page_title: Sámi drum
section_title: Using the drum
hierarchical_section_title: Sámi drum / Using the drum
caption_attribution_description: Mari Boine peforming in Warszawa, Poland in September 2007
context_page_description: A Sámi drum is a shamanic ceremonial drum used by the Sámi people of Northern Europe. Sámi ceremonial drums have two chiefly two variations, both oval-shaped: a bowl drum in which the drumhead is strapped over a burl, and a frame drum in which the drumhead stretches over a thin ring of bentwood. The drumhead is fashioned from reindeer hide.
  In Sámi shamanism, the noaidi used the drum to get into a trance, or to obtain information from the future or other realms. The drum was held in one hand, and beaten with the other. While the noaidi was in trance, his "free spirit" was said to leave his body to visit the spiritual world. When applied for divination purposes, the drum was beaten together with a drum hammer and a vuorbi made of brass or horn. Messages could be interpreted based on where the vuorbi stopped on the membrane, and at which symbols.
  The patterns on the drum membrane reflect the worldview of the owner and his family, both in religious and worldly matters, such as reindeer herding, hunting, householding as well as relations to their neighbours and to the non-Sámi community.
  Many drums were taken out of their use and Sámi ownership during the 18th century.
context_section_description: Ernst Manker summarized the use of the drum, regarding both trance and divination:
  before use, the membrane was tightened by holding the drum close to the fire
  the user stood on his knees, or sat with his legs crossed, holding the drum in his left hand
  the vuorbi was placed on the membrane, either on a fixed place or randomly
  the hammer was held in the right hand; the membrane was hit either with one of the hammer heads, or with the flat side of the hammer
  the drumming started at slow pace, and grew wilder
  if the drummer fell into trance, his drum was placed upon him, with the painted membrane facing downwards
  the way of the vuorbi across the membrane, and the places where it stopped, was interpreted as significant
  Samuel Rheen, who was a priest in Kvikkjokk 1664–1671, was one of the first to write about Sámi religion. His impression was that many Sámi, but not all, used the drum for divination. Rheen mentioned four matters in which the drum could give answers:
  to seek knowledge about how things were at other places
  to seek knowledge about luck, misfortune, health, and illness
  to cure diseases
  to learn what deity one should sacrifice unto
  Of these four ways of use mentioned by Rheen, one knows from other sources that the first of them was only performed by the noaidi. Based on the sources, one might get the impression that the use of the drum was gradually "democratized", so that there in some regions there was a drum in each household, that the father of the household could seek to for advice. Yet, the most original use of the drum – getting into trance, seem to have been a speciality for the noaidi.
  Sources seem to agree that in Southern Sámi districts in the 18th century, each household had its own drum. These were mostly used for divination purposes. The types and structure of motives on the Southern Sámi drums confirm a use for divination. On the other hand, the structure of the Northern Sámi drum motives, with its hierarchical structure of spiritual worlds, represent a mythological universe it which it was the noaidi's privilege to wander.
  The drum was usually brought along during nomadic wanderings. There are also known some cases where the drum was hidden close to one of the regulars' campsites. Inside the lavvu and the goahti, the drum was always placed in the boaššu, the space behind the fireplace that was considered the "holy room" within the goahti.
  Several of the contemporary sources describe a duality in the view of the drums: They were seen both as an occult device, and as a divination tool for practical purposes. Drums were inherited. Among those who owned drums in the 18th century, not all of them described themselves as active users of their drum. At least that was what they said when the drums were confiscated.
  There is no known evidence that the drum or the noaidi had any role in child birth or funeral rituals.
  Some sources suggest that the drum was manufactured with the aid of secret rituals. However, Manker made a photo documentary describing the process of manufacturing the physical drum. Selection of motives for the membrane, or the philosophy behind it, are not described in any sources. It is known that the inauguration of the drum where done by rituals that involved the whole household.
caption: Mari Boine with a modern drum. Drums are now used both as a musical instrument and as a symbol of Sámi identity.
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