What is an ethnos, what is a nation?

What is an ethnos, what is a nation?

ethnicity nation stereotype

It should be said that although these concepts of "ethnos" and "nation" are in the focus of an accentuated scientific and political interest, nevertheless, there is still no unambiguous answer to the questions: what is an ethnos, what is a nation.

Note that the characteristics of the concepts of "ethnos" and "nation" are given by Russian scientists, this gives them a certain epistemological status. Nevertheless, there is a cognitive difficulty in their analysis. And not only because there are ongoing discussions about their nature. These concepts need to be clarified for a variety of reasons. One of them is related to the fact that a linguistic tradition has developed in Russia, in contrast to the Western lexicon, in which ethnos and nation are identified. In Russian ethnology, the term ethnos is used in almost all cases when it comes to a people and even a nation. Without going into analysis, let us recall the traditional characterization of an ethnos as a less developed form of a historical community of people, which in its development passes into another community - a nation (of course, a non-civilian interpretation of the nation was implied). It should also be said that in Russian ethnology the real content of the ethnos was questioned; the question was raised: ethnos - myth or reality?

First of all, we note that the ethnos is considered by us as a special kind of social community. Understanding "ethnic" depends on many factors. One of the main ones is the methodology of the study, since the chosen methodological approaches allow revealing the essence of the phenomenon under study and predetermining its significance in the future.

"Ethnic" is derived from "ethnos". The Greek "ethnos" originally meant "pagan". In this sense, "ethnic" was used in English from the 14th century to the middle of the 19th century. In the United States, the term "ethnic groups" was actively used during the Second World War in relation to Jews, Italians, Irish and other peoples who did not belong to the population of the United States, which had British roots.

However, it should be said that there is no universally recognized assessment of the theory of ethnos in domestic science.

Ethnos (in ancient Greek - the people) - a historically emerging type of stable social community of people, represented by a tribe, nationality, nation. In the ethnographic sense, "ethnos" is close to the concept of "people". Sometimes they designate several peoples (ethnolinguistic groups, for example, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, etc. - a Slavic ethnic community) or separate parts within a people (ethnographic groups).

In the discussion on the definition of ethnos, three extreme positions are noticeable: 1) ethnos is a phenomenon of the biosphere (L.N. Gumilyov); 2) ethnos is a social, not a biological phenomenon (Yu. Bromley, V. Kozlov); 3) ethnos is a mythological phenomenon: “ethnos exists only in the minds of ethnographers” (V. Tishkov).

According to L.N. Gumilyov, the first general concept of an ethnos as an independent phenomenon, and not a secondary one, belongs to S.M. Shirokogorov (20s of the XX century). He considered ethnos "a form in which the process of creation, development and death of elements that enable humanity as a species to exist" takes place. At the same time, an ethnos is defined "as a group of people united by the unity of origin, customs, language and way of life."

The concept of ethnos proposed by S.M. Shirokogorov, did not receive support in domestic science due to the fact that the ethnos was interpreted as a biological category, and not as a social one. Due to his emigrant status, this concept was not included in Soviet science.

The concept of ethnogenesis L.N. Gumilyov was developed within the framework of geographical determinism. His theory about the deepest connection of the nature, customs and culture of peoples with the landscapes of the psychology of the people with the biosphere is close to the ideas of the Eurasians. Ethnos is an integral part of the organic world of the planet - it arises in certain geographical conditions. Considering ethnos as something primary, as a phenomenon of the biosphere, he ascribes a secondary character to culture.

Features of the ethnogenesis of L.N. Gumilyov reduces to the following provisions. Ethnos is a system that develops in historical time, having a beginning and an end, more precisely, ethnogenesis is a discrete process.

There is only one universal criterion for distinguishing ethnic groups from each other - a stereotype of behavior - a special behavioral language that is inherited, but not genetically, but through the mechanism of signal heredity based on a conditioned reflex, when offspring, by imitation, adopt behavioral stereotypes from parents and peers that are simultaneously adaptive skills. The systemic connections in the ethnos are the sensations of "one's own" and "alien", and not conscious relations, as in society.

The development of ethnic groups is determined by L.N. Gumilyov by the presence of special people in them - passionaries with super-energy. The activity and activities of the latter are the cause of the main historical events in the life of the people. The influence of passionaries on the masses is explained by passionary induction, and their activity is connected with the landscape, historical time and cosmic factors (solar activity).

According to the concept of L.N. Gumilyov, ethnos is not a social phenomenon that obeys the laws of social development. He considers ethnos as a natural community, not reducible to any other types of association of people. This is a biosphere phenomenon.

Many domestic scientists did not accept the concept of L.N. Gumilyov. Yu.V. Bromley completely rejected the doctrine of passionaries. Ethnos is defined by him as “a stable intergenerational set of people that has historically developed in a certain territory, possessing not only common features, but also relatively stable features of culture and psyche, as well as self-consciousness of their unity and difference from other entities (self-consciousness), fixed in the self-name (ethnonym) .

