The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland

by Alain de Benoist

Research has long since established that the civilisations of Europe, Persia, and India are linked, linguistically and culturally, dating back to some point in prehistory that has been lost to human memory. Many scholars have postulated that there was a primordial Indo-European civilisation from which all of these others later emerged. But who were the Indo-Europeans? From where did they originate? How did they live, and what did they believe? And how and why did they disperse into so many widely varied cultures? Alain de Benoist here gives a brief overview of the history of Indo-European studies, showing how it has evolved from its origins in the nineteenth century up to the present, and summarises the various interpretations and schools of thought that have emerged from the surviving evidence. He also offers his own critique of some of these theories. The In Search of the Homeland is an invaluable introduction to a vast field of inquiry, and offers valuable clues and insights into the origins of our civilisation.

Genres: History, Archaeology

582 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Depuis plus de trente ans, Alain de Benoist poursuit méthodiquement un travail d'analyse et de réflexion dans le domaine des idées. Ecrivain, journaliste, essayiste, conférencier, philosophe, il a publié plus de 50 livres et plus de 3000 articles, aujourd'hui traduits dans une quinzaine de langues différentes.

Ses domaines de prédilection sont la philosophie politique et l'histoire des idées, mais il est aussi l'auteur de nombreux travaux portant notamment sur l'archéologie, les traditions populaires, l'histoire des religions ou les sciences de la vie.

Indifférent aux modes idéologiques, récusant toute forme d'intolérance et d'extrémisme, Alain de Benoist ne cultive pas non plus une quelconque nostalgie «restaurationniste». Lorsqu'il critique la modernité, ce n'est pas au nom d'un passé idéalisé, mais en se préoccupant avant tout des problématiques postmodernes. Les axes principaux de sa pensée sont au nombre de quatre : 1) la critique conjointe de l'individuo-universalisme et du nationalisme (ou de l'ethnocentrisme) en tant que catégories relevant l'une et l'autre de la métaphysique de la subjectivité ; 2) la déconstruction systématique de la raison marchande, de l'axiomatique de l'intérêt et des multiples emprises de la Forme-Capital, dont le déploiement planétaire constitue à ses yeux la menace principale qui pèse aujourd'hui sur le monde ; 3) la lutte en faveur des autonomies locales, liée à la défense des différences et des identités collectives ; 4) une nette prise de position en faveur d'un fédéralisme intégral, fondé sur le principe de subsidiarité et la généralisation à partir de la base des pratiques de la démocratie participative.

Alors que son oeuvre est connue et reconnue dans un nombre grandissant de pays, Alain de Benoist reste largement ostracisé en France, où l'on se borne trop souvent à associer son nom à celui de la « Nouvelle Droite », expression dans laquelle il ne s'est jamais véritablement reconnu.


Biography in English at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_d...

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive survey of Indo-European studies up to 1998. Covers linguistics, archeology, mythology, old school anthropology and with skull types and stuff but there is no chapter on DNA. Great reference tool for understanding the big names of the first 150 years or so of the field

[Manybooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, just to be perfectly clear regarding my perusal of Alain de Benoist’s (and translated by Aaron Cheak) The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland (which is the revised and updated 1997 edition originally titled in French as Indo-Européens: à la recherche du foyer d’origine, and this also means that this book of course stops with its information and linguistic based research in the late 1990s, not really all that problematic, at least as long as potential readers do keep this piece of information in mind), I am actually still quite in the process of reading, but have in my humble opinion also textually encountered more than enough to easily and happily consider a solid four star ranking.

For indeed, the information and details I have read and pondered thus far in The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland, I have definitely and certainly found very much enlightening, very much of informational interest, and no, this is also not likely to change for the negative. Because honestly, right at this point of my perusal, the only thing that might indeed cause me to lower my rating for The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland from say four to three stars would be the non acknowledgement of academic sources, and since Alain de Benoist features very detailed bibliographic endnotes in The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland, that will of course and fortunately not ever be the case (although as an academic trained in North America, I still most definitely would personally much prefer both endnotes and a separate bibliography, but with Western European academics, footnotes and endnotes often seem to function as not only supplemental musings on the given text but also as a general bibliography).

