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{{short description|Pseudoscientific racial grouping}}
{{pp-semi-indef}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{race}}

The '''Aryan race''' is a pseudoscientific [[historical race concepts|historical race concept]] that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people who descend from the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]] as a [[Race (human categorization)|racial grouping]].<ref>{{cite journal | title=The Great Aryan Myth|author=[[Knight Dunlap]]|volume=59|number=4|date=October 1944|journal=[[The Scientific Monthly]]|publisher=[[American Association for the Advancement of Science]]|url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/18253|pages=296–300|jstor=18253|bibcode=1944SciMo..59..296D}}</ref>{{sfn|Arvindsson|2006|pp=13–50}} The terminology derives from the historical usage of [[Aryan]], used by modern [[Indo-Iranians]] as an [[epithet]] of "noble". [[Anthropology|Anthropological]], [[Human history|historical]], and [[Archaeology|archaeological]] evidence does not support the validity of this concept.{{sfn|Arvindsson|2006|p=45}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ramaswamy|first=Sumathi|date=June 2001|title=Remains of the race: Archaeology, nationalism, and the yearning for civilisation in the Indus valley|journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review|volume=38|issue=2|pages=105–145|doi=10.1177/001946460103800201|s2cid=145756604|issn=0019-4646|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001946460103800201|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The concept derives from the notion that the original speakers of the [[Proto-Indo-European language]] were distinct progenitors of a superior specimen of humankind,{{sfn|Pereltsvaig|Lewis|2015|p=11}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=2}} and that their descendants up to the present day constitute either a distinctive race or a sub-race of the [[Caucasian race]], alongside the [[Semitic people|Semitic race]] and the [[Hamites|Hamitic race]].<ref>Mish, Frederic C., Editor in Chief ''Webster's Tenth New Collegiate Dictionary'' Springfield, Massachusetts. 1994 – Merriam-Webster See original definition (definition #1) of "Aryan" in English. 0. 66</ref><ref>''[[Meyers Konversations-Lexikon]]'', 4th edition, 1885–90, T11, p.&nbsp;476.</ref> This [[Taxonomy (biology)|taxonomic]] approach to categorizing human population groups is now considered to be misguided and biologically meaningless due to the [[Race and genetics|close genetic similarity and complex interrelationships between these groups]].<ref name="yu16">{{Cite book|author=Templeton, A.|title=How Evolution Shapes Our Lives: Essays on Biology and Society|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2016|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv7h0s6j|editor1=Losos, J.|place=Princeton; Oxford|pages=346–361|chapter=Evolution and Notions of Human Race|doi=10.2307/j.ctv7h0s6j.26|jstor=j.ctv7h0s6j |isbn=9780691170398 |quote=... the answer to the question whether races exist in humans is clear and unambiguous: no.|editor2=Lenski, R.}}</ref><ref name="royal17">{{Cite journal|last1=Wagner|first1=Jennifer K.|last2=Yu|first2=Joon-Ho|last3=Ifekwunigwe|first3=Jayne O.|last4=Harrell|first4=Tanya M.|last5=Bamshad|first5=Michael J.|last6=Royal|first6=Charmaine D.|date=February 2017|title=Anthropologists' views on race, ancestry, and genetics|journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume=162|issue=2|pages=318–327|doi=10.1002/ajpa.23120|pmc=5299519|pmid=27874171 |bibcode=2017AJPA..162..318W }}</ref><ref name="aapa20">{{Cite web|author=American Association of Physical Anthropologists|author-link=American Association of Physical Anthropologists|date=27 March 2019|title=AAPA Statement on Race and Racism|url=https://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-statement-race-and-racism-2019/|access-date=19 June 2020|website=American Association of Physical Anthropologists|archive-date=25 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125163036/https://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-statement-race-and-racism-2019/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The term was adopted by various [[Racism|racist]] and [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] writers during the 19th century, including [[Arthur de Gobineau]], [[Richard Wagner]], and [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]],<ref name="Rich983">{{cite journal |author=Paul B. Rich |year=1998 |title=Racial ideas and the impact of imperialism in Europe |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10848779808579862 |journal=[[The European Legacy]] |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=30–33 |doi=10.1080/10848779808579862|url-access=subscription }}</ref> whose [[scientific racism]] influenced later [[Nazi racial theories|Nazi racial ideology]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=13–40}} By the 1930s, the concept had been associated with both [[Nazism]] and [[Nordicism]],<ref>{{cite journal| last = Gregor| first = A James | title = Nordicism Revisited | journal = Phylon | volume = 22| issue = 4 | pages = 352–360| year = 1961 |jstor= 273538 | doi =10.2307/273538}}</ref> and used to support the [[White supremacy|white supremacist]] ideology of [[Aryanism]] that portrayed the Aryan race as a "[[master race]]",{{sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=33–50}} with non-Aryans regarded as [[Racial hierarchy|racially inferior]] (''[[Untermensch]]'', {{Literal translation|subhuman}}) and an existential threat that was to be [[Extermination (crime)|exterminated]].<ref name="longerich10">{{cite book |last=Longerich |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLy80aq8tR8C |title=Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews |date=2010 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0191613470 |author-link=Peter Longerich}}</ref> In [[Nazi Germany]], these ideas formed an essential part of the state ideology that led to [[the Holocaust]].<ref name=":7"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/aryan-1|publisher=[[Holocaust Encyclopedia]], [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|title=Aryan|access-date=25 February 2022}}</ref>

== History ==
=== Debates on linguistic homeland ===
In the late 18th century, [[Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) was constructed as the hypothesized common [[proto-language]] of the [[Indo-European languages]].{{sfn|Bryant|2001|p=20}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=4–5}} [[William Jones (philologist)|Sir William Jones]], who was acclaimed as the "most respected linguist in Europe" for his ''Grammar of the Persian Language'' (1771), was appointed one of the three justices of the [[Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William|Supreme Court of Bengal]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=6}} Jones, who arrived in [[Calcutta]] and began his study of Sanskrit and the [[Rig Veda]], was astonished by the [[Lexical similarity|lexical similarities]] between [[Sanskrit]] and other Indo-European languages such as [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Gothic language|Gothic]], [[Greek language|Greek]], and [[Latin]], and concluded that Sanskrit—as a [[descendant language]]—belonged to the same proto- or parent-language in the [[language family]]—that is PIE, as the other Indo-European languages,{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=7}} in his ''Third Anniversary Discourse on the Hindus'' (1786).{{sfn|Santucci|2008|p=40}} However, the [[linguistic homeland]] of the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|original speakers]] of Proto-Indo-European was a politicized debate among the archaeologists and [[Comparative historical research|comparative historical linguists]] since the start, entangling in [[Chauvinism|chauvinistic]] causes.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=4–5}}{{sfn|Zvelebil|1995|p=34}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=10}} Some European [[Nationalism|nationalists]] and [[dictator]]s, most notably the Nazis, later attempted to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland in their country or region as racially superior.<ref name="colin89">{{cite journal|journal=[[Scientific American]]|volume=261|number=4|date=October 1989|title=The Origins of Indo-European Languages|first=Colin|location=[[United States]]|last=Renfrew|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24987446|page=108|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1089-106 |jstor=24987446 |bibcode=1989SciAm.261d.106R |url-access=subscription}}</ref>{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=5}}

