Race Life of the Aryan Peoples

Race Life of the Aryan Peoples is a book written by Joseph Pomeroy Widney, published in New York by Funk & Wagnalls in 1907, of the history of the Aryan race, a hypothesized race commonly described in the late 19th and early 20th century[1][2] as consisting of native Indo-European Language-speaking peoples of Caucasian ancestry,[3] i.e., those ethnic groups that are the native speakers of Indo-European Languages regarded as descended from the original speakers of Proto-Indo European.

Race Life of the Aryan Peoples
AuthorJoseph Pomeroy Widney
LanguageEnglish
PublisherFunk & Wagnalls
Publication date
1907

At the time the book was published, the Aryan race was generally regarded as one of the three major branches of the Caucasian race, along with the Semitic race and the Hamitic race. These sub-categories are now regarded by some as scientific racism.

Outline of the content of the book
The 4th edition of Meyers Konversationslexikon (Leipzig, 1885-1890) shows the Caucasian race (in pale and in grayish bluish-green) as comprising Aryans, Semites and Hamites. Aryans are further subdivided into European Aryans and Indo-Aryans (the latter corresponding to the group now designated as the Aryans proper or Indo-Iranians).

In this massive best-selling two volume work, Joseph Pomeroy Widney, the chancellor of the University of Southern California, describes what he believed was the origin of the "Proto-Aryans" in Central Asia about 7000 years ago, and how they spread out and formed the great "Aryan empires." He included empires which were predominantly Indo-European language-speaking: The Hittite empire, Persian empire, Mauryan empire, Macedonian empire, Roman empire, Gupta empire, Spanish empire, French empire, and British empire, finally resulting in the colonization of North America by the "Aryans", with the entire process culminating in the manifest destiny of the "Aryan Americans" of the United States to establish an American Empire.

Ethnic groups traditionally regarded as included in the Aryan race
The Aryan race is historically and traditionally defined as that branch of the Caucasian race that consists of those who are the descendants of the original Proto-Indo-Europeans.[4] The area primarily inhabited by these people is shown in chartreuse green on the map above, except for those regions colored chartreuse green on the map that are primarily inhabited by people who are native speakers of Indo-European languages but are not caucasian such as areas inhabited primarily by those who are of Black African ancestry--parts of The South in the United States, Haiti, the Caribbean Islands, northeastern Brazil, and Equatorial Guinea; and areas inhabited primarily by mulattos--Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and French Guiana.[5]

The book also discusses the "racial characteristics" of the various subgroups of the Aryan race and their constituent ethnic groups. Widney believed that these characteristics were determined by the soil and climate of the original homeland of each subgroup or individual ethnic group. The original 19th century and early 20th century use of the term Aryan (the original meaning of the term in English), as noted above, refers to "the early speakers of Proto-Indo European and their descendents".[1] Today in academic discourse these human beings would generally be referred to as the Indo-European peoples. These ethnic groups are indicated below:

The Eastern branch includes the Indo-Aryans (including the Maldivians) and the Iranian peoples (including Kurds); the Western branch includes the Armenians, Balts, Slavs, Romani, Albanians, Greeks, Romanics, Teutonics, Celts, Anglo-Americans (includes the European-Americans and the Anglo-Canadians), Québécois, North American White Hispanics, White Latin Americans, Anglo-Australians, Anglo-New Zealanders, British diaspora in Africa, and Boers.[6]

Today, as of 2011, the total population of the Indo-European peoples is approximately 2,405,000,000 people, of which over half, about 1,334,000,000, are those belonging to the Eastern branch of the Indo-European peoples, i.e., the Indo-Iranian peoples; and the rest, about 1,071,000,000, are those belonging to the Western branch of the Indo-European peoples, the European peoples. List of ethnolinguistic groups with populations

