Lars Levi Læstadius scientific work on Sámi and Lapland in 19th-century Sweden: Colonisation and Cul

Lars Levi Læstadius (1780-1851) did several studies of Sámi life and culture in the 19th century, as well as a thorough mapping of their religion. He focused on Sámi in Sweden. During his university years did he follow Göran Wahlenberg?s course. He had later on contact with Sven Lovén. As a priest, and not only a natural historian, he was interested in the religious aspects of Sámi life and culture. But he also made a study of Lapland and Sámi that got published in 1824 with the theme cultivation of Lapland. In this book where Swedish Lapland depicted as vast and empty, but also a place with a soil that could be cultivated. In this book where Sámi presented as bound to their destiny to live in that area, they had no need or urge to live anywhere else according to Læstadius; they were ?slaves? to their life as reindeer herders, and could barely cope with any other type of work. His book of 1824 where a survey on how to use the land Sámi inhabited in a more efficient way than just through reindeer herding. Even though the area where inhabited by Sámi did he mean that the area could be colonised, and in that process also cultivated. His research had economical and political importance since it implicated how the areas could be used; for example if the regions could be cultivated, and how the region could be economical sustainable. Here, can one see his influences from his former teacher Göran Wahlenberg who made a study of Sámi and land in Kemi lappmark at the beginning of the 19th century. The studies made way for ideas about the north of Sweden as a strategic place for different industries, a discourse that came into practice in the second half of the century with forestry- and mining industries, as well as hydroelectric power.