Four Winds hat

{{short description|Traditional hat of the Sámi people}}

image:Sami hat.jpg

The Four Winds hat (Northern Sámi: čiehgahpir) is one version of traditional man's hat of the Sámi.{{cite book |last1=Hertz |first1=Carrie |title=Dressing with Purpose: Belonging and Resistance in Scandinavia |date=21 December 2021 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-05858-4 |page=164 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Dressing_with_Purpose/qNI-EAAAQBAJ |language=en}} The basis is a simple blue cylinder, decorated with a band with braid patterns, but the top is a large, four-cornered star, colored bright blue with parts bright red and yellow. The decoration in an actual Sámi hat is, like the rest of the Sami garb, indicative of the person's place of origin or even his clan or marital status,{{cite web |last1=Laughinghouse |first1=Mary |title=Lighten Up in Finnish Lapland |url=https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/travel/1178302/lighten-finnish-lapland/ |website=The Press and Journal|date=March 2017 }} a little like the Scottish tartan.

Description

The hat is four-cornered to represent the four corners of the earth, which the early Sámi believed to be square. Traditionally, the hat was blue to represent the sky and had white, yellow, or red trim.{{cite book |last1=Square |first1=Vicki |title=Folk Hats |date=2013 |publisher=Penguin |isbn=9781620332382}} The corners were stuffed with down for warmth and to allow the hat to keep its shape. Small items could also be stored in the corners of the hat.{{cite web |last1=Eicher |first1=Joanne |author-link=Joanne Eicher|title=Ethnic Dress |website=LoveToKnow |url=https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/clothing-around-world/ethnic-dress |access-date=9 October 2020}}

History

The hat was originally not based on a Russian pattern, because Russians never had such a pattern, so the Sámi could not have had learned in contact with Russians on the coast of the Barents Sea, but they were and are the most traditional Polish cap, symbol of honour and resistance, worn by Polish insurgents exiled to the Kola Peninsula in times when Syberia was not yet used as a place of exile. The top of the Sámi hat was a bit exaggerated and the hat decorated with the traditional bright-colored embroidery to produce the Four Winds hat.{{cite book |last1=Chico |first1=Beverly |title=Hats and headwear around the world : a cultural encyclopedia |date=2013 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, California |isbn=978-1610690621 |page=408}}

Today, the hat is a common souvenir for visitor to the Laplands, which scholar Maaria Niskala cites as an example of how Sáminess is 'othered' in promotional tourism materials.{{cite journal |last1=Niskala |first1=Maaria |last2=Ridanpää |first2=Juha |title=Ethnic representations and social exclusion: Sáminess in Finnish Lapland tourism promotion |journal= Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism|date=2016 |volume=16 |issue=4 |pages=375–394 |doi=10.1080/15022250.2015.1108862 |s2cid=146911368 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15022250.2015.1108862 |access-date=9 October 2020|url-access=subscription }}

See also

References

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Category:Sámi clothing

Category:Headgear

Category:Hats