What Happened in Neiden? On the Question of Reburial Ethics

Abstract

The Neiden Case reburial from Finnmark, North Norway, marks the closure of a process initiated with a controversial excavation in 1915 when 94 skeletons were brought to University in Oslo. The skeletons formed part of a monumental work in physical anthropology by the Norwegian anatomist Karl Emil Schreiner concluding that the Sámi belonged to a somewhat infantile proto-Mongolian race. There is little doubt about unethical aspects of the excavation as well as the exceedingly dubious character of racial research on the Sámi prior to the Second World War. However, considering the handling of the case, opposing facts and opinions, lack of knowledge and other uncertainties, ethical implications seem far from obvious. With regard to the dead themselves the reburial may even be considered unethical. This paper emphasizes the complexity of the ethics of reburials with particular attention to the dead, their graves and belongings.

Keywords:

• Human remains
• things
• disclosure
• being
• care

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the Center for Archaeology at Columbia University during my sabbatical in 2011–2012. I wish to thank the archaeological community at CU for inspiring questions and comments. Similarly, I want to thank Bjørnar Olsen and Þóra Pétursdóttir for their insightful readings and clarifying comments and Honna Havas for her comments on the Skolt Sámi situation. Thanks also to Bryan Hood for kind help with source translations and other linguistic obstacles and Johan Eilertsen Arntzen for producing maps on short notice. Finally, thanks to the referees, Liv Nilsson-Stutz and anonymous reviewer, for raising important questions and commenting upon this paper.

Notes

1. ¹This statement was made at a meeting at Nuõrttsaa’mi Mu’zei (‘the Museum of Eastern Sami’) in Neiden, 28 Nov. 2007 (minutes, archive Nuõrttsaa’mi Mu’zei).

2. ²‘Skolt Sámi’ today enjoys a more positive connotation and like ‘Eastern Sámi’ (østsamer in Norwegian) is in use as an autonym as well as being the official designation of the language spoken by the Sámi groups in question. The term ‘Neiden Sámi’ is not an autonym, but serves in this paper to distinguish this group from other Skolt Sámi groups. The border was settled in 1826 (Niemi 1994).

3. ³All translations from other language sources are my own.

4. ⁴Hyphens are a particular feature of Heidegger, who uses them to underline linguistic subtleties and human-world entanglements.

5. ⁵Alétheia literally means ‘what has not been thrown into Léthe (The River of Oblivion)’ (Heidegger 2008, pp. 56–57, cf. 2002, p. 70)

6. ⁶Prof. Dr Med Gunnar Nicolaysen (leader) and Prof. Dr Med. Jon Storm-Mathisen, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Head of Department, Dr Audhild Schanche, Sámi Parliament, Archimandrite Johannes Johannesen, Orthodox Church of Norway, Adviser Line Skum, Bishopric of North Hålogaland, Church of Norway (cf. note 4).

7. ⁷Cf. letter from Bishop Per Oskar Kjølaas of the Chuch of Norway to the University of Oslo (UiO) dated 16 Feb. 2007, letter from the Faculty of Medicine (UiO) to the Director of UiO dated 26 Mar. 2007, letter from Assistant Director General Hege Fjellheim Sarre of the Sámi Parliament to UiO dated 15 June 2007, memorandum to Faculty of Medicine (Uio) from Prof. Dr Med. Gunnar Nicolaysen (UiO) dated 1 February 2008 (all documents in archive, UiO), and letter from the Rector Geir Ellingsrud UiO to the Sámi Parliament dated 14 May 2007 (archive, Sámi Parliament).

8. ⁸A reference group of three Skolt Sámi were added to the Working Group, namely Oiva Gregoiroff Jarva, Lenita Moshnikoff Buljo and Børre Mathisen, the last of whom finally withdrew in protest (B. Mathisen personal communication, 7 June 2011).

9. ⁹The anomalies/alleged graves are rectangular/oblong demarcations of c. 1–2 m in length (Paasche and Trinks 2010, p. 21).

10. ¹⁰The Orthodox congregation in Neiden seems to have belonged from the beginning of Christianization until c. 1914 to the church in Boris Gleb, which in turn belonged to the monastery in Petsamo (todays Petchenga), both in Russia across the present border between Norway and Russia. Before the settling of the border (1826) the Orthodox Chapel (of St. George) in Neiden and the church in Boris Gleb belonged to the common district between the two nations (Niemi 1994, Wikan 1995, p. 266).

11. ¹¹The chapel at the time of Brun was identical to the one standing in Neiden today, which probably dates to early 19th century. A previous chapel was erected here perhaps as early as 1565 at the beginning of Christianization of the Skolt Sámi, but the date is disputed (Niemi 1994, p. 326, Wikan 1995, pp. 34–35, Hansen and Olsen 2004, p. 320). A small semi-subterranean dwelling has been documented beside the present Orthodox Chapel, which may represent an earlier ecclesiastical building (cf. Baglo 2002). Further archaeological investigation is required to answer this question.

12. ¹²Skoltebyen was previously the old summer residence of the Neiden Sámi which included five to ten families from the early 18th century onwards (Wikan 1995, p. 318, Niemi 1996, p. 254).

13. ¹³Orthography in accordance with Qvigstad (1927).

14. ¹⁴Kautokeino Village Museum in Finnmark County.

15. ¹⁵One of the dwelling structures seems to correspond with an outhouse on Jakobovitsj’s property (see, e.g., B470 photo archive Grenselandsmuseet, tslf4237 photo archive, Tromsø Museum).

16. ¹⁶The photograph shows Brun in a grave studying teeth in a cranium (tslf4260, photo archive, Tromsø Museum).

17. ¹⁷For example, tslf4237, tslf4238, tslf4265, tslf4271, photo archive, Tromsø Museum.

18. ¹⁸This is not to claim that a similar act would be rejected outright today in all parts of the world. In some parts (e.g. the Middle East), looting of remains is often carried out by the poor, which constitutes a more complex situation, not unlike that at the time of Jacobovitsj (for further discussions, see, e.g., Renfrew 2000, Brodie and Tubb 2002, Kersel 2012).

19. ¹⁹Somewhat bizarrely perhaps, Jakobovitsj appears to have been the last person buried at the Orthodox cemetery (in 1927) and his funeral was conducted by Oscar S. Romanoff, the new Starost (Wikan 1995, pp. 197–198).

20. ²⁰Shrouding of the dead in birch bark is a typical pre-Christian Sámi burial custom (Schanche 2000).