We all know about the existence of races. A Chinese can be easily distinguished from an African by skin color, eye shape and other features. But there are also smaller divisions within races into nations, peoples, and also ethnic groups. What it is?
In almost any country you can find a sufficient variety of nationalities. As a rule, within the borders of modern states live the most different people. They can be combined according to certain economic characteristics, such as income level, propensity to save, availability of work, etc.; social, for example, age, marital status, education, and some others. Finally, another criterion may be belonging to any ethnic group. But this is no longer dealt with by economics, sociology or psychology, but by ethnography. What kind of science is this and why is such a division needed?
People cannot live alone - this became clear long ago. That is why, long ago, they began to form various groups, which in one form or another have reached the present day. Now they are called ethnic communities. The people there may have their own language and culture, and this cannot be ignored when trying to control them. That is why sociology, among other things, includes a completely separate direction that studies groups of people not from the point of view of their behavior, but in the context of their belonging to a certain group based on ethnicity.
In fact, ethnography is closely connected primarily with the historical sciences, but also has points of contact with linguistics, anthropology, psychology and even philosophy. It can be called a relatively young discipline, because it originated only in XVIII-XIX centuries, and before that only the first attempts were made to study foreigners, but there was no system in this. So, despite the fact that the great geographical discoveries gave Europeans the chance to study in detail and describe people completely different from them, they did not take advantage of it right away.
In the USA, anthropology and ethnography are often presented as one scientific direction, and in the Old World they are traditionally distinguished. It is difficult to say what is correct: fragmentation or, conversely, a more general view.
Modern science identifies and recognizes several categories of division of people, depending on the size of their group and some other features:
This classification primarily reflects the development with historical point view, when people moved from primitive forms of association to more complex ones. If we consider the taxonomy, we get a slightly different picture:
This classification is more complex and less clear for the average person. It is hardly obvious to a non-specialist how an ethnos differs from an ethnic group. In addition, considerable confusion is caused by the fact that for a long time domestic science used its own terms, classifications and approaches that differed sharply from the global ones. Gradual unification is now taking place, but complete agreement is still far away. To put it simply, ethnic groups are roughly equivalent to nationalities, although the latter have some special features. Therefore, it is impossible to talk about the complete identity of these concepts. However, in the literature for some time now there has been a tendency to use the term “national-ethnic groups”, which, firstly, can combine the two above-mentioned classifications, and secondly, remove unnecessary questions regarding semantics.
Ethnic groups include groups of people who have certain common characteristics. These characteristics include the following:
The latter is perhaps decisive. Ethnic groups are those in which people consciously identify themselves as belonging to one or another community. At the same time, self-identification as a representative of the people one way or another includes all other elements, that is, knowledge of language, culture and traditions. On their basis, a certain mentality, habits, and peculiarities of worldview are formed.
By the way, territorial characteristics are not the determining factor. For quite a long time, one can observe the processes of resettlement of people from some states on the territory of other countries. And here you can notice such a curious phenomenon as the formation of diasporas - ethnic groups outside the homeland. In some cities this has become so serious that there are entire neighborhoods inhabited by immigrants from certain countries where their culture is preserved.
Ethnic groups do not arise spontaneously; their emergence is a long process - perhaps all modern anthropological schools are inclined towards this opinion. In connection with the main ways of formation, a more or less general classification appeared:
As for ethnic groups, any schoolchild can talk about them, although it is not always immediately clear what they are talking about. Examples include the Slavs, Scandinavians, Asians, and Indians. Without a doubt, each of these communities includes a huge number of nationalities. Even among the Slavs one can distinguish such ethnic social groups as Pomors or Old Believers. They, as is obvious, are completely united different signs. But both communities cannot be classified as such a large unit as an ethnic group.
It is simply impossible to talk about the main ethnic groups on a global scale. But, for example, within the framework of the Russian Federation, one can easily identify nations that are titular for their subjects, such as Tuvans, Yakuts, Nenets, Mordovians, etc. In turn, they can be divided into smaller groups.
