Aryan: Difference between revisions

'''Aryan''' or '''Arya''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɛər|i|ə|n}};), or '''Arya''' in [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Proto-Indo-Iranian]],<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/aryan "Aryan"]. ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]].''</ref> [[Proto-Indo-Iranian language|Indo-Iranian]] {{lang|iir-x-proto|arya}}) is a term originallyoriginating usedfrom asthe an [[ethnocultural]]ethno-cultural self-designation byof the [[Indo-Iranians]]. inIt ancient times,stood in contrast to the nearby outsiders, whom they knowndesignated as '[[Aneran|non-Aryan']] ({{lang|iir-x-proto|an-aryaāryā}}).<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> In [[Ancientancient India]], the term ''ā́rya'' was used by the [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan speakers]] of the [[Vedic period]], both as an [[endonym]] (self-designation) and in reference to a region knowncalled as ''"[[Āryāvarta|Aryavarta]]''" ('abode{{Lang-sa|आर्यावर्त}}, {{Literal translation|Land of the Aryas'Aryans}}), where the Indo-Aryantheir culture emerged.{{Sfn|Witzel|2001|pp=4, 24}} InSimilarly, according to the ''[[Avesta]]'' scriptures, ancientthe [[Ancient Iranian peoples|Iranian peoples]] similarly used the term ''airya'' to designate themselves as an [[ethnic group]], and into referencerefer to theira mythicalregion homeland,called ''"[[Airyanem Vaejah|Airyanǝm Vaēǰō]]''" ('expanse{{Lang-ae|𐬀𐬫𐬭𐬌𐬌𐬀𐬥𐬆𐬨 𐬬𐬀𐬉𐬘𐬀𐬵}}, {{Literal translation|Expanse of the Aryas'[[Arya or(Iran)|Arya]]}}), 'stretchwhich ofwas thetheir Aryas')mythical homeland.<ref name=":5" /><ref name="Gnoli" /> The [[Wordword stem|stem]] also forms the [[etymological]] source of place names such aslike ''[[Alania]]'' ({{lang|iir-x-proto|Aryāna-}}) and ''[[Name of Iran#Etymology of Iran(word)|Iran]]'' ({{lang|iir-x-proto|Aryānām}}).<ref name="Mallory" />

Although the stem {{lang|iir-x-proto|arya}} may beoriginate offrom the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) origin,<ref name=":2" /> itsit useseems asto anhave ethnoculturalbeen self-designationused isexclusively onlyby attested amongthe Indo-Iranian peoples, andas there is no evidence of itsit usehaving served as an ethnonym amongfor 'the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans']]. In any case, many modern scholars point out that, eventhe inethos of the ancient timesAryan identity, theas ideait ofis beingdescribed anin ''Aryan''the Avesta and the [[Rigveda]], was religious, cultural, and linguistic, and was not racialtied to the concept of race.{{Sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=60–63}}<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Witzel|2001|loc=p. 24: "''Arya''/''ārya'' does not mean a particular ''people'' or even a particular 'racial' group but all those who had joined the tribes speaking Vedic Sanskrit and adhering to their cultural norms (such as ritual, poetry, etc.)"}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{harvnb|Anthony|2007|loc=p. 408: "The ''Rigveda'' and ''Avesta'' agreed that the essence of their shared parental Indo-Iranian identity was linguistic and ritual, not racial. If a person sacrificed to the right gods in the right way using the correct forms of the traditional hymns and poems, that person was an Aryan."}}</ref>

