Cultural Contexts of Healing - An Anthropological Perspective on Indigenous Mental Health Practice, with case study on Sámi Healers in Porsanger, Norway

Abstract

This anthropological study examines the enduring potency and continuity of Sámi traditional healing (noaidut), through a case study of two healers, Nanna and Sigvald, in Porsanger, Norway. The research draws on interviews, participant observation, and historical analysis, contrasts colonialist and modern medical discourses, which tend to reduce indigenous practices to identity politics or primitive medicine with the living tradition. The paper posits that Sámi healing, characterized as an extended discourse on imagination, aligns with intellectual movements like C.G. Jung’s Analytical Psychology and William James’s Pragmatist Philosophy of Religion. The essence of the inherited practice, described by the healers as "bundling and releasing" or ecstasy, is shown to be dependent on participation and imagination. This core healing method is congruent with the Laestadian doctrine of the "Keys to Heaven," suggesting a continuity between Sámi spiritual heritage, Laestadianism, and Jungian imaginal practices. Despite historical erasure and stigmatization, the successful transfer of this knowledge from Nanna to Sigvald, facilitated partly by the researcher's positive assessment, confirms the tradition's ongoing resourcefulness and effectiveness in reestablishing connection and promoting mental health.