Why Sami Sing is an anthropological inquiry into a singing practice found among the Indigenous Sami people, living in the northernmost part of Europe. It inquires how the performance of melodies, with or without lyrics, may be a way of altering perception, relating to human and non-human presences, or engaging with the past. According to its practitioners, the Sami "yoik" is more than a musical repertoire made up by humans: it is a vocal power received from the environment, one that reveals its possibilities with parsimony through practice and experience. Following the propensity of Sami singers to take melodies seriously and experiment with them, this book establishes a conversation between Indigenous and Western epistemologies and introduces the "yoik" as a way of knowing in its own right, with both convergences and divergences vis-a-vis academic ways of knowing. It will be of particular interest to scholars of anthropology, ethnomusicology, and Indigenous studies.

*Honourable Mention - International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance Book Prize 2024*

About the Author

Stephane Aubinet is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Musicology at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Book Information
ISBN 9781032328690
Author Stephane Aubinet
Format Hardback
Page Count 168
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 500g