The encyclopedic definition of an ethnos implies a common territory, language and identity.

Since the 50s, significant changes have taken place in the field of conceptualization of the theory of ethnos, as well as cultural pluralism. The transformation of the policy of cultural pluralism was reflected in many theoretical approaches used in the analysis and assessment of the causes of the emergence of an ethnos and ethnic identity, nation and nationalism: neo-Marxist, modernization, cultural-pluralistic, status-group, rationalistic, etc.

Among the many approaches to the issue of ethnic groups and ethnicity, we single out two main (diametrically opposed) “constructivist” and “primordialist” ones, since they have been functioning for the past thirty years.

Constructivism claims that political and cultural identity is the result of human activity. The main thesis of the constructivists is that ethnicity is not seen as “some given”, but as a result of creation, it is a social construct (social constructs), created artificially with the help of rituals, ceremonies, various symbols and ideologies.

The primordial (primordial - original, primordial) approach presents ethnicity as an objective reality, that is, ethnic groups are considered as communities that are formed historically on the basis of objectively specified properties of a biological, cultural or geopolitical nature. Thus, according to E. Geertz, human beings realize themselves through the culture they create, which plays the role of a given in public life. The primordial roots of ethnicity are also associated with cultural anthropology by F. Barth and C. Case. In their studies, the socio-historical factor noticeably appears as a determining factor.

So, primordialism considers ethnos as a historically given community that can have a biogenetic nature, economic or cultural determination. The primordialist point of view, in the figurative expression of M. Bank, places "ethnicity" in the heart of man.

"Modernists" believe that ethnicity is based on the idea of ​​the political origin of nations and is represented in the works of B. Anderson and E. Gellner. They believe that the nation is the product of political action. According to Gellner, in a traditional society there could not be a sense of national community, because the society was divided by numerous class partitions and geographically. Only a small elite owned the culture in its written form. In the process of modernization, traditional boundaries are collapsing, and social mobility is growing. To master the skills of industrial labor, a person needs literacy. Representatives of all classes master a written culture, a national language is developed, in which all representatives of a given nation are socialized - as Germans, French, etc.

Nation (from lat. nation - tribe, people). Speaking about the phenomenon of the nation, it should be remembered that in the 16th century there were neither nations nor nationalities as a subject of practical politics or an object of theoretical disputes. If we approach the concept historically, then the nation is the “name” of a new people born in France. During the French Revolution, during the negotiations of the representatives of the authorities (June 1789) with the delegation of the third estate, the latter refused to consider themselves "representatives of the French people." It called itself the "National Assembly". The nation was then considered an association of like-minded people who opposed the old order.

France set an example in the formation of a nation. The French nation was formed from different ethnic groups (Breton, Provencals, Basques, Northern French people), which became close to each other in the process of establishing a common economic structure, a national market, a state with a single center and language.

Speaking about domestic research practice in the field of nations and national relations, it should be said that here, as a rule, all definitions of a nation are considered, starting with the definition of the French philosopher and historian of the 19th century E. Renan (1877) and ending with the definition of I.V. Stalin (1913). Having changed the traditional system of research, let us dwell on the (conditional) classification of definitions of a nation according to its essential features.

The first group consists of psychological definitions of the nation, the basis of which was laid by E. Renan, his famous dictum: "The existence of a nation is a daily plebiscite" cultural definitions. For example, according to one of the Austro-Marxists, K. Renner (R. Springer), a nation is "a union of like-minded and like-speaking individuals." This is a "cultural union". The basis of the third group - "historical-economic" - is the definition of the famous Marxist theorist K. Kautsky, who singles out the language, territory and community of economic life as the main features of a nation.

In 1913 I.V. Stalin, relying on the historical and economic theory of the nation by K. Kautsky, gave the following definition: “A nation is a historically established stable community of people that has arisen on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life and mental make-up, manifested in a common culture.” This materialistic definition of the nation formed the basis of the fourth group.

The problem of the nation occupies a certain place in Marxist studies, although neither K. Marx nor F. Engels engaged in a special analysis of the national question. Within the framework of the Marxist tradition, the theory of the nation was further developed in the works of V.I. Lenin. The Marxist-Leninist approach was different in that the national was subordinate to the class.

The existing approaches to the problem of the nation are due to the tradition of distinguishing between the "French" (civil) and "German" (ethnic) models of the nation, which developed in the 19th century. This distinction persists in modern science.

So, turning to the study of the problems of ethnic groups and nations, we proceeded from two circumstances. The first concerns a conceptual problem. The traditional conceptual apparatus that has developed in domestic science in the field of the ethnosphere does not correspond to current realities in some respects. The ambiguous interpretation and interdisciplinary nature of the concepts used make it difficult to study ethnic issues. The second circumstance has to do with methodology. The fact is that the lack of a theory that adequately reflects the processes taking place in this area makes it difficult to study ethnic processes. True, as noted above, a certain research experience has been accumulated, although among domestic and foreign specialists studying this problem, there is still no single methodological approach and a developed general concept. Given these circumstances, attention was paid to the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study and disclosure of the historical and philosophical aspects of the concepts that will be used in the work, the definition of the author's vision and research approaches.

