Den 1 januari 1922 öppnade det Statliga rasbiologiska institutet i Uppsala. Institutet var det första av sitt slag i världen, men kom att bli en mellanhand för den rasbiologiska gemenskapen och fler institut växte fram runt om i världen. Sverige hade sedan Carl von Linnés tid legat i framkant när det gällde att placera in djur, växter och människor i olika raser. Efter Linné följde en rad svenska forskare som också ansågs ligga i framkant i sin rasbiologiska forskning. Men ingen fick sådant internationellt genomslag i sin forskning som Herman Lundborg som ansågs vara den världsledande rasbiologen. Eftersom Herman Lundborg var en världsledande rasbiolog och aktiv inom lobbyverksamheten för att få till ett rasbiologiskt institut, valdes han till den första chefen för Statens institut för rasbiologi. / On January 1, 1922, the Swedish Institute of Racial Biology opened in Uppsala. The institute was the first of its kind in the world but came to be an intermediary for the racial biology community and more institutions emerged around the world. Since the time of Carl von Linnaeus, Sweden had been at the forefront of placing animals, plants and people in different races. After Linnaeus, several Swedish researchers followed, who were also considered to be at the forefront of their racial biology research. But nobody got such an international impact in their research as Herman Lundborg, who was considered the world-leading racial biologist. Therefore, it was natural that he should become the institute's first manager.

A doença de Unverricht-Lundborg (DUL) é considerada uma doença rara, autossômica recessiva, sendo também denominada de Epilepsia Mioclônica Progressiva do tipo1 (emp1), causada por mutações no gene codificador (CSTB) da proteína cistatina B. A cistatina B é uma proteína essencial para a regulação dos processos fisiológicos do ser humano, e sua expressão reduzida parece ser a causa primária da EMP1. A doença em geral se inicia entre os seis e dezesseis anos, manifestando-se tanto como crises mioclônicas como por crises tônicoclônicas generalizadas. Trata-se de uma doença grave e limitante, cujo diagnóstico preciso é extremamente importante para as condutas apropriadas, incluindo aconselhamento genético. Este estudo tem como objetivo o estudo molecular e caracterização da expansão instável de repetição dodecamérica (CCCCGCCCCGCG) da região promotora 5\' não traduzida do gene CSTB entre pacientes com suspeita de EMP1 na população brasileira. No presente estudo, selecionamos 64 pacientes entre eles 54 casos índices do Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (HCFMRP-USP) com suspeita de EMP1. Os restantes 10 casos eram parentes dos casos índices. Os 54 pacientes foram seguidos no setor de Epilepsia com diagnostico clinico e eletrofisiológico de EMP1, e foram encaminhados para o setor de Neurogenética para diagnostico molecular. Destes 54 casos índices, apenas 5 foram diagnosticados através da biologia molecular com expansão dodecamera acima de 30 repetições, sugestivo de DUL. Espera-se, com este estudo, identificar a população de pacientes com EPM1 que tenham mutação no gene CSTB e com os resultados de este projeto possibilitar assim um melhor entendimento da etiopatogenia e proporcionar um diagnóstico preciso dos casos de DUL. / Unverricht-Lundborg disease (ULD) is considered a rare autosomal recessive disease, also known as Progressive Myoclonic Epilepsy Type 1 (EMP1), caused by mutations in the CSTB gene, which provides instructions for making a protein called Cystatin B. Such protein is essential for regulating a person\'s physiological processes, and its reduced expression seems to be the first cause of EMP1. Affected individuals usually begin showing signs and symptoms of the disorder between the ages of 6 and 16, which manifests both as myoclonus or as generalized tonic-clonic crises. It is a grave and limiting condition whose precise diagnosis is extremely important for appropriate conducts, including genetic counseling. This study has as a goal the molecular evaluation and characterization of the unstable expansion of the decametric repetition (CCCCGCCCCGCG) from the non-translated CSTB\'s 5\' gene promoter region among Brazilian patients with suspected EMP1. In this study, 64 patients were selected, among them 54 key figures from Hospital das Clínicas of Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (HCFMRP-USP) with suspected EMP1. The other 10 figures were related to the key figures. The 54 patients were followed in the Epilepsy sector with EMP1 clinical and electrophysiological diagnostics and were forwarded to the neurogenetics sector for a molecular diagnostic. From such 54 key figures, only 5 were diagnosed through molecular biology with decametric expansion above 30 repetitions, suggestive of ULD. This study is aimed to identify the EPM1 patients with CSTB genetic mutation and hopefully the results of this identification will enable a better understanding of the etiopathogeny and provide with a exact diagnosis of ULD cases.

