Hans Henrich Hock Quotes
born 1938 Germany
Hans Henrich Hock (born September 26, 1938) is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Sanskrit at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- Germany
- Academics
- Linguists
Also known as: Hans Hock
Random Hans Henrich Hock quote
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“Indo-Europeanists must exercise caution, lest they unwittingly support ideologically motivated agendas”!
A few things can be established with certainty, others with a good degree of likelihood, and yet others remain entirely uncertain.
He emphasizes an approach where truth is the “ultimate goal”, but “truth is always conditional, to be superseded by better evidence or interpretation of evidence” (HOCK 2005:282).
Geldner's interpretation of [RV 9.73.5 , 10.116.4 ] strike me as even more arbitrary, given the limited context; Grassmanns' interpretation that the reference is to darkness or a dark cloud is at least equally possible.
In the case of Pirak, however, it must be admitted that the cultural innovations do not appear to be clearly Indo-European. Perhaps there was only indirect contact via other ethnic groups in Seistan. (244)
Words meaning white light are widely used in reference to the world of the Aryans or their gods, and so are terms meaning broad, wide (note the combination of broad and light in the uru jyotih broad light of [RV 7.5.3 - 6]).
A close reading of the Rg-vedic passages in which terms meaning white or light and dark or black are employed in reference to human beings convinces me that a racial interpretation of these terms is not required by textual evidence.
Closer examination suggests an alternative interpretation of the terms ‘black’ or ‘dark’ as referring to the dark world of the dasas/dasyus in contrast with the light world of the aryas, an interpretation which is in perfect agreement with the contrast between good/light and evil/dark forces that pervades the Vedas (and has parallels in many, perhaps most other traditions around the world).
The expression róma prthivyâh (1.65.8) ‘the body-hair of the earth’ ‘the plants’, suggests that the metaphor of tvac- as the ‘skin’ or surface of the earth was well established in the poetic language of the Rig-Veda.
First, wherever there is sufficient context for interpretation (which excludes [11], [12], and [13]), either the same line or verse or a closely neighboring one contains a reference to the ‘sun’ [5], [6], and [9], to ‘broad light’ [7], or to ‘red’ or ‘fiery’ beings [8].23 These references are marked in roman.