A Decolonial View

Is a debate in Sweden that originates from the tradition of racial biology research conducted in Uppsala in the early 20th century. This ‘research’ has resulted in preserving Sámi remains, documentation, and information about Sámi in archives and universities. The debate centers on whether Sámi associations demand that objects and remains be returned to their original locations, while on the other hand, universities want to preserve them for research.

Carolina Rediviva is the university library in Uppsala and restores material from the Institute of Racial Biology that was founded in 1921 by the Swedish parliament. If you know how to request this material is available for the broader public. The archive includes letters, reports, diaries, and different accounts from the institute and its board, publications from the institute, and more. It also includes an archive of about 12,000 photographs taken by the racial biologist Herman Lundborg between 1916 and 1935. Lundborg wrote The racial characters of the Swedish Nation published in 1926. 

Image 1: Cover and archive box

Source: Lundborg, Herman, 1926, The racial characters of the Swedish Nation.

This ‘scientific’ structure includes images of people. Lundborg starts by describing ‘the Nordic type’, but not by using photographs. The people exhibited in this category are famous and known for their beauty, knowledge, and greatness. The ‘non-Nordic types’ are portrayed differently first it is photographs of contemporary people, and secondly, they are elderly and badly worn people that represent this category—an intention to show a clear hierarchy. 

Image 2: ‘Nordic Types’

Source: Lundborg, Herman, 1926, The racial characters of the Swedish Nation.

Although this is horrible enough, there are also pictures of naked Sámi preserved at Carolina Rediviva from the department. These photographs show real humans but without names, that everyone can access through a form on the university website. This certainly raises the question of whether this material should be available to the public. Such material is important to preserve for research and therefore needs to be available. Especially in a country like Sweden which has had a tradition of neglecting Swedish colonialism in the writing of history and is therefore needed to provide a truthful story. Uppsala University also argues that the material must be available because the Institute of Racial Biology was a government agency, which means that administrative documents must be public and governed by Swedish law Arkivlagen (1990:782). From the perspective of the Sámi population, relatives live with the knowledge that there may be photographs, and other documentation of their elderly relatives available to the public. 

Bibliography 

Fur, Gunlög and Hennessey, John L., 2020, ”Svensk kolonialism, Sverige och kolonialism eller svenskar och kolonialism?” Historisk tidskrift 140:3. 

Gross Hult, Märtha, ” Samer kräver tillbaka kvarlevor av universitetet”, SVT Nyheter,  https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/uppsala/samer-kraver-tillbaka-kvarlevor-av-universitetet (2024-02-16)

Lundborg, Herman, 1926, The racial characters of the Swedish Nation.Uppsala universitet, 2022. “Rasbiologiska institutets arkiv”: https://www.ub.uu.se/hitta-i-vara-samlingar/verk-och-samlingar-i-urval/rasbiologiska-institutet/ (2024-02-16)