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The Saami don`t have the word "kin". They use a Russian term which they pronounce like "rot", "root", "rust", "rodovoj", "rotnykam" or "dosel`ny". Probably they didn`t need another term to define different levels of blood relation.

The Saami`s kin names can not be found in historical literature or state laws. As a rule, all the Saami mentioned in written documents were christened and had Russian names. However, one can find pre-Christian kin names in the Saami`s folklore. An old man running from enemies is called "nyal-polar fox"; an athlete killing enemies is called "kijnch" (derived from the verb "kij" - "follow"); women are called "rehp`" - "partridge". Kin property signs - "tamgi" - have special titles: "a crow`s eye", "a bird`s beak", etc. Probably these titles were derived from the name of a kin.

From the Saami`s folklore we learn about outstanding athletes leading the Saami during the attacks of enemies. Usually these are the best hunters, physically strong and able to conjure, like Lein, the Lovozero brothers-athletes, the old man Makar. The Saami tried to find a wife in another settlement which then corresponded to another kin. If marriage is a failure the wife comes back to her father`s kin and brings back her reindeer.

Every settlement (sijt) had Sejd - a kin god protecting the settlement. According to the Saami`s scriveners` books and different agreements of the 16th-17th centuries affairs of a settlement were discussed at the general meeting of family heads. In case of absence the elder son could represent the head of a family. Russian authorities claimed that the headman of a settlement was to be elected at the meeting. The meeting regulated the interests of the settlement, its relations with other settlements, using of fishing and hunting places. It also decided if strangers could settle down on their territory and was responsible for collecting taxes.

"Tamgi" - kin signs - were one of the proofs that the Saami used to have a kin structure. Till recently every head of the family had his own "mark" - the sign which he used for proving his authorities and indicating his property. The Saami as well as the nations having no written language had "tamgi". These signs had various forms and looked like usual objects.

No doubt that "tamgi" reflected real objects and processes. While developing the depictions were simplified and got a conditional style.

Originally the signs were put on the objects of kin property. When kins splitted into several families "tamgi" started to split too, but they preserved the kin base for a long time. Practically, the "mark" was changed alongside with the splitting of a family. When a son left the family his father gave him his "mark", usually adding or sometimes taking away some detail. A younger son inherited his father`s "mark" together with the house.

Collective production was more expressed in hunting of the Saami. It included hunting reindeer with the help of enclosures ("angasy") and chase on frozen snow-crust; hunting bear, elk, beaver and wolf. Having important exchange meaning beavers remained objects of collective hunting till their complete extermination (the first part of the 19th century). Places of beaver hunting were mainly reserves and people could hunt only together or follow the rule of dividing the booty between all the male population of the settlement. Chasings on the main enemy of reindeer herds - wolf - till recently were organized collectively by the whole settlement. In autumn the Saami gathered their herds and divided them into groups so that it would be convenient to graze the reindeer in winter. The booty was considered to be common property and was equally divided between all the inhabitants of the settlement.

The Saami had other interesting rules concerning fishing and hunting: if one hunter hurt a wild reindeer or some other large game and another hunter killed it then they divided the booty equally between each other. It was also accepted that a person who came to the hunting place after killing the animal he had a right to take some part of it though he didn`t take part in hunting.

Writers of the16th-17th and even the 19th centuries give a lot of information about the Saami`s strongly developed sense of mutual help, simplicity and hospitality. It`s clear: capitalistic relations started to influence the Saami`s community especially strong starting from the second part of the 19th century; before that the remains of primitive community relations were dependant on bloody-kin base; the collectors of tribute, officials and even priests surrounding the Saami couldn`t contribute to the destruction of primitive community remains, as it was done by capitalism which penetrated into the society and contributed to the development of inequality within the class.

A. Kastren wrote about the Russian Saami`s character in his ethnographic notes: "All the Saami have the same character. It is like a stream which flows quietly and slowly so that its moving is hardly to notice. If a stream meets a barrier it changes its direction, but finally it reaches its destination. The Saami have the following character: quiet, peaceful and evasive; their favourite word is "peace", their first question is about "peace", their last word is also "peace", "peace" - is everything for them. There is a legend that Lapland is bare and poor on the surface but contains much gold inside. There is hardly any treasure better than the Saami`s peaceful quietness."

The Saami`s history doesn`t contain any facts proving the existence of war organizators or warriors being a special social group. They didn`t have slavery and feudal relations, and it`s doubtful that kin organizations ever attained unity of the tribes. Peculiar conditions of the north and a low level of production excluded the development of a family community (big family), though territorial communities existed until 1917.

Mutual guarantee meaning that the Saami paid taxes and tribute contributed to the preserving of a territorial community. Peculiarities of a territorial community were: water, forest and meadow industrial places were considered to be communal property; right of property and sale of one`s own allotment and share in a communal plot were known in the 16th-17th centuries. Such a structure of a communal organization guaranteed regular paying of tribute to the government, opportunity of buying separate plots of communal industrial places by making an agreement with the community - to merchants and industrial workers.

