In this piece, I want to look at a historic research program of physical anthropology and especially its field studies in so-­ called “racial hygiene” in the Nordic region that I believe cast a long shadow over the research institutions in this part of the world. More precisely, I want to think about the epistemic and moral wrongs involved in these racial hygiene studies, not least for drawing the right morals going forward. I will argue that the central wrong came about because scientists and scientific institutions neglected central duties that were part of the epistemic authority invested in them. This indirectly led them to become institutions of cultural domination where local self-knowledge and ways of knowing were crowded out by those of scientific institutions and their practice. I argue that this becomes possible through a compelling case for cultural reactivity that particularly targeted (and targets) indigenous groups of Sámi. Although this reactivity was unintentional, I argue that it instantiates a case of culpable ignorance on the part of the scientists that indirectly led them to transgress certain moral norms to become agents of cultural domination.

Coffee, tea, cake and fruit will be served before the colloquium @ 2 pm