Abstract

Since the biblical view of the world and of history lost its role as the (sole) authority on answering the ›ultimate questions‹ in the 19th century, the answers have been sought ›at the beginning of history‹. Prehistory represents this ›beginning‹. Its enormous chronological depth of approx. 2.8 million years is ignored and compressed into a quasi-timeless ›primordial and natural state‹. This serves as a projection surface for a ›social primordial time‹ born from our imagination, which we refer back to, by way of a circular argument, as a point of orientation, legitimation and self-assurance. This presentation of an imagined ›social primordial time‹ and the associated nostrification of the prehistoric people can be viewed as a colonialist practice. The appropriation of the past for actualistic needs is a ›project run by society as a whole‹ which is supported and contributed to by various academic disciplines.