Oscariansk antropologi : Exotism, förhistoria och rasforskning som vetenskaplig människosyn

Sammanfattning: This dissertation is a study of anthropological research in 19th century Sweden. Its point of departure is the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography, founded in 1873. Emphasis is placed on the work of the Society's quartet of founders, physical anthropologist Gustaf Retzius, archaeologists Hans Hildebrand and Oscar Montelius and ethnographerarchaeologist Hjalmar Stolpe. By taking the entire range of their interests into account, a fuller picture can be drawn than by just focusing on any one of these, later separately institutionalized, fields of research. The dissertation is divided into three parts. Part 1 deals with conditions, both national and international, surrounding the foundation of the Swedish Society for Anthropology. Part 2 focuses on the ethnographical museum work of Hjalmar Stolpe. Through him, a social history of 19th century ethnography can be written, as well as an inquiry made into the epistemology of ethnography and archaeology as museum sciences of culture. Also, the importance of 19th century German cultural anthropology for the Swedes is established. Part 3 deals with the problems of race and ethnicity at the intersection between archaeology and physical anthropology. The role of the so-called "Aryan hypothesis" is explored as well as the rise of Aryan supremacist ideas in science at the turn of the 20th century, providing new facts about the establishment of the racial biology movement in Sweden.