Lars Ivar Hansen

Lars Ivar Hansen

Professor

Phone (+47)
77 64 43 58

E-mail
larsih@sv.uit.no

Biographical Data
Born 1947 in Oslo. Attached to the University of Tromsø since 1976. Professor at the Department of Sami Ethnography, Tromsø Museum/the University Museum 1991 - 1992. Appointed professor in Medieval and Early Modern history 1993. Since 1994 also Professor II (shared professorship) of early Sami culture at the Centre for Viking and Medieval Studies at the University of Oslo.

Board Membership
Administrative and professional tasks: Head of the leading board of the Norwegian Historical Data Center, University of Tromsø

Professional fields of interest
* Economic and social history during Medieval and Early Modern Times, in particular:

* Principles of property devolution by inheritance and marriage, in the intersection between kin group, conjugal couple, state and church.

* The role of kinship relations and other social networks during Medieval and Early Modern times.

* Spatial organisation and landscape appropriation as expressions of social relations and categorization processes.

* Rights pertaining to the exploitation of collectively owned resources (common land and outlying fields).

* Sami history:
Sami rights to terrestrial resources in a historical perspective.
Interethnic relationships in Northern Fenno-Scandia in a longtime perspective.

Research Projects
1. Ethnic relations, population growth and resource management in the parish of Astafjord (southern Troms) from A.D. 1700 to 1900. - The interplay between populations numbers and resource access and management is studied within the limits of a former parish, called Astafjord or Ibestad (situated in the southern part of Troms county, and consisting of the present-day municipalities Ibestad, Salangen, Lavangen, Gratangen and parts of Skånland). As this region has had a multi-ethnic population thorughout historical times, one of the central themes is to study the changing conditions for resource management among the different ethnic groups (Norwegian, Sami and Kvens), and how this is reflected in the situation of rights pertaining to the various resource niches.

2. The use and regulations of 'common lands' during the Middle Ages and Early Modern times in a cross-cultural, comparative perspective. - The project focuses on the use of the 'common lands' in the Middle Ages, as well as the social institutions and legal rule regulating this use. 'Common lands' are conceived as territory outside the precincts of the particular, individual farms, villages or "communities", which is subject to collective exploitation, being in its turn more restricted and confined, than the exploitation of the individual lands proper. The varying practices and institutions adopted in this field are studied in the light of different cultural and institutional conditions. Therefore, comparisons are drawn between the various resource management systems within Norway, as well as between Norwegian and German systems.

3. Principles of property devolution between generations during the Middle Ages and Early Modern tines. The focus lies upon the different strategies that were applied to inheritance and dowry transfers, in the intersection between the interests of the kindreds and the nuclear fmilies, as well as institutional powers as the state (monarchy) and the church.

4. Ethnic relations in the northern part of Nordland county in a historical perspective. This project, which is a cooperative effort between Árran lulesamisk senter in Tysfjord, Lofotmuséet in Kabelvåg and four researchers at the University of Tromsø, has an interdisciplinary basis, involving approaches and methods of archeology, social anthropology and history. The aim is to highlight the historical background of the multicultural population of the area, with a chronological perspective from the Middle Ages until the present day. In particular the project focuses on the following themes: 1) The Sami settlement along the coast and in the inland regions in older times, 2) The genesis and development of reindeer herding in the area, 3) The Sami pouplation’s rights to resource exploitation in a historical perspective, 4) Processes of assimilation and acculturation due to the “Norwegianization” policy and modernization measures, and 5) Aspects of continuity and change within present-day cultural conceptions, in particular conceptions and practices related to “death” as a phenomenon.

Publications
Books, dissertations:

- Markebol og ødegårder. Bosetning og økonomiske forhold i Fyresdal ca. 1300 - 1660. [ = The rent unit 'markebol' and deserted farms. Settlement and economic conditions in Fyresdal, approx. A.D. 1300 - 1660.] The Norwegian University Press, 1980.