According to [[Leon Poliakov]], the concept of the Aryan race was deeply rooted in philology, based on the work of Sir William Jones' claiming that Sanskrit was related to Greco-Roman (European) languages. Other thinkers invented secularized origins for European civilization that were not based on the biblical genealogies from which Europe's aristocracy had long claimed descent.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Leoussi |first1=Athena |title=Encyclopedia of Nationalism |date=2001 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=United Kingdom |page=11 |quote="The process was further assisted by a romanticism which gloried in the exotic and encouraged the idea that the greatest civilizational achievements of Europe could be attributed to the stimulus of ancient Aryan tribal movements...Historians seemed increasingly bent on discovering in each case a vigorous national past from which could be projected an even greater future. Scholars searching for Aryan pedigree also availed themselves of such newer disciplines as ethnology and anthropology."}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Judaken |first=Jonathan |title=Leon Poliakov, Philosophy, and the Secularization of Anti-Judaism in the Development of Racism |journal=Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal |date=6 March 2024 |volume=35 |issue=1 |url=https://www.academia.edu/37191095|pages=193–195 |quote=It seemed as in the Europeans of the scientific age, having freed themselves from the conventional Noachian genealogy and rejected Adam as a common father, were looking around for new ancestors but were unable to break with the tradition which placed their origin in the fabulous Orient. It was the science of linguistics which was to give a name to these ancestors by opposing the Aryans to the Hamites, the Mongols—and the Jews.}}</ref>

=== Romanticism and Social Darwinism ===
{{See also|Romantic nationalism|German nationalism#Romantic nationalism}}
The influence of [[Romanticism#Germany|Romanticism]] in Germany saw a revival of the intellectual quest for "the German language and traditions" and a desire to "discard the cold, artificial logic of [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]".{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=7–8}} After [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s 1859 publication of ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' and publicization of the theorized model of [[Proto-Indo-European language]] (PIE), the Romantics convicted that language was a defining factor in [[national identity]], combined with the new ideas of [[Darwinism]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=8}} The [[German nationalism#Romantic nationalism|German nationalists]] misemployed the [[scientific theory]] of [[natural selection]] for the rationalization of the supposed [[Fitness (biology)|fitness]] of some races over others, although Darwin himself never applied his [[Survival of the fittest|theory of fitness]] to vague entities such as races or languages.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=8}} The "unfit" races were suggested as a source of genetic weakness, and a threat that might contaminate the superior qualities of the "fit" races.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=8}} The misleading mixture of [[pseudoscience]] and Romanticism produced new racial ideologies which used distorted [[Social Darwinism|Social Darwinist]] interpretations of race to explain "the superior biological-spiritual-linguistic essence of the [[Northern Europe]]ans" in self-congratulatory studies.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1992|pp=12–14}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=8–9}} Subsequently, the German Romantics' quest for a "pure" national heritage led to the interpretation of the ancient speakers of PIE language as the distinct progenitors of a "racial-linguistic-national stereotype".{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=8–10}}<ref name="frederic_94">Mish, Frederic C., Editor in Chief ''Webster's Tenth New Collegiate Dictionary'' Springfield, Massachusetts: 1994. Merriam-Webster p. 66</ref>

== Invention ==
=== Racial association of the term Aryan ===
{{See also|Aryan}}
The term "Aryan" was originally used as an [[ethnocultural]] self-designative identity and epithet of "noble" by [[Indo-Iranians]] and the authors of the oldest known [[religious texts]] of ''[[Rig Veda]]'' and ''[[Avesta]]'' within the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European language family—Sanskrit and [[Iranian languages|Iranian]], who lived in [[History of India|ancient India]] and [[History of Iran|Iran]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|pp=9–10}} Although the Sanskrit ā́rya- and Iranian *arya- descended from a form *ā̆rya-, it was only attested to the Indo-Iranian tribes.{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=209}}{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=22}} [[Benjamin W. Fortson IV|Benjamin W. Fortson]] states that there may have been no term for self-designation of Proto-Indo-Europeans, and no such [[morpheme]]s has survived.{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=22}} [[J. P. Mallory]] et al. states although the term "Aryan" takes on an ethnic meaning attesting to Indo-Iranians, there is no grounds for ascribing this semantic use to the Proto-Indo-European reconstruction of lexicon ''*h₂eryós'' i.e. there is no evidence that the speakers of proto-language referred to themselves as "Aryans".<ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|title=The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World|author1=[[J. P. Mallory]]|author2=[[Douglas Q. Adams]]|isbn=9780199296682|date=August 2006|url=https://global.oup.com/ukhe/product/the-oxford-introduction-to-proto-indo-european-and-the-proto-indo-european-world-9780199296682?cc=ca&lang=en&|chapter=Proto-Indo-European Society|page=266}}</ref> However, in the 19th century, it was proposed that ā́rya- was not only the tribal self-designation of Indo-Iranians, but self-designation of Proto-Indo-Europeans themselves, a theory rejected by modern scholarships.{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=209}}{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=22}} "Aryan" then came to be used by scholars of the 19th century to refer to Indo-Europeans.{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=209}} The now-discredited and [[Historical revisionism#Chronological revisionism|chronologically reconstructed]] [[North European hypothesis]] was endorsed by such scholars who situated the PIE homeland in northern Europe,{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=209}} which led to the association of "[[Proto-Indo-Europeans]]", originally a hypothesized linguistic population of [[Eurasia]]n PIE speakers, with a new, imagined biological category: "a tall, light-complexioned, blonde, blue-eyed race" - supposed [[phenotypic trait]]s of [[Nordic race]].<ref name="Villar91" />{{Sfn|Mallory|2015|p=268}}{{Sfn|Arvindsson|2006|p=43}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=9}} The [[Anglicisation|anglicized]] term "Aryan" then developed into a purely racialist meaning implicating Nordic racial type.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=9}}{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=209}} However, modern scholarship of Indo-European studies use "Aryan"  and "Indo-Aryan" in their original senses referring to Indo-Iranian and Indic branch of Indo-Europeans.{{sfn|Fortson|2011|p=209-210}}

Classification of human races based on the now-pseudoscientific study of phenotypical differences developed during the nineteenth century and evidence in support of such theories were sought from the study of language and reconstructions of language families.<ref name="cashmore97">{{cite book|publisher=[[Routledge]]|doi=10.4324/9780203437513|isbn=978-0203437513|first=Ellis|last=Cashmore|title=Dictionary of Race and Ethnic Relations|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203437513/dictionary-race-ethnic-relations-professor-ellis-cashmore-ellis-cashmore|edition=4|year=1997|chapter=Language, race, and ethnicity|page=198|author-link=Ellis Cashmore}}</ref> Scholars of this era established the ethnological term "Aryan" as the race that had spoken the Proto-Indo-European language, and in this context, the term was often used as a synonym for "Indo-Europeans".<ref name="cashmore97" />

