Following essay examines the social and cultural patterns of southern rural Sweden between the years 1838-1845. The study is based on records from trials held by the district court of the district Norra Möre, which provides an insight to the everyday life in rural local community. Emphasis is put on exclusion and inclusion: the basis for community, codes for inclusion and exclusion, meaningful attributes, social and cultural capital etc. Questions concerning gender are raised as well as intents to discover whether modern ideas contrast early-modern, especially considering the process of individualization.   Results show that concepts of confidence and trust were extremely valuable and possessed significant meanings.  Confidence, which established itself on virtuous and honest life, created the framework for most aspects of social society: for example credibility inside and outside of court, maintenance of friendship and company, capacity of upholding a working life. Forfeit of trust, through extensive dissolute, mischievous and ill-considered way of life meant exclusion from the community and great vulnerability. Convicted criminals and alcoholics were particularly people at risk in encountering these problems due to their bad reputation and public stigma.   The sources reveal little of variations between men and women. It appears as if the confidence and trust derived from the same factors: the virtuous and honest life. Unfortunately it is unsaid whether virtuousness had different meaning to men and women. Regarding the process of individualization the sources present different results: a few indicating examples exist, yet a distinct connection between individuals and collectives is tangible.

Denna undersökning behandlar den småländska predikosjukan, vilken uppkom och spreds bland den småländska allmogen år 1841-1843. Av de uppskattningsvis flera hundra fall som behandlades av läkarkåren bestod den övervägande majoriteten av kvinnor. Undersökningen är medicinhistorisk och syftar till att undersöka hur den religiösa epidemin beskrevs, förstods och 2 tolkades som en sjukdom under 1840-talet. Således utgörs undersökningens källmaterial av läkarkårens utsagor, genom bl.a. provinsialläkarrapporter och skrifter. Undersökningen har utförts med ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv i enlighet med medicinhistorikern Roy Porters teorier, och består av en kontextnära och tematiskt orienterad närläsning. Inom den tidigare forskningen har predikosjukan främst undersökts som en av 1800-talets väckelserörelser, där allmogens agerande förstås som en upprorshandling mot en ”överhet” bestående av myndigheter, prästerskap och läkarkår såväl som det borgerliga skiktet. Benämningen av fenomenet som en sjukdom, förstås i tidigare forskning endast som ett bildligt uttryck och som en del av en medveten strategi för att slå ned väckelserörelsen. Undersökningen visar att läkarkåren förstod predikosjukan just som en sjukdom och behandlade den därefter. Sjukdomsdefinition och behandlingsmetoder gjordes i enlighet med rådande medicinvetenskapliga grundantaganden. Diskursen om den småländska predikosjukan aktualiserade en rad olika för tidsperioden rådande föreställningar om kropp, själ, sjuklighet, kön och religion. Inom den medicinska förståelsen av predikosjukan inbegrep dessa föreställningar ständigt i varandra, och innebar en komplicerad sjukdomsbild vilken i hög utsträckning var både kulturellt och tidsligt betingad. / This study centers around ‘the preaching disease’ (predikosjuka), an illness which arose and spread among the peasantry in the Swedish province Småland between 1841-1843. Out of the estimated hundreds of cases treated by the medical profession, the vast majority consisted of women. The disease was quickly described as epidemic, and had strong religious connotations. The purpose of the study is to examine how this religious epidemic was described, understood and interpreted as a disease in the 1840’s. Thus, the source material consists of the accounts of the medical professionals, mainly through provincial medical reports and medical publications. The study has been carried out with a social constructivist perspective in accordance with the theories of medical historian Roy Porter, and consists of a contextual and thematically oriented close reading. In previous research, ‘predikosjukan’ has mainly been examined as one of the 19th century Christian revival movements. Here, the activities of the peasantry are understood as a rebellious act against a vaguely defined ‘power’ consisting of authorities, clergy and doctors as well as the bourgeois class. Previous research has understood the phenomenon as only a sickness by the name, as a figurative expression and as part of a conscious strategy to suppress the revival movement. This study shows that the doctors who was confronted with ‘predikosjuka’ during the 1840’s understood the phenomenon as a disease, and chose to treat it accordingly. The doctors’ definitions and medical methods were made in accordance with prevailing and fundamental medical notions of the time. The discourse about ‘predikosjuka’ encapsulated a number of different notions about body, soul, morbidity, gender and religion, all deeply entrenched in the 1840’s. Within the medical understanding of the disease, these notions constantly intertwined, which made for a complicated clinical picture, which to a large extent was both culturally and temporally conditioned.

Denna uppsats undersöker Ferdinand Tollins kritik mot Karl XIV Johan mellan 1840-1844. Samhällskritikern Tollin publicerade karikatyrer och artiklar som kritiserade den svenska kungamakten. Uppsatsen fokuserar därmed på Tollins kritik utifrån en analys av tre karikatyrer föreställande Karl XIV Johan, vilka kompletteras med läsning av de liberala tidningarna Nyaste Freja och Den konstitutionelle, där Tollin var verksam skribent. Uppsatsen lyfter också samband mellan karikatyrens framväxt och den framväxande liberalismen i Sverige.