Nazi and eco-feminist prehistories

Ideology and empiricism in Indo-European archaeology

Bibliographic Data

ID23168251
AuthorsD W Anthony (0000-0001-9122-0313, corresponding author)
Year1996
Pages82-96
Publication date1996-01-26
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueNationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/cbo9780511558214.006
OpenAlexW2463112121
ISBN9780511558214
LanguageEN
Citations received8

This study presents a case of interpretive abuse. One unfortunate archaeological data set has been forced to yield two diametrically opposed interpretations in the service of two ideological movements, one heinous (the Nazis) and one innocent (eco-feminism). Oddly, both interpretations share the same theoretical and logical form; it is only a politically motivated reversal of the “good” and the “bad” that separates them. Neither interpretation can be empirically justified. Sadly, the archaeological and linguistic matter lying quietly at the root of this disagreement – the archaeological identity of the ancient speakers of Proto-Indo-European – offers unprecedented access to the ideals, beliefs, and symbolic structures of a truly remote prehistoric society. A robust body of linguistic research on Proto-Indo-European language, social organization, and comparative mythology presents to archaeologists what is probably the richest collection of knowledge of its kind anywhere in the world. But the history attached to the subject has prompted many scholars to avoid it out of suspicion, a situation which has bred ignorance and indifference within most of the archaeological community.

Archaeology · Empiricism · Epistemology · German · Ideology · Nazism · Political science · Politics · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Law · Philosophy