Administratively, when all the church property became secular, the Saami became state peasants and were subordinated to an official in their affairs of the Kola district. Every large settlement within one volost` (region) formed a community with an elected headman. But all the most important affairs concerning the interests of a settlement were discussed by a gathering (sujm). Before the revolution of 1917 men as well as housewives were allowed to take part in discussing secular affairs. Well-to-do inhabitants of settlements had certainly greater influence on gatherings. When someone broke the traditions the gathering punished him by a fine or extra work, more seldom by birching. The cruelest punishment practiced in those times for killing, arson or theft, according to old men`s words, was dragging of the accused under the ice; the distance of dragging depended on the crime. Unsociable, pugnacious and light-fingered people were also punished cruelly - they were expatriated from their native settlement. For example, a Saami living in Lovozero in 1913 was punished for stealing of two venison bulks from the barn. Reindeer horns were fastened to his forehead, a bell and rope were hung on his neck, the thief was lead by this very rope around the settlement and people laughed at him. Earlier when the person having stolen reindeer was revealed, he was fined or paid back the cost of stolen reindeer.

Peculiarities of the Saami`s marriage in the second part of the 19th century were: paying of ceremonial ransom for the bride, wedding feasts and the bride`s leaving for the groom`s family. Alongside with this there were the following remains of marital relations: a groom left for the bride`s house and worked off for the wife in his father-in-law`s house for a year. The Saami`s life was routine and traditional and marriage was one of the most significant events, that was why parents, boys and girls, got prepared for it long before the wedding itself. A groom looked for a bride who would be beautiful, healthy, skillful in handiwork and rich. A groom should have the same qualities as a bride: he should be handsome, healthy and rich, skillful in grazing of reindeer, fishing, hunting, making of sledges, sewing of harness, etc. The main treasure of a groom and his bride were reindeer and clothes they possessed.

If the first newborn child was a boy, he was given a "vel`shalt" - a reindeer. When the child (a boy or a girl) was teething, the relative who found the first tooth gave him a female reindeer ("pan`alt" - "a tooth vazhenka"). Reindeer born from these animals were marked by a special sign and followed the son when he left his father`s house and the girl when she got married. This tradition was widespread among the Russian and Scandinavian Saami.

The Saami`s marriages were based on mutual sympathy.

Nemirovich-Danchemko wrote about the Saami`s traditions: the groom was called a hunter, the bride`s father - an old bear or reindeer which was asked to give a young "vazhenka" or a bear to the young reindeer. After the wedding the bride was dressed, but she was kicking and hitting, jumping and running from corner to corner. Like a wild reindeer she was fastened to a pole and men pointed their guns at her. The groom approached her and gave her some bread, she started to caress him. And all this reminds the process of calming down a wild reindeer. As soon as the bride became quiet she was seized, covered with a kerchief and furs, throw to "kerezha" and fastened with ropes so that she wouldn`t run away. The groom sat into another "kerezha" and a verst (3500 feet) or two both sledges were drawn side by side by athletes. Far away from graveyard the sledges rushed forward; shooting, crying and threatening were heard in the air and all this signified escaping and chasing of the bride - the ritual existed everywhere in the north. The sledges rushed into the settlement, shooting became more often, athletes cried as if wounded, the groom seized the bride by her collar as his fair booty. But as soon as the couple entered the "tupa" (dwelling) everything changed at once. The groom gave the bride a bow. Athletes also gave her a bow and caressed her, and the groom`s parents claimed her the mistress oh their house and family. The bride stayed covered with kerchiefs and furs for eight days. Everyone wishing to have a look at her paid money. Wedding ceremony in church considered to be a secondary ritual. It was organized in 2-3, sometimes 5-6 months, when a priest came.

Outstanding wedding ceremony raised talks and people even composed songs about them.

The Saami organized a wedding ritual so that to conceal the real meaning of events and to cheat somebody. The groom and his relatives were called hunters or merchants, the bride - a duck, bear or "vazhenka", the bride`s father - a bear, a fine fellow, a reindeer.

The bride`s parents were waiting for the groom and his relatives, they knew beforehand what they would get but didn`t let the groom in, they received the ransom reluctantly and didn`t call things by their real names. At last a falcon caught a duck. The bride tried to escape and cried, they closed her eyes, fastened her or held her legs in a sledge and left the settlement. In other words, all the events were aimed at concealing of real intentions and meaning. Probably, the Saami made such a performance in order to show their spirits-ancestors that the bride didn`t really move to the groom`s house and kin traditions were not broken. Only those marriages when the groom moved to the bride`s house were considered fair.

A Saami woman`s social and legal position was rather favourable. First of all there were no historical preconditions for lessening of a woman`s role. The Saami didn`t attack other nations, didn`t get profit from conquers and never had slavery. On the other side both women and men took part in the most important branches of economic activity. The fact that women were not allowed to touch home articles after giving birth to a child and during menstruation period, was probably connected with hygiene but didn`t mean humiliation of women. People who visited the Saami in different historical period spoke about tender and friendly relations between spouses. The Saami always asked their wives for advice and even helped her in purely woman`s affairs. Saami men were good husbands of their wives but travelers found opposite qualities which they explained by religious or other remnants.