All the inhabitants of our big planet are very different: for example, the highlanders are not at all like the islanders. Even within the same nation or country, there may be separate ethnic groups that differ in their cultural characteristics and traditions. In fact, an ethnic group is a part of an ethnic group, a certain community that has historically formed in a certain territory. Let's consider this question in more detail.

History and origin of the term

Today, an ethnic group is an important object of study for such sciences as history, population geography, and cultural studies. Social psychologists study this issue with the aim of preventing and resolving various ethnic conflicts. What is the origin of this term?

The etymology of the word "ethnos" is very interesting. It can be translated as "non-Greek". That is, in fact, "ethnos" is a stranger, a foreigner. The ancient Greeks used the term to refer to various tribes of non-Greek origin. But they called themselves another, no less famous word - "demos", which means "people" in translation. Later, the term also migrated to the Latin language, in which the adjective "ethnic" also appeared. In the Middle Ages, it was also actively used in a religious sense, being a synonym for the words "non-Christian", "pagan".

Today, "ethnos" has become a purely scientific term for all kinds of ethnic groups. The science that studies them is called ethnography.

An ethnic group is...

What is the meaning of this term? And what are its features and distinctive features?

An ethnic group is a stable community of people that has formed in a certain territory and has its own distinctive characteristics. The features of such a group will be discussed a little later.

In science, this term is very often identified with such concepts as "ethnicity", "ethnic identity", "nation". But in the legal sphere, it is completely absent - there it is often replaced by the terms "people" and the lack of clear definitions of all these concepts is a serious scientific problem. Many scientists believe that each of them hides its own specific phenomenon, so they cannot be identified. In the "ethnic group" Soviet researchers often abused the categories of sociology, and Western - psychology.

Western scholars identify two very important features of ethnic groups:

• firstly, they do not have their own statehood;
• secondly, having their own history, ethnic groups are not active and important historical subjects.

Ethnic group structure

All existing ethnic groups have approximately the same structure, which consists of three main parts:

1. The core of an ethnic group, which is characterized by compactness of residence in a particular territory.
2. The periphery is the part of the group that is territorially isolated from the core.
3. Diaspora is that part of the population that is territorially dispersed, including, it can occupy the territories of other ethnic communities.

The main features of ethnic communities

There are several signs by which a particular person can be attributed to a particular ethnic group. It is noteworthy that the members of the community consider these characteristics to be significant for themselves, they underlie their self-awareness.

Here are the main signs of an ethnic group:

• kinship by blood and marriage (this sign is already considered somewhat obsolete);
• general history of origin and development;
• territorial sign, that is, binding to a specific locality, territory;
• their cultural characteristics and traditions.

Main types of ethnic groups

To date, there are several classifications of ethnic groups and ethnic communities: geographical, linguistic, anthropological and cultural and economic.

Ethnic groups include the following types (levels):

• Genus is nothing more than a close community of blood relatives.
• A tribe is several clans that are linked by common traditions, religion, cult, or a common dialect.
• Nationality is a special ethnic group that has been formed historically and is united by one language, culture, faith and common territory.
• A nation is the highest form of development of an ethnic community, which is characterized by a common territory, language, culture and developed economic ties.

ethnic identity

An important indicator of the level of formation of a social ethnic group, in particular a nation, is ethnic self-awareness. This term is one of the main ones in the psychology of the groups we are considering.

Ethnic self-consciousness is a feeling of belonging of a particular individual to a particular ethnic group, ethnic group, nation. At the same time, a person must be aware of his unity with this community and understand the qualitative differences from other ethnic groups and groups.

For the formation of ethnic identity, it is very important to study the history of one's people, as well as cultural characteristics, folklore and traditions that are passed down from generation to generation, a thorough knowledge of one's language and literature.

Finally...

Thus, ethnic is a rather interesting phenomenon and a separate object of research. By studying individual communities, we not only learn about their cultural or historical characteristics, but also cultivate tolerance, tolerance and respect for other ethnic groups and cultures. Ultimately, understanding and respect for the characteristics of other ethnic groups leads to a significant reduction in ethnic disputes, conflicts and wars.

Ethnos - the central concept of ethnology. However, in modern ethnological science there is no common understanding of what an ethnos is, what is its essence, nature and structure. Meanwhile, without understanding the essence of this phenomenon, we will not be able to correctly understand the many derivative concepts and terms, it will be difficult to adequately comprehend the phenomena and processes of an ethnic nature.

