The existence of an Indo-European linguistic family, allowing for the fact that several languages widely dispersed across Eurasia share numerous traits, has been demonstrated for several centuries now. But the underlying factors for this shared heritage have been fiercely debated by linguists, historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists. The leading theory, of which countless variations exist, argues that this similarity is best explained by the existence, at one given point in time and space, of a common language and corresponding population. This ancient, prehistoric, population would then have diffused across Eurasia, eventually leading to the variation observed in historical and modern times.The Indo-Europeans: Archaeology, Language, Race, and the Search for the Origins of the West argues that despite its acceptance and use by most researchers from different disciplines, such a model is inherently flawed. This book describes how, beginning in the late eighteenth century, Europeans began a quest for a supposed original homeland, from which a small conquering people would one day spread out, bringing their language to Europe and parts of Asia (India, Iran, Afghanistan). This quest was often closely tied to ideological preoccupations and it was in its name that the Nazi leadership, claiming for the Germans the status of the purest Indo-Europeans (or Aryans), waged genocide. The last part of the book summarizes the current state of knowledge and current hypotheses in the fields of linguistics, archaeology, comparative mythology, and genetics. The culmination of three decades of research, this book offers a sweeping survey of the historiography of the Indo-European debate and poses a devastating challenge to the Indo-European origin story at its roots.

PrefaceThe official Indo-European hypothesis: the 12 canonical thesesOVERTUREFrom the Renaissance to the French Revolution1. The search for a long-anticipated discoveryThe Indo-European golden legendUncertain inventorsThe search for an anticipated discoveryA recurring discoveryWhy was Leibniz unable to publish in German?Schizophrenic EuropeansThe slow secularization of the worldIndia, an alternative mythFIRST MOVEMENT (FROM 1814 TO 1903)All is resolved!2. The invention of comparative grammarThe search for originsOn the superiority of (Indo-) European languagesComparative grammar, a German science?Colonialism as an understanding of historyAugust Schleicher and the botany of languagesThe young Turks of comparative grammarOther possible models so soon?3. From India to Germania, the return of the wheeled cradleThe Indian cradleAn ephemeral Earthly ParadiseThe return of the homelandThose who refused to repatriate the homelandFrom texts to objectsImaginary communitiesThe rise of archeological excavationsMore primitiveBathing, kissing and chastityLinguistics of absenceThe return to GermaniaPan-Germanism and anti-SemitismOccultist beliefsThe ambiguities of official linguistics4. The invention of "scientific racism"God and the polygenistsThe art of measuring skullsFrom divine right to nationThe terrors of the "Count" de GobineauA science of man?Who are the French?On the origins of the AryansAre the Prussians German?The three positions of French anthropologists on the Indo-European questionModeration among German anthropologistsDoes "race" exist?The Count and the AryanSex, fantasies and racismsThe first symptoms of political racismThe mismeasure of manSECOND MOVEMENT (FROM 1903 TO 1945)Crimes and errors5. From comparative grammar to linguistics: a language of leaders?The ambiguities of Ferdinand de SaussureAntoine Meillet, chief and masterA language of chiefsDo you speak a "language of civilization"?An instinct for conquest and a love of wide open spacesLinguistic sentiment?Meillet versus SchuchardtThe triumph of structural linguisticsAnd what if there never had been an Original People?6. From Aryan Pan-Germanism to NazismThe methods of archeologyKossinna's lawThe Kossinnian Indo-German narrative"A pre-eminently German discipline"Erasing the memory of KossinnaNazism, one of the possible horizons for the AryansThe Atlantis of the Far NorthSects and secret societiesHitler himself was not a believerThe rallying of archeologistsSS against SA, and the pillaging of conquered landsInternational cowardice and complicity7. A circling cradle"Culture circles" of the European NeolithicUncertain European chronologiesChildish, not Childeish!Regarding the superiority of declensionsSkulls and wordsThe dominance of the Nordic theoryEminently respectable universitiesWeaknesses in the Nordic hypothesisA die-hard Asiatic cradleExcavations in central AsiaA return to (Eastern) EuropeThe Pontic steppes endureMarxism and archeologyMarr, Stalin and linguistics8. Excesses and crimes of racial theoriesOrdinary racism and institutional racismThe anthropological dead-endGenetics to the rescueEugenics and scientific charlatanismThe dreams of German geneticistsFrom skulls to crimesAnd what of France?Those who collaboratedTHIRD