Aryan Race

a name applied to what has been termed the Indo-European or Indo-Germanic family. According to a theory now pretty well exploded, the Aryans were originally located somewhere in Central Asia, possibly east of the Caspian, whence they swarmed eastward to Afghanistan and northern India, and westward throughout Europe. Owing to the wide-spread use of many common words, such as father and mother, it was conjectured that the Celts, Teutons, Greeks, Latins, Slavs, Persians, and Hindus were but swarms or branches of the same race--a great Aryan family. It is now believed that the Hindu, the Irishman, and the Norwegian indeed derived similar words from some one source, or by early intercourse; but it is held that differences in the shape of the head and many other physical characteristics justify the assumption that these people belong to different races. Race is a matter, not of language, but of physical structure. In other words, the old so-called Indo-European or Aryan family has been broken up into fragments of uncertain size, relationship, and origin. It is still allowable to speak of Aryan languages, but not of an Aryan race.