Ethnic terminology appears in scientific literature as early as the second half of the 19th century. In our domestic literature, the term "ethnos" appears at the beginning of the 20th century. Its first detailed description was given in the 1920s by the Russian ethnographer S.M. Shirokogorov. According to his definition, “an ethnos is a group of people who speak the same language, recognize their common origin, have a complex of customs, a way of life, “preserved and consecrated by tradition and distinguished by it from those of others.” Such an understanding of ethnicity in S.M. Shirokogorova surprisingly combines with the reckoning of this community to the biological ones.

From the beginning of the 70s of the XX century. a discussion unfolded around the understanding of ethnicity, studies of the theory of ethnos began to appear. During the discussion, two main positions on the definition of the concept of "ethnos" were revealed. According to one point of view, ethnic groups are biological units - populations. The natural biological understanding of the ethnos is represented in domestic science by the concept L.N. Gumilyov. Proponents of a different position defend the idea of ​​an ethnos as a social phenomenon in the broadest sense of the word. From the point of view of these scientists, each ethnic group is closely connected with a certain human population as a biological community, but lives according to social laws, is governed by social laws.

The most widespread ideas about the ethnos as a socio-cultural phenomenon, formulated by Yu.V. Bromley. Ethnos (Greek ethnos - tribe, people) is a stable set of people historically established in a certain territory who have common relatively stable features of language, culture and psyche, as well as a consciousness of their unity and difference from other similar entities (self-awareness), fixed in self-name .

According to these ideas, ethnic groups are characterized by certain proper ethnic properties (language, culture, ethnic identity, enshrined in self-name), but these properties are formed only in appropriate conditions: territorial, natural, socio-economic, state-legal. An ethnos is a special historically emerged type of social group of the collective existence of people. Ethnicity is what makes up the individuality, the uniqueness of the people, what distinguishes one people from another. Such a community is formed and developed in a natural-historical way, it does not directly depend on the will of the individual people included in it and is capable of a stable centuries-old existence due to self-reproduction. The most important thing is that this community is perceived by the people themselves, is reflected in the consciousness of their unity and difference from other communities in the presence of a self-name or a common name for their group.

The introduction of the term "ethnos" into scientific circulation is primarily due to the ambiguity of the word "people", which is used to designate various social entities (the population of a state, a settler group, a crowd, etc.). The use of the term "ethnos", avoiding the ambiguity of the word "people", makes it possible to express the meaning of the word that it has when it comes to the peoples of the world, i.e., tribes, nationalities, nations. If we say, for example, "the Russian people", then we mean a community of people who consider themselves Russian and differ in many ways from other similar historically developing groups. In the same sense, we say “Ukrainian people”, “Belarusian people”, “Polish people”, “French people”, etc. Obviously, people belonging to these peoples may belong to different social groups of the population.

Factors of education and signs of an ethnic group differ. Thus, the formation of each ethnos is conditioned by direct contacts of its members, which, as a rule, is possible only if people live in the neighborhood, i.e., in the same territory. The commonality of the territory thus acts, first of all, as a condition for the formation of an ethnos.. The commonality of the territory also contributes to the self-reproduction of the ethnos: it ensures the development of economic and other types of ties between parts of the ethnos; the natural conditions of this common territory affect people's lives, reflected in some general features of their economic activity, culture of life and value-normative systems. However, even territorially separated groups of an ethnos can retain their specific features in the field of culture and the former self-awareness of the community for a long time. This means that it is necessary to clearly distinguish between territorial integrity as a condition for the emergence of an ethnos and a factor of its existence. The integrity of the territory is the most important condition for the formation of an ethnos, but an already formed ethnos does not necessarily preserve it.

The primary territory on which the formation of an ethnos takes place can then expand as a result of the settlement of the ethnos or lose its compactness, decrease in size, and be divided into parts due to migrations of other ethnic groups within it. However, even territorially separated groups of an ethnos can retain their specific features in the field of culture and the former self-name of the community for a long time. And the carriers of the same self-consciousness, living even in territories remote from each other, often retain their ethnicity from generation to generation (for example, Armenians in Russia, Lebanon, Syria, the United States, Ukrainians in Russia, the United States, Canada, etc.).

The Miao and Yao peoples are settled in South China, and in Vietnam, and in Laos, and in all these countries they live in islands among the main population.

There are Mexicans not only in Mexico, but millions of them live and work in the USA.

The Quechua Indian people live not only in Peru and Bolivia, where their language is recognized as one of the official ones, but also in Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile.

An ethnic group can even change its territory throughout its history, completely or almost completely moving to a new place. Kalmyks lived in Central Asia only four centuries ago, and since the 17th century. they live in the Lower Volga region (more precisely, in the western part of the Caspian lowland). The Hungarian ethnos over the past fifteen hundred years has changed four, and possibly five territories of settlement.

Thus, acting as a condition for the formation of an ethnos, the integrity of the territory is not a strictly obligatory factor in the subsequent reproduction of the ethnos.

