Eugenic Sterilisation in Scandinavia

The view that eugenics was based on unscientific views has been put forward by a number of historians. It has been claimed that the early phase of eugenics, so-called mainline eugenics, was unscientific, biased against the lower classes, and racist. An ensuing reform eugenic phase, however, has been considered scientifically sound and politically progressive. This paper, based on recent studies of eugenic sterilisation in Scandinavia, challenges this view. The political and scientific arguments in favour of eugenic sterilisation laws in Scandinavia were complex and ambiguous, and it is empirically impossible to identify a problematic mainline eugenic phase and separate it from a more acceptable reform phase. Social and scientific arguments for sterilisation appeared side by side. To improve the gene pool was only one of a host of aims of eugenics, which “was” not a fixed, well-defined ontological entity with one definite purpose, but a concept with multiple meanings.     

Winning a War with Words: oaths as means in military conflict in early modern Scandinavia

From a distance, the many wars that took place during the early modern period were fought by kings and armies, conquering territories and losing them, signing peace treaties and breaking them. Wars fought with armies were, however, costly and, if possible, the rulers did what they could to avoid them while still trying to acquire and protect territories. One strategy employed was to persuade the people of a disputed territory to surrender to the conquering state by swearing an oath of allegiance to its king. Seen in this perspective, territories could be acquired and lost by using the oaths as means in military conflict. The following article discusses the role of oaths in keeping and conquering territories in the early modern Scandinavian countries, with a special focus on Sweden and to some degree Sweden’s constant enemy during this period, Denmark-Norway. It also studies the same oaths from the people’s point of view, and what happened after an oath was sworn and the war ended. By taking examples from areas under dispute, the article investigates how oaths could be used by both authorities and subjects in warfare and after in the early modern context.     

Denmark,Scandinavia and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions in the early Cold War

This article analyses the role of the Danish and Scandinavian labour movements in the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in 1950–1955. First, it is demonstrated that although the Scandinavians were critical towards the communist regimes in eastern Europe and supported the Marshall Plan, they only joined the ICFTU as a result of the British break-up of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). Next, the Scandinavians, on the one hand, allied with the British and other west Europeans and rejected the ‘negative’ anticommunism of the Americans, while, on the other hand, they supported the establishment of an intelligence network behind the Iron Curtain, gave financial aid to the campaign against communists in west European unions, and supported victims of the East German uprising in 1953. In short, the Scandinavians closely followed the British, remained critical towards the Americans, and challenged the Soviets.     

Catholic Mission and Conversion in Scandinavia

The relation between mission, religious conversion and identity construction is the subject of my paper. On a concrete level, I discuss the Catholic mission and conversions in Scandinavia from the middle of the 19th century to the present time. Up to the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), the Catholic Church strongly emphasised its claim to be the only true church, and as a consequence, all non-Catholic regions were regarded as missionary areas. Most of the priests and sisters working in Scandinavia were foreigners, whereas converts from Protestantism dominated the parishes. I pay special attention to the question of national and religious identity and the changing discourses of Catholic conversion, reflected in conversion narratives.     

Ionospheric modification experiments in northern Scandinavia

The heating facility at Ramfjordmoen near Tromsø, Norway, is briefly described, and a survey is given of the experiments performed with this facility until now. These experiments comprise D-region modification, polar electrojet modulation at VLF, ELF and ULF, HF absorption and backscatter due to short-scale field-aligned irregularities, stimulated radio wave emission of the modified ionospheric plasma, short-time scale HF absorption due to the parametric decay instability, airglow modification, excitation of large-scale irregularities, and F-region cross modulation.     

