Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Minorities
(4,103 words)

1. Introduction

Cultural “sense-worlds” lend legitimacy to institutional systems. They thus contribute to the definition of the social realities of a majority society, from which variant realities of  minority societies are excluded (Alterity). Discourses on the supposed normality of a collective were also constructed in early modern Europe, by means of norms, cultural codes, and economic principles, with groups deviating from these stigmatized as abnormal. I…

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Hering Torres, Max Sebastián and Rothkegel, Martin, “Minorities”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 30 November 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_024118>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20200128



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