In a new publication from the department, edited by Magdalena Naum (previously in Lund and now at Aarhus University) and Fredrik Ekengren, 21 authors explore Sweden’s relationships with the European and wider world in the 16th-18th centuries.
The essays, written by archaeologists and historians, offer a new perspective on early modern Sweden as deeply affected by the increasing internationality of the 16th-18th centuries. Set in the socio-political context of an expanding and changing kingdom, they deal with the character and impact of a wide range of cultural encounters—at home, in the colonies and during overseas travel. They consider how new fashions, commodities and ideologies were perceived and appropriated, and they discuss how these encounters shaped the discourses of the familiar and the foreign - from curiosity, acceptance and appreciation, to prejudice, rejection and conflict. In taking a broad and interdisciplinary approach, and by departing from traditional themes of political history, the volume as a whole offers a different view of the kingdom, its people, and its involvement with the outside world.
The book is titled Facing Otherness in Early Modern Sweden: Travel, Migration and Material Transformations, 1500-1800, and published by Boydell & Brewer. For more information see <link https: boydellandbrewer.com facing-otherness-in-early-modern-sweden-hb.html>boydellandbrewer.com/facing-otherness-in-early-modern-sweden-hb.html
