Saturday, August 9, 2025

How they thought of themselves

 Laura Spinney, in her new book on Proto-Indo-European, made a remark that would make a good epigraph on any book on history:

We know that ancient people looked at themselves in mirrors. We don’t know what they saw.

 

We want to think that human nature is fixed, that the people of today are like the people of the ancient world. And then we run across a comment or attitude — a remark about slavery or about women’s role in society, for example — that is astonishing.

We forget how strong social forces are, how elevating, how damaging.

• Sources and note: Laura Miller, “Mankind’s Greatest Invention”; Slate, May 20, 2025. It’s here:

https://slate.com/culture/2025/05/english-language-origin-proto-indo-european-laura-spinney.html

The article is a review of Laura Spinney’s book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, now on the list of books I want to read. Thanks, Christopher, for the link.

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