The Invention of Prehistory

Starred review from February 5, 2024
NYU historian Geroulanos (The Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe) offers an incisive and captivating reassessment of prehistory. Tracing how modern notions of humanity’s origins have often mixed scientific research with political mythmaking, Geroulanos characterizes prehistory as a “pretend foundation” that does little more than codify the current era’s hierarchies of power. First galvanized by contact between Europeans and Indigenous Americans, Enlightenment-era speculation about deep-time history was influenced by existing social theories, according to Geroulanos. The most impactful of these was philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s description of Indigenous Americans as more virtuous and “primitive” than Europeans, which drew on his already developed ideas about the naturally pure condition of children. Across the ensuing centuries, Geroulanos shows, this notion of Indigenous peoples as a version of humanity still in its childhood gave rise to phrenology and “race science,” which further bolstered bunk prehistorical narratives. Examples include 19th-century research into humanity’s origins via the study of contemporaneous Indigenous peoples’ bones—as if they were living fossils—and the 20th-century idea of a pure “Aryan” race poorly extrapolated from the theoretical existence of an Indo-European proto-language. Indicting today’s research into prehistory, Geroulanos charges that reconstructions of ancient DNA rely on inherently biased data sets. In lucid prose, Geroulanos unspools an enthralling and detailed history of the development of modern natural science. It’s a must-read.