ORIGINAL HOME.--North Africa between Sahara and the Mediterranean.
EARLY EXPANSION.--To Europe, the Eurasian Steppes between the
Carpathians and the Pamir, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, Arabia,
Mesopotamia, Iran, or Persia, India, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia,
Malaysia, Polynesia.
LATER EXPANSIONS.--The Caucasian race has now spread, through
colonization, over the whole world, but its proper region is Europe,
western Asia, and the northern strip of Africa Nine-tenths of the people
of Europe belong to the Caucasian family, the other tenth consisting of
the Turks, the Magyars (in Hungary), the Finns, the Laplanders, and the
tribe called Samoieds in the extreme northeast of European Russia. In
Asia, the Caucasians include the Arabs, the Persians, the Afghans, and
the Hindus. In Africa, the Caucasians are spread over the whole north,
from the Mediterranean to the south of the Sahara Desert, and to the
farthest border of Abyssinia as well as to the greater portion of South
Africa. In North and South America three-fourths of the people are now
Caucasian. In Australia and New Zealand the Caucasian colonists have
almost extinguished the native races.
RELIGION.--The Caucasian race now supports various forms of Christianity
in Europe, America, and their Colonies; Buddhism in India; Mohammedanism
in Central Asia, Siberia, Turkey, Arabia, North Africa, Irania, India,
Malaysia. Originally nature-worship was more pronounced than the cult of
ancestor-worship. The Egyptians did not worship but embalmed the dead.
The chief gods of the Semites were those of the sun and moon; and those
of the Aryans were Dyaus, Indra, Zeus, Jupiter, Apollo, Saturn, etc.,
all personified elements of the upper regions which later became the
basis of extensive systems of mythology. Later these forces were
symbolized in wood or stone, which led to idolatry--that is, the worship
of the image itself, which still persists among the uneducated in some
parts of Christendom. The belief in magic, demons, witchcraft, omens,
ghosts and allied superstitions was also very prevalent.
Out of the general polytheism were slowly evolved various shades of
monotheism, whence arose the historical religions of the West, such as
Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism, while crass polytheism
persisted in the East--Brahmanism in India, degraded forms of Buddhism
in Ceylon and elsewhere. Intermediate between monotheism and polytheism
was the Persian religion, which refers light and all good to Ormuzd and
his host of angels, night and all evil to Ahriman and his host of
demons. Although already denounced by Isaiah, whose Jehovah is the one
source of all things, this twofold principle no doubt found its way into
the early Christian teachings.