Scholars point out that, even in ancient times, the Aryan identity as asserted in the ''Rig Veda'' was [[Vedic period|cultural]], [[Historical Vedic religion|religious]], and [[Vedic Sanskrit|linguistic]], not racial; nor do the ''Vedas'' contemplate [[Racial hygiene|racial purity]].{{sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=60–63}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=11}}{{sfn|Witzel|2008|p=21}} The Rig Veda affirms a [[Ritual purification|ritualistic barrier]]: an individual is considered Aryan if they [[Yajna|sacrifice]] to the right gods, which requires performing traditional prayer in the traditional language, and does not connote a racial barrier.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=11}} [[Michael Witzel]] states that term Aryan "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.)".{{sfn|Witzel|2008|p=21}} Scholars state that the historical Aryans, the [[Vedic period]] [[Bronze Age]] tribes who lived in [[Iran]], [[Ancient history of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], and the northern [[Indian subcontinent]]—composers of the Rig Veda and Avesta—were unlikely to be blond or blue-eyed, contrary to the proponents of Aryanism and Nordicism.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=10}}{{sfn|Witzel|2008|pp=10–11}}

=== North Europe hypothesis and archaeological affirmation ===
The racial interpretation of ''Aryans'' stems from the now-discredited [[Culture-historical archaeology|culture-historical archaeology theory]] of [[Gustaf Kossinna]], who asserted a one-to-one correspondence between [[archaeological culture]] and [[Race (human categorization)|archaeological race]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/1543/1/JK4.pdf|publisher=[[University of Wales]], Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies|year=2020|page=14|first=John T.|last=Koch|title=Celto-Germanic: Later Prehistory and Proto-Indo-European vocabulary in the North and West|access-date=6 April 2022|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-date=12 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220412005308/https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/1543/1/JK4.pdf}}</ref>{{sfn|Zvelebil|1995|pp=42–44}} According to Kossinna, the continuity of a "culture" exposits the continuity of a "race" which lived continuously in the same area, and the resemblance of a culture in a younger layer to a culture from an older layer indicates that the autochthonous [[tribe]] from the homeland had migrated.{{sfn|Arvindsson|2006|p=143}} Kossinna developed an ethnic paradigm in archaeology called [[settlement archaeology]] and practiced the nationalistic interpretation of German archaeology for the [[Third Reich]].{{sfn|Jones|1997|page=2}} The obsolete North European hypothesis was endorsed by Kossinna and [[Karl Penka]], including German nationalists, which was later used by the Nazis to condone their genocidal and racist state policies.<ref name="Villar91">{{cite book |last=Villar |first=Francisco |url=https://www.mulino.it/isbn/9788815127068 |title=Los Indoeuropeos y los origines de Europa: lenguaje e historia |publisher=Gredos |year=1991 |isbn=84-249-1471-6 |location=Madrid |pages=42–47 |language=es |author-link=Francisco Villar}}</ref>{{sfn|Zvelebil|1995|p=34}} Kossinna identified the [[Proto-Indo-Europeans]] with the [[Corded Ware culture]], and placed the [[Proto-Indo-European homeland]] in [[Schleswig-Holstein]].{{sfn|Arvindsson|2006|pp=142–143}} He argued a [[diffusionism|diffusionist]] model of culture, and emphasised the racial superiority of [[Germanic peoples]] over [[Roman people|Romans]] ([[Roman Empire]]) and [[French people|French]], whom he described as destroyers of culture as compared to Germanics.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arnold |first1=Bettina |date=July–August 1992 |title=The Past as Propaganda: How Hitler's Archaeologists Distorted European Prehistory to Justify Racist and Territorial Goals |journal=[[Archaeology (magazine)|Archaeology]] |publisher=[[Archaeological Institute of America]] |pages=30–37 }}</ref> Kossinna's ideas have been heavily criticised for its inherent ambiguities in the method and advocacy for the ideology of a [[Master race|Germanic master race]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Veit |first=Ulrich |author-link=:de:Ulrich Veit |year=2012 |chapter=Kossinna, Gustaf |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199735785.001.0001/acref-9780199735785-e-0237 |editor-last=Silberman |editor-first=Neil Asher |editor-link=Neil Asher Silberman |title=The Oxford Companion To Archaeology |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199735785.001.0001/acref-9780199735785 |edition=2 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0199735785 }}</ref>

=== Earliest utilization of Aryan race ===
[[File:Meyers map ('Caucasian races').jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|A nineteenth-century edition of the [[Meyers Konversations-Lexikon]] shows the ''[[Caucasian race]]'' (in shades of grayish blue-green) as comprising ''Aryans'', ''[[Semitic race|Semites]]'', and ''[[Hamitic|Hamites]]''. ''Aryans'' are subdivided into ''European Aryans'' and ''Indo-Aryans'' (for those now called Indo-Iranians).<ref name="Lehner15">{{cite book|url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004292932/B9789004292932_005.xml|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|date=2015|isbn=978-9004292932|volume=4|title=Race and Racism in Modern East Asia|chapter=4 The 'Races' of East Asia in Nineteenth-Century European Encyclopedias|first=Georg|last=Lehner|doi=10.1163/9789004292932_005|pages=77–101}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.retrobibliothek.de/retrobib/seite.html?id=111177|website=The Retro Library|language=de|title=Meyers Konversationslexikon: Volume 11: Luzula – Nathanael|access-date=15 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422170655/https://www.retrobibliothek.de/retrobib/seite.html?id=111177|archive-date=22 April 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>]]
[[Max Müller]] popularized the term Aryan in his writings on [[comparative linguistics]],<ref>{{cite web | title = Aryan | url = https://www.etymonline.com/word/Aryan | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230208041034/https://www.etymonline.com/word/Aryan | archive-date = 8 February 2023 | url-status = live | website = [[Online Etymology Dictionary|Etymonline]] | access-date = 10 May 2023}}</ref> and is often identified as the first writer to mention an Aryan race in English.{{sfn|Bryant|2001|p=33}} He began the racial interpretation of the [[Vedic]] passages based upon his editing of the ''Rigveda'' from 1849 to 1874.{{sfn|Bryant|2001|p=60}} He postulated a small Aryan clan living on a high elevation in central Asia, speaking a proto-language ancestral to later Indo-European languages, which later branched off in two directions: one moved towards Europe and the other migrated to Iran, eventually splitting again with one group invading north-western India and conquering the dark-skinned ''[[dasa]]s'' of [[Scythians|Scythian origin]] who lived there.{{sfn|Thapar|1996|pp=5–6}} The northern Aryans of Europe became energetic and combative, and they invented the idea of a nation, while the southern Aryans of Iran and India were passive and meditative and focussed on religion and philosophy.{{sfn|Thapar|1996|p=5}}