MOVEMENT (FROM 1945 TO THE 3RD MILLENNIUM)All is re-resolved!9. The Return of the Aryan, pagan, extreme right (from 1945 to the present)A truly "New" Right?The "magician" prodromesA view from the (extreme) rightFrom Gobineau to Konrad LorenzA re-armed extreme rightThe limits of "entryism"Contemporary "Aryan" ideologyA racial "Que sais-je"?The "racist" InternationalClose collaborations10. From racial anthropology to biological anthropologyThe twilight of the "races"Medals and survivalsFrom skulls to red blood cellsA truly new synthesis?We have rediscovered the Indo-Europeans!Racism by means of psychology and IQ11. What archaeology tells us todayThe first EuropeansThe Neolithic revolutionSedentary hunter-gatherersThe rise of chiefdomsWhat happened on the steppes?From the Copper Age to the Bronze AgeNew power networksFrom proto-history to historyThe search for the Indo-Europeans12. Archeology: What if the Indo-Europeans had always been there?A nebulous autochthonyPaleolithic continuity?13. Did the Indo-Europeans really come from Turkey?Ex oriente luxA new hypothesis?The language of the original HomelandFrom Indo-European to Indo-Hittite?Part of the family tree of all the world's languages?Concerning the difficulties of classificationThe linguistic impacts of agriculture?The return of TrubetzkoyA non-verifiable modelHow can we rid ourselves of the initial briefAn incomplete critical approach14. Did the Indo-Europeans really come from the Black Sea Steppes?A (very) old hypothesisFrom Vilnius to Los AngelesInitial cautiousnessThe return of the steppesFeminism and invadersA new demonstration?A unified and coherent theory?The horse, of course and the chariot, naturally!Warrior invasions or a vicious circle?And what of genetics?15. From prehistory to history: the rediscovered routes taken by the Indo-Europeans?How do we prove a migration?The coming of the GreeksAn early Bronze Age arrivalTiles, gray ware and princely tombsThe arrival of the "Aryans" in India?The world of the steppes and national issuesInvisible migrations and KulturkugelThe mysteries of the TochariansOur ancestors, the CeltsRomans and ItalicsHittites and AnatoliansTheir ancestors, the GermaniSlavs or Germani?16. Georges Dum?zil, a French heroA sense of the epicThe three functionsThe original textsThe "Dum?zil affair"Occupation and occultismOne College, two Academies and a New RightTrifunctionality and Indo-EuropeannessBy excess and by defaultHeritages and hereditiesThe unavoidable detour into archeologyOther mythologists?Dum?zil and the myths17. Linguistic reconstructions and models in the 21st centuryDiscovering original sounds?What exactly are we reconstructing?Of roots and wordsThinking in treesThe tree of all the world's languagesAn apple, a hat and a carMeasuring the speed of language evolutionFrom the tree to the network18. Words and things of the Indo-EuropeansThe dead-ends of linguistic paleontologyDemonstration by absenceFrom words to meaningRegarding Indo-EuropeannessA primordial poetry?From words to things, and creating the "impression of reality"Indo-European, or universal?How to always be rightFINALE AND 2ND OVERTURE19. Models, counter-models, ideologies and errors of logic: are there any alternatives?How languages changeInvisible conquerors and secular empiresCultures and ethnic groupsArcheological culture as Nation State?Lessons from the barbariansLanguages and material culturesLanguages without frontiersThe inadequacy of trees"No language is totally pure"Mixes and interferencesSubstrates, adstrates and superstratesPidgins and creolesSprachbund and the Balkan laboratory"Areal" linguisticsThe tools of sociolinguisticsEpilogueAn alternative vision: the 12 Indo-European antithesesAppendices1. Simplified chronological table of the main archaeological cultures and civilizations in Eurasia (from - 300 000 BC to the present).2. Dates of emergence of the major Indo-European languages.3. August Schleicher's tree of the Indo-European languages.4. The development of the Indo-European languages according to Gamkrelidze and Ivanov (1985).5. A map of some of the solutions of the Indo-European homeland problem proposed since 1960.6. Map of the main archaeological cultures defined in the 1930s.7. The Indo-European migrations, after Gustav Kossinna.8. The early historical distribution of the main Indo-European speaking peoples.9. The neolithization of Europe.10. The spread of Indo-European languages, after Colin Renfrew.11. Spread of Indo-European people, after Marija Gimbutas' theories.12. Map of the Chalcolithic cultures in the 5th millennium BC.13. Map of the Chalcolithic cultures in the 4th millennium BC.14. Map of the Chalcolithic cultures in the 3rd millennium BC.15. Map of the Chalcolithic cultures in the 2nd millennium BC.16. Comparative trees of human genes and language families.17. The Indian linguistic area, after Colin Masica18. Relationships between the Indo-European languages, after Paul Heggarty19. Relationships between the Indo-European languages, after Alfred KroeberBibliographyIndex