Many people have used White/Aryan/Caucasian simultaneously. Many white-wannabe's from Asia and some Neo-Nazi Europeans use these words in the same manner and even use them to describe all white-looking people with Caucasian skulls.
Even the people of the Caucasus are sometimes labeled "Aryan" or "White" (which they are as per skin, eye complexion and skull structure).
To understand why these words are used simultaneously, we must understand the different uses of each word.
First we start with the different uses of the word "Aryan" and it's roots.
Aryan:
-This word is derived from the Sanskrit word Aarya which meant wise/noble or honorable. This is the most correct and accurate term for the word. It has more of a tribal meaning than that of color. The Proto-Indo-Aryans who spoke Sanskrit and settled in Southern Asia around 1200-1700BC considered themselves of noble class over the darker skinned natives of the Indus Valley or so it is said.
The ancient Persian kings used this word to describe themselves, due to their royal position and heritage.
In my opinion, the best description of the word Aryan is when it is applied to the descendants of ancient Sanskrit speakers, mainly the Indo-Aryan speaking peoples of Pakistan who's ancestors were these Sanskrit speakers calling themselves Aarya and being the first to do so.
-Language group. This refers to people who today
speak Indo-Aryan languages. It includes those of non-Indo-Aryan descent as well. Haplogroup R has been long associated with early Indo-European (IE) speaking peoples. The distribution of haplogroup R1A in the map below shows most Indo-European speaking people of South Asia going east onwards from the Ganges Valley are not originally of Indo-Aryan descent:
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-Whiteness (people with white skin, light eyes, hair, Caucasian skull etc.). This is probably the most misleading reference of the word Aryan. When Adolph Hitler took power, he propagated the ancient Indo-Europeans to be blond haired blue eyed people. He was probably right in his observations since pockets of unmixed IE speaking people in isolated mountainous areas of Asia can show Celtic or even Nordic features.
But he was wrong to give all people with blond hair blue eyes the name Aryan, since no known records show other Indo-European speaking peoples migrating and settling in Europe (who remained white) referring to themselves as such.
Hitler twisted around the ancient Sanskrit meaning of the word to suit his own political agenda. In Hitler's terminology a person with white skin, blond hair, blue eyes and a Caucasian skull is a "true Aryan" regardless of what race she/he belongs to.
If the above picture is what typically comes to your mind when one hears the word "Aryan" then this is a wrong understanding of the word.
Most peoples who settled in Europe with white features never refereed to themselves as "Aryan."
At best it can be used to refer to Proto-Indo-Aryan tribes (ie. Vedic peoples) and their descendants.
A note to add is not everyone with a Caucasian skull is of Indo-European origins. Most Arabs of the Middle East have Caucasian skulls but are not of Indo-European descent. Also people looking similar does not necessarily mean they are related. It's like comparing your average Pakistani to a Hispanic or Arab. They may look similar, but their genetic make up would be entirely different.
In short, Aryan is best described for early Sanskrit-speaking tribes who settled in Southern Asia and their decedents.
Caucasian:
-The most common usage of the term is for a person who resembles your average modern European.
This term is somewhat inaccurate because of the other two main usages of this word which are next to be discussed.
-The scientific reference to the Caucasian skull type. This is the correct and most accurate usage of the word. There are at least three major skull types amongst humans with Caucasoid being one of them.
Anyone with a Caucasoid skull is technically a Caucasian, regardless of skin, hair or eye color. It does not necessarily mean that people of Caucasian descent are directly related. In fact many theories state that some races with Caucasian skulls developed them independently from other Caucasoid races. They evolved separately from one another and developed a common Caucasian skull coincidentally or perhaps because they lived in similar environmental conditions.
Here is a sample of the Caucasian skull:
Compare it to the Negroid skull:
Or a Mongoloid skull:
This is what each skull would look like on a person today:
The person on the left is Caucasoid while the person on the right is Mongoloid.
Below is what a negroid person looks like:
By looking at the pictures of the three individuals, you can judge for yourself what skull type is yours. As mentioned, your skin, hair or eye color is irrelevant when coming to skull types. As an example the people pictured below are classify as Caucasian regardless of their relatively dark skin:
If you belong to none of these, then you are either mixed or belong to a small minority which belongs to none of these types. There are populations in remote parts of the world where there are skull types belonging none of the mentioned skull types.