Now with regard to the general narrational flow of The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland, Alain de Benoist’s text (and by extension also translator Aaron Cheaks, of course) is generally pretty densely academic and often with a considerable amount of information and name dropping to be encountered (something that is both to be expected and also often specifically required for academic treatises, but indeed the vast amount of name after name and details after details does tend to make The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland a bit of a slog and also a tome which in my opinion should be tackled slowly and read in short increments, in other words, a reader will likely find The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland much more easily readable, understandable and also enjoyable if he or she decides not to rush, not to just stubbornly plow through it).

But thankfully and fortunately, even though Alain de Benoist’s name dropping in The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland can most definitely be a trifle tedious, his explanations and his intellectual musings regarding linguistics and Indo-European linguistics in particular are also penned both in a manner where one does not really (thankfully) ever require advanced university level knowledge of in particular linguistic topics like phonetics, morphology, syntax and grammar, and yes, that they, that de Benoist’s analyses and claims also tend to make both common and equally academic sense. For example, I am really very much academically pleased that in The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland, Alain de Benoist repeatedly points out that while for trying to locate the possible (or probable) homeland for the speakers of PIE (Proto-Indo-European) archaeological finds, anthropology and comparative mythology are great adjunct tools, they also should not ever take over from linguistic considerations, from word reconstruction, from language based palaeontology (as first and foremost finding the Urheimat of the Indo-Europeans means finding where PIE was originally spoken and also what PIE might have been like as a language through reconstructions based mostly on very much specific linguistic comparisons).

Thus generally speaking (and yes even though I am still very much in medias res so to speak with The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland), I do highly and warmly recommend The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland (although a reader does of course and in my opinion need to have a specific and academic, intellectual interest in the Indo-Europeans, in PIE and from where the Speakers of Proto-Indo-European likely spread their language and their culture to really and truly enjoy reading The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland and to find Alain de Benoist’s text sufficiently enlightening). But certainly a high four stars for me, and the only reason why I am not yet considering five stars for The Indo-Europeans: In Search of the Homeland is that I do tend to find the book cover with its image of the famous ice mummy Oetzi catering a bit too much and too heavily to current and rather trivial media trends (since we really do not know and likely will never know whether Oetzi himself even was an Indo-European or a speaker of one of the many daughter languages of Proto-Indo-European).

[Aleksandar · Rating 4 out of 5]

While clearly outdated, this book gives a great overview of debates surrounding the origins and homeland of the Indo-Europeans. Comprehensively researched and academically dense, at times it is difficult to follow, especially if you have no previous knowledge on the topic, or linguistics more generally, it still was a pretty enjoyable read.

De Benoist does seem to "agree" with the Nordic/Pontic thesis of origin, which situates the original homeland in Europe or its proximity. It would be rather interesting if De Benoist would approach this topic again from today's perspective, with the additional research that has been done in the meantime.

Nevertheless, as a European, I do recommend this book to anybody interested in the history and heritage of Europeans, for as De Benoist writes: "History creates sense...it is a manifestation of eternity and tradition. By saving the memories of our forebears from the depths of oblivion, it steps into the future".

[Rutger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting overview of the literature re Indo-Europeans (IEs) by Alain de Benoist. There are quite a bit of things in this book, which are in dispute nowadays, but the overall message is correct: there really was an IE homeland and IEs really did conquer India, Iran and Europe. However, some things seem incorrect, did IEs practice agriculture? Probably not -- but this is an area of research where facts get refuted and revalued quickly, so I'm not sure if it's correct to hold strong opinions either way.

In "Who we are and how we got here" by David Reich, most of the linguistic research done on IEs, has been confirmed by ancient DNA research. It turns out that, especially researcher Marija Gimbutas, was pretty close to the truth of IE origins. The history of the peopling of Europe is quite interesting. Too bad this research has been tainted by Nordicists and other Germanist thinkers who did motivated research. Reich's method is much cleaner: DNA doesn't lie, it just tells you what happened.