Though he occasionally used the term "Aryan race" afterward, Müller later objected to the mixing of the linguistic and racial categories,<ref name="redner19" /> and was "deeply saddened by the fact that these classifications later came to be expressed in racist terms".<ref>{{cite book|title=Mapping Channels between Ganges and Rhein: German-Indian Cross-Cultural Relations|isbn=9781847185877|date=11 July 2008|first1=Jorg|last1=Esleber|first2=Christina|last2=Kraenzle|first3=Sukanya|last3=Kulkarni|publisher=[[Cambridge Scholars Publishing]]|url=https://www.cambridgescholars.com/product/9781847185877|page=62|quote=In later years, especially before his death, he was deeply saddened by the fact that these classifications later came to be expressed in racist terms}}</ref> In his 1888 lecture at [[Oxford]], he stated, "[the] science of Language and the science of Man cannot be kept too much asunder [...] it would be as wrong to speak of Aryan blood as of dolichocephalic grammar",<ref name="redner19">{{cite journal|journal=[[Thesis Eleven]]|publisher=[[SAGE Publications]]|volume=152|issue=1|doi=10.1177/0725513619850915|title=Dialectics of Classicism: The birth of Nazism from the spirit of Classicism|date=16 March 2019|first=Harry|last=Redner|page=22|s2cid=181387481 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0725513619850915|url-access=subscription}}</ref> and in his ''Biographies of Words and the Home of the Aryas'' (1888), he writes, "[the] ethnologist who speaks of Aryan race, Aryan blood, Aryan eyes, and hair, is a great sinner as a linguist [...]".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-137-08450-7|publisher=[[Springer Publishing]]|editor=Jon R. Stone|year=2002|title=The Essential Max Müller On Language, Mythology, and Religion|isbn=978-1-137-08450-7|doi=10.1007/978-1-137-08450-7|page=18}}</ref>

European scholars of 19th century interpreted the Vedic passages as depicting battle between light-skinned [[Indo-Aryan migrations|Aryan migrants]] and dark-skinned indigenous tribes, but modern scholars reject this characterization of racial division as a misreading of the Sanskrit text,<ref name="west10" /> and indicate that the Rig Vedic opposition between ''ārya'' and ''dasyu'' is distinction between "disorder, chaos and dark side of human nature" contrasted with the concepts of "order, purity, goodness and light",<ref name="west10">{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania|first=Barbara A.|last=West|page=182|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=PA182|isbn=9781438119137|year=2010|publisher=Infobase }}</ref> and "[[Black-and-white dualism#Religion and mythology|dark and light worlds]]".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Indo-Aryan Controversy: Evidence and Inference in Indian History|publisher=[[Routledge]]|date=2004|first1=Edwin |last1=Bryant|first2=Laurie|last2=Patton|isbn=978-1135791025|page=8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NDRRNGj17EMC}}</ref>{{sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=60–63}} In other contexts of the Vedic passages the dinstiction between ''ārya'' and ''dasyu'' refers to those who had adopted the [[Historical Vedic religion|Vedic religion]], speaking Vedic Sanskrit, and those who opposed it.{{sfn|Witzel|2008|p=21}}<ref>{{cite book|title=[[The History and Culture of the Indian People]]: The Vedic Age|volume=253|first1= Ramesh C.|last1=Majumdar|author-link=R. C. Majumdar|publisher=[[Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan]]|isbn=9788172764401|page=253}}</ref>

However, increasing number of Western writers of this era, especially among anthropologists and non-specialists influenced by Darwinist theories, contrasted ''Aryans'' as a "physical-genetic species" rather than an ethnolinguistic category.<ref>{{cite book|title=The occult roots of Nazism: the Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890–1935|first=Nicholas|last=Goodrick-Clarke|year=1985|publisher=Wellingborough Aquarian Press|author-link=Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke|url=https://ixtheo.de/Record/331828073|page=5|isbn=0850304024}}</ref>{{sfn|Arvindsson|2006|p=61}}

Encyclopedias and textbooks of historiography, ethnography, and anthropology from this era, such as [[Meyers Konversations-Lexikon]], [[Brockhaus Enzyklopädie]], [[Nordisk familjebok]], [[H. G. Wells]]'s ''[[A Short History of the World (H.G. Wells)|A Short History of the World]]'', [[John Clark Ridpath]]'s ''Great Races of Mankind'', and other works reinforced European racial constructions developed on now-pseudoscientific concepts such as [[Race (human categorization)#Early taxonomic models|racial taxonomy]], [[Social Darwinism]], and [[scientific racism]] to classify human races.<ref name="Lehner15" /><ref>{{cite journal | title = Becoming caucasian: Vicissitudes of whiteness in american politics and culture | journal = Global Studies in Culture and Power | date = 4 May 2010 | pages = 89–90 | doi = 10.1080/1070289X.2001.9962685 | url = https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1070289X.2001.9962685 | vauthors = Mattew J | volume = 8 | issue = 1| s2cid = 145003887 | url-access = subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Blacks and Blackness in European Art of the Long Nineteenth Century | isbn = 9781138310315 | edition = 1 | date = 5 July 2017 | publisher = [[Routledge]] | url = https://www.routledge.com/Blacks-and-Blackness-in-European-Art-of-the-Long-Nineteenth-Century/Childs-Libby/p/book/9781138310315 | page = 21}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title = Nordicism and Modernity | isbn = 978-3-030-61210-8 | date = 28 November 2020 | publisher = [[Palgrave Macmillan]] | chapter = Introduction: Nordicism, Myth and Modernity | doi = 10.1007/978-3-030-61210-8_1 | vauthors = Gregers F | pages = 1–13 | s2cid = 229648042 | chapter-url = https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-61210-8_1}}</ref>

=== Theories of racial supremacy ===
The term ''Aryan'' was adopted by various [[racists|racist]] and [[antisemitic]] writers such as [[Joseph Arthur de Gobineau|Arthur de Gobineau]], [[Theodor Poesche]], [[Houston Chamberlain]], [[Paul Broca]], [[Karl Penka]] and [[Hans F. K. Günther|Hans Günther]] during the nineteenth century for the promotion of [[scientific racism]], spawning ideologies such as [[Nordicism]] and [[Aryanism]].{{Sfn|Mallory|2015|p=268}}{{Sfn|Arvindsson|2006|p=43}}{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=9}}{{sfn|Kaufman|Sturtevant|2020|pp=57–58}} The connotation of the term ''Aryan'' was detached from its proper geographic and linguistic confinement as a [[Indo-Iranian languages|Indo-Iranian]] branch of [[Indo-European language family]] by this time.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=9}} The inequality of races and the notion of a "superior race" was universally accepted by the scholars of this era, therefore race was referred to "national character and national culture" beyond biological confinement.{{sfn|Santucci|2008|pp=40–41}}

In 1853, Arthur de Gobineau published ''[[An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races]]'', in which he originally identified the Aryan race as the white race,<ref>{{cite web|title=Aryan|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aryan|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|access-date=24 April 2022}}</ref> and the only civilized one, and conceived cultural decline and [[miscegenation]] as intimately intertwined.{{sfn|Arvindsson|2006|p=45}} He argued that the Aryans represented a superior branch of humanity,<ref name="Orsucci">{{cite web|first=Andrea|last=Orsucci|url=http://www.unifi.it/riviste/cromohs/3_98/orsucci.html|url-status=dead|title=Ariani, Indo-Germanic, stirpi mediterranee: aspetti del dibattito sulle razze europee (1870–1914)|language=it|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020310125529/http://www.unifi.it/riviste/cromohs/3_98/orsucci.html|archive-date=10 March 2002|publisher= Cromohs Journal, [[University of Florence]]|date=2002-03-10}}</ref> and attempted to identify the races of Europe as Aryan and associated them with the sons of [[Noah]], emphasizing superiority, and categorized non-Aryan as an intrusion of the [[Semitic people|Semitic race]].{{sfn|Thapar|1996|p=5}} According to him, northern Europeans had migrated across the world and founded the major civilizations, before being diluted through racial mixing with indigenous populations described as racially inferior, leading to the progressive decay of the ancient Aryan civilizations.{{sfn|Arvindsson|2006|pp=13–50}}{{sfn|Arvindsson|2006|p=45}}

