In the early 20thcentury, homosexual acts were illegal in Sweden. During this time, “homosexuality” did not exist as a concept. Instead, the Swedish law referred to homosexual acts as “unnatural fornication”. In 1907 a man named Nils Santesson was arrested and sentenced for committing unnatural fornication with another man. The case was brought to the attention of the press, which for the first time began to use the term “homosexual” in headings and articles.    The purpose of this study has been to analyse how homosexuality was considered and defined in Sweden during the early 20thcentury, by studying the reporting of Nils Santesson’s court case and his self-image. The analysis is based on the categories: crime, illness and morality, and to achieve the purpose of the study, a qualitative text analysis has been implemented as a method. Also, the study was based on the theory of a masculinity hierarchy that subordinated homosexuals, and one version of queer theory.   The result shows that homosexuality was considered as an act rather than an integral part of someone’s character or identity. The society regarded homosexuality as obnoxious, indecent and unnatural, which was a direct consequence of the Swedish criminal law 18 § 10. Homosexuals were portrayed as sickening from three aspects: as a morbidly deviant phenomenon from heterosexuality, as contribution to mental illness and as carriers of sexually transmitted diseases. Morally, homosexuals were considered sexually licentious and constantly in search of seduction. Heterosexuality was upheld as a dominant system which placed homosexual men in a masculine subordination as homosexuality was regarded as a criminal act, immoral and were associated with disease.

Medicine and healing, constantly changing through time, have always been important aspects of life. The desire to avoid the inevitable state of death has driven mankind in all corners of the world to develop certain ways of prolonging life from a very early time. While it is recognized in the modern day that disease and infection are caused by microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria and parasites, the ancient Egyptians believed that gods, demons, and spirits played the main roles in causing such troubles. Therefore, it does not seem strange that, besides being devoted to the use of various natural drugs and materials in healing treatments, the ancient Egyptians also incorporated religion and magic into their treatment methods. Magic, religion, and medicine enjoyed an equal symbiosis all throughout the Pharaonic times, and one cannot easily separate one from the other. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is any kind of systematics in the way magic was used in ancient Egyptian healing treatments, specifically in the treatments involving incantations and spells. The comparison of the relevant treatments in relation to each other will be conducted both within and in between the individual papyri. The surviving ancient medical papyri are a handful of texts ranging approximately from 1800 BC to 300 AD and give us a precious idea of what the arts of medicine and healing could have looked like in the ancient Egyptian world. A chosen number of the ancient papyri, dated to the 18th dynasty, will be studied in order to better understand the concept of healing and, more significantly, the importance of the power in words. The main sources used are the ancient material of the medical papyri themselves, complemented by a knowledgebase built on the plentiful previous research on the subject available. Numerous studies on the subject of both medicine and magic in ancient Egypt, as well as on the surviving medical papyri have been conducted since the end of the 19th century. The collection of ‘Grundriss der medizin der alten Ägypter’, consisting of nine volumes, was published between the years of 1954 to 1973 and still stands as the most extensive study on the combined ancient Egyptian medical papyri. Several works on the different individual papyri, mainly the Edwin Smith papyrus and the Ebers papyrus, have also been published throughout the years. While there does not appear to have been any intentional systematics in the way the ancient Egyptians conducted their treatment methods containing incantations, there are similarities to be observed. It seems clear that rational medicine and magical incantations and rites, together with the fundamental element of religion, was the ideal combination in the treatment of any condition or complaint.

Sámi sacrificial sites were a central part of the Sámi pre-Christian belief. The Sámi saw the world from a holistic point of view where nature, humans and spirits were all connected. The interest for sacrificial sites have a long history and both older research and some more recent studies are available with new analysis methods. There are still unresolved questions regarding sacrificial sites such as those concerning how long the sacrificial sites have been used and what kind of continuity can be seen in the sacrificial practises. The aim of this paper is to analyse purpose, timespan and continuity of the sacrificial sites by combining a study of archaeological and historic material. The study concerns sacrificial sites that were separated from the living area and analyses the material from the two sacrificial sites, Unna Saiva and Viddjavárri. The study shows that the main purpose of the sacrifice was to gain wellbeing and good fortune in your everyday life as well as to maintain a good relationship with the nature and sprits. The overall timespan of the sacrificial practice was from the 6th and 8thcentury to 19thand 20thcentury with some traces to older and more recent dates. The continuity in the sacrificial practises can mainly be seen through the continuous purpose of the sacrifice and the continuity in selecting what parts of the animal to sacrifice.