- Samiske rettigheter til jord på 1600-tallet, "Finnejorder" i Sør-Troms. [ = Sami title to Land in the 17th Century, "Finnejorder" in Southern Troms, Norway.] Tromsø Museums skrifter, vol XX, 1986.

- Samisk fangstsamfunn og norsk høvdingeøkonomi [ = Sami hunting society and Norwegian chieftainship economy ], Novus press 1990.

- Handel i nord. Samiske samfunnsendringer ca. 1550 - ca. 1750" [ = Trade in the north. Transformations of Sami (Lapp) society A.D. 1550 - 1750]. Doctoral dissertation for the degree Doctor philosophiae, University of Tromsø 1990.

- Astafjord bygdebok, Historie vol. 1, Fra eldre jernalder til ca. 1570 [A regional history of the parish Astafjord, Southern Troms, from the older Iron Age until 1570 appr.] and Historie vol. 2, Astafjord ca.1570 - ca. 1730, published by Lavangen kommune, 2000 og 2003.

- Family, Marriage and Property Devolution in the Middle Ages, Department of History, University of Tromsø, 2000, 168 p.

- (Together with Bjørnar Olsen:)
Samenes historie fram til 1750 [A History of the Sami people until 1750], Cappelen Akademisk Forlag, Oslo 2004, 427 p.



Selected articles in English:
- "Trade and Markets in Northern Fenno-Scandinavia A. D. 1550 - 1750." (Acta Borealia, A Norwegian Journal of Circumpolar Societies, no. 2 - 1984, p. 47 - 79.)

- "Sami Title to Land in Southern Troms, Norway. Approach, method and Data in Reconstructing Sami Rights of the Past." (Acta Borealia, A Nordic Journal of Circumpolar Societies, no. 1/2 - 1985, p. 9-28.)

- "The Ethnic Classification of the Late 19th Century Censuses. A Case Study from Southern Troms, Norway." (Acta Borealia, A Nordic Journal of Circumpolar Societies, no. 2 - 1991, p. 13-56; - together with Tore Meyer).

- "Just K. Qvigstad's Contribution to the Study of Sami Culture." (Acta Borealia, A Nordic Journal of Circumpolar Societies, no. 2 - 1992, p. 47-68.)

- "Comments on Sami Viking Age Pastoralism - or 'The Fur Trade Paradigm' Reconsidered" (by Inger Storli) Norwegian Archeological Review, vol. 26, no 1, 1993, p. 34-41.

- "Saami Society through Time", Review article of the two books: The End of Drum-Time. Håkan Rydving. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Historia Religionum 12. Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell Int., 1993. xv + 211 pp. - and: The Varanger Saami. Habitation and Economy AD 1200 - 1900. Knut Odner. The Institute of Comparative Research in Human Culture, Serie B: Skrifter LXXXVI, Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 1992. 320 pp. (American Anthropologist, Vol 97, No. 1, March 1995, p. 131-133.)

- "The Sami Hunting Society in Transition: Approaches, Concepts and Context", in: Historia Fenno-Ugrica I, 1-2, Congressus Primus Historiae Fenno-Ugricae (Societas Historiae Fenno-Ugricae), Oulu 1996, vol. I:1, p. 315-334; also available on the internet:

- "Interaction between northern European sub-arctic societies during the Middle Ages: Indigenous peoples, peasants and state builders." (Paper submitted to the 18th International Congress of Historical Sciences, Montreal 27.08. - 3.09.1995. - Printed in extenso in: Two Studies on the Middle Ages (KULTs Skriftserie No. 66), Editor: Magnus Rindal. Oslo 1996, p. 31-95.

- “The Concept of Kinship According to the West Norci Medieval Laws”, in: D. Tamm & H. Vogt (eds.): How Nordic are the Nordic Medieval Laws? Medieval Legal History I, University of Copenhagen Press 2005, p. 170 - 201.