Embodied colonialism: the cultural meaning of silver in a Swedish colonial context in the 17th century
Abstract
Silver had an emblematic position in the 17th-century Atlantic world. After the Spanish had discovered silver ores in America, the metal’s meaning became symbolic of colonial dominion, of great wealth and providential fortune. Sweden too initiated a colonial project to obtain silver in the mountainous regions of Lapland. Silver-works were founded in order to refine the metal, and the industry borrowed many ideas from the American plantation system as mediated through Dutch entrepreneurs. This process led to the increased importance of silver, seen in royal dress and furniture amongst other products associated with the colonial world.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The colonial town that the Swedish Crown planned to found in Arjeplog would have been built on a geometrically regular grid plan and divided between Sámi and Swedish inhabitants.
“Likewise, the colonial town that the Swedish Crown planned to found in Arjeplog would have been built on a geometrically regular grid plan and divided between Sámi and Swedish inhabitants (Nordin 2012, 150-59).”
From Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden (2018) · cites this paper as Nordin 2012, 150-59
Classicizing tendencies in cultural landscapes are in evidence in Lapland/Sápmi from early on, for instance in the spatial organization of the town planned in Arjeplog and in the silver and iron works established after the discovery of silver ore in Nasafjäll.
“Classicizing tendencies in cultural landscapes are in evidence also in Lapland/Sápmi from early on in, for instance, the spatial organization of the town that the Swedish Crown planned to found in Arjeplog and in the silver and iron works established following the discovery of silver ore in Nasafjäll”
From Alternative Pasts and Colonial Engagements in the North: The Materiality and Meanings of the Pajala ‘Runestone’ (Vinsavaara Stone), Northern Sweden (2018) · cites this paper as Nordin 2012
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Globalization and the spread of capitalism: material resonances
Horning, A., & Schweickart, E. (2016) · Post-Medieval Archaeology · doi:10.1080/00794236.2016.1169490 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Herva, V.-P., Ikäheimo, J., Enbuske, M., & Okkonen, J. (2018) · Cambridge Archaeological Journal · doi:10.1017/s0959774318000197 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“Classicizing tendencies in cultural landscapes are in evidence also in Lapland/Sápmi from early on in, for instance, the spatial organization of the town that the Swedish Crown planned to found in Arjeplog and in the silver and ironworks established following the discovery of silver ore in Nasafjäll (Nordin 2012, 150–…”
BackgroundInfluential
- Authors
- Nordin, J. M.
- Affiliations
- National Historical Museums (SE)
- Corresponding author
- Nordin, Jonas M
- ORCID
- Nordin, Jonas M
- Venue
- Post-Medieval Archaeology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2012-06
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 143-165
- ISSN
- 0079-4236 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-8137
- OpenAlex
- W2006546299
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 3
- FWCI
- 10.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Post-Medieval Archaeology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Colonialism, slavery, and trade
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Historical and Archaeological Studies
- Keywords
- silver, Swedish colonialism, silver refining, royal costume, royal furniture, Dutch entrepreneurs, plantation system, Atlantic world, 17th century, Swedish Empire
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