The most important distinguishing feature of an ethnic group is language. It is either a condition for its formation, or the result of ethnogenesis. The latter is especially noticeable in the case of the formation of ethnic groups from multilingual groups of the population. As a result of such a close connection, language usually acts as one of the most important objective properties of an ethnos, as well as a symbol of ethnicity. However, the role of a common language as an ethnic feature in the full sense of the word is not consistent with cases where parts of the same ethnic group speak different languages. So, in Russia, separate groups of a single Mordovian people now speak three languages: part - in Moksha, part - in the Erzya language, others, remaining Mordvins, create their own national culture, using the Russian language, which has become their only and native.

It should also be borne in mind when parts of one ethnic group speak very strongly divergent dialects. This applies, for example, to the Germans and especially to the Chinese, whose northern, eastern and southern groups simply do not understand each other.

On the other hand, there are many examples when different ethnic groups speak the same language. The British and Australians, for example, speak the bottom language - English. It is also spoken by the inhabitants of the United States, most of the Canadians, the population of the island of Jamaica in Central America, New Zealanders and most of the Irish. However, they are all different nations.

And yet the language occupies the most important place among the main features of the people, despite all the exceptions. In the case when several ethnic groups speak the same language, as a rule, each ethnic group introduces its own specifics into this language. It may be in a different alphabet or spelling, in phonetics, vocabulary, specific phrases and phraseological combinations, but it is usually present in one form or another. Different peoples using the same language certainly have ethnic differences in speech both in the details of pronunciation and in address. For example, Americans call each other by diminutive names. In England, this is possible, as a rule, only with fairly close friendships or family relations.

Along with the language, specific elements of their material and spiritual culture are of paramount importance for the sustainable functioning of an ethnic group.. These are, first of all, those components that are characterized by traditionality and stability: customs, rituals, folk art, norms of behavior, etc. artistic queue. The features of culture in a broad sense include ethnic features of the way of life of the people.

What is it, its own special way of life of each people, how is ethnic identity expressed in culture in the broad sense of this term? How does it manifest itself or can it manifest itself?

Of course, in many ways. In, for example, how people work, what tools they use. Is, say, the “design” of a plow, one of the oldest arable implements that the peasants of Eastern Europe used to cultivate the land for many centuries, complicated? Meanwhile, their designs, there were several dozen. Residents of the center of Russia, Lithuania, Belarus used different plows.

The Ukrainian cart, which is mostly harnessed to oxen, was very different from the Russian cart, which is usually pulled by a horse. But the traditional Latvian cart is also different from the Russian one, although horses are harnessed to both.

The traditional dwellings of various peoples of the world are peculiar. Here are piled buildings, and floating dwellings, and portable dwellings, etc. In the past, Russian peasants traditionally built wooden houses in almost any natural conditions. Even if they moved to areas where there is no forest. In the polar tundra, log cabins were built from driftwood - logs nailed to the shore of the sea or river.

Clothing is also a special sign of the ethnic group.. Based on the clothes of a Russian peasant woman of the early 19th century. often it was possible to determine its "small" homeland. It was ever possible to determine from which locality a person comes from only one skullcap among the Uzbeks. And now in everyday life they talk about folk Russian, Tajik or Latvian clothes. However, the clothes of different peoples are becoming more and more of the same type, losing their ethnic character. National costumes in many cases become only festive clothes.

Sometimes the formation of an ethnos is facilitated by the common religion of its constituent groups of people.. For example, Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks in Yugoslavia have the same language, but Croats are Catholics, Serbs are Orthodox, Bosnians are Muslims; and Croats, and Serbs, and Bosnians are considered as three different peoples. (By the way, the Bosnians call themselves Muslims.) However, there are also small groups of Catholic Serbs and Orthodox Croats in Yugoslavia.

But the Lebanese Arabs are partly Muslims, partly Christians, and even of various persuasions. However, this did not lead to their division into different ethnic groups.

Ethnic groups are characterized by consciousness and a sense of belonging to a given community - ethnic self-awareness. The self-consciousness of the members of an ethnos, as it were, focuses the idea of ​​a common origin and historical destinies of the people included in it.

Even if, for example, separate groups of Russians, Spaniards, Armenians, Poles live in different countries, any of these groups is aware of a certain commonality with all groups bearing the same name. In addition, the representatives of each of these eponymous groups of people usually distinguish themselves from members of all other similar communities. At the same time, the antithesis plays a huge role: “we - they”. It is noteworthy that the very idea (including the ordinary one) of the existence of the category of human communities we are considering inevitably implies such a difference.

No matter how concretely ethnic self-consciousness finds its expression, the very fact of its manifestation, the separation in the minds of people with certain ethnic characteristics from people with other ethnic characteristics, marks the formation of a new ethnos. When the Belarusians began to think and talk about themselves as people who are somehow different from the ancient Russians, and from the Ukrainians living to the south, and from the Lithuanians in the north, and from the Russians in the east, and differing not only in the territory of settlement, but also according to customs, language, features of life, they transferred to the level of consciousness - the subjective level - some objective indicators of their existence, realized them.