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Osteoarthritis is one of the most common general diseases in modern society Sweden. It is also one of the most common diseases traced within archaeological human remains. The aetiology of osteoarthritis has been widely debated within the field of medicine and paleopathology. The initial claim that the degenerative disease is caused by activity and ageing has been questioned and factors such as environment, diet and genetic markers has been brought up and to some extent studied. Even though osteoarthritis being one of the most common diseases recognized among archaeological human remains, it has during recent years often been neglected within the field and referred to mostly in different palaeopathological atlases. By studying human remains from the medieval churchyard of St: Hans in Visby, Gotland, the notion of osteoarthritis as a general disease in the past is discussed in the following study. The concept of a medieval “general public” is examined by looking at social strata through grave placement on the studied graveyard.

During the excavation of the Warriors Hall in the viking town Birka fragments of a pointed shield boss were found. Through conservation and reconstruction it is examined in an attempt to categorize it. Its unusual characteristics sparks questions about its supposed type R565 and whether R565 is applicable due to its broad criteria which is done through an empirical study of European shield bosses, their diffusion and influences. This essay explores the possibilities of Rygh's type 565 suddenly appearing in the mid 900s as a change in the warrior’s equipment, fighting technique and influence following the raiding and Scandinavian colonization of Ireland and the British Isles.

An analysis of 6 ceramic shards from the Viking Age town Birka was performed by use of Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry. A new interpretation of a previously analyzed material, was performed by analyzing the raw data from 18 ceramic shards. The total of 26 ceramic shards will together form a material base that is used to study the vascular use in an urban environment from the Viking Age. The result of the analysis is used to compare five different parts of Birka with each other, in order to investigate whether there are differences or similarities in pottery use. The results show that residues of animals are most common in all premises. It is also possible to note that fish have been cooked both in the Garnison area and at Stadsvallen.

The present study examines the function and religious symbolism of water in the Isis sanctuaries in Hellenistic Greece. This is achieved through a survey of all the Isis sanctuaries in Greece dating to the Hellenistic period and the water installations. This study also examined how water was provisioned to the sanctuaries and how Egypt, particularly the Nile was, perceived by the Greeks. In addition, to what degree the cult of Isis was the result of Egyptomania that swept across Greece has been studied. The result shows that water provision through rainwater carried a religious meaning rather than the water installations design or location. This result is based on a Greek awareness of the meaning of the Nile within ancient Egyptian religion. The Greeks adapted their observations on what was Egyptian into their own Isis cult and for this reason the cult was an expression of Egyptomania.

Det övergripande syftet med föreliggande studie är att bidra med empirisk data till ettområde som förefaller sakna sådan: lärarnas syn på kunskap i sin yrkesutövning. Ytterligareett syfte är att nyansera den skoldebatt som förts kring reformerna 2011. Metoden somanvänds är kvalitativ och studien består av öppna intervjuer med fem lärare.Kunskapsanspråket är subjektivt och tolkande i syfte att utveckla förståelse för lärarnasämnesdidaktiska val. Frågeställningarna som diskuteras är vilka förmågor och kunskapersom lärarna anser är viktigast att utveckla inom ämnet samt hur dessa bedöms, hurämnesdidaktiken ser ut under planering och lektioner och slutligen vilka ämnesdidaktiskaambitioner som kan utläsas ur intervjuerna.Studien finner att den ämnesdidaktik som beskrivs av lärarna inte faller in i den tydligapolarisering som kan utläsas av skoldebatten. Undervisningen består varken av“faktaspäckad förmedlingspedagogik” eller “postmodernistisk kulturrelativism”. Det ärfakta som är den centrala kunskapsdimensionen, men fokus ligger på att förstå och användafakta, inte att minnas och återge. Undervisningen följer ämnesplanen på varierande sätt;kurserna kan anta en ytlig allmänbildande eller djupare tematisk karaktär, men studienfinner inte några klara gränser i didaktiken, exempelvis mellan tematisk och kronologiskstruktur. Studien finner att lärarna undervisar om och i historia, men att det inte läggs fokuspå att lära sig av historia. Studien avslutas med att behandla lärarnas ambitioner och föreslåratt en gemensam begreppsapparat samt ett forum för att diskutera ämnesdidaktiska frågoretableras. / <p>Betygsdatum 2019-01-18</p>