Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how the joik, a singing tradition practised by the Sámi, engages spiritual presences and the singing body in the emergence of a 'more-than-human' sociality within the performers and auditors. 'Humanity' is thus problematised in terms of what the human body can do.

Paper long abstract:

Joiks are songs performed by the Sámi of Northern Europe. They share with spirits an intangible, aerial mode of being and a status of actors in the world. They appear spontaneously, visit humans in unexpected ways and occur within a shared creativity between the (human) performers and the (more-than-human) environment.

Each joik is tied to a person, an animal or a place. Even when deceased or hidden from sight, these elements of the world withhold a presence that can be engaged with by singing their joiks. This ability to 'make present the absent' is nested in an ecological conception of personhood: every human is inhabited by an inner reindeer, an inner bear, other humans and places, all of whom are in correspondence with the actual animals and places located in the environment. Singing their joiks aims at attending to them, making them grow and developing the performer or auditors into 'more-than-human' ecologies.

The singing body is thus a vector of growth and sociality. It is through its breath and resonance, from 'within,' that humans get in touch with the invisible. The joik thus mitigates the category of 'humanity' in that it attends to the 'non-human' within the 'human' and vice-versa. On the other hand, this ability to engage with and selectively explore their invisible, inner depths with the 'joiking' voice appears to be a feature that distinguishes humans from other animals.