| Summary: | In this essay court cases from Öland in the period of 1635-1649 which were later subjected to the scrutiny of Göta hovrätt are examined. The point being to investigate differences in how crimes and criminals were treated in the local häradsrätt versus the regional hovrätt. The study is limited to cases found in the collection På häradsting by Lennart Landin. Furthermore, the results are compared to the theoretical model of the civilization process in early modern Sweden, as laid out by Johan Söderberg and Arne Jarrick, based on the earlier theory of Norbert Elias. The essay concludes that while the ingredients of the theoretical model can be seen in the material at hand, they are far too jumbled to be categorized simply as a matter of "the state" versus "the local." Instead, rather than the process of civilizing society stemming from above or below, the evidence seems to indicate that the above and below, at least within the boundaries of the legal system and legal practices in the given period, shared many of the civilizing traits with each other. Additionally, the essay concludes that the material and results of the study have applicability in the context of teaching history in the Swedish upper secondary school system. The conclusion is based upon the personal stories made available by the material being useful for building empathy for historical people, its potential for intersubject teaching with respect to language history and the historical process of change highlighted by the analysis.
|
|---|
