Aryan Race Research Articles

A Report from the Archives of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean situated to the south-east of the southern point of India. It was colonised by an Aryan race that came from North India in the 6th century B.C. It has a recorded history of twenty-two centuries. Until the beginning of the 15th century it had political contacts mainly with the sub-continent of India. In 1518, the Portuguese captured a part of the maritime coastal area of Sri Lanka and started their own system of administration. The Dutch ousted the Portuguese from Galle in 1640 and established the administration of the Dutch East India Company along the same coastal region by 1656. They were active until they ceded to the British in 1796. The British administered the same coastal area from 1796 to 1815. The Kandyan kingdom was subsequently annexed in 1815 and the British gained complete control over the entire island. Sri Lanka regained independence from the British in 1948 and in May, 1972 it became a Republic within the British Commonwealth. Since February, 1978 it has been an Independent Republic with its first executive President.

The Aryan Myth: A History of Racist and Nationalist Ideas in Europe (review)

Book Reviews The Aryan Myth: A History o/Racist and Nationalist Ideas in Europe. By IAon Poliakov. Translated by Edmund Howard. (New York: Basic Books, 1974. $12.00) From the time of the Spanish Inquisition through the slavery era and on to the Holocaust , racial concepts have become increasingly powerful within Western thought. Despite their pervasive influence, historians of philosophy have chosen to ignore the significant contributions philosophers have made to the growth and articulation of racist ideas. Poliakov does not permit such choices. The creation of the Aryan myth has been the work of many hands and Poliakov wants to give credit where credit is due. He wants to explain the motivation for the myth itself, and he wants to expose the relation of this myth to racism generally and to anti-Semitism in particular. In the beginning the numerous "myths of origin" lived more or less in harmony with the Biblical Adam and Eve account. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries new genealogies began to appear in partial answer to the complexities engendered by reflections on the discovery of the New World. Isaac La Peyr~re's work on the pre-Adamites provided an important first step towards a polygenetic theory of man's creation. Poliakov credits Francois Bernier, student of Gassendi and friend of Locke, with the first use (1684) of "race" in its modern sense. Multiple creation plus color classification theories enrich one another throughout the eighteenth century. Ham's curse, degeneration hypotheses, and separate creation doctrines thus contribute to the hierarchical coIor-ranked scheme of Linnaeus as well as to the scientifically defended models which emerge in post-Darwinian evolutionary thought. The Aryan myth proper has two stages. First, it develops as part of a general assault on the Jewish roots of the Biblical world. Those Enlightenment figures like Voltaire, who hoped to reduce the force of the Christian religion by extirpating its Jewish roots, prepared the ground for a new myth of origin. Thus Moses was seen as filching stories and doctrines from earlier Indian sources. William Jones' discovery (1788) of Sanskrit's affinities with Greek and Latin provides a measure of respectability to this new cultural genealogy. The German philosopher Friedrich Schlegel deduced a relationship between language and race and spoke of the Aryan race. With Schopenhauer, the myth became specifically antiJewish . And so it has remained. By the end of the nineteenth century, the myth had moved to a second stage the rejection of the Jewish roots of language, culture, and race, was supplemented by an ignoring of the Indian origins in favor of a purely Germanic genealogy . Among other things, Poliakov chronicles the roles of philosophers with respect to racism. From Locke and Hume to Voltaire, Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Marx and Comte, philosophers contributed in essential ways to the formulations of racist theories, to their philosophical and scientific justifications, to their intellectual respectability, and to the receptions accorded their ever-increasing dissemination. It is a fact that many of the most important Enlightenment and post-Englightenment philosophers sought to find a new origin for European man in the mountains of Asia so that their philosophies, which remained Christian, would be untainted by Judaism. Jung expressed a variation on this theme in our own century. And yet the reader of this important and profound study must remain dissatisfied with the theoretical explanation Poliakov provides. Indeed, part of the brilliance and attraction of this study derives from the emphasis Poliakov gives to the presentation and organization of a vast quantity of data.But why did Europeans, in particularGermans, feelso corn- [401] 402 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY pelled to articulate a new "myth of origin"? Poliakov suggests that psychoanalysis might explain the strange concepts and peculiar structure which make up the Aryan myth. Thus he sketches the talk of "virile" and "feminine" races in popular nineteenth-century texts, as well as the tension between "regressive maternal images" (p. 204) and paternal images --matters which are the very stuff of myths of origin and ideal subjects for psychoanalytic inquiry. "In psychoanalytical terms it could be said that the West generally identified itself with its ancient 'Fathers' while seeking to surpass them, whereas Germany, on the contrary...

