The Sámi

[Dimentio]

http://www.lindalv.skola.kungsbacka.se/Projekt/sweden/Bilder/2samer.jpg

The Sámi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_people) people (called "the Lapps" by the Scandinavian settlers) are one of the native peoples of northern Scandinavia. Originally, Sámi only means "reindeer-herder", while the majority of the same people, the Kväni, lived as small substinence farmers and has integrated with the Swedish colonialists who arrived during the later half of the 18th century.

The Sámi were like other indigenous populations repressed by the government, and during the early 20th century, a lot of Sames were sterilised because the "race-biologists" of Uppsala had received government approval to try to "weed out" "inferior elements" in the "Aryan stock". Due to this previous treatment, Swedish governments of decades more closer to our own has worked to support the Sámi people, both because of genuine regret and a will to forget the previous treatment, and - more explicitly - as the Sámi became a tourism income source (marked by a famous 1954 movie, "Space Invasion Lappland"). For example, the Sámi language is one of the four official languages of Sweden.

Today, there are 30.000 Sames living in Sweden. Amongst them, 6.000 are reindeer owners. Only Sames are allowed to own reindeers according to Swedish law, and the government subsidises their traditional way of life. That has caused some jealousy from the rest of the population in Norrland (the northern districts of Sweden), which is also irritated that many Sames are letting their livestock roam free, causing traffic accidents and accidents on personal property like gardens and forest land.

The question is, is it defendable to help indigenous populations preserve their traditional ways of life, even if these traditions are costing much (resources) to preserve and requires the active support of the government or the structure in charge of distributing the resources?

I am actually prepared to answer "yes" to that, due to the fact that culture is not something we should strive to get rid off.

[Unicorn]

The question is, is it defendable to help indigenous populations preserve their traditional ways of life, even if these traditions are costing much (resources) to preserve and requires the active support of the government or the structure in charge of distributing the resources?

I am actually prepared to answer "yes" to that, due to the fact that culture is not something we should strive to get rid off.
Would the world be any worse if all humans spoke the same language and had the same skin color?

If you acknowledge that the Sami language and way of life have some kind of intrinsic value you should also irrationally believe that the Swedish language and way of life have same kind of value. People who oppose immigration have this reactionary nationalist attitude.

300-500 years from now the Swedish language will be extinct. Languages spoken by fewer people like Sami are logically going to be extinct much sooner. I call that progress.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Would the world be any worse if all humans spoke the same language and had the same skin color?

If you acknowledge that the Sami language and way of life have some kind of intrinsic value you should also irrationally believe that the Swedish language and way of life have same kind of value. People who oppose immigration have this reactionary nationalist attitude.

300-500 years from now the Swedish language will be extinct. Languages spoken by fewer people like Sami are logically going to be extinct much sooner. I call that progress.

What's going to be the dominant language in this linguistic "End Game" you speak of?

[RGacky3]

I think culture is something that should develope naturally, not be suppressed or protected by any government.

[Unicorn]

What's going to be the dominant language in this linguistic "End Game" you speak of?
Who knows? English, maybe, because it is easy to learn. Languages like Spanish and Chinese probably stay vibrant during this millennium while German and Italian will probably be extinct.

[spartan]

What's going to be the dominant language in this linguistic "End Game" you speak of?

I doubt that there will be a completely dominant language that wipes out all others because there are lots of languages spoken by a significant amount of the worlds population, such as Arabic, English, French, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish.

English will probably be the dominant language when it comes to interacting with people from all over the world, but i doubt that these other widely spoken languages will simply die out.

As for the smaller languages well it looks like they wont be here for too long:(

I am Welsh and cant speak my native language (Which is slowly but surely not being spoken by most Welsh people now) and though i would love it to be protected to a certain degree, i am also aware that that protection wont matter if the people themselves arent intrested in speaking it.

Anyway as for cultures like the Sami's it isnt the Governments job to help preserve there culture and language, its up to them.