Although the majority of Saami families were poor, children were always desirable and got much affection from parents. A wife who gave birth to many children was loved by her husband, though absence of children didn`t lead to divorces. A childless family ("piras" or "piar") often adopted children deprived of parents. First of all parents made a beautifully decorated cradle. The base of a cradle was a trough, 40-50 cm long and 10 cm wide. The trough was covered with suede and decorated with embroidery from beads and bugles. Together with beads and colourful cloths, metal rings and elks` teeth were hung above the cradle as amulets.

Food for children was their mother`s milk and a soother made from reindeer fat and sugar, from berries, bagels or bread sprinkled with sugar. Due to the lack of animal milk children were fed by breasts till the age of 3-4 years. Alongside with it children were given the best pieces of usual food eaten by adults: brains from reindeer leg bones, fish bowels, etc.

The Saami took care of physically defective inhabitants such as invalid children, old and ill people. Abortions and voluntary death of old people wasn`t preserved even as memories. But the remnants of notions "according to which diseases and death were connected with demons or hostile magicians` evil will who entered a human body" stayed preserved for a long time and sometimes accompanied absurd counter-actions. The Saami`s earlier low cultural level, almost complete lack of medical help and sanitary education determined such a condition under which magic and conjure were more popular in the Saami`s folk medicine than rational methods of treating diseases.

The Saami had a widely spread notion concerning reasons of diseases: spoilage using hex or evil eye of hostile magicians. Expressions like "evil eye", "to make a wry eye", "eyes started out of one`s head" used in the Saami`s everyday life and folklore were connected with the display of dangerous forces for enemies. Even an insignificant cause was enough to make a male or female magician "angry" and sent hostile witchery to a person. The majority of diseases had no images, it meant that could be considered amorphous excluding fever which was imagined as a naked bony woman.

The Saami buried the dead the way all Christians did it, though they chose places for cemeteries "behind water" - mainly on islands. A coffin with a dead man was carried out not through the door but through the window, for this purpose the frame was broken out. After funeral they drew a line with an ax around the grave hill; the line was cut several times by the same ax so that "the dead couldn`t cross it and make harm to people".

The older time the more pre-Christian remnants could be found in methods of burying. Dergachev wrote in 1877: "The dead are buried without coffins, in some places - in clothes, in other - completely naked. Signs of heathen superstitions can be found in the tradition of burying near the places where the Saami made sacrifices to their gods. Earlier the dead were just put on the ground and covered with stones. Nowadays the Saami dig the dead into the ground, make a hill above the grave, put a sledge with runners up and some food and utensils under it. They put tools of past activity into some coffins: axes, a flint, an oar, rods and so on, but this was made secretly. They organize a feast for those who follow the dead; but this tradition is rarely observed. Nobody has a right to ride the reindeer owned by the dead."

According to N. Haruzin and other writers the Saami earlier had three types of coffins:

1) The dead were buried in natural hollows in rocks or stone taluses;

2) A corpse was half dug into the ground and covered with stones above;

3) They dug not very deep graves, put stones around them and also put an arch from stones above.

The Saami put large stones near the dead`s head and feet. There are some mentions about the fact that earlier people left the house when one of the family members died.

As the Saami have to spend greater part of the year in family circle - near lakes in summer, hunting alone or grazing reindeer - they like to spend free time communicating with each other. The most spread form of communicating was visiting guests, sometimes having to cover 100-200 kilometers in order to reach relatives and acquaintances. When they met they kissed touching each other by noses, singing together panegyric and thankful songs.

There are still different games in which both young people and adults take part with pleasure:

1) A game with a rope (nuoresir) in which men and women, boys and girls holding a rope in hands make a circle. The leader stands in the circle and catches the one he wants.

2) A game with a ball (pal-sir) resembling lapta, which is famous from folklore monuments as the most ancient and the Saami`s favourite entertainment.

3) A game "babki" (bask-sir) the aim of which is to beat out the largest quantity of "babki" (reindeer leg bones).

4) A game "ruhi" is also popular.

Children`s game reindeer "rajda" is popular: horns in a row stuck into the snow symbolize reindeer. Children also play in reindeer herds: some of them represent reindeer-breeders, the rest - reindeer and dogs if there are no real reindeer and dogs in the game.

Dancing was young people`s favourite entertainment in winter; they were organized in evenings in the largest dwellings and resembled Russian sit-round gatherings. They danced mainly quadrille from 6 "figures" (shesterka) or made roundelay from 8 "figures" (vosjmerka). The Saami still dance these dances accompanying them with playing harmonica or singing Russian roundelay songs. The main movements in both dances are the pairs` following each other and spinning by two at the same place.