Introduction to the book

Every masterful race of the world’s history has its epic. It is the tale of the fathers told to the sons. But side by side with the spoken epic is another, unspoken, yet truer and deeper. It is the tale of the race life, not told in words, but lived in deeds done. And the epic lived is always more wonderful than the epic told. The true epic is found, not in the story of the battles or of the deeds of the rulers, but in the race life. In the perspective of time men become less, man grows greater. Race life is broader, deeper, richer than the life of any man, or of any men. The great men of a race are only an evolution of its race force; and the reserve force is greater than its product. They are indices, race marks. The great man is as the mountain peak; for the mountains that loom up above the widespread plain are not the land; they are only the land-marks, marks of the land. Kings are the accident; the people, the law. The Greek colonies, not Ilium and Atreides Agamemnon, are the true epic of Hellas, vastly more marvelous. So of the Aryan folk; not the Vedas, not the Avestas, not the Iliad, or the Nibelungenlied, or Beowulf, but the marvelous tale of what the Aryan man has lived—how he has subdued the wild and waste lands—how he has made the desert to blossom as the rose—how he has built up empire with ax and plow, and has sailed the unknown paths of the seas—these are his true race epic. The others are only as the fairy tales which old wives tell to their children. We read between the lines of the written epic to find the truer and greater epic which lies beyond. This book is an attempt to unfold somewhat of the race epic which the Aryan peoples have lived. ---Joseph Pomeroy Widney Los Angeles, January 1907.[7]

Editions
  • Race Life of the Aryan Peoples Volumes 1 and 2 (Hardcover) Funk & Wagnalls (1907) (ASIN B000TYHFXM)
  • 100th Anniversary edition: Race Life of the Aryan Peoples Volumes 1 and 2 (Hardcover) Kessinger Publishing (2007) (ISBN 0-548-10878-1)
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See also

References
  1. Mish, Frederic C., Editor in Chief Webster's Tenth New Collegiate Dictionary Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.:1994--Merriam-Webster Page 66
  2. Rand McNally’s World Atlas International Edition Chicago:1944 Rand McNally Map: "Races of Mankind" Pages 278-279--In the explanatory section below the map, the Aryan race (the word "Aryan" being defined in the description below the map as a synonym for "Indo-Europeans") is described as being one of the ten major racial groupings of mankind. Each of the ten racial groupings is depicted in a different color on the map and the estimated populations in 1944 of the larger racial groups except the Dravidians are given (the Dravidian population in 1944 would have been about 70,000,000). The other nine groups are depicted as being the Semitic race (the Aryans (850,000,000) and the Semites (70,000,000) are described as being the two main branches of the Caucasian race), the Dravidian race, the Mongolian race (700,000,000), the Malayan race (Correct population given on page 413--64,000,000 including besides the populations of the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and Madagascar also half of the Malay States, Micronesia, and Polynesia), the American Indian race (10,000,000), the Negro race (140,000,000), the Australian Aborigines, the Papuans, and the Hottentots and Bushmen. Those areas inhabited by mestizos--Mexico, Central America and northwestern South America--are shown on the map as hatched in both the color for Aryans and the color for the American Indian race (population of mestizos in 1944 about 35,000,000). Those areas inhabited by mulattos--Cuba, the Dominican Republic, French Guiana and southeastern Brazil--are shown on the map as hatched in both the color for Aryans and the color for the Negro race.
  3. Durant Will, Our Oriental Heritage (Volume I of The Story of Civilization) New York:1954 Simon and Schuster Page 286
  4. Mish, Frederic C., Editor in Chief Webster's Tenth New Collegiate Dictionary Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.:1994—Merriam-Webster Page 66
  5. Rand McNally's World Atlas International Edition Chicago:1944 Rand McNally Map: "Races of Mankind" Pages 278-279--In the explanatory section below the map, the Aryan race is shown as one of the ten major races of mankind (the word “Aryan” being defined in the description below the map as a synonym for “Indo-Europeans”). The area shown on the 1944 map as being inhabited by the Aryan race is coterminous with the area on the map above that is colored chartreuse green, with the exception of the regions noted above in the caption of the Wikipedia map provided on this page for this article.
  6. Widney, Joseph P Race Life of the Aryan Peoples New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1907 in Two Volumes: Volume One--The Old World Volume Two--The New World ISBN B000859S6O
  7. Widney, Joseph P. Race Life of the Aryan Peoples New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1907 in Two Volumes: Volume One--The Old World Volume Two--The New World ISBN B000859S6O Introduction (Page iii at beginning of Volume I)
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