Theory that \'Celts\' are a myth

[Ghostmojo]

whether we can legitimately talk about "The Celts" as the indigenous peoples of western Europe

i look at 'The Celts' as a language group and/or a cultural group, rather than a 'people'. I mean, we all drink wine and Coca Cola, plus all of us here speak and write English - I bet that on the same grounds, a thousand years from now some linguist could write a phd about "The English, peopling the world 1600-3000 AD"or something.

Exactly.

Of more immediate comparison would be a Martian landing on earth in let's say Seattle, and visiting a Starbucks and a MacDonalds. He then proceeds to do the same in Milton Keynes, Madrid, Moscow and Tokyo. Would he view the inhabitants of these people as the same group - or would he just see it as typical exporting and importing of dominant cultures that has occurred throughout (Terran) history?

And having sampled their delights would he desire the same thing to happen on his planet or actively combat it? :lol:

The application of the term Celtic is interesting - as to whether it is a modern construct - or whether there is still any connection between these Keltoi/Celtae of ancient Europe and some of the populations of modern Europe (and elsewhere). I accept it is sticking my neck out here, but I remember listening to the argument of an Irish scholar in a Dublin museum (On TV BTW) who refuted the celtic nature of his own people! Now, was he simply treacherous, barking mad, or possibly open-minded enough to have accepted that perhaps the greatest myth is the notion that anybody in the British Isles was ever Celtic in the first place? If a reasonable, cultured and educated Irishman can make such a proposition, in the centre of what many latter-day Celts would consider to be the epi-centre of Celticness - can we not at least wonder if he is correct?

I have the feeling that the Celts certainly existed as a name for a group or groups of western European peoples, which may have covered quite a broad territorial footprint - but here's the thing; the British Isles may well have been completely untouched by all of this (apart from cultural importation). That doesn't mean the peoples of ancient Britain and Ireland weren't special, didn't have their own cultures, languages etc. - but it does mean we might have mistakenly applied the term Celt to them ...