who or what is an "aryan"?

[Old School Killiwal]

?

[Old School Killiwal]

its a boy band from afghanistan

ironically, these are the darkest afghans ive ever seen.

[Old School Killiwal]

LOOK! this homosexual is back!

[Al Hanif]

an aryan :



not an aryan :




what's so difficult to understand ?

[DMXX]

From Jean Manco's New Vistas of a Distant Past;

... it rightly belongs to those who so described themselves in ancient times: the Iranians - the name Iran is derived from Aryan - and perhaps those who composed the Sanskrit Rig Veda. The word Aryan seems to derive from Proto-Indo-European *haeros or *haeryos, meaning member of one's own group. It appears in Hittite as ara- member of one's own group, peer, friend and another Anatolian language as arus, meaning citizen. It is quite common for an ethonym to arise from some means of denoting an insider as opposed to a outsider. As Indo-European speakers spread, they adopted various ethonyms to distinguish among themselves. That includes the speakers of Iranian outside Iran, who were known as Scythians or Saka by historic times. However the Iranian-speaking Alans appear to have taken their ethonym from the same source as Aryan, and one subdivision of their descendants in the North Caucasus, the Ossetes, is known as Iron.

The Aryans, therefore, were an Indo-Iranian speaking collection of tribes who adopted an ethnonym that is ultimately of Proto-Indo-European origin. Note that the Scythians, who linguists have discerned spoke an East Iranic language, went by another ethnonym.

As no modern ethnicity has an ethnonym derived from Arya, it is straightforward to conclude "they" no longer exist as a distinct entity. "They" are a topic for historical discussion.

However, evidence of "Aryan" culture (symbolism of fire in Zoroastrianism), language (no need for elaboration), clothing (kote-shalvar/shalwar-kameez) and even architecture (house styles found among Pamiris and Gilaki summer residences) are clear indicators of some continuity between them and modern Indo-Iranian-speaking populations in Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Georgia-Russia, India and Uzbekistan. Read E. Kuz'mina's The Origin of the Indo-Iranians for details.

[badmash_khel]

ironically, these are the darkest afghans ive ever seen.

I have seen them live in Germany in a wedding. They are not that dark. I have seen much darker Afghans. That's just one photo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy0EfoAOyak&feature=related

On topic.

Aryan has many meanings. Its a self designation of Indo-Iranians which means "noble".
The inscription on Naqsh e Rustam of Darius's tomb reads

I am Darius the great king, king of kings, king of countries containing all kinds of men, king in this great earth far and wide, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenid, a Persian, son of a Persian, an Aryan, having Aryan lineage.

http://www.livius.org/da-dd/darius/darius_i_t01.html

Its clear from this inscription that Aryan was seen as a lineage as well as having the meaning of noble. There were a collection of tribes known collectively as Aryans and pashtuns are among one of them. Darius makes it clear that persians are only one of the many Aryan tribes for example zazi are one of the many pashtun tribes.

This inscription in over 2000 years old and is much more reliable than modern baseless theories.

[Manzareh]

I wonder if this dark and light debate will ever end, or have i just been in this forum too long and witnessed it go round and round in circles far too man times.

[badmash_khel]

It will end when people realize "Aryan" has nothing to do with hitler and Nazis. Aryans never claimed to be european white people. Its people's lack of knowledge which creates confusion.

[Al Hanif]

It will end when people realize "Aryan" has nothing to do with hitler and Nazis. Aryans never claimed to be european white people. Its people's lack of knowledge which creates confusion.

I don't think he was talking about the definition of an 'Aryan'.

It's not just this thread.

There are people in this forum who wrote almost 300 posts just to try to prove that they are whiter.

[sunni]

who is aryan? aryan is ma couzin name lol

[Karachi]

aryans were a indo iranian tribe. they did probably look white in my opnion though ( not european of course), because if you see in hinduism, even their earliest Gods are white. I think Kalash, Dardic and even possibly pashtuns are their closes descendants today, though of course today every one has mixed up so much.

[randolph85]

i am just glad that afghanistan was never culturally conquered by the british so that this light or dark ish doesn't matter.

we only judge people by their tribe, the way it should be, damn it.

[Karachi]

i am just glad that afghanistan was never culturally conquered by the british so that this light or dark ish doesn't matter.

we only judge people by their tribe, the way it should be, damn it.

to be honest the skin complex in south asia has been there way before british, perhaps as old as the hindu caste system. Usually the highest caste are lighter, while the lowest castes are the darkest. Not sure who introduced the caste system, perhaps aryans, not really sure

[evilbunny]

to be honest the skin complex in south asia has been there way before british, perhaps as old as the hindu caste system. Usually the highest caste are lighter, while the lowest castes are the darkest. Not sure who introduced the caste system, perhaps aryans, not really sure

The Chinese are much the same. This has do do with the fact that in the past peasants working in the fields would be of a darker complexion, than wealthy land owners.

[roadrunner]

skin color most likely does matter randolph. As long as people can see there will be some effect of it though it's nothing like India or to a smaller degree in Pakistan.