The Role of the Church in Making a Neighboring Enemy a Loyal Citizen—An Example of Pseudo-Indigenization of Fellow Lutherans

The term indigenization is complex and multi-dimensional, immediately invokes a battery of questions concerning content and meaning. The same goes for pseudo-indigenization. In this paper, a process of pseudo-indigenization is at the center, and the definition used for this latter term is: ―when outsiders try to force the infusion of their culture into another culture.‖ 1 Naturally, this broad definition raises questions, for example concerning how one defines culture. However, it is not the purpose of this paper to discuss definitions, or to get into details pertaining to various general aspects of an indigenization or pseudo-indigenization process. Instead, a concrete historical example of a pseudo-indigenization process will be presented, with specific focus of the role of a Church, namely the Swedification (försvenskning) of the former eastern parts of Denmark, i.e. the provinces of Scania (Skåne), Halland and Blekinge, with a specific focus on Scania; how they were turned into a southern Swedish province, simply named Scania―a historic borderland situated on the peninsula of Scandinavia, south and southwest of today’s Sweden, but historically―before 1658―a part of Denmark. 2