The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European historyGrant, Madison
History
The passing of the great race; or, The racial basis of European history
Grant, Madison
Ethnology -- Europe
The term “Caucasian race” has ceased to have any meaning except where it
is used, in the United States, to contrast white populations with
Negroes or Indians or in the Old World with Mongols. It is, however, a
convenient term to include the three European subspecies when considered
as divisions of one of the primary branches or species of mankind but it
is, at best, a cumbersome and archaic designation. The name “Caucasian”
arose a century ago from a false assumption that the cradle of the blond
Europeans was in the Caucasus where no traces are now found of any such
race, except a small and decreasing minority of blond traits among the
Ossetes, a tribe whose Aryan speech is related to that of the Armenians,
and who while mainly brachycephalic still retain some blond and
dolichocephalic elements which apparently are fading fast. The Ossetes
now have about thirty per cent fair eyes and ten per cent fair hair.
They are supposed to be to some extent a remnant of the Alans, the
easternmost Teutonic tribe and closely related to the Goths. Both Alans
and Goths very early in the Christian era occupied southern Russia, and
were the latest known Nordics in the vicinity of the Caucasus Mountains.
If these Ossetes are not partly of Alan origin they may possibly
represent the last lingering trace of ancient Scythian dolichocephalic
blondness.
The phrase “Indo-European or Indo-Germanic race” is also of little use.
If it has any meaning at all it must include all the three European
races as well as members of the Mediterranean race in Persia and India.
The use of this name also involves a false assumption of blood
relationship between the north European populations and the Hindus,
because of their possession in common of Aryan speech.
The name “Aryan race” must also be frankly discarded as a term of racial
significance. It is to-day purely linguistic, although there was at one
time, of course, an identity between the original Proto-Aryan mother
tongue and the race that first spoke and developed it. In short, there
is not nor has there ever been either a Caucasian or an Indo-European
race, but there was once, thousands of years ago, an original Aryan race
long since vanished into dim memories of the past. If used in a racial
sense other than as above, it should be limited to the Nordic invaders
of Hindustan now long extinct. The great lapse of time since the
disappearance of the ancient Aryan race as such is measured by the
extreme disintegration of the various groups of Aryan languages. These
linguistic divergences are chiefly due to the imposition by conquest of
Aryan speech upon several distinct subspecies of man throughout western
Asia and Europe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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