Or, for example, when it comes to the Hungarians as an ethnic group, it always goes without saying that the Hungarians imagine that they are different in some way
from Germans, Japanese, from any other ethnic group. That is, we, the Hungarians, are such and such, and all the others are different.

Each of the ethnic groups has an indispensable external sign - a self-name (proper name, ethnonym). The very existence of self-consciousness - an ethnonym - suggests that this community has formed an ethnic self-consciousness.

Thus, an ethnos is characterized not only by the possession of a commonality of certain objective properties. An ethnos is only that set of people who are aware of themselves as such, distinguishing themselves from other similar communities. This awareness by the members of the ethnic group of their group unity is ethnic self-consciousness, the external expression of which is self-name. Such ethnic self-consciousness, having been formed in the course of ethnogenesis, then actually acts not only as the most important determinant of ethnicity (in this respect, pushing aside even the sign of the native language), but also as a force that unites the members of an ethnic group and ethnically opposes them to other ethnic groups.

Ethnos? The answer to this question may not always be the same. The word "ethnos" itself is of Greek origin, but it has nothing to do with today's meaning. People - this is how it is translated, and in Greece there were several concepts of this word. Namely, the word "ethnos" was pejorative - "herd", "swarm", "flock" and in most cases was applied to animals.

What is ethnicity today? An ethnos is a group of people that was formed historically and was united by common cultural and linguistic features. In Russian, the concept of "ethnos" is close in meaning to the concepts of "people" or "tribe". And to make it more clear, both of these concepts should be characterized.

A people is a specific group of people that has common characteristics. This includes territory, language, religion, culture, historical past. One of the main signs is but it is not the only condition. There are many peoples who speak the same language. For example, the Austrians, Germans and part of the Swiss use German. Or the Irish, Scots and Welsh, who, one might say, have completely switched to English, but at the same time do not consider themselves English. So, in this case, the word "people" can be replaced by the term "ethnos".

A tribe is also a group of people, but which feels related to each other. A tribe may not have one compact area of ​​residence, and its claims to some territory may not be recognized by other groups. By one definition, a tribe has common features that are clearly different: origin, language, traditions, religion. Another definition states that it is enough to have faith in a common bond and you are already considered one tribe. The last definition is more suitable for political unions.

But back to the main question - "what is an ethnos." It began its formation 100 thousand years ago, and before that there were such concepts as a family, then a clan, and everything was completed by a clan. Major scholars interpret differently. Some name only the language and culture, others add a general location, and still others add a common psychological essence.

Each ethnic group has its own stereotype of behavior and, of course, a unique structure. Internal ethnos is a specific norm of relations between the individual and the collective and between the individuals themselves. Such a norm is tacitly accepted in all areas of everyday life and is perceived as the only way to live in a hostel. And for members of this ethnic group, this form is not a burden, since they are used to it. And vice versa, when a representative of one ethnic group comes into contact with the norms of behavior of another, he can be confused and greatly surprised at the eccentricities of an unfamiliar people.

Since ancient times, our country has combined various ethnic groups. Some ethnic groups of Russia were part of it from the very beginning, while others joined gradually, at different stages of history. But they all have equal rights and obligations to the state and are part of the people of Russia. They have a common education system, common legal and legal norms and, of course, a common Russian language.

All Russians are obliged to know the diversity of the ethnic group of their country, to get acquainted with the culture of each of them. Have at least a basic understanding of what an ethnic group is. Without this, a harmonious existence within a single state is impossible. Unfortunately, over the past 100 years, 9 nationalities have disappeared as an ethnic group and 7 more are on the verge of extinction. For example, the Evenks (natives of the Amur region) have a stable tendency to disappear. There are already about 1300 of them left. As you can see, the numbers speak for themselves, and the process of the disappearance of the ethnic group continues irreversibly.

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Subtitles

ethnicity

Ethnicity can be imagined as a form of social organization of cultural differences, consisting of those characteristics that the members of the ethnic community themselves consider significant for themselves and which underlie their self-awareness. These characteristics also include the possession of one or more common names, common elements of culture, the idea of ​​​​a common origin and, as a result, the presence of a common historical memory. At the same time, there are associations of oneself with a special geographical territory and a sense of group solidarity.

The definition of ethnicity is also built on the basis of the cultural self-identification of an ethnic community in relation to other communities (ethnic, social, political) with which it has fundamental ties. As a rule, there is a significant difference between the intra-group and external idea of ​​ethnicity: both objective and subjective criteria are present to determine the ethnic community. Differences in anthropological type, geographical origin, economic specialization, religion, language, and even features of material culture (food, clothing, etc.) are used as such criteria. .

Concepts and theories of ethnos

Among ethnologists there is no unity in the approach to the definition of ethnos and ethnicity. In this regard, several of the most popular theories and concepts stand out. So, the Soviet ethnographic school worked in line with primordialism, but today the highest administrative post in the official ethnology of Russia is held by a supporter of constructivism V. A. Tishkov.

