Indo-European studies deconstructed (reflections on a book by Jean-Paul Demoule)
https://doi.org/10.18384/2949-5164-2024-5-283-289
Abstract
Aim. To analyze the deconstructivist approach to the Indo-European problem.
Methodology. Using J.-P. Demoule’s book, an attempt is made to understand if this approach is fruitful, specifically if the analysis of the political context of Indo-European studies at various stages of their development in various countries can contribute to the resolution of the Indo-European problem.
Results. Attempts at blurring the boundary between a scholarly discipline and the social-political context in which it develops entail the risk of the discipline’s dissolution in its history and of its eventual disappearance, as evidenced by Demoule’s conclusion that Indo-Europeans are a myth.
Research implications. This case study demonstrates that the deconstructivist approach can be useful only with regard to the history of a discipline, not to the discipline itself.
About the Author
A. G. Kozintsev
Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Alexander G. Kozintsev – Dr Sci (History), Senior Researcher,
Universitetskaia nab. 3, St. Petersburg 199034
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