Hunting by Early Modern Lule Sami Households

Hunting was one of three pillars, along with fishing and reindeer husbandry in the early modern Sami economy, understanding hunting has increased during recent decades. However, most research concentrated on time periods before AD 1600. After 1600 initial formation Nordic countries, ceased to be backbone overall economy but continued as an integral part household economies. Our aim is advance northwestern interior Fennoscandia. Using source materials including court rulings historical accounts, we set out from a self-governance perspective focusing how actors solved resource distribution regards hunting. We show that ecological differences between mountains forest impacted decisions about From 1500s end 1700s, led extinction wild depopulation fur animals, while small-game for subsistence important. In region, strong property rights game developed when skatteland (tax land) established became private enterprise. suggest institution response changes transition collective individual contributing factor.