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A Detailed Look at Stefan Arvidsson’s Aryan Idols
Carlson, Maria
Carlson, Maria
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Abstract
Aryan Idols, Stefan Arvidsson’s impressive historiography of the “Indo-European discourse,” courageously takes on the task of de-mythologizing that discourse and looking anew at its past influences and its present (and future) implications. “Myth transforms history into fate,” he writes; “historiography reveals -- in the best case -- fate as the result of decisions made” (322). Arvidsson meticulously traces the “decisions made” from the discovery of the Indo-European language family by Sir William “Oriental” Jones in 1786 to the ideological and academic turf wars of today. He speculates provocatively about the underlying motives and long-term consequences of the decisions that Indo-European scholars have made over the course of 200 years. His project is ambitious, timely, and thought-provoking. It also offers a much-needed reminder of the perils posed when science gets into bed with ideology.
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2008-02-29T20:12:51Z
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Stefan Arvidsson, Aryan Idols (2006), Indo-European, Aryanism