In 1878, German American anthropologist [[Theodor Poesche]] published a survey of historical references attempting to demonstrate that the Aryans were light-skinned blue-eyed blonds.{{Sfn|Mallory|2015|p=268}}

In 1899, [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]] published what is described as "one of the most important proto-Nazi texts", ''[[The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century]]'', in which he theorized an existential struggle to the death between a superior German-Aryan race and a destructive [[Semitic people|Jewish-Semitic]] race.{{sfn|Arvindsson|2006|p=155}}

In 1916, [[Madison Grant]] published ''[[The Passing of the Great Race]]'', a polemic against interbreeding between "Aryan" Americans, the original [[Thirteen Colonies]] settlers of British-Scots-Irish-German origin, with immigrant "inferior races", which according to him were, [[Polish people|Poles]], [[Czechs]], Jews, and [[Italians]].{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=9}} The book was a best-seller at the time.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=9}}

While the Aryan race theory remained popular, particularly in [[Germany]], some authors opposed it, in particular [[Otto Schrader (philologist)|Otto Schrader]], [[Rudolph von Jhering]] and the ethnologist [[Robert Hartmann (naturalist)|Robert Hartmann]], who proposed to ban the notion of Aryan from anthropology.<ref name=Orsucci/> The term was also adopted by various [[occultist]]s and [[Western esotericism|esoteric ideological systems]] of this era, such as [[Helena Blavatsky]],{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1992|pp=20–21}} and [[Ariosophy]].{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|1992|pp=227}}

== Nazism ==
{{Nazism sidebar |expanded=Race}}

=== Subhuman and inferior races in Nazi Germany ===
{{See also|Mischling Test|Dehumanization}}
The [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|racial policies of Nazi Germany]], the [[Nuremberg Laws|1935 Nuremberg Laws]], and the [[Nazi racial theories|racist doctrines]] of [[Adolf Hitler]] considered [[Jews]], [[Romani people|Roma]] and [[Slavs]], including [[Polish people|Poles]], [[Czechs]], [[Russians]] and [[Serbs]], "racially inferior sub-humans" ({{langx|de|[[Untermensch]]|lit=sub-human}});{{sfn|Connelly|2008|pp=4–11}}<ref name=":7">{{Cite book|last=Gordon|first=Sarah Ann|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|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><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MSa7B9oovacC|first=Oliver|last=Rathkolb|title=Revisiting the National Socialist Legacy: Coming to Terms With Forced Labor, Expropriation, Compensation, and Restitution|publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]]|isbn= 978-1412833233|page=84}}</ref> the term was also applied to "''[[Mischling]]''" (persons of [[mixed race|mixed]] "Aryan" and non-Aryan, such as Jewish, ancestry) and [[black people]].<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/deruntermensch.html |title=Der Untermensch "The subhuman" |author=Reichsführer-SS |publisher=SS Office |location=Berlin |year=1942 |access-date=14 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110053011/http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/holoprelude/deruntermensch.html|archive-date=10 January 2022|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="michel98">{{cite book |last1=Berenbaum |first1=Michel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zkZC6bp3upsC |title=The Holocaust and History: The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed, and the Reexamined |last2=Peck |first2=Abraham J. |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]], [[Indiana University Press]] |year=1998 |isbn=978-0253215291 |pages=59 & 37}}</ref>

=== Connotation of the term Aryan in Nazi racial theories ===
{{see also|Nazi racial theories|Racial policy of Nazi Germany}}
A definition of Aryan that included all non-Jewish Europeans was deemed unacceptable, and the [[Expert Committee on Questions of Population and Racial Policy]] of 1933 brought together important Nazi intellectuals [[Alfred Ploetz]], [[Fritz Thyssen]], and [[Ernst Rüdin]] to plan the course of Nazi racial policy, defining an Aryan as one who was "tribally related to the German blood and descendant of a ''[[Volk]]''".<ref name="rhrenreich07">{{cite book|first= Eric |last=Ehrenreich|title = The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5BvlGAEGAy0C |publisher = [[Indiana University Press]]|isbn = 978-0-253-11687-1 |year=2007 |page = 10}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=[[Harvard University Press]]|first=Robert N.|last=Proctor|isbn= 9780674745780|title= Racial Hygiene: Medicine Under the Nazis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hogbxS2Gp1QC|year=1988|page=95}}</ref> The term "''[[Volksdeutsche]]''" was used by Nazis to indicate "ethnic Germans" who did not hold German Reich citizenship;<ref name="bergen94">{{cite journal|journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]]| doi=10.1177/002200949402900402|first=Doris L.|last=Bergen|volume=29|issue=4|url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/002200949402900402|title=The Nazi Concept of 'Volksdeutsche' and the Exacerbation of Anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe, 1939-45|pages=569–570|year=1994| s2cid=159788983|url-access=subscription}}</ref> ''Volksdeutsche'' further consist of "racial groups"—minorities within a state—who are descendants of a ''Volk'' domiciled in Europe in a closed tribal settlement and are closely related to German racial community.{{sfn|Lumans|1993|p=23}}<ref name="rhrenreich07" /> The Nazi concept of "''[[Volksgemeinschaft#Nazi Volksgemeinschaft|Volksgemeinschaft]]''" racially unified ethnic Germans, including those living outside the German Reich, propounding only the members of the racial community be considered Aryan.<ref>{{cite book|doi=10.3998/mpub.93476|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.93476|publisher=[[University of Michigan Press]]|first1=Krista|last1=O'Donnell|first2=Renate|last2=Bridenthal|first3=Nancy|last3=Reagin|editor-first1=K. |editor-first2=Renate |editor-first3=Nancy |editor-last1=O'Donnell |editor-last2=Bridenthal |editor-last3=Reagin |year=2005|title=The Heimat Abroad: The Boundaries of Germanness|chapter=3: German-Speaking People and German Heritage: Nazi Germany and the Problem of Volksgemeinschaft|pages=58–81|jstor=10.3998/mpub.93476 |isbn=9780472114917 }}</ref><ref>{{Britannica|632308|Volksgemeinschaft}}, March 2021. ''Accessed'' 28 April 2023</ref>

