EN
Medieval and early modern accounts of ethnicity and ethnic genealogy drew on Old Testament, ancient, and Nordic sources. Given the nature of genealogical speculations as narratives that combined a rationalist approach with reference to a particular religious or mythological tradition and political or patriotic aspirations, they can be seen as examples of political myth in Hans Blumenberg’s sense, and the permanent reinterpretation of their narrative core can be understood as “working on myth”. The hypothetical Aryans who emerged from the interaction between British colonial administration and Hindu tradition were better suited to the needs of modern times than the Scythians, whose fundamental racial contribution to the emergence of Western civilization was advocated by John Pinkerton. Thus was born palingenetic Aryan political myth with dramatic implications for the fate of modern society.