If there are repressive laws and persecution against people because of their culture and language then that is a different matter entirely, but if they have full rights, and their culture and language are slowly dying anyway, well that is their problem and their problem alone to deal with.

Just thought that i would add that recent studies have shown that being bilingual/multilingual is apparently beneficial for young children in their school years as it helps them to develop intellectually.

[Dros]

A socialist government should not.

[S.O.I]

Originally, Sámi only means "reindeer-herder"

wrong.

while the majority of the sami people, the Kväni,

kväns are ethnic sami people mixed with finnish immigrants. and they are far from the largest ethnic sami group.

so wrong.

lived as small substinence farmers and has integrated with the Swedish colonialists who arrived during the later half of the 18th century.

never heard of this so i just guess that its wrong. but then again i dont live in sweden, so i propably dont know.

but yes sami people should get reperations. just like i think african-americans, jews, native americans, iraqis etc should get reperations. if you been kept as a slave, gotten murdered and raped you should. but i dont think they should be sticking to their old traditions. this is another stupid way to make samis seem inferior. this is a stereotypical image seved by the media. we should evolve just like any industrial nation, and we have indeed evolved. finnmark is indeed a very industrial and modern place today.

btw. you dont see german people wearing lederhosen in berlin, just like you dont see sami people wearing kofte in karasjok. this is a stupid myth. just like most other myths conserning the samis. its a very stereotypical picture, and even insulting to me as part sami & scandinavian.

thank you for this thread. ive been waiting it.

[jake williams]

I'm Finnish-ish. Guy looks like a dick with that hat though.

About the question, the best answer is that it's mixed. Reasonable accommodations should be made to people and racist, imperialist attitudes and actions should be avoided, even at fairly high costs. But "indigenous peoples and cultures" don't receive rights because of their indigenous-ness - it's because they're people, which means when their rights really conflict with other people then that's not okay.

[Qwerty Dvorak]

S.O.I, this thread is not about granting reparations to people who have undergone oppression or persecution. This is about whether or not it is defensible to devote a large amount of resources to help struggling cultures survive and thrive.

And to me, it is not. Not because I believe that anything which does not produce a monetary return isn't worth the hassle. But because I just don't see how the protection of a certain culture will benefit society as a whole. In any society certain cultures thrive, and others fail. For example in Ireland, the English language is obviously dominant and society is very much dominated by the English and (to a lesser extent) American "culture" (or lack thereof). Alongside that we have thriving Chinese, Hungarian, Romanian and Polish (etc.) cultures which have become very much part of city life (without government intervention), and which in my opinion have a very positive effect (most of these are thanks to our participation in the EU). By contrast, the "Irish" culture (perhaps I should say Gaelic culture or old Irish culture) is pathetically dwindling on the border of non-existence, despite desperate efforts of the government to prop it back up.

Is this a problem? I don't see how. We have cultural diversity in Ireland, and it is a diversity of interesting, colourful and stimulating cultures. If people really thought they would be better off speaking Irish and Irish dancing then they would, and they wouldn't need some teacher or Irish signpost to tell them to do so. But nobody wants Irish culture, it no longer serves a purpose in society. Yet the government spends tremendous amounts of money reprinting all signposts, government documents etc. in Irish, as well as teaching it (compulsorily) in schools and setting up bodies and organizations to promote it.

Well, that's the Irish situation anyway. I can't see how the conclusions which I have drawn from my experience of it would not apply in similar situations. In today's world, archaic and outdated cultures such as the Gaelic culture can only really serve as a hobby. It is an unrealistic and wholly impractical goal for any government to actually recreate cultural and linguistic barriers. And it is not up to the government to dictate people's hobbies and pastimes.

[Raisa]

Both Hebrew and Arabic arent going anywhere as languages anytime soon because people learn those langauges just so they can read the Torah and the Qur'an.
All over the world.