As an example of a study that sought to reconstruct the pre-Christian religion of the Sámi, Rafael Karsten's (b. 1879 d. 1956) work Samefolkets religion (The religion of the Sámi people) can be mentioned. Karsten had earlier become known as a researcher of the South American Indians.
The choice of title for his work is historical as in it for the first time the religion is called the religion of the Sámi people instead of the Laplanders. The subtitle defines the scope of the work as dealing with "the Pagan faith and cult of the Nordic countries in light of religious history". Karsten attempts to paint as complete a picture as possible of the early religion of the Sámi. His main sources were the early written documents from the 17th and 18th centuries.
As a typical researcher of the evolutionist era he was convinced that in the religious history of the Sámi he would find confirmation of his assumption that the origin of all religion lies in animism, i.e. the attribution of a living soul to plants, inanimate objects, and natural phenomena. Karsten rationalized the Sámi religion as having been born directly from the natural surroundings of the people, based largely on the views he developed during his field work among the South American Indians. The assumption that primitive peoples would equip their field of experience with anthropomorphic personal souls dominated every chapter of his work: seita worship and worship of personal Gods, shamanism, the practice of sacrifice, worship of the dead, as well as the bear cult.
— Selectively translated from the book Saamelaisten mytologia (Mythology of the Sámi) by Juha Pentikäinen & Risto Pulkkinen, 2018.
(Emphasis added.)
