[GCFL-discuss] Aryans

[gcfl-discuss at gcfl.net]

This is getting ahead of a reply I can't send until I get back to a different computer, but the use of Aryan to mean "white" derives from Adolf Hitler's appropriation of the word for his Teutonic master race. (That could cross reference to blonde jokes too). Just about everyone descended from any of the Indo-European language groups could be called Aryan, and like Lance says, a lot of those are various shades of medium brown. Anthropologists are finding traces of at least three northward migrations during which people's skin color lightened, as they needed less protection from the sun, and were in more danger of Vitamin D deficiency.

Siarlys

P.S. In Christian church history, there is also the term Arian, referring to those who emphasized the humanity of Jesus as laid out by Arias. The Aryan peoples who moved into the Roman Empire in its last centuries were converted initially to Arian Christianity.