Members of the [[SS]] deemed Aryans could be selected from populations of ''Volksdeutsche'' across Europe to create "master race".<ref>{{Cite episode| title= Holocaust - Hitler's War Against the Jews | url= https://www.wondrium.com/a-history-of-hitlers-empire-2nd-edition|access-date=17 April 2023| series= A History of Hitler's Empire, 2nd Edition| first= Thomas| last= Childers| author-link= Thomas Childers| publisher= [[The Great Courses]] | date= 2001| number= 11 | language= English | time=09:05-10:14 }}</ref> Nazi Party established the organization [[NSDAP/AO]] to disseminate Nazi propaganda among the ethnic German minorities considered ''Volksdeutsche'' in central and eastern Europe.{{sfn|Lumans|1993|p=31-32}} Nazi racial theories considered the "purest stock of Aryans" the [[Nordic race|Nordic people]], identified by [[Biological anthropology|physical anthropological features]] such as tallness, white skin, blue eyes, narrow and straight noses, [[Dolichocephaly|dolichocephalic skulls]], prominent chins, and blond hair, including [[Scandinavia]]ns, [[Germanic peoples|Germans]], [[English people|English]] and [[French people|French]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Volksgeist as Method and Ethic : Essays on Boasian Ethnography and the German Anthropological Tradition|publisher=[[University of Wisconsin Press]]|first=George W.|last=Stocking|date=1996|isbn= 978-0299145538|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2M2xMV5MeuQC|page=92}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Digging for Hitler: The Nazi Archaeologists Search for an Aryan Past|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hfbyDQAAQBAJ|first=David|last=Barrowclough|publisher= Fonthill Media; [[University of Cambridge]]|date= 2017|page=110}}</ref> with Nordic and [[Germanic people]] being the "master race" ({{langx|de|Herrenrasse}}).<ref>{{cite book | last = Longerich | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Longerich | title = Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-19-280436-5 | publisher = [[Oxford University Press]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rLy80aq8tR8C | location = Oxford; New York }}</ref> Recent [[Archaeogenetics|archaeogenetic]] studies contradict these ideas, and instead suggest that Proto-Indo-European speaking peoples probably had brown eyes and hair, and intermediate skin complexion.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lazaridis |first1=Iosif |last2=Alpaslan-Roodenberg |first2=Songül |last3=Acar |first3=Ayşe |last4=Açıkkol |first4=Ayşen |last5=Agelarakis |first5=Anagnostis |last6=Aghikyan |first6=Levon |last7=Akyüz |first7=Uğur |last8=Andreeva |first8=Desislava |last9=Andrijašević |first9=Gojko |last10=Antonović |first10=Dragana |last11=Armit |first11=Ian |last12=Atmaca |first12=Alper |last13=Avetisyan |first13=Pavel |last14=Aytek |first14=Ahmet İhsan |last15=Bacvarov |first15=Krum |date=2022-08-26 |title=A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia |journal=Science |language=en |volume=377 |issue=6609 |pages=940–951 |doi=10.1126/science.abq0755 |issn=0036-8075 |pmc=10019558 |pmid=36007020|bibcode=2022Sci...377..940L }}</ref>

=== Historical revisionism ===
After the death of Kossinna, [[Heinrich Himmler]], and other Nazi figures such as [[Alfred Rosenberg]], adopted his nationalistic theories of [[Germanic peoples]] and methodologies, including settlement archaeology, and founded the [[SS]] organization [[Ahnenerbe]] ({{langx|de|Deutsches Ahnenerbe}}) for conducting archaeological investigations of a presumed "Germanic expansion in pre-history".{{sfn|Jones|1997|pp=2–3}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Veit |first=Ulrich |author-link=:de:Ulrich Veit |year=2012 |chapter=Kossinna, Gustaf |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199735785.001.0001/acref-9780199735785-e-0237 |editor-last=Silberman |editor-first=Neil Asher |editor-link=Neil Asher Silberman |title=The Oxford Companion To Archaeology |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199735785.001.0001/acref-9780199735785 |edition=2 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780199735785 }}</ref> Nazi scholars endorsed the now-discredited [[North European hypothesis]] in an effort to prove PIE was originally spoken by an "Aryan master race", and associated the [[Semitic languages]] with "inferior races".<ref name="colin89" /> [[Historical revisionism]] around race was disseminated through the Nazi [[think tank]] Ahnenerbe.<ref name="Rich983"/>{{sfn|Kaufman|Sturtevant|2020|pp=57–58}} Hitler regularly invoked [[Social Darwinist]] concepts of [[Ernst Haeckel#Assessments of potential influence on Nazism|Ernst Haeckel]] such as higher evolution ({{langx|de|Höherentwicklung}}), struggle for existence ({{langx|de|Existenzkampf}}), selection ({{langx|de|Auslese}}), struggle for life ({{langx|de|Lebenskampf}}), in his Nazi racial ideology, which is the central theme in the chapter "Nation and Race" of ''[[Mein Kampf]]''.{{sfn|Weikrt|2013|p=541}} Haeckel's Social Darwinism was also praised by Alfred Ploetz, founder of the [[German Society for Racial Hygiene]], who made him an honorary member of the eugenic organization.<ref>{{Cite book|title=From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics and Racism in Germany|publisher=[[Springer Publishing]]|date=2016|first=Richard|last=Weikart|isbn=978-1137109866|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=11QBDgAAQBAJ|page=15}}</ref>

=== Nazi eugenics and Nordic supremacy ===
{{see also| Nordicism|Rassenschande}}

In 1938, the [[Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture|Reich Ministry of Education]] released the German biology curriculum which reflected the curriculum developed by the [[National Socialist Teachers League]] and emphasized the Social Darwinst interpretation of the evolution of human races.{{sfn|Weikrt|2013|p=542}} [[:de:Hans Weinert|Hans Weinert]], who had joined the [[SS]] and worked for the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics|Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology]] publishing theories of [[Nazi eugenics]] and racial evolution, claimed the [[Nordic race]] as a highly evolved race, and [[Aboriginal Australians]] as being the lowest rank in the [[racial hierarchy]].{{sfn|Weikrt|2013|pp=543–544}} [[Hans F. K. Günther]] was considered to be the most influential Nazi anthropologist, although he was not professionally trained.{{sfn|Weikrt|2013|p=544}} Günther's racist writings on Nordicism was suffused with the ideas of Gobineau, who believed the Nordic race had originated in northern Europe and spread through conquest;{{sfn|Weikrt|2013|pp=543–544}} this had expressed approval of the [[Nazi eugenics]] policies and had critical influence on scientific racism.{{sfn|Weikrt|2013|p=544}} Günther's theories gained acclamation from Hitler, who later included his books as a recommended reading material for the [[Nazi Party#Membership|Nazi Party members]].<ref>{{cite book|title= Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pSQSFKeOF5MC|first=Timothy W.|last=Ryback|publisher=[[Vintage Books]]|year=2010|isbn= 978-0307455260|page=132}}</ref> After the Nazis came to power, [[selective breeding]] for supposed Aryan traits such as athleticism, blond hair and blue eyes was encouraged, while the "inferior races" and people with [[Physical disorder|physical]] or [[mental illness]] were deemed "[[life unworthy of life]]" ({{langx|de| lebensunwertes Leben|lit= [[lives unworthy of life]]}}) and many were interned in [[concentration camp]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/eugenics/|title=Eugenics|publisher=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]], [[Stanford University]]|access-date=27 March 2022|first1=Sara|last1=Goering|first2=Edward N.|last2=Zalta|date=2 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220218001005/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/eugenics/|url-status=live|archive-date=18 February 2022}}</ref>

=== Ethnic cleansing and the Holocaust ===
{{main|The Holocaust|Final Solution}}
{{see also|Extermination through labour|Generalplan Ost|Porajmos|Aktion T4}}

