The Study of Racialism

William · Posted: Wed 02 Nov 2005 21:50 Post subject: Celts: Myth or Reality?

A post I was reading down below (rconn2) reminded me of a book I read years ago: The Celts: The Construction of a Myth, by Malcolm Chapman. This book called into question the idea of a vast Celtic identity in Europe in the first millennium B.C. It raises some valid questions and addresses them.

There truly was never a wide swath of European peoples who identified as "Celts" or even as belonging to a single ethnic group; they all identified as members of their respective tribes. "Celticness" spread by means of transfer of culture and in some cases language, not, in most cases anyway, invasion and obliteration or intermarriage. In fact, ancient Celtic remains were examined and there was very little relationship to these people and ancient and modern Brits and Irishmen. The original nucleus of the Celts was in Austria, southern Germany, the Alsace area of France, Switzerland, and, perhaps, Bohemia. The Hallstatt culture seems to be the first identified as Celtic, followed by the more advanced LaTene culture.

Attempting to push the Celts back beyond 1000 B.C. or so poses problems similar to trying to push Germanics back beyond this point or Slavs back beyond the beginning of the Christian era. These people probably didn't speak Celtic or Germanic or Slavic before the first millennium B.C. Rather, it is likely they spoke a form of Indo-European. And the cultures peculiar to these various groups changed many times, so assigning a starting date isn't easy, anyway.