Gradual Evolution of Linguistic Theories

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Linguistic theories gradually evolved, with Europeans initially associating Indo-European languages with Indo-German people in Northern Europe. This idea shifted after World War II when the theory of Indo-European languages originating in the steppe became more accepted due to political reasons. The curious relations between Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, particularly in terms of word roots, have been a subject of interest since the 18th century.

Humanity itself might be the hardest thing for scientists to study fairly and accurately. Not only do we come to the subject with certain inevitable preconceptions, but it's hard to resist the temptation to find scientific justifications for the stories we'd like to tell about ourselves. In his new book, The Invention of Prehistory, Stefanos Geroulanos looks at the ways that we have used -- and continue to use -- supposedly-scientific tales of prehistoric humanity to bolster whatever cultural, social, and political purposes we have at the moment.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2024/04/22/273-stefanos-geroulanos-on-the-invention-of-prehistory/

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Stefanos Geroulanos received his Ph.D. in humanities from Johns Hopkins. He is currently director of the Remarque Institute and a professor of history at New York University. He is the author and editor of a number of books on European intellectual history. He serves as a Co-Executive Editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas.

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