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Article ID: CBB218856947

Globalizing the Savage: From Stadial Theory to a Theory of Luxury in Late-18th-Century Swedish Discussions of Africa (2019)

Hodacs, Hanna (Author)
Persson, Mathias (Author)

History of the Human Sciences
Volume: 32
Issue: 4
Pages: 100-114

DOI: 10.1177/0952695119836590

URI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0952695119836590

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Anthropology Globalization; internationalization 18th century Africa Sweden Wadström, Carl Bernhard Sparrman, Anders

This article examines the effects of globalization on changing notions of the ‘savage’. We compare discussions taking place in different contexts in the late 18th century concerning two Swedish scholars and travellers to Africa: Anders Sparrman (1748–1820), a naturalist and Linnaean disciple, and Carl Bernhard Wadström (1746–99), an engineer and economist. Both moved in Swedish Swedenborgian circles, and both became involved in the British abolitionist movement. Nevertheless, their images of African ‘Others’ diverged in crucial respects, reflecting differences in their ideological outlooks, institutional affiliations, and understandings of how the world was changing. More specifically, we argue that the perception of global change brought about by a new economic framework of production and consumption provides a key for reading and comparing Wadström’s and Sparrman’s texts. Comparing their divergent uses of ‘savagery’, the article also highlights the versatility of the savage as a tool for presenting distant parts of the world to a domestic audience.

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Article Bruce Buchan; Linda Andersson Burnett (2019) Knowing Savagery: Humanity in the Circuits of Colonial Knowledge. History of the Human Sciences (pp. 3-7). unapi

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