Alain de Benoist

The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland

24:24 min
Anthropology, History
164 pages, 1997

Journey back millennia into the complex world of Indo-European origins. Before archaeogenetics revolutionized the field, historians and researchers relied solely on linguistics and archaeology to navigate the monstrous challenge of reconstructing the Indo-European genesis story. Benoist's work explores the theories and methods that once dominated the discipline, showcasing the creative, multi-disciplinary approaches scholars took to incrementally characterize the mystery of the Proto-Indo-European homeland. From the Anatolian and Kurgan hypotheses to the possibility of a Mesolithic or Paleolithic origin, this short offers a comprehensive overview of the various ideas and challenges involved in piecing together this ancient puzzle. Readers will gain a deeper appreciation for the evolution of thought surrounding Indo-European origins and the enduring quest to understand the linguistic and cultural heritage that has influenced so much of the modern world.

Alain de Benoist

Alain de Benoist is a French philosopher, political theorist, and a principal figure in the European New Right movement. He is known for his critiques of liberalism, egalitarianism, and what he perceives as the homogenizing effects of globalization on traditional cultures and identities. De Benoist has written extensively on topics such as political philosophy, cultural identity, paganism, and the rejection of what he sees as the universalizing tendencies of Western modernity.

Chapters

The discovery of the Indo-European language family in the 19th century transformed our understanding of linguistic history, revealing the common ancestor and shared cultural heritage of diverse modern languages through comparative analysis.
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Cover of The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland