In early modern Sweden, if a man and his deceased wife's sister were found guilty of engaging in sexual intercourse they would be sentenced to death by beheading. Today the same relationship is not even illegal. Covering the period 16801940, this book analyses both incest crimes and applications for dispensation to marry, revealing the norms underpinning Swedish society's shifting attitudes to incestuous relations and comparing them with developments in other European countries. It demonstrates that, even though the debate on incest has been dominated by religious, moral and
in due course
medical notions, the values that actually determined the outcome of incest cases were frequently of quite a different character.
An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
By:
Bonnie Clementsson
Imprint: Lund University Press,Sweden
Country of Publication: Sweden
Dimensions:
Height: 216mm,
Width: 138mm,
Spine: 21mm
Weight: 549g
ISBN: 9789198469905
ISBN 10: 9198469908
Series: Lund University Press
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 25 November 2020
Audience:
General/trade
,
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
ELT Advanced
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction 1 Background and context 2 Incest: a religious crime, 1680–1750 3 Incest: a moral crime, 1750–1840 4 Incest: a crime of violence, 1840–1940 The phenomenon of incest in Sweden over 250 years: a summary discussion Index -- .
Bonnie Clementsson is a researcher at Lund University
