlingsgränsen, which is the western of the borderlines stretching horizontally through Lapland.The same goes for the patchwork of reindeer-grazing mountains (Renbetesfjällen) in Jämtland.Between the Odlingsgränsen and the Lapland border (the eastern of the borderlines through northern Lapland) the grazing rights of reindeer is fairly strong between october 1 st and april 30 th (and for the forest-Sami all year round).East of the Lapland border reindeer have a right to graze where they have done so before.That right is vaguely expressed in the law and has been contested in courts lately.In Jämtland reindeer grazing is allowed outside the Renbetesfjällen from October 1 st to April 30 th .In certain areas the Sami have not been able to defend that right in some recent court-cases.In areas 44-51 non-Sami farmers have the right to own a limited number of reindeer (but herded by Sami).