Rasdefinition i förändring : En kvalitativ textanalys av svenska uppslagsverks framställning av folk (ras) i Afrika, Asien och Orienten, under perioden 1845-2020

• Main Author: Andersson, Jesper
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Luleå tekniska universitet, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle 2020
• Subjects: encyclopedia; race; peoples; Africa; Asia; the Orient; postcolonialism; Loomba; Said; racial biology; orientalism; other; the Other; uppslagsverk; lexikon; uppslagsbok; encyklopedi; ras; folk; folkslag; Afrika; Asien; Orienten; postkolonialism; rasbiologi; Andra; de Andra; History; Historia
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-81953

The use of encyclopedias has since their entry in Sweden, played a central role in communicating and defining knowledge to society. This essay examines the representation of peoples (race) in Africa, Asia and the Orient in encyclopedias between 1845-2020. The essay aims to explain and show how several selected concepts have changed in the encyclopedias’ descriptions over time in Sweden. The results show that the encyclopedias were highly influenced by racial biology and scientific racism the further back in time the encyclopedias were issued. People from Africa, Asia and the Orient were described with external characteristics and at times associated with different psychic characteristics. Through the representation of appearance, at times presented as different and foreign, one can see a construction between “we” and “the others”. The encyclopedias also made descriptions of people with generalizing derogatory concepts that were imbued by racism and dogmatic views on the different. Descriptions of peoples appearance and character traits were something that gradually disappeared over time.