The culmination of Nazi eugenicist and racial hygiene programs of sterilization and extermination aimed at creating an "[[master race|Aryan master race]]" and eliminating "inferior non-Aryan types" such as Jews, Slavs, Poles, Roma, homosexuals, and the [[Disability|disabled]].{{sfn|Bryant|2001|pp=33–50}}{{sfn|Schaefer|2008|p=473}} Nazi Germany introduced the [[Anti-Jewish legislation in pre-war Nazi Germany|Anti-Jewish legislation]] that systemically [[Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses|discriminated against Jews]] by requiring [[Aryan certificate|Aryan certification]] for a [[German Reich]] citizen.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[American Economic Journal]]|title=The Long-Term Direct and External Effects of Jewish Expulsions in Nazi Germany|volume=7|number=3|date=August 2015|page=61|doi=10.1257/pol.20130223|url=https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/pol.20130223|author= Mevlude Akbulut-Yuksel|s2cid=11860826 |hdl=10419/51695|hdl-access=free}}</ref>{{sfn|Schaefer|2008|pp=473–474}} After Hitler became the [[Chancellor of Germany#Nazi Germany (1933–1945)|Chancellor of Germany]], the public policies of Nazi Germany became increasingly hostile towards supposed "inferior types",{{sfn|Schaefer|2008|p=637}} particularly Jews, who were considered to be the highest manifestation of the Semitic race,<ref>{{cite web|publisher=[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]|first1=James|last1=Michae|first2=Adam|last2=Burgos|title=Race|url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/race/|access-date=21 March 2022|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220309091846/https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/race/|archive-date=9 March 2022}}</ref> and segregation of [[Jewish ghettos in Europe|Jews in ghettos]] culminated in the policy of extermination the Nazis called the [[Final Solution]] to the [[Jewish Question]].<ref>{{cite web|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/final-solution-overview|title=Final Solution|access-date=21 March 2022}}</ref> The [[Persecution|state-sponsored persecution]] systematically murdered over 6 million Jews,<ref name=Dawidowicz>{{cite book |first=Lucy |last=Dawidowicz |author-link=Lucy Dawidowicz |title=The War Against the Jews |url=https://archive.org/details/waragainstjews00lucy |url-access=limited |isbn=0-553-34302-5 |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |year=1986 |page=[https://archive.org/details/waragainstjews00lucy/page/403 403] }}</ref> 5.7 million Slavs,<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution|title=Documenting Numbers of Victims of the Holocaust and Nazi Persecution|encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]}}</ref> 1.8–3 million Poles,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ushmm.org/learn/students/learning-materials-and-resources/poles-victims-of-the-nazi-era/polish-resistance-and-conclusions|title=Polish Resistance and Conclusions|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180102111652/https://www.ushmm.org/learn/students/learning-materials-and-resources/poles-victims-of-the-nazi-era/polish-resistance-and-conclusions|archive-date=2018-01-02|quote=Documentation remains fragmentary, but today scholars of independent Poland believe that 1.8 to 1.9 million Polish civilians (non-Jews) were victims of German Occupation policies and the war. This approximate total includes Poles killed in executions or who died in prisons, forced labor, and concentration camps. It also includes an estimated 225,000 civilian victims of the 1944 Warsaw uprising, more than 50,000 civilians who died during the 1939 invasion and siege of Warsaw, and a relatively small but unknown number of civilians killed during the Allies' military campaign of 1944–45 to liberate Poland.}}</ref> 270,000 disabled people,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.holocaust-education.dk/baggrund/eutanasi.asp |title=The Danish Center for Holocaust and [Genocide Studies] |publisher=Holocaust-education.dk |date=1939-09-01 |access-date=2015-09-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303081500/http://www.holocaust-education.dk/baggrund/eutanasi.asp |archive-date=2016-03-03 }}</ref> [[Holocaust victims|among other victims]], including children through [[mass shooting]], [[Gas chamber#Germany|gas chamber]], [[gas van]], and [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]], in the process known as [[the Holocaust]].<ref>{{cite book | title=The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 – March 1942|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/11675 |last=Browning |first=Christopher |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8032-5979-9}}</ref>{{sfn|Schaefer|2008|pp=636–637}} The ethnic Germans considered ''Volksdeutsche'' joined the local SS organizations under NSDAP/AO and participated in [[Pogrom|Nazi-sponsored pogroms]] in eastern and central Europe during the Holocaust, including seizures of Jewish property.<ref name="bergen94" /><ref>{{cite web|publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]]|access-date=28 April 2023|title=Origins of Neo-Nazi and White Supremacist Terms and Symbols: 'Blood and Soil{{'-}} |url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230124130554/https://www.ushmm.org/antisemitism/what-is-antisemitism/origins-of-neo-nazi-and-white-supremacist-terms-and-symbols#blood-and-soil |archive-date=24 January 2023|location=[[Washington, D.C.]]|url=https://www.ushmm.org/antisemitism/what-is-antisemitism/origins-of-neo-nazi-and-white-supremacist-terms-and-symbols#blood-and-soil }}</ref> The Aryan race belief was used by the Nazis to justify the persecution, depicting the victims as the "antipode and eternal enemy of the Aryans".{{sfn|Schaefer|2008|p=637}}

== White supremacy ==
{{see also|One-drop rule}}
Following [[End of World War II in Europe|Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II]], various [[neo-Nazi]] and [[racial nationalist]] movements developed a more inclusive definition of Aryan claiming to [[Western Europe]]an peoples, with [[Nordic race|Nordic]] and [[Germanic people]]s being the most "racially pure".{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2002|pp=663–671}}{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2002|pp=221}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Blamires|first=Cyprian P.|editor1-last=Blamires|editor1-first=C. P.|editor2-last=Jackson|editor2-first=Paul|year=2006|title=World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia|volume=1: A–K|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-57607-940-9|pages=459–461|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nvD2rZSVau4C&q=neo-nazism&pg=PA460}}</ref> However, in the [[Racism in the United States|United States]], most white nationalists [[Definitions of whiteness in the United States|define whiteness]] broadly as people of [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European ancestry]], and some consider Jews to be white although this is controversial within white nationalist circles.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2006/schism-over-anti-semitism-divides-key-white-nationalist-group-american-renaissance|title=Schism over Anti-Semitism Divides Key White Nationalist Group|publisher=[[Intelligence Report]]|date=Summer 2006|access-date=22 February 2018|author=Potok, Mark|author2=Beirich, Heidi}}</ref>

Many white supremacist neo-Nazi groups and [[Prison gangs in the United States|prison gangs]], notably in the United States, view themselves as part of an Aryan race, including the [[Aryan Brotherhood]], [[Aryan Nations]], [[Aryan Guard]], [[Aryan Republican Army]], [[White Aryan Resistance]], [[Aryan Circle]], [[Aryan Brotherhood of Texas]], and [[White nationalism#Notable organizations|others]].{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2002|pp=232–233}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Blazak|first=Randy|date=2009|title=The prison hate machine|journal=[[Criminology & Public Policy]]|publisher=[[Portland State University ]]|volume=8|issue=3|pages=633–640|doi=10.1111/j.1745-9133.2009.00579.x|issn=1745-9133|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-9133.2009.00579.x|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Neo-pagan movements ==
{{main|Criticism of modern paganism#Racial issues}}
Indo-European history, real and feigned, plays a significant role in various [[Modern paganism|neo-pagan]] movements.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=10}}

