ABSTRACT
Archaeology and prehistory are contested, both in postcolonial situations in Africa, Australia, and the Americas (e.g., Watkins 2000) and in arenas of nationalist debate as in Europe (e.g., Diaz-Andreu and Champion 1996; Meskell 1998a ). At the same time, indigenism is contested on a variety of levels (Hodgson 2002; Kuper 2003). These include debates about which individuals are indigenous, which groups are indigenous, and whether indigenousness exists at all. Archaeological and anthropological museums are situated within both of these arenas because they are homes to public representations of the past and culture (Krebs 2003). In Europe, the manipulation, suppression, and even destruction of archaeological evidence by, among others, the Nazis has led to an understandable appeal to depoliticize archaeological heritage. But this appeal can be paradoxical. Although the representation of difference or otherness can be (and, indeed, has been) manipulated for destructive purposes, the denial of otherness can also be destructive. These points can be illustrated with a case study of the Saami, one of the rare populations in Europe that participates in the discourse of indigenism.