A few more notes to add are that despite the terms Caucasoid or Mongoloid being used for two major human skull types, it does not necessarily mean anyone having either skull is of Mongolian descent or a native of the Caucasus.
-The other meaning of Caucasian refers to one who is a native of the
Caucasus mountain region. In this case it is necessary for one to have a Caucasian skull to be a native of the Caucasus.
Important things to know about native Caucasian people is that they are
not of Indo-European origins and neither are their languages; hence they are not 'Aryans' as some people label them out to be.
Though Indo-European genetic markers and languages are today found in this linguistically diverse region, it is due to invasions of ancient tribes who contributed to the genetics of the original Caucasian populations.
Despite Indo-European, Altaic and other influences on genetic and linguistic lines, the people of this region have maintained their unique culture and traditions.
Take for example the Azerbaijani dancer's pictures below:
Azerbaijanis. Religion: Shia Islam. Language: Azerbaijani, Western Oghuz Turkic, Altaic.
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Compare their traditional costumes to that of
Georgians.
Georgians. Religion: Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Language: Georgian, Karto-Zan, South Caucasian.
A similar comparison to
Ossetians.
Ossetians. Religion: Christianity & Islam. Language: Ossetian, Northern Iranic, Indo-European.
Note despite their religious and linguistic differences (they speak un-related languages!) their clothes, dances and culture still look similar.
In short they are all Caucasians
1) Because they have Caucasian skulls regardless of skin color
2) Because they are the natives of the Caucasus region. Those who show Mongoloid or other features are due to mixing with foreign races who brought the non-Caucasian languages and genes into the region.
What they are not:
1) Aryan. Save for a handful of them who are mixed, most are not of Indo-European descent or in anyway related to Indo-Iranic peoples.
2) Europeans. Many people do consider the Caucasus to be geographically European territory so they may be 'geographically European' but their main gene pool (not counting those brought by invaders) differs from that of most modern Europeans.
The Indo-European haplogroup is R and it's subclades R1A, R1B, R2 etc. The main Caucasian haplogroup is said to be G and it's subclades.
Refer to the map below:
White:
-Referring to Europeans. This word has typically been synonymous with those of European descent. It doesn't matter what part of Europe, as long as a person or people are ethnically European from both sides of their families they are "white."
In some cases especially in racial nationalistic standards, the person or people must also be of Christian faith. By this standard people of European ethnicity cannot also be considered "white" especially if they are Jewish or Muslim. This means many European Muslims such as Albanians and Bosnians cannot be accepted as white due to their Islamic faith and the same is true for European Jews.
-The physical term is also commonly used. This people generally with Caucasian skulls and resembling Europeans especially in skin tone and perhaps also in light hair and eye color. The term white originates mainly in reference to skin tone.
Technically the white skinned people found in the Middle East and parts of Central/Southern Asia are "white" due to having these features.
To sum it up: All unmixed indigenous people of the Caucasus are Caucasian by skull type and Native Caucasian, but not all people with Caucasian skulls are Native Caucasians. Just as not all people with Mongoloid skulls are Mongolian.
-All people with Caucasian skulls are Caucasian regardless of color but not necessarily indigenous to the Caucasus mountain region.
-All prehistoric Aryans were Caucasians (and most likely entirely white like Europeans) because of their skull type but not indigenous to the Caucasus.
The Aryans settled in Asia, while their distant relatives settled into Europe who later became the Germanics, the Celts, the Proto-Romanic, the Proto-Illyrians, the Proto-Greek and the Balto-Slavics. The
Tocharians were the best known non-Aryan Europeans to settle in Asia.
-All white Europeans are Caucasian (not counting mixed) because they have Caucasian skulls but are not Aryan or Native Caucasian.
Most Europeans are of Indo-European descent though people of the Caucasus are often considered Europeans by geography.
-Anyone with white skin and a Caucasian skull fits the physical category of "white" but not the European definition if that person is not of European descent.
-Anyone who is of European descent even such as a dark-skinned person from southern areas of Europe fits the definition of "white" as in referring to an ethnic European.
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