Aryan Idols: Indo-European Mythology as Ideology and Science

by Stefan Arvidsson, Stefan Arvidsson

Critically examining the discourse of Indo-European scholarship over the past two hundred years, Aryan Idols demonstrates how the interconnected concepts of “Indo-European” and “Aryan” as ethnic categories have been shaped by, and used for, various ideologies.
Stefan Arvidsson traces the evolution of the Aryan idea through the nineteenth century—from its roots in Bible-based classifications and William Jones’s discovery of commonalities among Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek to its use by scholars in fields such as archaeology, anthropology, folklore, comparative religion, and history. Along the way, Arvidsson maps out the changing ways in which Aryans were imagined and relates such shifts to social, historical, and political processes. Considering the developments of the twentieth century, Arvidsson focuses on the adoption of Indo-European scholarship (or pseudoscholarship) by the Nazis and by Fascist Catholics.

A wide-ranging discussion of the intellectual history of the past two centuries,  Aryan Idols links the pervasive idea of the Indo-European people to major scientific, philosophical, and political developments of the times, while raising important questions about the nature of scholarship as well.

Genres: Mythology, Race, History, Religion, Nonfiction, History Of Science

320 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2006

Reviews

[Mahmoud Awad]

If "The Cult of Health and Beauty in Germany" and Goodrich-Clarke's relevant writing introduces this subject to the reader, "Aryan Idols" ought to be the last book about 19-20th century Aryan mania you will ever need. The subject is now exhausted.

[Jacob Senholt]

A fairly thorough overview of 'Indo-European' research from William Jones and James Frazer, via the Völkish and Nazi era (Ahnenerbe, Männerbünde research by Otto Höffler etc.), to post-war positions such as that of George Dumézil. As such it is unique and also intriguing reading. My only objection to the authors presentation is that there are some deconstructivist and modernist tendencies (i.e. 'is there anything that can factually be called the 'Indo-Europeans?') which I personally do not subscribe to, but they do not overshadow the rest of the otherwise good overview.

[Fernando]

Book is dense and dry and so professionally researched on the Arian myth that I felt nausea. It starts with its biblical semantic origins, going on fables then passing thorough the hands of racists anthropologists and finishing as Nazi's ideology: "extermination of the others".

[Franz]

This was a really interesting read and the author presents a well-constructed argument, but I disagree with some of his conclusions at a fundamental level.