ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a critical approach to the field of Indo-European comparative philology. It examines the role of comparative philology both as a potential decolonising influence on the field of classics, as well as a complacent beneficiary of oppressive structures. This includes a critical discussion of the historic links between comparative philology and 19th-century race science, as well as the repercussions of its present-day dependence on inequitable education systems. This chapter thus aims to promote a critical, reflexive view of comparative philology that does not side-step social issues, while also highlighting the value of the field’s decentring of Latin and ancient Greek (and their respective speech communities) in the study of the ancient past.
