Es lebe alles, was saamisch ist“ - Saamische Ethnopolitik zwischen Primordialismus und Instrumentalismus

The way ethnic activation is put into practise is presented within different conceptions of ethnicity and illustrated by the Saami in Norway. The basic theoretical assumption followed here is that ethnicity serves as a means of social organisation which is constantly being re-constructed and negotiated by ethnopolitical actors. It can be activated and therefore instrumentalised in different contexts. At the same time, the power of ethnicity is strongly influenced by the fact that it is often presented by ethnopolitical actors as an elementary component within a society. Because of this, both primordial and instrumentalist approaches explaining ethnic activation prove to be valuable. However, only a constructivist approach allows for including the analysis of processes of self-ascription and ascription by others in the analysis of ethnically-oriented identity formation.