Primordialism

This approach assumes that a person's ethnicity is an objective reality that has its basis in nature or in society. Therefore, ethnicity cannot be artificially created or imposed. Ethnos is a community with real-life registered features. You can point to the signs by which an individual belongs to a given ethnic group and by which one ethnic group differs from another.

"Evolutionary-historical direction". Supporters of this direction consider ethnic groups as social communities that have arisen as a result of a historical process.

Dualistic theory of ethnos

This concept was developed by employees of the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (now) headed by Yu. V. Bromley. This concept assumes the existence of ethnic groups in two senses:

Sociobiological direction

This direction assumes the existence of ethnicity due to the biological essence of man. Ethnicity is primordial, that is, originally characteristic of people.

Theory of Pierre van den Berghe

Pierre van den Berghe transferred certain provisions of ethology and zoopsychology to human behavior, that is, he assumed that many phenomena of social life are determined by the biological side of human nature.

An ethnos, according to P. van den Berghe, is an "extended kinship group".

Van den Berghe explains the existence of ethnic communities by the genetic predisposition of a person to kin selection (nepotism). Its essence lies in the fact that altruistic behavior (the ability to sacrifice oneself) reduces the chances of a given individual to pass on his genes to the next generation, but at the same time increases the possibility of his genes being passed on by blood relatives (indirect gene transfer). By helping relatives survive and pass on their genes to the next generation, the individual thereby contributes to the reproduction of his own gene pool. Since this type of behavior makes the group evolutionarily more stable than other similar groups in which altruistic behavior is absent, then "altruistic genes" are supported by natural selection.

Passionary theory of ethnos (Gumilyov's theory)

In her ethnos- a group of people naturally formed on the basis of an original stereotype of behavior, existing as a systemic integrity (structure), opposing itself to all other groups, based on a sense of complementarity, and forming an ethnic tradition common to all its representatives.

An ethnos is one of the types of ethnic systems - it is always a part of superethnoi - and consists of subethnoi, convixions and consortia.

Elite instrumentalism

This direction focuses on the role of elites in the mobilization of ethnic feelings.

Economic instrumentalism

This direction explains interethnic tensions and conflicts in terms of economic inequality among members of different ethnic groups.

Ethnogenesis

The main conditions for the emergence of an ethnos - a common territory and language - subsequently act as its main features. At the same time, an ethnos can also be formed from multilingual elements, take shape and consolidate in different territories in the process of migration (gypsies, etc.). In the conditions of early long-distance migrations of “homo sapiens” from Africa and modern globalization, ethnic groups are becoming increasingly important as cultural and linguistic communities that move freely throughout the planet.

Additional conditions for the formation of an ethnic community can be the commonality of religion, the proximity of the components of an ethnic group in racial terms, or the presence of significant mestizo (transitional) groups.

In the course of ethnogenesis, under the influence of the characteristics of economic activity in certain natural conditions and other reasons, features of material and spiritual culture, life, and group psychological characteristics that are specific to a given ethnos are formed. The members of an ethnos develop a common self-awareness, a prominent place in which is occupied by the idea of ​​a common origin. The external manifestation of this self-consciousness is the presence of a common self-name - an ethnonym.

The formed ethnic community acts as a social organism, self-reproducing through predominantly ethnically homogeneous marriages and the transfer of language, culture, traditions, ethnic orientation, etc. to the new generation.

Anthropological classification. Ethnos and race.

Science recognizes the discrepancy between the racial and ethnic division of mankind: members of one ethnic group can belong both to the same and to different races (racial types) and, conversely, representatives of the same race (racial type) can belong to different ethnic groups, etc.

A fairly common misconception is expressed in the confusion of the concepts of "ethnos" and "race", and as a result, erroneous concepts are used, for example, such as "Russian race".

Ethnos and culture

Culture - to give a universal, comprehensive definition for this concept is difficult and perhaps even impossible. The same can be said about "ethnic culture", since it is manifested and implemented in various ways and ways, so it can be understood and interpreted in different ways.

Nevertheless, some researchers clearly articulate the differences between a nation and an ethnos, pointing to the different nature of the origin of the concepts of "ethnos" and "nation". So, for an ethnos, in their opinion, is characterized by supra-individuality and stability, the repetition of cultural patterns. In contrast, for a nation, the process of self-awareness based on the synthesis of traditional and new elements becomes decisive, and the actual ethnic identification criteria (language, way of life, etc.) of belonging fade into the background. The nation comes to the fore those aspects that provide supra-ethnicity, the synthesis of ethnic, interethnic and other ethnic components (political, religious, etc.).