In the 1850s, the termFrench diplomat and writer [[Arthur de Gobineau]] brought forth the idea of the '[[Aryan race|Aryan]]', wasessentially adoptedclaiming asthat the Proto-Indo-Europeans were superior specimens of humans and that their descendants comprised either a [[Historical race concepts|distinct racial categorygroup]] byor thea aristocraticdistinct Frenchsub-group writerof the hypothetical [[Arthur deCaucasian Gobineaurace]],. who, throughThrough the later workswork of his later followers, such as the British-German philosopher [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], influencedthis specific theory by Gobineau proved to be particularly popular among the [[NazismFascism andin raceEurope|European far-right]] and ultimately laid the foundation for [[Nazi racial ideologytheories]], which also co-opted the concept of [[scientific racism]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=9–11}} UnderIn [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]], and also in [[German-occupied ruleEurope]] (1933–1945)during [[World War II]], theany termcitizen officiallywho appliedwas toclassified mostas inhabitantsan ofAryan Germanywould excludingbe honoured as a member of the "[[Historymaster race]]" of thehumanity. JewsConversely, innon-Aryans were [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|legally discriminated against]], including [[Jews]], [[Romani people|Roma]], and [[Slavs]] (mostly [[Slovaks]], [[Czechs]], [[Polish people|Poles]], and [[Russians]]).<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Gordon|first=Sarah Ann|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/9946459|title=Hitler, Germans, and the "Jewish Question"|date=1984|publisher=Princeton University Press|others=Mazal Holocaust Collection|isbn=0-691-05412-6|location=Princeton, N.J.|pages=96|oclc=9946459}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Longerich|first=Peter|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/610166248|title=Holocaust : the Nazi persecution and murder of the Jews|date=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-280436-5|location=Oxford|pages=83,241|oclc=610166248}}</ref> ThoseJews, classifiedwho were seen as 'non-Aryans,'part especiallyof Jewsthe hypothetical [[Semitic race]],<ref>{{cite web|date=2020|title=Aryan {{!}} Arian, adj. and n.|url=https://oed.com/view/Entry/11296 |website=Oxford English Dictionary|quote=Under the Nazi régime (1933–45) applied to the inhabitants of Germany of non-Jewish extraction. cf. 1933 tr. Hitler's ''Mein Kampf'' in ''Times'' 25 July 15/6: 'The exact opposite of the Aryan is the Jew.' 1933 Education 1 Sept. 170/2: 'The basic idea of the new law is that non-Aryans, that is to say mainly Jews...'}}</ref> were [[Racialespecially policytargeted of Nazi Germany|discriminated against]] before sufferingby the [[Genocide|systematic massNazi killingParty]], knownculminating asin [[the Holocaust]].<ref name=":7" /> andThe Roma, who are of Indo-Aryan origin, were also targeted, culminating in the [[Porajmos]]. The genocides and other large-scale atrocities committedthat inhave thebeen namecommitted ofby [[Aryanism|AryanistAryanists]] supremacist ideologies have led academicsacademic figures to generally avoid using '"Aryan'" as a stand-alone ethnolinguisticethno-linguistic term, whichparticularly hasin beenthe replaced[[Western inworld]], mostwhere cases by '[[Indo-Iranians|"Indo-Iranian]]'" is the preferred alternative, although the [[Indianterm subcontinent|Indic]] branch"Indo-Aryan" is still knownused asto denote the '[[Indo-Aryan peopleslanguages|Indo-AryanIndic branch]]'.<ref name=":6" />

** [[Proto-Anatolian language|Anatolian]]: *''ʔor-o-'', 'peer, freeman',{{sfn|Kloekhorst|2008|p=198}} [[Hittite language|Hittite]]: ''arā-'', 'comrade, peer, companion, friend'; ''**** [[arāwa]]-'', 'free from'; ''arawan(n)i-'', 'free, freeman (not being slave)'; ''natta ara'', 'not proper to the community',{{Sfn|Gamkrelidze|Ivanov|1995|pp=657–658}}{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|page=213}}{{sfn|Kloekhorst|2008|p=198}}

**** [[Old Norse]]: ''arjosteʀ'', 'foremost, most distinguished'.{{Sfn|Delamarre|2003|p=55}}{{sfn|Orel|2003|p=23}}<ref>{{Cite book|last=Antonsen|first=Elmer H.|title=Runes and Germanic Linguistics|date=2002|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-017462-5|pages=127}}</ref>

