Finnish Religions
FINNISH RELIGIONS. The scope of what is covered by the phrase Finnish religion(s) varies according to the different meanings of Finn, Finnish, and Finland geographically, linguistically, and historically.
Finland is, with Iceland, the world's most northerly country. Its location on the Gulf Stream allows for the economic diversity that supports its population, which has been quite small throughout history and totaled around 5.2 million in 2004.
Despite the fact that Finland is less Arctic than parallel territories in Russia, Canada, and the United States, being only partly under permafrost, the north is crucial in the religions of the Sami (ca. 8,000 in Finland) and Finns, the two indigenous peoples of Northern Europe. The Latin word fenni, first found in Tacitus's Germania (98 CE), comes from Germanic speakers who defined their northern and eastern neighbors as Finns. Tacitus describes barbarian people somewhere in the northeastern Baltic region, living "in unparalleled squalor and poverty." As the nomadic fenni lifestyle differed from that of the Germanic peoples, who lived a more settled existence, the term Finn might have referred to the way of life these people followed. Thus, the word fenni may have encompassed the ancestors of both Finnish and Sami speakers, who shared a common "Lapp" nomadic way of life.
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