Interview with Stefanos Geroulanos, author of 'The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins'
Books about humanity's origins captivate readers, while news outlets eagerly cover archaeological discoveries, reflecting a long-standing fascination with prehistory. In "The Invention of Prehistory," historian Stefanos Geroulanos explores how Enlightenment-era thinkers began to consider a human past beyond recorded history, moving away from religious explanations to empirical ones. Geroulanos details how various ideas—from the “state of nature” to theories about Neanderthals—shaped Western intellectual thought and justified imperialist and repressive regimes. These notions, ranging from seeing other cultures as "savages" to justifying war through evolutionary theories, underpinned colonial violence and modern imperialism. Geroulanos contends that prehistory narratives reveal more about the times they were conceived than about ancient realities, suggesting that to improve our future, we should move beyond the quest for origins. His work reexamines the impact of our historical interpretations on contemporary society.
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Javier Mejia is an economist at Stanford University who specializes in the intersection of social networks and economic history. His research interests also include entrepreneurship and political economy, with a particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Los Andes University. Mejia has previously been a Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer at New York University-Abu Dhabi and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Bordeaux. He is also a frequent contributor to various news outlets, currently serving as an op-ed columnist for Forbes Magazine.
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