Does anyone know anything about the aryan race?

Question

i need to know the myth, and the invasion, my project is due 3/22/07. please help!!!!!!! :S

Answer 1

The "Aryan race" is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It derives from the idea that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages and their descendents up to the present day constitute a distinctive race. In its best-known incarnation, under Nazism, it was argued that the earliest Aryans were identical to Nordic people. Belief in the superiority of the "Aryan race" is sometimes referred to as Aryanism.


Origin
The word Ariya ("noble", "spiritual") is attested in the Inscriptions of Darius the Great and his son, Xerxes I. It is used both as a linguistic and a "racial" (spiritual) designation. Darius refers to these meanings in the Behistun inscription (DBiv.89), which is written in a language known as Airyan, Old Persian.
The word Ariya ("noble", "spiritual") is attested in the Inscriptions of Darius the Great and his son, Xerxes I. It is used both as a linguistic and a "racial" (spiritual) designation. Darius refers to these meanings in the Behistun inscription (DBiv.89), which is written in a language known as Airyan, Old Persian.

The term Aryan originates with the Indo-Iranian self-designation arya, attested in the ancient texts of Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, the Rigveda and the Gathas of Zoroaster.

Since, in the 19th century, the Indo-Iranians were the most ancient known speakers of "Indo-European" languages, the word Aryan was adopted to refer not only to the Indo-Iranian people, but also to Indo-European speakers as a whole, including the Romans, Greeks, the Germans, Balts, Celts and Slavs. It was argued that all of these languages originated from a common root — now known as Proto-Indo-European — spoken by an ancient people who must have been the original ancestors of the European, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan peoples. The ethnic group composed of the Proto-Indo Europeans and their modern descendants was termed the Aryans with the idea of distinctive behavioral and ancestral ethnicity marked by language distribution. This usage was common in the late 19th and early 20th century. An example of an influential best-selling book that reflects this usage is the 1920 book The Outline of History by H. G. Wells. In it he wrote of the accomplishments of the Aryan people, stating how they "learned methods of civilization" while "Sargon II and Sardanapalus were ruling in Assyria and fighting with Babylonia and Syria and Egypt". As such, Wells suggested that the Aryans had eventually "subjugated the whole ancient world, Semitic, Aegean and Egyptian alike".[1]

The usage of Aryan to mean "all Indo-Europeans" is now regarded by most scholars as obsolete, though it is still seen occasionally and some people continue this usage.[2] In today's English, "Aryan", if used at all, is normally synonymous to Indo-Iranian, or Proto-Indo-Iranian. The idea that the north Europeans were the "purest" of these people was later theorized by the Comte de Gobineau and by other writers, most notably his disciple Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who wrote of an "Aryan race"—those who spoke Indo-European languages and were claimed to be the "noblest" of people.


During the 19th century, it was commonly believed that the Aryan race originated in the southwestern steppes of present-day Russia, and including the Caucasus Mountains. The Steppe theory of Aryan origins was not the only one circulating during the nineteenth century, however. Many British, American and German scholars argued that the Aryans originated in ancient Germany or Scandinavia, or at least that in those countries the original Aryan ethnicity had been preserved. The German origin of the Aryans was especially promoted by the archaeologist Gustaf Kossinna, who claimed that the Proto-Indo-European peoples were identical to the Corded ware culture of Neolithic Germany. This idea was widely circulated in both intellectual and popular culture by the early twentieth century.

Answer 2

A previous respondent answered this question correctly. I would like to add a few comments.

Prior to Hitler, a Madam Blavatsky, a Russian woman, went to Tibet and studied under the monks. She brought the whole idea to Europe and started a fad. She was eventually thrown out of France and went to England. She started the whole anti-Semitism thing.

What makes no sense to me is just why Persians, or Iranians, who claim to be Aryans, have black hair and brown eyes, while Hilter's "Aryans" had blue eyes and blonde hair.

Answer 3

If you read about Nazi Germany and Hitler's quest to form a "superior race" of people, you'll get more information. Many people died in Germany when Hitler had doctors experiment on Jews and singled out many who had very pale coloring, blue eyes and blonde hair, which were thought to be superior to darker coloring. He wanted to inbreed people who had that appearance because he wanted to create a race of people who had those features.

I hope your teacher is teaching this responsibly, because a lot of people suffered during those experiments. The word Aryan brings up some very negative connotations to a lot of people.

Answer 4

Aryans are basically people, who were speaking Indo - European language, from places, which we now call as Middle East Countries. They actually invaded Northern India in 2000 BC.

It is also accepted they are Indo - Germanic, now generally called as Indian and Iranian.

But in Nazi politics, non Jew.

Answer 5

Aryan race or Aryan peoples are all Indo-Europeans or Indo-Germans. Actually, they are all relatives. That is why they fight so cruel between them.

Answer 6

tell your teacher he/she is racist. There just isn't something called 'race', except the human race.