Diseases in Early Modern Sweden

In early modern Scandinavia, the population’s sensitivity to disease and food supply shortages was great. Researchers have long been interested in the crises caused by these conditions, and the dominant causes of death have been well documented in Sweden since the late eighteenth century. But for the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, in the mortality regime preceding the initial stage of the demographic transition, our understanding of the infectious diseases is significantly limited. Through an analysis of causes of death and tithe levels, this article gives new insight regarding mortality rates, harvests and, above all, diseases in a parish located in a Swedish forested area during the mid- and late seventeenth century and first half of the eighteenth century. It presents new research about which diagnoses were most common, how often the more prevalent diseases of fevers, smallpox, and dysentery broke out, and the varying role of diseases on mortality rates during bad harvest years. The inhabitants in this parish presumably had a food supply buffer in their summer farm system, yet they remained vulnerable to bad harvests, and people in the area were just as susceptible to the common infectious diseases as the inhabitants in more tightly populated areas.     

Perfectly absent: the emergence of the Modern Greek perfect in Early Modern Greek

Abstract

This paper traces the emergence of the Standard Modern Greek perfect ?χω + infinitive in the Early Modern Greek period. It shows that the construction appears in written sources towards the very end of the seventeenth century. Special attention is given to ‘phantom’ perfects, which can be found in editions of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literary and non-literary texts as well as in the bibliography and which distort the picture of its emergence.     

Blasphemy in Early Modern Sweden — An Untold Story

In early modern Sweden, blasphemy was regarded as one of the most serious crimes one could commit. It was subject to the death penalty and was termed Crimen Laesae Majestatis Diviniae– a “crime against the heavenly majesty.” In the period 1680–1789, 110 cases of blasphemy came before the Judiciary Inspectorate; these cases can be divided into the following categories: blasphemy against God, basphemy against the sacraments, deliberate assignations to the Devil, and other blasphemies. Of the 117 accused, only nine were women and a significant number were soldiers. Blasphemy could be regarded a common subgenre within an already oral military culture.     

Northern Laboratories of Nature and the Quest for Scientific Honour in Early Modern Sweden

Abstract

This article studies the role of climate and geography in the scientific networks which were taking form in Europe in the early modern period. It seeks to contribute to an analysis of the meanings attributed to the North as a scientific environment or an object of study and, in particular, show the wider contextual motivations behind the research of the northern lights as well as phenomena related to physical cold. The analysis will concentrate on the learned discussions taking place between scholars in the Kingdom of Sweden and the Académie des Sciences in Paris. The great scholarly interest in the aurora borealis starting in the early eighteenth century emerged rapidly after the sudden appearance of this striking and enigmatic phenomenon across a large part of Europe during the first decades of the eighteenth century. In a similar manner, cold winters experienced all over Europe during the late seventeenth century had inspired the first scientific societies in Europe to carry out experiments that under ordinary circumstances could not have been pursued. These events underlined the dependency of early empiricists on nature's help when extending the scope of their scientific inquiries. The awareness of the constraints of empirical study, combined with a new ideological view of scientific societies as seats of a collective scientific effort, prompted a new kind of specialization in science. The idea was introduced that each scholar or country should take care of producing experiments and observations that were best attainable in their particular environment. The need became most obvious in research topics such as the cold which – unlike heat – could not be produced artificially. As a demand for observations that were specific to northern tracts emerged in Europe, northern scholars discovered in their expertise on the northern issues a niche to negotiate a new prestige in the European scientific networks. Traditional views had maintained that only the warm, southern climates offered a natural environment for civilisation and arts to flourish. New empirical sciences practised by the scientific societies seemed to provide a convenient break with this assumption.     

Restructuring the automobile industry in Sweden: the emergence of a reflective production system

The two automobile producers operate in Sweden. Volvo is well known for its radical development of new production systems and work organization. In this paper, reasons behind the efforts to create more humanized work within Volvo are presented in a historic perspective, the point of departure being problems related to assembly line technology. After a successful introduction of new ideas, including ‘cutting off the assembly line in the Kalmar plant, Volvo took a radical step in the Uddevalla assembly plant. A completely new production system, the Reflective Production System, was developed. The process in which the reflective production system was developed is examined and the performance of the plant in Uddevalla is evaluated. Some potentials of the reflective production system for local production units are briefly discussed.     

中国近代城市警政区划研究

城市警政区划是城市中警务区域的划分,是地方公安组织设置的空间基础,也是警察行为的空间体现,反映了公安机构与城市环境之间的关系.中国近代城市警政区划在1898至1949年间,划分原则与城市发展的互动关系各有阶段特征.本文通过划分清末早期建警时期、清末巡警部时期、北洋政府时期和南京国民政府时期四个阶段,对各阶段城市警政区划的演变脉络进行梳理,重点探讨其划分依据、结构特征和与城市发展之间的互动关系,最终总结中国近代城市警政区划的演变规律.     

Becoming Modern: Hybrid Foodways in Early Modern Tornio,Northern Finland

This paper focuses on foodways in a small town in northern Finland between 1621 and 1800 CE. Tornio was founded in 1621in northern Finland, at that time a part of the Swedish kingdom. Tornio was a dynamic town where people of different ethnic origins came together, forming a new urban community and new urban foodways. Archaeological remains of the town’s foodways—animal remains, macrofossils, and ceramics—suggest that the food culture of Tornio was a hybrid of local indigenous and rural traditions and international fashions. The foodways underwent significant changes in the 18th century. The changes were related to modernization and changing human-environmental relationships.