British applications of the Aryan theory of race to India, 1850–1870

British applications of the Aryan theory of race to India, 1850–1870

The Image of the Barbarian in Early India

The concept of the barbarian in early India arises out of the curious situation of the arrival of Indo-Aryan-speaking nomadic pastoralists in northern India who came into contact with the indigenous population (possibly the remnants of the urban civilization of the Indus) and regarded them as barbarians. The earliest distinction made by the Aryan speakers was a linguistic distinction and, to a smaller extent, a physical distinction. The Indo-Aryan speakers spoke Sanskrit whereas the indigenous peoples probably spoke Dravidian and Munda. However the distinction was not one of binary opposition—in fact it admitted to many nuances and degrees of variation, hence the complication of trying to trace the history of the concept. The distinction was rarely clearly manifest and based either on language, ethnic origins or culture. Political status, ritual status and economic power, all tended to blur the contours of the distinction. Added to this has been the confusion introduced by those who tend to identify language with race and who thereby see all speakers of Sanskrit as members of that nineteenth-century myth, the Aryan race.

The Aryan Theory of Race

The Aryan Theory of Race

The Race Problem

IN his Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution on March 27, Prof. Julian Huxley discussed “The Race Problem”. It is obvious that different geographical groups of the human species differ inherently from each other; the term race is commonly employed to denote such a distinguishable group. Various difficulties crop up, however, as regards its usage in practice. First, characteristics which have no genetic basis, but are national, cultural, linguistic, etc., have been erroneously ascribed to races. For example, there cannot exist such a thing as an ‘Aryan race’, since the term Aryan concerns language; again, the main obvious differences between, say, the English, the French and the Germans, are not genetic but of national and cultural origin. Secondly, modern genetics has shown that after a cross, all possible combinations of the genes concerned will be produced, and will then continue to recur. In the absence of selection, no even approximately uniform blend will be formed. Thirdly, man is such a mobile organism that migration and intercrossing between different groups has been occurring on a large scale since before the dawn of history. Accordingly, nothing approximating to a pure race now exists, with the possible exception of a few remote and primitive tribes. Race is normally used of man in the same sense as race or subspecies of animals—that is, with an evolutionary implication. At best, it may be legitimately used of the hypothetical major groups (for example, black, white and yellow) into which we deduce that our species early became differentiated, and which may be called primary races; and of the equally hypothetical subgroups apparently produced by later differentiation (for example, Nordic, Alpine or Mediterranean), which may be called secondary races.

Races, Nations and Jews

In this book Dr. Tenenbaum treats a difficult social problem in the same way he would treat an obscure medical disease. In the first part of the book he discusses quite fully the underlying anthropologic and sociological factors that are etiologically related to antisemitism, which he regards as a serious social disease, from time to time reaching pandemic proportions. He reviews existing knowledge of the development of races and proves that there are no pure races. The Aryan race and the Nordic race have no sound basis in history of man's development; he regards them as entirely mythical, created by certain peoples to claim for themselves a superiority that is not based on scientific facts. Nations, too, cannot be defined by either language or territorial boundaries but are largely a state of mind. According to this point of view, he regards the Jews without a language and without a well

The Aryan Doctrine

HOWEVER much we may feel assured that ultimately truth will prevail, in the practical affairs of life it often befalls that we must watch the dry light of reason pale and flicker in the hot breath of a theory which, illogical and perversive of fact though it may be, appeals to the emotions, the passions and the interests, of the uninstructed, but socially and politically powerful, elements among mankind. The dogma of the Aryan race, which recently has burst like a shell over an astonished world, though formulated on a view of racial affinities fundamentally obsolete and a biased interpretation of archaeological fact, with the aid of the mystic symbols of the swastika, the arm raised in salute and a Messianic leader, has swept Germany off her feet by setting up an ideal, which recalls the ancient glories of the Germanic peoples in a period of political and economic depression, and holds out a promise of their revival through a racial regeneration.

