told how the subjects were selected. We assumed theyrepresent the range of opinion the filmmaker haddiscovered. The question was raised as to why thefilmmaker erased himself from the film and did notovertly disclose his motives and intentions. Ruby feltthat the filmmaker isolated the subjects from the rest oftheir lives and in the process tried to isolate thequestions of aging and beauty from the social contextin which people age. One solution to this limitationwould have been to concentrate on fewer subjects butdisplay more about the rest of the lives. Aull thought theissues raised were sufficiently important and provoca-tive as to render this limitation unimportant.

As with any film that is examined anthropologi-cally the issue of representativeness came up. Weagreed that the Castro district may be the gay capital ofthe U.S. but disagreed on whether or not that meant thatthe points of view expressed could be applied to allmiddle-class gay men. The fact that there is now amultigenerational public gay community (assumingthat a public and social gay world started with Stonewallin 1969) means there is a large age range within the gaycommunity and while a "cult of youth" may havedominated the gay scene of past decades, the aging ofthe gay community now makes a discussion of theissues raised by this film essential. We were also certainthat there is a value to be gained by the straight worldfrom watching it also. Given the fact that the film is astudent production, it displayed a great deal of promisefor future work by the maker.

Give Us our Skeletons. A film by Paul-Anders Simma.First Run/Icarus Films, New York. VHS format. Incolor with some historical black and white footage;English subtitles; running time 50 minutes.1999.

MICHAEL STEWART

Temple University

This film uses the 20 year quest of a Sami activistin Norway to regain the bones of an ancestor executedin 1852 to portray the history of injustices visited byScandinavian governments upon its indigenous peoplesand other minorities. The Sami, probably best knownto the rest of the world as "Lapps" and nomadic reindeerherders, are an indigenous people whose traditionalhomelands were spread across what is now Norway,

Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Today the Sami arecitizens of all Scandinavian countries, but are onlyformally recognized as indigenous people by the Nor-wegian government. Elsewhere they are considered asan ethnic minority although there are Sami parliamentsin Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Their nomadic wayof life and access to traditional lands has been severelyimpacted by the policies of Scandinavian governmentsover the years. In 1852 a revolt against the Norwegiangovernment by a group of Sami was led by Mons Sombyand Aslak Hetta. In part, the revolt was a response tothe closing of the Norwegian border with Finlandmaking it impossible for nomadic Sami to access landstraditionally used to pasture reindeer. In one confron-tation two Norwegians were killed and the Sami heldaccountable. Out of the group that was brought to trialand sentenced, only Somby and Hetta were executed(by decapitation).

Their bodies were buried beyond the church andgraveyard of the community where they lived and theirheads were added to a massive comparative collectionat the Anatomical Institute of Oslo. Nillas Somby, adescendant and himself an activist for Sami rights, ispart of a "second revolt" in 1980-81 against the Norwe-gian government during which the Sami protest theproposed building of a hydroelectric dam and powerplant on land the Sami view as theirs. During theprolonged protest, Nillas Somby is injured by a bombintended to be used to blow up a bridge being used bythe government. He is subsequently jailed, escapes,moves to Canada, and eventually returns to Norwaywhen the government grants amnesty to those involvedin the protest. In 1985 he begins his efforts to get backthe skull of Mons Somby in 1985.

Oral traditions, interviews with Sami. historians,and scientists, together with historical images, are usedto construct the background against which these eventsare to be understood. Significant events include theincreasing restriction of Sami movement across theirtraditional territories by the ruling government; thearchaeological excavation of cemeteries, the collectionof biological specimens, and the measurement of livingSami as part of a larger project to create biologicalclassifications of race and to support social notions ofracial hierarchies. The racist overtones of the time arepoignantly expressed in a quotation from the 1852 trialof Somby and Hetta. "The crimes that were committedon 7-8 November 1852 in Kautokeino are worse than

Visual Anthropology Review Volume 16 Number 2 Fall-Winter 2000-2001 97

a blundering expedition of a group of savages. Theircrimes were triggered by hatred and vindictiveness andpossibly a widespread urge to break the natural barriersbetween themselves and those superior to them thusforcing upon us a conformity that would destroy allcivilization."

These social and "scientific" attitudes culminatedin forced sterilization programs involving Sami andother minority peoples during the 1930s. These govern-ment-backed programs were designed to insure racialpurity. Interspersed in this portion of the film areexcerpts from 1930s German language films promotingthe idea of racial purity, arguing from a distorted viewof the evolutionary concept of natural selection. Thefilm concludes with the return and reburial of the skullsof Mons Somby and Aslak Hetta during the 1990s.Although greater sensitivity on the part of the currentgovernment is apparent, the film makes it clear thattensions still exist, most dramatically demonstrated bythe fact that the skulls are interred with the bodies ofSomby and Hetta outside of the graveyard in a cer-emony led by officials of the same church that aided andabetted the original trail and executions.

I am an archaeologist with primary interests inAmerican Indians. Nonetheless I found the film engag-ing. The plight of the Sami and the history of racistgovernment policies in Scandinavia are mirrored by thehistory of relationships between native peoples andcolonial governments around the world, the UnitedStates not the least (cf. Thomas 2000). It reflects theworldwide trend in the biological study and definitionof race during the 19th and early 20th centuries that wastoo often the basis of misguided government policies.Unfortunately, it is up to the informed viewer to makesuch connections as these are not pointed out in the film.The presentation also would have benefited from the

addition of more background on the Sami and thegovernments with which they interact. The film standsby itself as a record of the injustices suffered by the Samiand a call for understanding and reform. It could beeffectively used in the classroom (high school andcollege level) as an example of the history and impli-cations of racial typologies if the instructor providesadditional contextual background.

REFERENCES

Thomas, David Hurst2000 Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and

the Battle for Native American Identity. New York:Basic Books, Perseus Book Group.

98 Volume 16 Number 2 Fall-Winter 2000-2001 Visual Anthropology Review