The “unwritten rules” of the traditional household economy in Sami folklore

The aim of the paper is to examine the system of prevailing beliefs, traditions and norms (“unwritten rules”) of the Sami of the Kola Peninsula, which ensured the constant reproduction of the economic model of the traditional household, through the prism of Sami folklore. The authors analyze certain published Sami folklore sources (anthology Sami Fairy Tales compiled by E. Ya. Patsiya; Folklore Traditions in the Culture of Sami Families compiled by E. I. Mechkina; and In the Land of Flying Stones by V. V. Charnoluskiy) in the context of the neo-institutional theory of economic history as historical sources in an attempt to single out informal institutions that transmitted traditional knowledge in the sphere of household (economic) practices of the Sami and ensured regularity of behavior in hunting, fishing and reindeer husbandry. The authors also identify the role of the informal institutions in the economic activities of the Sami, which imposed limitations and sufficient control mechanisms for the socioeconomic processes that shaped the specifics of the traditional household in the visible past. It is concluded that in the modern era of knowledge economy traditional knowledge of the Sami determines their economic capacity and becomes their main competitive economic resource.