This dissertation examines two daily newspapers’ representations of eugenics from the incipient racial biological investigation 1919 until 1958, and the State Institute for Racial Biology is reorganized. The dissertation also aims to examine whether there are any distinct turning points where the newspapers distance themselves from the ideas and the research of eugenics. The analysis material is based on newspaper articles from two national dailies, i.e., Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter. The theoretical framework and method are based on Fairclough’s discourse theory and analysis to observe and elucidate how eugenics is represented over a longer period of time. The conclusion of the dissertation is that the newspapers continuously designate racial biology as something unique and being the salvation from degeneration until Herman Lundborg resigns as head of the institute. After Gunnar Dahlberg took over the managerial position the activities at the Institute changed course and the research undertaken there became engaged in medical genetics and social medicine instead of racial biology. The main argument for the establishment of the institute was that it would provide protection for the Swedish race. The norms and attitudes were more about the science and somewhat about nationalism, while what we now call racism did not seem to be included at all. The discourses about racial biology that have arisen have been maintained in society through the newspapers, as the recipients have been continuously fed with praiseworthy and warning words. This fits with Foucault’s reasoning and theory which he clarifies the fact that discourses are conditioned by how society discusses about something that over time has been an influence on how people are classified or treated by the newspapers that maintains it.

Denna uppsats behandlar ämnet Ingemar Hedenius och hans syn på kristendomen och religion. Dessa två frågeställningar är vad uppsatsen är byggd på. Vilken filosofisk kritik har riktats mot Hedenius behandling av gudsbegreppet? Hur ska denna kritik mot Hedenius värderas? Vilken roll spelar retorik i Hedenius argumentering? Jag har besvarat dessa frågor med hjälp ifrån relevant litteratur, videoklipp samt sökt information på nätet. Hedenius valde på ett provokativt vis skriva en bok om tro och vetande, dels för att filosofi intresserade honom men också som revolt mot sina föräldrars kristna tro. Han möttes av mycket kritik för sin bok men stod upp för sina åsikter och argumenterade gärna för dessa. Slutsatsen jag har kommit fram till genom detta arbete är att Hedenius bakgrund spelar en ganska stor roll till varför han valde att börja med religionskritik samt att hans sätt att framföra kritiken var speciell och kontroversiell för hans tid.

No description available.

Stina Aronson (1892–1956) is a celebrated Swedish modernist who published twenty-five works during the first part of the 20th century. Her writings are considered to be progressive and ethical due to extensive feminist and eco-critical research. Aronson’s novel Hitom himlen(This Side of Heaven, 1946) captures the life in upper Northern Sweden, in the Torne Valley, during the beginning of 20th century. In this thesis, I examine the narrative by placing it in relation to the racial hierarchies permeating society during the initial decades of the 20th century. The Finnish-speaking minority living in the Torne Valley came to be considered racially different from the national majority, due to national and international race science – today understood as scientific racism– and anthropology. My analysis shows how the characters are racialized using such ideas as the Mongolian theory and the cephalic index. It is further made evident that the novel captures a perception claiming the so-called ‘Finns’ were of an inferior race. And further, the belief that a mixture of Swedish, Finnish and Sami blood had weakened the group genetically. The mixture of races was defined as a serious threat to the Swedish population, who was regarded as the whitest and purest population on earth. Aronson captures this belief of a future extinction by depicting the death and illness of the youngest generation in the novel. Furthermore, the main character, Emma Niskanpää, believes that she meets God during the church service at the yearly holiday Marie bebådelsedag. I argue though, that the man she encounters is a fictitious Herman Lundborg (1868–1943), the most prominent of the Swedish race biologists, who, in reality, repeatedly performed skull measurement during this celebration. Directly following on this encounter, the ”deaf-and-dumb” daughter of the family Renström is buried along with several others and Emma Niskanpää’s son falls ill with tuberculosis. In this way, the novel captures the racial surveys carried out on minority groups– surveys which are today considered a national trauma. In This Side of Heaven, Stina Aronson turns into literature a specific form of racism and a forgotten part of Swedish history as a pioneering country in the formulation of race hierarchies.

Participation as Pedagogy – Imagined Race and the Exhibit of Swedish Peoples-Types. This essay will analyse and give a deeper picture of the ”The Exhibit of Swedish People-Types” by focusing on the pedagogical ideals that formed the exhibit as an participatory media. The exhibit was led by the famous race-biologist Herman Lundborg and toured Sweden in 1919 displaying the racial constitution of the Swedish population using material gathered by the public itself. The exhibit has been described as an important tool in popularising eugenics in Swedish society during the early 20th century with the ambition of gaining funds to create the first race-biological institute and to influence policy-making. Nevertheless there has not been a single study which has focused solely on the exhibit and how the pedagogical ideals that permeated it affected the relation between the public and the media itself nor the political implications of this relation. I will show that the interactive participation enacted through the exhibit both defined a hierarchical relation between public and race-biological expertise, as well as it articulated a new “imagined community”, i.e., an “imagined race”. This participatory relation was not only key in creating the exhibit but also had implications on how the public should position itself and act in relation to society at large regarding eugenic matters. This gives me an opportunity to deepen our historical knowledge of the eugenics-movement and main-line racebiological networks in early 20 h century Swedish society. This essay also contribute to the history of participatory media and the popularisation of science.