60年代初工业支援农业的历史考察

在三年困难时期(1959—1961),由于政策上"左"的失误以及严重自然灾害的破坏,我国农业生产遭遇严重挫折,粮食产量连年大幅减少,给人民生活带来严重影响。为了促进农业生产的恢复,国家提出各行各业支援农业。其中,工业对农业的支援是其中一个重要组成部分。工业支援农业的内容主要有:压缩工业规模,增加生产农机、农具、化肥等。通过工业支援农业,农业生产得到一定程度的恢复。     

Research on the history of the third world in Scandinavia

The aim of this paper is to challenge some of the established views on monetary and economic aspects of medieval Norwegian history. This challenge is not only based on a different understanding of the evidence, but also on new interpretations of documentary and numismatic evidence. Contrary to what has been the general understanding I argue that money was available, and it was, in longer periods of time, available within a framework of a well organized monetary system with large coinages. In the second half of the 12th century, coins became distributed and used among a larger group of people in rural areas than ever before. In market places and towns, money economy was emerging in the 11th and 12th, and probably seen partly in effect in the 13th and 14th century. If we accept the evidence for coinage and the use of money as being widely distributed, or even accept it partly, it opens up a range of new perspectives to use as starting points for understanding medieval monetary and economic history in Norway.     

Diet of aurochs and early cattle in southern Scandinavia: evidence from 15N and 13C stable isotopes

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from ¹⁴C dated bones of early Atlantic aurochs (Bos primigenius Bojanus) and late Atlantic first domestic cattle (Bos taurus Linnaeus) in eastern Denmark and southern Sweden are significantly different and provide information on the origin and feeding strategies of the two species.Radiocarbon dates generally divide the bone material of aurochs and domestic cattle in three groups: aurochs older than 4000 cal yr BP, an older group of domestic cattle around 4000 cal yr BP, and a younger, less well-defined group of domestic cattle starting at around 3500 cal yr BP. The older domestic cattle are represented mainly by fragmentary bones left over from meals, and deposited in lakes at the vicinity of the settlement areas. Bones of the younger domestic cattle group occur both as settlement debris and as single articulated skeletons in bogs, commonly in association with different types of clay pots. The latter type of finds suggests that sacrifice of domestic cattle began at this time. The dating of the early domestic cattle further indicates that they were contemporaneous with or slightly younger than the elm decline, which occurred shortly after 4000 cal yr BC on the Danish island of Sjælland. Our results indicate a sudden rapid introduction of domestic cattle into Denmark, heralding the introduction of agriculture and there is no evidence for leaf foddering or domestication of aurochs. A combination of several natural events may have created the necessary open land, providing the grazing areas for the imported cattle.     

The Mesolithic of Southern Scandinavia

The Mesolithic of Southern Scandinavia, with comprises Denmark and Southern Sweden, has been an attractive area for research for several reasons, including the good preservation conditions at many sites. Most of the work has been concentrated on the southwestern part of Southern Scandinavia, but results from more recent investigations mean that other areas can also be analyzed. New finds in the last few years have given us a greater understanding of the Late Paleolithic settlement and of its relation of the Mesolithic. For the Early Mesolithic (10,000–8000 B.P.), interest has focused primarily on the small inland bog sites in the southern part of the area, where the coast has since been submerged. Farther north, where the land has been uplifted, evidence of coastal settlement has been documented. The Late Mesolithic (8000–6000 B.P.) is known chiefly on the basis of its large coastal settlements. In this period, there is also a larger and more varied collection of finds, which makes it possible to discern clear regional differences. There has also been considerable research on the transition from Mesolithic to Neolithic.     

Japanese Intelligence Operations in Scandinavia during World War II

Japanese intelligence operations in Scandinavia became active after the collapse of Poland in September 1939. Both the Japanese and the Finns exchanged information on Soviet military cryptography and tried to decrypt the enemy's codes. As a result of the cooperation, the Finns succeeded in decrypting Soviet naval code at the beginning of the Continuation War. Onodera Makoto, Japanese military attaché in Sweden, collected a lot of valuable information on the Allied Powers in the neutral country, though the General Staff in Tokyo disregarded them as unreliable.