Антиномии (Sep 2018)
Hyperborean problem in XIX–XX centuries
Abstract
The article explores the ways of developing the Hyperborean problem, which was brought up anew after one-hundred-year break by the thinkers of the late XIX–XX century in connection with the appearance of so-called Arctic hypothesis of the origins of civilization. The Hyperborean problem is examined in a broad historical and political context in connection with the most diverse trends of humanitarian thought, which are new for the Russian science. A connection is shown between the mass surge of interest in the Hyperborean problematics and the state of public consciousness in the epoch in question. Critical analysis of the concepts of J. Bailly, W. Warren, B.G. Tilak, E.P. Blavatsky, G. von List, J. Liebenfels, R. von Sebottendorf, G. Wirth, O. Rahn, R. Guénon, M. Serrano is given. Not only the postulating of the existence in the antiquity of the northern paleocontinent, where the “original Eden” of mankind was located is common to them, but also the selective use of scientific data, the use of intuitive analysis instead of scientific methodology, ignoring the lack of connection of the “hyperborean civilization” with any known archaeological culture. Despite the significant results achieved by the authors in the field of the history of culture, linguistics, and ethnography, the widespread usage of their works to solve the practical and political problems has led to the marginalization of the Hyperborean theme in the scientific world. Meanwhile, the academic science of the XIX–XX centuries thoroughly studied a number of individual issues related to the Hyperborean problem. Among them was the question of the geographic belonging of the northern peoples in the Arimaspea and the ways of the Hyperborean gift-givers, the origin of the cult of Apollo associated with the North of the Oecumene. A number of Herodotus's reports concerning Hyperborea was confirmed by new data of archeology. Significant results were obtained by classical philologists and historians of philosophy in the study of ancient evidence of Hyperborea, as well as the legacy of Aristeus and Abaris, thinkers who linked the Greek tradition to the distant North. Discoveries in the field of anthropology and ethnography allowed expanding the context of the interpretation of their teachings.
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