Is Aryan race a mythic race?

Answer 1

Answer 1

The "Aryan (Air-ee-an) race" is a term that was used by Hitler and the Nazis during World War II. It refers to white people with blond hair, blue eyes. This term is not used commonly at all... and for good reason.

Answer 2

The term "Aryan" as Hitler defined it is a non-existent racial category. Probably the closest real racial/ethnic category to Hitler's Aryan would be Nordic peoples, who are a subset of Caucasians found predominantly in Scandinavia. However, most Southern Germans and Austrians were Germanic peoples, not Nordic peoples and Northern Germans are amid between the two. This is one of the reasons that most Southern Germans did not have the physical features that Hitler idolized: they were not Nordic.

However, Aryan is an actual racial/ethnic group, referring to an expansionary tribe from the Caucasus Mountains that lived around 3500 years ago. Members of that tribe expanded both to the south and the north, overrunning Iran and northern India in the south and much of Europe in the north. This is why most languages in these areas are related (Indo-European Languages). When the Aryans spread out, they became more ethnically diverse and married with the local populations, removing their own ethnic distinctiveness and becoming a part of the regions where they settled. There are no "pure Aryans" left today because of these intermarriages thousands of years ago.