In Norway, historical sources which yield first-hand information about how different ethnic groups defined themselves are scarce. Second-hand information on the other hand is available in the population censuses undertaken from 1845 onwards. The first part of this article gives a brief description of the source material, and in order to evaluate the strength of the ethnicity variable given in the ...

The Sami husbandry has traditionally incorporated reindeer, which did not belong to the nomadic household. According to the national census from 1875, this system was found in many parts of Norway. Among the counties, Nordland stood out having the highest number of households owing custodial reindeer. Most of the households were non-Sami, and most of them ...