The Aryans

SIR ARTHUR KEITH'S Frazer lecture on “The Aryan Theory as it stands To-day”, which was delivered in the University of Glasgow on March 4, was lacking neither in courage nor in imagination. Much water has passed under the bridge since Max Müller was accused of confusing race and language. Sir Arthur, holding that race and language are two aspects of one problem, nevertheless admits that for clearness we should have one name for the languages of Europe and another for its peoples, namely ‘Caucasian’. From a reconsideration of the problem in the light of the evidence which has accrued recently from Ur, Kish, and Susa, and a survey of the distribution of racial types in early times, he derives the Caucasians from the plateau extending from Meso-potamia to India, for which he suggests the name ‘Gedrosian’. In rejecting Europe as the place of origin of the Aryan tongues and practically reverting to the area west of the Pamirs put forward by Max Müller, Sir Arthur relies on the evidence of prehistory that down to somewhere about 3000 B.C. the culture of Europe was of too rudimentary a type and its inhabitants too few to make it probable that migration was to, rather than from, the highly organised agricultural communities of the east. It will be seen that Sir Arthur gave his hearers much material for careful pondering, his views implying a frank acceptance of racial and linguistic anomalies difficult to explain on any theory. He went further and asked of the Aryan theory that it should explain the triple racial zone of Europe and the diffusion of the Aryan tongues.

Ceylon's Government, Old and New

The government of Ceylon presents several points of interest to the student of political institutions. The island is the most important of the British crown colonies, and has been governed in recent years under a dual system, with an appointed executive and a legislative council, a majority of which is elected. A new constitution, which will go into effect during the present year, provides for a novel system with a very large measure of responsible government, on the basis of universal suffrage, for a population overwhelmingly Asiatic, but of several stocks, and with a small European element. This experiment should throw light on the larger problem of the government of India.Some data—geographical, historical, economic, and social—seem essential to an understanding of the political situation. Ceylon is an island of 25,000 square miles (about half the size of the state of Illinois), lying south of India and just north of the equator. The largest element in the population is the Sinhalese, descendants of an Aryan race that came from North India about the sixth century B.C., became Buddhists in the third century B.C., and retain that religion. Later came other peoples (Tamils) from South India, Hindu in religion, who occupied the northern part of the island. In the sixteenth century, the Portugese gained control of the coasts; and in the seventeenth, the Dutch conquered the Portugese districts. In 1796, during the Napoleonic wars, the Dutch sections were conquered by the British; and after a brief period under Madras they became a separate colony in 1802. After a war with the Sinhalese in the interior hill country, the whole island came under British control.

Hindu Astronomy

THE ancient mathematical and astronomical works of the Hindus are worthy of more attention than they have yet received from Europeans. A lengthened residence in India led Mr. Brennand to become interested in the study of some of these, which was frequently interrupted by the pressure of official duties; but after his retirement he took up the subject again, and presented a paper on it to the Royal Society about five years ago. The interest manifested in this has encouraged him in the composition of the work before us, which it is hoped will have the effect of making the Hindu system of astronomy more generally known, and perhaps induce others to make further investigations on the subject. He begins by a discussion of the ancient zodiac, and its general correspondence amongst the Indians, Chinese, Chaldæans, Arabians, and Egyptians; treats also of the other division of the ecliptic into so-called lunar mansions; and shows the bearing of this upon the probability that the Hindus had originally migrated from Central Asia into India. This, however, is a view which probably few at the present time would dispute, as that is understood to be the original home of the Aryan race. It is when we come to the astronomical calculations with regard to the movements of the planets, the precession of the equinoxes, and the prediction of eclipses, that the problem of the source and origin of the astronomy contained in the Hindu books stands before us. Now as to the precession of the equinoxes, H. T. Colebrooke (who afterwards became the second President of the Astronomical Society, succeeding Sir William Herschel) pointed out in 1816 (“Asiatick Researches,” vol. xii. p. 221), that the Hindus “had approximated to the true rate of that motion much nearer than Ptolemy, before the Arabian astronomers, and as near the truth as these have ever done since.” The Hindus, indeed, appear to have reckoned it at one and a half degrees in a century, which is equivalent to a revolution in 24,000 years; whereas Albatenius, the earliest of the Arabian astronomers who improved upon Ptolemy, made it a degree in 66 years, which amounts to a revolution in 23,760 years. The true value of this is about 25,800 years; but though the Hindu is nearer it than the Arabian, the difference is hardly enough to warrant us in concluding that the two are independent. Hindu Astronomy. By W. Brennand. Pp. xiv + 329. (London: Chas. Straker and Sons, Ltd., 1896.)

