ABSTRACT
The collection of European folklore in the 19th century contributed to the establishment of national culture. Folklore studies at the time employed the concept of cultural borrowings and evolution, a paradigm that played out in Europe for some 200 years, commencing with theories on the evolution of civilisations. This paradigm was effectively abandoned by Franz Boas who developed a theory of culture that was pluralist and antiracial; however, he was attacked by those who conflated race and nation. Are there comparable adjustments of theory in analytical psychology? Do we, when depicting another group that is not our own group, apply elements of our own group’s identity? This chapter sketches some of the consequences of picturing the Sámi with an ethnocentric lens. The author views the initial 200 years of Volkskunde – anthropology (the knowledge of the people) – and Völkerkunde – ethnology (the knowledge of peoples) – to explore the adjusted and (Jung’s) unadjusted use of participation mystique, which allows us to consider the practice of participation: the sharing of one’s own stories/myths to facilitate the sense of cohesion in one’s own group.
