Abstract
This paper examines the theoretical and methodological value of combining Begriffsgeschichte (conceptual history) with Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and social field by focusing on definitions of the völkisch thought in German prehistory. The theoretical perspective in this paper is that concepts on the semantic level are interlinked with historical processes in the social space, or the scientific field in this example. On the one hand, it is evident that völkisch elements belonged intrinsically to prehistoric archaeology in its development as an autonomous discipline in the scientific field. On the other hand, racist and völkisch thoughts were a result of the heteronomization that was enforced during the Nazi regime, when prehistoric archaeologists tried to use the Nazis to establish their discipline in academia.