The History of Early Education. V. The Aryan Races Continued: The Hellenic Race

Previous articleNext article FreeThe History of Early Education. V. The Aryan Races Continued: The Hellenic RaceS. S. LaurieS. S. Laurie Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 2, Number 4Apr., 1894 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/433431 Views: 92Total views on this site Journal History This article was published in The School Review (1893-1979), which is continued by the American Journal of Education (1979-present). PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The History of Early Education. IV. The Aryan Races: Persians and Medo-Persians

Next article FreeThe History of Early Education. IV. The Aryan Races: Persians and Medo-PersiansS. S. LaurieS. S. Laurie Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 2, Number 3Mar., 1894 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/433406 Views: 97 Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in The School Review (1893-1979), which is continued by the American Journal of Education (1979-present). PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Teresa Brawner Bevis Schooling and Literacy before World War II, (Jan 2016): 29–65.https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137568601_2

Morris's Aryan RaceThe Aryan Race: Its Origin and Its Achievements.Charles Morris

Previous articleNext article FreeRecent LiteratureMorris's Aryan Race The Aryan Race: Its Origin and Its Achievements. Charles Morris E. D. CopeE. D. Cope Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The American Naturalist Volume 25, Number 297Sep., 1891 Published for The American Society of Naturalists Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/275402 Views: 173 PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

The Cradle of the Aryans

THE question as to the primitive home of the so-called Aryan race has lately excited so much interest that many students must have wished for a short and clear account of the controversies relating to the subject. This is exactly what Prof. Rendall supplies in the present essay, the substance of which was originally communicated to the members of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society. Prof. Rendall accepts Penka's theory that the Aryans were a European people who, at the close of the glacial epoch, followed the ice northwards, and settled in Scandinavia; and that Scandinavia was the centre from which, at various subsequent periods, groups of the Aryan race were dispersed. All the arguments marshalled by the German writer in favour of this hypothesis are here briefly and effectively stated. The philological part of the case is presented in a more scholarlike spirit by Prof. Rendall than by Penka himself, whose rash philological conjectures have prevented a good many people from doing full justice to the weight of his anthropological and ethnological evidence.

Art. VII.—The Land of the Four Rivers. A Supplement forming Part III. of the Series of Notes on the Early History of Northern India

In two previous papers written in the Journal of this Society I have adduced reasons for believing that the earliest Indian civilization was originated by the Dravidian immigrant races who formed stable governments in the countries previously ruled under the more loosely organized system of the Kolarian tribes, and who founded and maintained a flourishing internal and foreign trade. In my latest paper I brought forward arguments, based chiefly on the early religious history of India, to prove that there were at least two Dravidian immigrations into Northern India before the Aryans entered the country, or at least before the arrival of that section of the Aryan race who founded the Brahmanical religion. The first Dravidian immigrants were the Accadian moon and snake worshippers, called in India Haihayas, or Sombunsi, the sons of the moon or Lunar Rajputs, and the second were the Semite-Accad trading and warrior tribes, called Sukas Sans, sons of Ikshvaku, or Solar Rajputs. These latter immigrants worshipped the snake as their predecessors had done, but regarded the snake sun-god Vasuki, or Vishnu, as their parent and as the true symbol of the creative energy of nature, instead of the moon, which had occupied a similar position in the theology of their Accadian predecessors.

The Aryan Race. By CHARLES MORRIS. Chicago, Griggs. 12Dagger. $1.50

The Aryan Race. By CHARLES MORRIS. Chicago, Griggs. 12Dagger. $1.50

Scientific Serials

Scientific Serials

VII.—NEW BOOKS

Journal Article VII.—NEW BOOKS Get access The Aryan Race, its Origin and its Achievements. By CHARLES MORRIS. Chicago: S. C. Griggs & Co., 1888. Pp. vi., 347. Mind, Volume os-XIII, Issue 52, 1 October 1888, Page 612, https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/os-XIII.52.612-b Published: 01 October 1888

Scientific Serials

Scientific Serials