=== Russian neo-paganism ===
[[File:Kolovrat.svg|thumb|200px|"[[Kolovrat (symbol)|Kolovrat]]", the most common symbol of Slavic Neopaganism. According to its practitioners, it is an ancient Slavic symbol; however, the historic usage of such iconography is not attested in authentic sources.<ref name="Pilkington">Pilkington, Hilary; Popov, Anton (2009). "[https://www.academia.edu/34850279/Understanding_neo_paganism_in_Russia_Religion_Ideology_Philosophy_Fantasy Understanding Neo-paganism in Russia: Religion? Ideology? Philosophy? Fantasy?]". In George McKay (ed.). ''Subcultures and New Religious Movements in Russia and East-Central Europe''. Peter Lang. p. 282. ISBN 9783039119219.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Laruelle |first=Marlène |author-link=Marlène Laruelle |title=The New Age of Russia. Occult and Esoteric Dimensions |url=https://www.academia.edu/17977459 |location=Munich |publisher=Kubon & Sagner |date=2012 |pages=293–310 |isbn=9783866881976}}</ref>]]
The [[Slavophilia|Russian Slavophile movements]] borrowed various discrete ideas of a presumed "prestigious Aryan origin" of Europeans from Nazi Germany.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[Nations and Nationalism (journal)|Nations and Nationalism]]|title=Alternative identity, alternative religion? Neo-paganism and the Aryan myth in contemporary Russia|first=Marlène |last=Laruelle |author-link=Marlène Laruelle |volume=14|issue=2|date=10 April 2008|pages=283–301 |doi-access=free|doi=10.1111/j.1469-8129.2008.00329.x}}</ref>{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=10}} Although [[Russian Orthodoxy]] was the primary religious influence on Russian nationalists, the [[Papal primacy|primacy of Christianity]] was treated skeptically by these groups, who later began searching for an ancient text to rationalize a "return to the origins".{{sfn|Laruelle|2008|pp=284–285}} Various writers in the newspaper ''Zhar-Ptitsa'' showed interest in a purported manuscript—the [[Book of Veles]]—which supposedly dated to the first century BCE.{{sfn|Laruelle|2008|p=285}} F. A. Izenbek, a [[White Army]] officer, alleged the discovery of this manuscript during the [[Russian Civil War]]. However one of Izenbek's friends, Iurii Miroliubov, had forged the manuscript, and used the term "[[Peterburgian Vedism|Vedism]]" to describe Russian neo-paganism; he later appropriated the Indian religious scripture, the [[Vedas]], to aggrandize the manuscript.{{sfn|Laruelle|2008|p=285}}<ref>{{cite journal|title={{-'}}Christians! Go home': A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia (An Overview)|journal=[[Journal of Contemporary Religion]]|volume=17|issue=2|first=Victor A.|last=Shnirelman|doi=10.1080/13537900220125181|date=2 August 2010|pages=197–211 |s2cid=51303383 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ref/10.1080/13537900220125181|quote=The urbanized bookish Neo-Paganism is constructed by people of high educational standards. They do not restrict themselves to an oral tradition and are searching for earlier cultures reconstructed by scholars. It is on this ground that the Russian Neo-Pagans forge their versions of the Neo-Pagan belief system: some of them emphasize an Indo-Iranian heritage ('Aryan', 'Vedaic'), others are more fascinated with Zoroastrianism, still others are adherents of the 'Runic Magic'|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Nationalistic [[white Russian émigré]]s and neo-Pagans consider the manuscript to be an authentic historical source of Slavic antiquity,{{sfn|Laruelle|2008|pp=285–286}} who claim a direct link between "ancient Aryans" and themselves as Slavs.{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=10}} However, the manuscript is declared [[literary forgery]] by scholars.<ref>{{cite book|title=Russia as Civilization|year=2020|publisher=[[Routledge]], [[Taylor & Francis]]|isbn=978-1003045977|chapter=Civilizational discourses in doctoral dissertations in post-Soviet Russia|first1=Mikhail|last1=Suslov|first2=Irina|last2=Kotkina|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003045977-8/civilizational-discourses-doctoral-dissertations-post-soviet-russia-mikhail-suslov-irina-kotkina|page=171|doi=10.4324/9781003045977-8 |s2cid=219456430 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/23845486|title=Rules of Disengagement: Author, Audience, and Experimentation in Ukrainian and Russian Literature of the 1970s and 1980s|website=[[Harvard University]], Graduate School of Arts & Science|year=2015|first=Kotsyuba|last=Oleh|page=22}}</ref> [[Alexey Dobrovolsky]], a Russian [[Neo-Nazism#Russia|neo-Nazi]],<ref>{{cite book |last= Klejn |first= Leo |author-link= Leo Klejn |date= 2004 |title= The Resurrection of Perun: Toward the Reconstruction of East Slavic Paganism |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Aa8qCwAAQBAJ |location= [[Saint Petersburg]] |publisher= Eurasia |isbn=9785444804223 |language=ru|pages=114, 480}}</ref> is considered the [[Nazi ideologues|founding Nazi ideologue]] of [[Slavic Neopaganism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last= Shizhensky |first= Roman |author-link= |date= 2009 |title= Neo-pagan myth about Prince Vladimir |url= https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/neoyazycheskiy-mif-o-knyaze-vladimire |journal= Bulletin of the Buryat State University. Philosophy, Sociology, Political Science, Cultural Studies |issue= 6 |pages= 250–256 |language=ru }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Laruelle |first=Marlène |author-link=Marlène Laruelle |title=Арийский миф — русский взгляд / Translation from French by Dmitry Bayuk. 25.03.2010 |work=Вокруг света | url=https://www.vokrugsveta.ru/telegraph/theory/1125/ |publisher=[[Vokrug sveta]] |date=25 March 2010}}</ref>

=== Goddess movement ===
{{Main|Goddess movement}}

With the rise of [[first-wave feminism]], various authors of the [[Goddess movement]] cast the ancient Indo-Europeans as a "patriarchal, warlike invaders who destroyed a utopian prehistoric world of feminine peace and beauty" in various [[Historical drama|archaeological dramas]] and books such as [[Riane Eisler]]'s ''[[The Chalice and the Blade]]'' (1987) and [[Marija Gimbutas]]'s ''Civilization of the Goddess'' (1991).{{sfn|Anthony|2007|p=10}}

== See also ==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Nazi human experimentation]]
* [[Esoteric Nazism]]
* [[Renordification]]
* [[Positive Christianity]]
* [[List of victims of Nazism]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
'''Notes'''
{{Reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''

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{{Refend}}

{{Historical definitions of race}}
{{Pseudoscience}}
{{White people}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aryan Race}}
[[Category:Anthropological categories of peoples]]
[[Category:Historical definitions of race]]
[[Category:Proto-Indo-Europeans]]
[[Category:Nazi terminology]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]
[[Category:Aryanism]]
[[Category:Race in Nazi Germany]]