Routledge Approaches to History Religion, and Identity Construction

Religion, History and Identity Construction covers the historiographical shift from universalistic monogenist narratives to chauvinistic polygenist narratives in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Religion, History and Identity Construction: Identity Games covers the historiographical shift from universalistic monogenist narratives to chauvinistic polygenist narratives in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It offers a detailed study of the intellectual thought and socio-political conditions that shaped the evolution of Eurocentric world history narratives with an argument that various supremacy claims —such as the Scythian Hypothesis, the Northern Hypothesis, bio-illogical racism, and the imagined homogeneity—as well as the Indo-European/Aryan Hypothesis, are distortions of earlier faith-based assertions designed to rewrite world and European histories within ongoing identity games. Each chapter connects and explains how these pseudo-scientific hypotheses are intertwined with religious beliefs. This book emphasizes the need to shift our approach to history writing from teleological and polygenist narratives crafted by linguists to monogenist conclusions backed by archaeology and historical evidence. It exhibits that our humanity is far more diverse than opponents of equality imagine. The concept of race is just a perception that reintroduces the pre-modern idea of inequality under the guise of science. Essentially, there exists only one human race. It is an essential book for scholars as well as novice readers of history seeking to understand the historiographical shift in Eurasia.