The trifunctional hypothesis of prehistoric Proto-Indo-European society postulates a tripartite ideology ("''idéologie tripartite''") reflected in the existence of three classes or castes— priests, warriors, and

commoners A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

(farmers or tradesmen)—corresponding to the three functions of the

sacral Sacral may refer to: *Sacred, associated with divinity and considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion *Of the sacrum The sacrum (plural: ''sacra'' or ''sacrums''), in human anatomy, is a large, triangular bone at the base of the spin ...

, the

martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...

and the economic, respectively. The trifunctional thesis is primarily associated with the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

mythographer

Georges Dumézil Georges Edmond Raoul Dumézil (4 March 189811 October 1986) was a French Philology, philologist, Linguistics, linguist, and religious studies scholar who specialized in comparative linguistics and comparative mythology, mythology. He was a profe ...

, who proposed it in 1929 in the book ''Flamen-Brahman'', and later in ''Mitra-Varuna''.

Three-way division

According to

(1898–1986), Proto-Indo-European society had three main groups, corresponding to three distinct functions:Dumézil, G. (1929). ''Flamen-Brahman''.Dumézil, G. (1940). ''Mitra-Varuna'', Presses universitaires de France. * Sovereignty, which fell into two distinct and complementary sub-parts: ** one formal, juridical and priestly but worldly; ** the other powerful, unpredictable and priestly but rooted in the supernatural world. * Military, connected with force, the military and war. * Productivity, herding,

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people ...

and

crafts A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pr ...

; ruled by the other two. In the Proto-Indo-European mythology, each social group had its own

god In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

or family of gods to represent it and the function of the god or gods matched the function of the group. Many such divisions occur in the history of Indo-European societies: * Southern Russia:

Bernard Sergent Bernard Sergent (; born 23 February 1946) is a French ancient historian and comparative mythologist. He is researcher of the CNRS and president of the Société de mythologie française. Publications He has written a seminal work on Greek mythol ...

associates the

Indo-European language The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dut ...

family with certain archaeological cultures in Southern

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eight ...

and reconstructs an

Indo-European religion Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly atteste ...

based upon the tripartite functions. * Early Germanic society: the supposed division between the king, nobility and regular freemen in early Germanic society. * Norse mythology: Odin (sovereignty), Týr (law and justice), the Vanir (fertility). Odin has been interpreted as a death-god and connected to cremations, and has also been associated with ecstatic practices. * Classical Greece: the three divisions of the ideal society as described by Socrates in Plato's '' The Republic''. Bernard Sergent examined the trifunctional hypothesis in Greek epic, lyric and dramatic poetry. * India: the three Hindu castes, the

Brahmins Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...

or priests; the

Kshatriya Kshatriya ( hi, क्षत्रिय) (from Sanskrit ''kṣatra'', "rule, authority") is one of the four varna (social orders) of Hindu society, associated with warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term ''kṣatriyaḥ'' is used in the cont ...

, the warriors and military; and the

Vaishya Vaishya (Sanskrit: वैश्य, ''vaiśya'') is one of the four varnas of the Hindu social order in India. Vaishyas are classed third in the order of caste hierarchy. The occupation of Vaishyas consists mainly of agriculture, taking care ...

, the agriculturalists, cattle rearers and traders. The

Shudra Shudra or ''Shoodra'' (Sanskrit: ') is one of the four '' varnas'' of the Hindu caste system and social order in ancient India. Various sources translate it into English as a caste, or alternatively as a social class. Theoretically, class ser ...

, a fourth Indian caste, is a peasant or serf. Researchers believe that Indo-European-speakers entered India in the Late Bronze Age, mixed with local Indus Valley civilisation populations and may have established a caste system, with themselves primarily in higher castes.

Reception

Supporters of the hypothesis include scholars such as

Émile Benveniste Émile Benveniste (; 27 May 1902 – 3 October 1976) was a French structural linguist and semiotician. He is best known for his work on Indo-European languages and his critical reformulation of the linguistic paradigm established by Ferdinand de ...

and

Iaroslav Lebedynsky Iaroslav Lebedynsky, born in Paris in 1960, is a French historian of Ukrainian origin, a specialist in ancient warrior cultures of the steppe and the Caucasus, and a prolific author in that field. He has also translated seven books on history or ...

, the last of whom concludes that "the basic idea seems proven in a convincing way". The hypothesis was embraced outside the field of Indo-European studies by some mythographers, anthropologists and historians such as

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious ...

Claude Lévi-Strauss Claude Lévi-Strauss (, ; 28 November 1908 – 30 October 2009) was a French anthropologist and ethnologist whose work was key in the development of the theories of structuralism and structural anthropology. He held the chair of Social Anth ...

, Marshall Sahlins, Rodney Needham, Jean-Pierre Vernant and

Georges Duby Georges Duby (7 October 1919 – 3 December 1996) was a French historian who specialised in the social and economic history of the Middle Ages. He ranks among the most influential medieval historians of the twentieth century and was one of Fran ...

. Lincoln, B. (1999). ''Theorizing myth: Narrative, ideology, and scholarship'', p. 260 n. 17. University of Chicago Press, . On the other hand, Nicholas Allen concludes that the tripartite division may be an artefact and a selection effect, rather than an organising principle that was used in the societies themselves. Benjamin W. Fortson reports a sense that Dumézil blurred the lines between the three functions and the examples that he gave often had contradictory characteristics, which had caused his detractors to reject his categories as nonexistent. John Brough surmises that societal divisions are common outside Indo-European societies as well and so the hypothesis has only limited utility in illuminating prehistoric Indo-European society. Cristiano Grottanelli states that while Dumézilian trifunctionalism may be seen in modern and medieval contexts, its projection onto earlier cultures is mistaken. Belier is strongly critical. The hypothesis has been criticised by the historians

Carlo Ginzburg Carlo Ginzburg (; born April 15, 1939) is an Italian historian and proponent of the field of microhistory. He is best known for ''Il formaggio e i vermi'' (1976, English title: ''The Cheese and the Worms''), which examined the beliefs of an Ital ...

Arnaldo Momigliano Arnaldo Dante Momigliano (5 September 1908 – 1 September 1987) was an Italian historian of classical antiquity, known for his work in historiography, and characterised by Donald Kagan as "the world's leading student of the writing of history ...

and

Bruce Lincoln Bruce Lincoln (born 1948) is Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Religions in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, where he also holds positions in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Com ...

Arvidsson, Stefan. ''Aryan idols: Indo-European mythology as ideology and science'', p. 3 as being based on Dumézil's sympathies with the

political right Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authori ...

Guy Stroumsa Guy Gedalyah Stroumsa (born 27 July 1948) is an Israeli scholar of religion. He is Martin Buber Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Emeritus Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at th ...

sees those criticisms as unfounded.Stroumsa, Guy G. (1998). Georges Dumézil, ancient German myths, and modern demons. ''Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft'', ''6'', 125–136.

Notes

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Trifunctional Hypothesis Anthropology Indo-European culture Mythological archetypes Comparative mythology Social classes Sociological theories 1929 introductions

Three-way division

Reception

See also

Notes

References

Sources