The Compared Body: Order in Human Diversity (16th–19th Centuries) (D03 [B01])

During the first funding period, research focused on practices of comparing that were used to describe and order the population of two early modern contact zones (Pondichéry in South India and Lapland in Sweden). The exploration of juridical sources showed that the different elements of comparison shifted increasingly from religious to ethnic and bodily attributions during the 18th century. Therefore, the second funding period is focusing on the role of the body within practices of comparing. It will use depictions of the population of the Ottoman Empire and the Jewish population of Central Europe as case studies.

DFG Programme Collaborative Research Centres

Subproject of SFB 1288:  Practices of comparisons: Ordering and changing the world

Applicant Institution Universität Bielefeld

Project Heads Professorin Dr. Christina Brauner, until 12/2020; Professorin Dr. Antje Flüchter