Indo-European Studies Book Review
The book that I chose for this class of book reviews was J.P. Mallory’s In Search of the Indo-Europeans. This work was originally published in 1989 and updated in 1991, which because of that there are many terms the author use that are simple no longer in use. However, there is still much useful information to be gleaned from these pages. This was a pleasant throwback to the days of studying archaeology and the three other disciplines of anthropology. Keeping that in mind, I found this book to be very technical and I do not think anyone but a student of anthropology, particularly linguistic anthropology and archaeology, would or could truly appreciate the author’s take on the subject of Indo-Europeans.
The author begins his, very objective, foray into the Indo-European world by explaining that they are very hard to study due to various reasons such as a lack of physical writing evidence. (p. 7). Very soon after, the author uses the term ‘Soviet’ to describe a pair of linguists that he continually refers to throughout the book. (p. 7). As previously mentioned, this is one of the terms no longer in use that, had I never seen when the book was published, would instantly reveal to me the era in which this was written.
Chapter 1 begins with a good introduction on the history of Indo-European study, mentioning that such things began in the 18th Century. (p. 9). The author continues his history lesson by introducing us to all of the major thinkers that have appeared throughout the years, leading up to the introduction of the Indo-European Hypotheses. (p. 22). The hypothesis is frequently referred to throughout the book and is the premise behind much of the research that has been gathered by the author.
After explaining the hypotheses, the author uses the next two chapters to discuss various Indo-European cultures starting from the farthest point of Indo-European presence in the East in Asia and then moving West and ending with Europe. His reasoning is that the earliest Indo-European presence in the historical record is found in the East with the Anatolians in the 19th Century BC and tries to move chronologically West in the order they appear in the historical record. (p. 24). Since this book uses mostly archaeology and linguistics as the basis for much of the reasoning found in later chapters, I find this a little odd since I would have expected it to go in the order of the earliest dated artifacts to the latest. However, this may be beneficial for the inexperienced anthropology reader since it is in the order that would be presented in most history lessons.
Next, the author continues in Chapter 4 by explaining how we have reconstructed Proto-Indo-European culture and what it may have looked like. The Proto-Indo-Europeans, as the name suggests, are the ancestors to the Indo-European cultures discussed in the previous chapters. What I found most interesting in this chapter is how much we have been able to reconstruct with what little information we have. For instance, we know from extrapolating Proto-Indo-European words from historical Indo-European languages, that the Proto-Indo-Europeans lived in a region where they encountered mountains, plains, forests, rivers, and lakes. (p. 114).
Then, when the author has reconstructed the culture as much as he can, he discusses what evidence we have for Proto-Indo-European religion. I found this very intriguing as much of what we can reconstruct for their religion is very similar to ones that claim the majority of believers. The Sky-Father archetype that is found here clearly resembles the Christian God who rules the Sky or Heaven as it is usually referred to. (p. 129). The repetitive appearance of the number three also resembles Christianity as they think of their God as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (p. 130). The author also discusses the importance of sacrificial animals, human sacrifice, and the theme of dualism. While this chapter was one of the most interesting ones in the book, I was very disappointed in how short it was as there is very little information to discuss.
The next three chapters discuss the arguments surrounding the placement of the Proto-Indo-European homeland, the archaeology and linguistic information that plays a role in those arguments, and finally the arguments surrounding the expansion of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The author is very truthful here as he is in previous chapters and discusses the leading arguments, and some minority opinions, illustrating how the little we know of this culture is far from settled on. One very fascinating tidbit the author gives us in Chapter 9 is in the discussion of how Indo-European languages took over other languages, saying that the prerequisite for any language shift starts with “societal bilingualism.” (p. 258). I found this a very thought provoking statement in the context of current immigration issues in the United States. The last chapter is devoted to the concept of the Aryan myth often espoused by Nazis and Nazi sympathizers, as well as the legacy of the Indo-Europeans. I found this extremely informative. I had never previously known that some of the earliest studies in Indo-Europeans and their ancestors were used in justifying such thoughts as the superior race myth. (p. 269).
Overall, I found this book to be very informative. Although I am a former anthropology student, I still found the book to be very dry. This makes me reluctant to recommend this book to any reader that is below the college reading level, but I do think anyone could potentially read this book so long as they have access to a dictionary. A quick Google search of various theories and facts reveal that much of this book is current, but I would still want an updated version that got rid of the Soviet language and updated some of the dates that have been narrowed down somewhat.