Ethnos and statehood

Ethnic groups are subject to changes in the course of ethnic processes - consolidation, assimilation, expansion, etc. For a more stable existence, an ethnos seeks to create its own socio-territorial organization (state). Modern history knows many examples of how various ethnic groups, despite their large numbers, have not been able to solve the problem of socio-territorial organization. These include ethnic groups of Jews, Palestinian Arabs, Kurds, divided between Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Other examples of successful or unsuccessful ethnic expansion are the expansion of the Russian Empire, the Arab conquests in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, the Tatar-Mongolian invasion, the Spanish colonization of South and Central America.

ethnic identity

Ethnic identity is an integral part of the social identity of the individual, the awareness of one's belonging to a certain ethnic community. In its structure, two main components are usually distinguished - cognitive (knowledge, ideas about the characteristics of one's own group and awareness of oneself as its member based on certain characteristics) and affective (assessment of the qualities of one's own group, attitude towards membership in it, the significance of this membership).

One of the first to develop a child's awareness of belonging to a national group was studied by the Swiss scientist J. Piaget. In a 1951 study, he identified three stages in the development of ethnic characteristics:

1) at the age of 6-7, the child acquires the first fragmentary knowledge about his ethnicity;

2) at 8-9 years old, the child already clearly identifies himself with his ethnic group, based on the nationality of the parents, place of residence, native language;

3) in early adolescence (10-11 years old), ethnic identity is formed in full, as features of different peoples, the child notes the uniqueness of history, the specifics of traditional everyday culture.

External circumstances can force a person of any age to rethink their ethnic identity, as happened with a resident of Minsk, a Catholic born in the Brest region bordering Poland. He “listed as a Pole and considered himself a Pole. At the age of 35 he went to Poland. There he became convinced that his religion unites the Poles, and otherwise he is Belarusian. Since that time, he has become aware of himself as a Belarusian ”(Klimchuk, 1990, p. 95).

The formation of ethnic identity is often a rather painful process. So, for example, a boy whose parents moved to Moscow from Uzbekistan even before his birth speaks Russian at home and at school; however, at school, due to his Asian name and swarthy skin color, he receives an offensive nickname. Later, having comprehended this situation, to the question “What is your nationality?” he may answer "Uzbek", or maybe not. The son of an American and a Japanese woman may turn out to be an outcast in Japan, where he will be teased as "long-nosed" and "oil-eater", and in the USA. At the same time, a child who grew up in Moscow, whose parents identify themselves as Belarusians, most likely will not have such problems at all.

There are the following dimensions of ethnic identity:

Ethnic identity within the institutional approach

The institutional approach allows us to trace the relationship between identity and rules of conduct. From an institutional point of view, identity is an algorithm for selecting rules for choosing certain preferences. Ethnic identity is seen as a socially conscious way out of a situation of institutional uncertainty, when at the same time a social agent must follow the rules and break at least some of them. The institutional features of ethnic identity are that individuals can quite freely and, as a rule, without negative consequences, violate the accepted rules in the field of the use of language, cultural traditions, religious beliefs, etc., without questioning their belonging to an ethnic group. Other forms of social identification (for example, professional) tend to limit the ability of individuals to violate or interpret the rules of conduct. The stability of many ethnic identifications (for example, Russian, Armenian, etc.) lies in their institutional weakness: it is quite easy to remain part of an ethnic group that is tolerant of institutional deviations. If a sufficiently large group of people prefers to use in everyday behavior similar deviations (institutional exceptions) from the rules of behavior habitual for an ethnic group, a sub-ethnic identity can be formed. In this case, the initial deviations in social behavior (for example, the use of a language pattern that is different from the language used in the "former" ethnic group) become the basis for a new identification, and individuals will be evaluated depending on whether they comply with the new norms of behavior or not. . Thus, the formation of identity is influenced by the institutional disintegration of the rules of ethnic behavior.

see also

• ethnic group
• Ethnopolitics

Notes

1. Ethnos // Zherebilo T.V. “Terms and concepts of linguistics: General linguistics. Sociolinguistics: Dictionary-Reference.» - Nazran: Pilgrim LLC, 2011.
2. Kozlov V.I. Ethnic community // Soviet Historical Encyclopedia / Ed. E. M. Zhukova. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973-1982.
3. Bromley S. V. Experience typologization ethnic communities // Soviet ethnography. - 1975. - No. 5. - S. 61.
4. Tishkov V. A. ethnicity// New Philosophical Encyclopedia / ; National social-scientific fund; Prev. scientific-ed. council V. S. Stepin, deputy chairmen: A. A. Guseynov, G. Yu. Semigin, accountant. secret A. P. Ogurtsov. - 2nd ed., corrected. and add. - M.: Thought, 2010. - ISBN 978-5-244-01115-9.
5. Bromley  Yu. V. Essays on the theory of ethnos / Aftermath. N. Ya. Bromley. Ed. 2nd add. - M.: Publishing house LKI, 2008. - 440 p. ISBN 978-5-382-00414-3
6. Korkmazov A. Yu. The problem of ethnos and ethnicity in science: in search of a paradigm // Collection of scientific papers. Issue 1 (11). Series "Humanities". - Stavropol: North Caucasian State Technical University, 2004