The term {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₂er(y)ós}} may derive from the PIE verbal [[Root (linguistics)|root]] {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₂er-}}, meaning 'to put together'.{{sfn|Duchesne-Guillemin|1979|p=337}}{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}} [[Oswald Szemerényi]] has also argued that the stem could be a Near-Eastern loanword from the [[Ugaritic]] ''ary'' ('kinsmen'),{{sfn|Szemerényi|1977|pp=125–146}} **** [[although]] [[J. P. Mallory]] and [[Douglas Q. Adams]] find this proposition "hardly compelling".{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}} According to them, the original PIE meaning had a clear emphasis on the in-group status of the "freemen" as distinguished from that of outsiders, particularly those captured and incorporated into the group as slaves. In [[Anatolian languages|Anatolia]], the base word has come to emphasize personal relationship, whereas it took a more ethnic meaning among [[Indo-Iranians]], presumably because most of the unfree ({{lang|iir-x-proto|anarya}}) who lived among them were captives from other ethnic groups.{{sfn|Mallory|Adams|1997|p=213}}

[[File:Young avestan geography.png|thumb|Approximate geographical extent of regions inhabited by the [[Arya (Iran)|Arya]] of the [[Avesta]] vis-a-vis other Indo-Iranian peoples during the [[Avestan period|Young Avestan period]] (ca.{{Circa}} 900–500 BCE).]]

Racially-oriented interpretations of the Vedic ''Aryas'' as "fair-skinned foreign invaders" coming from the North led to the adoption of the term ''Aryan'' in the West as a [[Historical race concepts|racial category]] connected to a supremacist ideology known as [[Aryanism]], which conceived the [[Aryan race]] as the "[[superior race]]" responsible for most of the achievements of ancient civilizations.{{Sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=60–63}} In 1888 [[Max Müller]], who had himself inaugurated the racial interpretations of the ''[[Rigveda]]'',{{Sfn|Bryant|2001|p=60}} denounced talk of an "Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes and hair" as a nonsense comparable to a linguist speaking of "a dolichocephalic dictionary or a brachycephalic grammar".{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p=269}} But an increasing number of Western writers, especially anthropologists and non-specialists influenced by [[Darwinism|Darwinist]] theories, came to see the ''Aryans'' as a "physical-genetic species" contrasting with the other human races – rather than as an ethnolinguistic category.{{Sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|p=5}}{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=61}} During the late-19th and early-20th centuries, noted anthropologists [[Theodor Poesche]] and [[Thomas Henry Huxley|Thomas Huxley]] quoted from the [[Rig Veda]] to suggest that the Aryans were blond and tall, with blue eyes and [[dolichocephalic]] skulls.{{Sfn|Mallory|1989|p= [https://archive.org/details/189942876InSearchOfTheIndoEuropeansJPMallory/page/n268/mode/1up 268-269]}}{{Sfn|Arvidsson|2006|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=idTPDI6l0mkC&pg=PA43 43]}} Western anthropologists have continued to refine this idea since the 20th century, while some have dissented.<ref>{{harvnb|Bryant|2001|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Y2jfHlinW4UC&pg=PA60 60–63]}}</ref> Hans Heinrich Hock has questioned that the Aryans were blond or light skinned, since, in his view, "most of the [Vedic] passages may not refer to dark or light skinned people, but dark and light worlds".<ref>{{harvnb|Bryant|Patton|2005|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=fHYnGde4BS4C&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q&f=false 8]}}</ref> However, according to [[Elena Efimovna Kuzmina|Elena Kuzmina]], there is ample evidence from the [[Avesta]] and the [[Rig Veda]] that the Aryans did have light eyes, light skin, and light hair.{{sfn|Kuzmina|2007|loc=pp. 171-172: "The Aryans in the [[Avesta]] are tall, light-skinned people with light hair; their women were light-eyed, with long, light tresses... In the [[Rigveda]] light skin alongside language is the main feature of the Aryans, differentiating them from the aboriginal [[Dasa|Dáśa-Dasyu]] population who were a dark-skinned, small people speaking another language and who did not believe in the Vedic gods... Skin color was the basis of social division of the Vedic Aryans; their society was divided into social groups [[Varna (Hinduism)|varṇa]], literally ‘color’. The varṇas of Aryan priests ([[brahmin|brāhmaṇa]]) and warriors ([[Kshatriya|kṣatriyaḥ]] or [[Raja|rājanya]]) were opposed to the varṇas of the aboriginal Dáśa, called ‘black-skinned’..."}}