Also, this book is mostly focused on the European migrations of IEs, you don't see much (or any) mention of IEs moving into Iran or India. So, depending on your interest, this book only tells half of the story.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not for general reading; it is highly technical. That said, it is a review of the work determining the homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The author generally agrees with Marija Gimbutas's Kurgan hypothesis, but includes the controversies that still remains. I will admit that, being neither an archaeologist nor a linguist, I didn't follow the full arguments, what I followed seemed reasonable and informative.

I recommend the book with the caveat that it is a hard-slog.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philology is the study of languages, their etymology and development and history. It is a sort of linguistic archeological anthropology; and while everyday anthropology is sort of an act of accident (you stumble upon something buried in a hole), philology uses living languages to make linkages with dead ones and even those before to try and identify where a people might be from from the words they use.

Take Greek. Greek is an Indo-European language, that is one of those languages that is descendent from a common root somewhere back in the depths of time. This is known, because there are enough root words that connect Greek with Armenian and Celtic and Germanic and Latin to show that there is a common root, developed out of Indo-European, while also borrowing words from other sources as they came into contact with other cultures (through trade or religion), or were conquered.

So what does Indo-European tell us about its homeland, through the Greek language? An example: the word Greek uses for ‘sea’ or ‘ocean’ is not Indo-European; it appears nowhere else; it is taken from a pre-Indo-European language on the continent. What does this mean? It means that the Indo-Europeans were not from the Mediterranean; if they had been, there would have been the same word for ‘sea’ sprinkled through Greek and Armenian and Celtic. What common words are there? Words for ‘bear’ and ‘wolf’ and ‘beaver’ – which, it would appear, could indicate that Proto-Indo-European might come from a temperate forest zone. That is the discipline, simply put. Dig into words, find their roots, and then find the roots of other words in other languages and compare them; syntax and gender and tenses – languages modern and written in stylus upon clay tablets, arriving closer and closer.

“The Indo-Europeans” by Alain de Benoist is about this. About the attempts of different thinkers (mostly 100 years ago) to identify the homeland of the Proto-Indo-European civilization, and what were their characteristics, and how did they become the dominant linguistic root. This book is fascinating; detailed and well researched and sourced. It takes the reader back and back and back further still until the end of the last ice age 12,000 years ago. And it takes the reader on a journey through Anatolia and eastern Iran and Afghanistan and to the Russian steppes and up into the far Lapp lands of Finland, looking for the homeland.

Philologists are extremely intelligent. To marry the disciplines of archeology to anthropology to language as they attempt to write the stories of bronze age civilizations, it’s extraordinary. Even genetics, although Benoist is careful to remind the reader that genetics can say nothing about culture – language is the greatest vehicle for culture – race or ‘ethnicity’ or genetics has very little to add.

Our story, the story of our humanity – that is humanity post-ice-age (we are actually still in the ice age, we are just in one of the periodic warmings) – is extremely short; that is what I took from this book. Only 12,000 years up against an ice age that has been going for 200,000,000 (and, like I said, is still going). What life was like, before our warming, is probably unknowable. Because we can’t even identify the civilization that gave birth to our language, though it was only a few thousand years ago.

And yet, though our story is so short, it has nevertheless been so incredibly eventful giving rise to epic conquerors and terrible tragedies and tremendous acts of goodness (and, of course, wickedness too). And the people who study it all…

[Clayton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am into prehistory, and these kinds of big-picture books are my favorite in the category. I particularly enjoyed getting into the linguistic weeds just a little bit, in order to get some understanding of how language relationships are used to establish -- too strong a word -- to HINT at cultural relationships and their chronological relationships. I did not enjoy as much the pedantic structure of moving from one to the next of a long succession of scientists and explaining their specific ideas. My strongest impression in the end, was again, how little we really know, and how much me simply make up in order to try to explain the very few incontrovertible facts that are actually available. (Note: this book is a bit old, genetics have changed a few things since then.)

[Jorgis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great concise history and a summary of all the preceding developments in the studies of Indo-European history from all the major perspectives. This book will work as an excellent overall primer of the Indo-European field of studies, it's major approaches, problems and challenges.