Jean Haudry | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1934-05-28)28 May 1934 Le Perreux-sur-Marne, France |
| Died | 23 May 2023(2023-05-23) (aged 88) |
| Occupations | |
Jean Haudry (28 May 1934 – 23 May 2023) was a Frenchlinguist andIndo-Europeanist. Haudry was generally regarded as a distinguished linguist by other scholars,[1][2] although he was also criticized for his political proximity with the far-right.[1] Haudry'sL'Indo-Européen, published in 1979, remains the reference introduction to theProto-Indo-European language written in French.[3]
Jean Haudry was born on 28 May 1934 inLe Perreux-sur-Marne in the eastern suburbs of Paris.[4] He becameagrégé ingrammar studies at theÉcole Normale Supérieure in 1959[5] and earned a PhD inlinguistics in 1975 after a thesis onVedic Sanskritgrammatical cases.[6]
Haudry was a member of the Institute of Formation of theFront National (FN) ofJean-Marie Le Pen.[7] He also served in the Scientific Council of the FN until the late 1990s[1] when he decided to followBruno Mégret and his splinter partyMouvement National Républicain.[8]
In 1980, he co-founded withGRECE membersJean-Paul Allard [fr] andJean Varenne the "Institute of Indo-European Studies" (IEIE) at theJean Moulin University Lyon 3.[9] Under his leadership between 1982 and 1998, the IEIE published the journalÉtudes indo-européennes. He was a professor ofSanskrit and dean of the faculty of letters at the University Lyon 3 and adirecteur d'études at the 4th section of theÉcole Pratique des Hautes Études. He became professoremeritus in 2002.[10]
Haudry practiced a version ofmodern paganism that put heavy emphasis on ethnicity. He described this paganism: "each [pagan] religion belongs specifically to the corresponding ethnic and linguistic community, which, far from seeking to convert foreigners, jealously guards the benefits of its religion for its members".[11] In 1995, he participated in the founding of thenativist movementTerre et Peuple, along withPierre Vial andJean Mabire, and served as its vice president.[12][13]
Soon after Haudry's retirement, the FrenchMinistry of Education appointed a commission to investigate whether Haudry's institute was too closely associated with the far-right. The work of the commission was mooted when Haudry's successor, Jean-Paul Allard, dissolved the institute and reconstituted it as an association free from state supervision.[14]
He was a director of the Association of French Friends of South African Communities.[15]
Haudry died on 23 May 2023, five days before his 89th birthday.[16]
In his most important work oncomparative mythology,La Religion cosmique des Indo-Européens (1987; "The Cosmic Religion of Indo-Europeans"), Haudry argued thatProto-Indo-European cosmogony featured three 'skies' (diurnal, nocturnal and liminal) each having its own set of deities and colours (white, red, and dark).[17] The proposition is often mentioned in handbooks,[17][18] although it has been criticized by some scholars as an "overinterpretation" of available data.[19][20]
| Realm | Theme | Deities | Colour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day | Celestial | "Daylight-sky god" (*Dyēus) | white |
| Dawn/twilight | Bridging | "Binder-god" (Kronos,Savitṛ,Saturnus) | red |
| Night | Night Spirits | "Night-sky god" (Ouranos) | dark |
In Haudry's 2009 essay entitledThe Triad: thought, word, action, in the Indo-European tradition, he stated that the formula "thought, word, action" had a wide distribution in all of the ancient literatures of Indo-European languages in antiquity.[21][22]
According to Haudry, there is a connection between the triad of "thought, word, action" and fire or light. He said that the presence of "divine fires" is in severalIndo-European mythologies, such as the figure ofLoki inNorse mythology.[22][23]
For Alberto De Antoni, this study, which is "very scholarly and elaborate from a linguistic point of view, with an extensive bibliography and a critical apparatus", allows Haudry, thanks to the multiplicity of sources within the Indo-European world and due to Haudry's "excellent linguistic expertise" to reconstitute the verbs and nouns of the triadic formula.[24]
Haudry supported theArctic hypothesis of the origin ofIndo-Europeans.[1] However, he believed that theKurgan culture was probably the center of diffusion.[25]
... a clever if controversial book, the principal merit of which may ultimately lie in the rethinking and discussion which it is bound to stimulate.
chacune [des] religions [païennes] appartient en propre à la communauté ethnique et linguistique correspondante, qui, bien loin de chercher à convertir les étrangers, garde jalousement pour ses membres les bienfaits de sa religion.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
