White gods, white scientists, white lies

6. des.

The book Thor Heyerdahl og jakten på Atlantis makes a number of claims about Thor Heyerdahl's life and theories. Not all are equally correct. Read our review to find out what is right and what is wrong in the book.

The author is the young historian Per Ivar Hjeldsbakken Engevold, who makes his debut with a book about Thor Heyerdahl and his world of theory.

The book's main argument is that the work of the Norwegian scientist, communicator and adventurer was bound together by a little-known theory about a white ruling race that came from Atlantis and spread civilization to primitive people.

The book Thor Heyerdahl and the hunt for Atlantis was launched by Humanist forlag at Litteraturhuset on 16. October this year. The author is the young historian Per Ivar Hjeldsbakken Engevold, who makes his debut with a book about Thor Heyerdahl and his world of theory.

The book's main argument is that the work of the Norwegian scientist, communicator and adventurer was bound together by a little-known theory about a white ruling race that came from Atlantis and spread civilization to primitive people.

Throughout his life, Thor Heyerdahl was exposed to such powerful attacks from young professionals who used his status as a famous researcher and adventurer to assert himself. Engevold's book joins a tendency in Heyerdahl criticism that tries to marginalize his life's work, by "uncovering" an underlying racism in, and a pseudo-scientific method behind, the theories.

"Black and white fists pulled in the same rope. That's how it had been in ancient times too."
(Ra, p. 231)

Thor Heyerdahl was, like all people, a child of his time. But what makes him still relevant is that he grew out of the framework of understanding that characterized others of his generation. He received his academic training at a time when active use of racial classification in cultural historical research was common. Some of Heyerdahl's books and texts also contain expressions that we would today see as racist. But that does not mean that he consciously stood for the implicit racism.

As early as 1944, he writes to his spouse Liv that, as soon as the war is over, they should find their way back to the core of life and try to "make the connection back through the ages, across the races. Because the core is the same today as in the days of the pharaohs, it is the same in a Congo Negro as in a Norwegian, it is the same in Alaska as in the Sahara". He maintained this attitude, that all races were equally valuable, throughout his life. That was the very core of why he pursued cultural history. The studies spring from the human perspective.

Thor Heyerdahl looks at paintings in the Tassili mountains with Malika Hashid.
One of the places Heyerdahl's reed boat culture may have had ancestry.

Photo: Walter Leonardi

The work behind the book initially looks impressive with a whopping 709 notes and 132 references. But when you look closely at the text and the references, it becomes obvious that the claims in the book are strongly pointed, without correspondingly thorough documentation.

The author misunderstands basic elements of Thor Heyerdahl's theory, and he picks out quotes from Heyerdahl's popular books or biographies that fit his own claims. The "new" thing about the book, that Thor Heyerdahl should have had a "meta-theory" that connects all his research, is taken from other authors and researchers. This raises suspicions of plagiarism, and is serious in terms of research ethics.

Eirik Stokke, assistant professor and master's student in religious studies, and curator Reidar Solsvik at the museum have gone through the book and written the review entitled White gods, white scientists, white lies, which you can read here.

Book review