Abstract
The concept of the Männerbund is one of the most famous and most controversial in Indo-European cultural comparativism. The idea that early human society was centred on young wilful warriors was first proposed by Heinrich Schurtz (Altersklassen und Männerbünde, Berlin 1902), who sought to counter Bachofen's theory of original matriarchy and connect Greek (largely construed as European) and Indian mythology.
In the period between the two world wars, the idea was developed by fascist scholars such as Otto Höfler (Kultische Geheimbünde der Germanen, Frankfurt am Main 1934) in order to construct a connection between Odin's Germanic warbands and putative Indo-European heritage in the mists of time. This was further elaborated by Stig Wikander (Der arische Männerbund, Lund 1938) and George Dumézil (Flamen-brahman, Paris 1935), each with their own view of men's societies and their structure.
The wild idea of the Männerbund was accompanied by claims that the young men identified with wild beasts such as wolves and lions and often poetic metaphors were stretched to fit the argument, as shown by Bruce Lincoln (Theorizing myth: narrative, ideology, and scholarship, Chicago - London 1999). This paper reviews the existing scholarship with a critical view towards the many proponents of the Männerbund hypothesis and their ideological biases.
The second part of the paper presents the Roman festival of the Lupercalia as a case study as all discussions of the Männerbund feature this central Roman festival.