What Can a Melody Do? Animal and Personal Songs among the Sámi of Norway

Vortrag im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung „Kulturen des Klangs“

A ‚yoik‘ is a type of song found among the Sámi, an Indigenous people from the European Arctic. It consists of a short circular
melody, with or without lyrics, describing the qualities of a person or an animal species. According to its practitioners, the ‚yoik‘ is more than a musical genre made up by humans: it is a ‚gift‘ received from the natural environment. Once used in shamanistic rituals, it is today performed on stage, but also remains a part of everyday life.
Drawing from eleven years of research on Sámi singing traditions, this talk will explore how ‚yoik‘ melodies are tied to human and animal personhood, and what their performance affords for singers and listeners.

Stéphane Aubinet is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oslo. He is conducting research in the anthropology of music, with a focus on lullabies and Sámi singing traditions. His publications include a monograph devoted to the songs of the Sámi People (Why Sámi Sing: Knowing through Melodies in Northern Norway, Routledge) and a forthcoming monograph about the global diversity of lullabies (The Lullaby‘s Outline: Anthropology of a (not quite) Universal Practice). His core interests lie in the ontology of songs and their potential as ways of knowing and engaging with human and non-human presences.