The aim of this study is to investigate how four West African cultural practitioners living in Stockholm view the cultural sector in Sweden. How they reflect on themselves as cultural operators, and their opinions on other West Africans participation in the cultural life in Sweden is the main focus of this study. Interviews were carried out, which were analyzed within the theoretical framework of Bourdieu’s terms, “field” and “capital”. Through analyzing the interviews different barriers within the sector were identified. I have chosen to name them the inner and outer barriers. The outer barriers are the rules and formalities one have to adapt to, as well as the informal codes within the Swedish culture. The inner barrier is the blockade from within that accepts stereotypical portraits and not breaking repetitive habits such as sticking to national unions and gatherings. This tends to close one into certain groups and therefore have an excluding effect. However, the inner barrier can be a consequence of the outer. One could argue that society must work towards appealing not only to the majority, so that more minorities can relate to the cultural sector as a space of freedom and diversity.

In recent years, archaeogenetic studies have been widely discussed in popular media and they have raised many questions, especially regarding cultural identity and ethnicity. This thesis discusses reconstructions based on ancient human remains and how they are related to the current academic hegemony and political circumstances in Europe. People of Britain have reacted particularly strongly to the reconstruction of the Cheddar Man, exhibited in the Natural History Museum in London. Based on this and few other reconstructions of ancient individuals, the ethical issues behind human reconstructions are analyzed and how museums and popular media as the public spaces displaying these pieces of art should deal with such issues as cultural heritage, human origins, and identity. / Under de senaste åren har arkeogenetiska studier diskuterats allmänt i populära media och de har väckta väckts många frågor speciellt kring kulturell identitet och etnicitet. Denna studie diskuterar rekonstruktioner baserat på forntida mänskliga kvarlevor och hur de är relaterade till den nuvarande akademiska hegemonin och den politiska omständigheter i Europa. Människor i Storbritannien har reagerat särskilt starkt på rekonstruktionen av Cheddar-mannen, utställd i ”Natural History Museum” i London. Med utgångspunkt i denna och ytterligare några rekonstruktioner av forntida individer analyseras etiska frågor bakom mänskliga rekonstruktioner och hur museer och populära medier ska hanterar frågor om kulturarv, mänskligt ursprung och identitet.