Archéologies extraterrestres

Published in 1999, Des Hommes, des dieux et des extraterrestres. Ethnologie d’une croyance moderne analyses some pseudo-scientific theories about the origin of Mankind amoung which the most famous, that became a success in the 60’s an 70’s relates the creation of Humankind and the apparition of culture to the intervention of a group of alien astronauts (Ancien Astronauts Theory). Through detailed analyses W. Stokowski reveals that this astonishing conception was born within a well structured and quite old occultist subculture. As a real social fact, the Ancient Astronaut Theory is a collective work, progressively built during the 20th century by a large group of authors, from international communities and networks, who refer to a common intellectual tradition, revolving around the conceptions of the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875. Moreover, the ancient astronaut theory is only a small part, more visible and striking, of a system of conception building a quite sophisticated vision of the world. The author shows that this occultist vision of the world is based on gnostic cosmology, enriched and transformed during the 19th century, amongst spiritualists and theosophists, and then reutilized during the 20th century, in several mainstream popular cultures