Ethnic groups constitute diversity not only in the genetic and phenotypic sense, but also often bear unique traditions, beliefs, languages, etc. modern world these connections can gradually be lost, because young people do not always consciously want to preserve the culture of their ancestors, abandoning it in favor of less interesting and more monotonous modern values.
There are even special programs aimed at preserving and promoting the development of ancient and unusual traditions, in some regions competitions of national costumes, music, dances, etc. are held. All this is intended to popularize unique elements culture in certain places on the planet.
Ethnic groups of people cannot be ignored in any sphere: social, political, spiritual, economic. In some regions, conflicts and even local wars break out based on national identity. In addition, despite the desire of market players to simplify and unify the culture and values of all people, marketers have to focus on certain ideas about beauty among different peoples, take into account different limits of what is permissible, morality, and perception. In the spiritual sphere, the division is quite obvious: there are a huge number of faiths in the world, both those that arose quite recently and those that have accompanied humanity for a long time.
Ethnicity in itself is valuable even in the conditions of general globalization and unification. Each person is unique in themselves, and everyone has the right to their own opinion. What can we say about entire groups of people, especially if they have unique traits.
What is an ethnic group, what is a nation?
ethnicity nation stereotype
It should be said that although these concepts of “ethnicity” and “nation” are in the focus of intense scientific and political interest, there is still no clear answer to the questions: what is an ethnos, what is a nation.
Note that the characteristics of the concepts “ethnos” and “nation” were given by Russian scientists, this gives them a certain epistemological status. Nevertheless, there is a cognitive difficulty in analyzing them. And not only because discussions about their nature continue. These concepts need clarification for many reasons. One of them is due to the fact that a linguistic tradition has developed in Russia, in contrast to the Western lexicon, in which ethnicity and nation are identified. In Russian ethnology, the term ethnos is used in almost all cases when we're talking about about the people and even about the 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 transforms into another community - a nation (implying, of course, a non-civil interpretation of a nation). It should also be said that in Russian ethnology the real content of the ethnos was questioned, i.e. The question was raised: is ethnicity a myth or reality?
First of all, we note that we consider ethnicity as special kind social community. The understanding of “ethnic” depends on many factors. One of the main ones is the methodology of the study, since the chosen methodological approaches make it possible to reveal the essence of the phenomenon under study and predetermine its significance in the future.
“Ethnic” is derived from “ethnos”. The Greek "ethnos" originally meant "pagan." In this sense, “ethnic” was used in English language from the 14th century to the mid-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 not related to the population of the United States, which had British roots.
However, it should be said that there is no generally accepted assessment of the theory of ethnicity in domestic science.
Ethnicity (in ancient Greek - people) is a historically emerged 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 it refers to several peoples (ethnolinguistic groups, for example, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, etc. - a Slavic ethnic community) or isolated 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) ethnicity is a social, not a biological phenomenon (Yu. Bromley, V. Kozlov); 3) ethnos is a mythological phenomenon: “ethnos exists exclusively in the heads of ethnographers” (V. Tishkov).
According to L.N. Gumilyov, the first general concept of ethnos as an independent phenomenon, and not secondary, belongs to S.M. Shirokogorov (20s of the twentieth century). He considered ethnos “the form in which the process of creation, development and death of elements that enable humanity as a species to exist” occurs. At the same time, an ethnos is defined “as a group of people united by a 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 ethnicity 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. Gumilev was developed within the framework of geographical determinism. His theory about the deepest connection between the character, customs and culture of peoples with the landscapes of the psychology of the people and the biosphere is close to the ideas of the Eurasians. Ethnos component organic world of the planet - arises in certain geographical conditions. Considering ethnos as something primary, as a phenomenon of the biosphere, he attributes a secondary character to culture.
Features of ethnogenesis L.N. Gumilyov reduces it to the following provisions. Ethnicity is a system developing in historical time, having a beginning and an end; more precisely, ethnogenesis is a discrete process.
There is only one universal criterion for the difference between ethnic groups - a behavioral stereotype - a special behavioral language that is inherited, but not genetically, but through the mechanism of signaling heredity based on conditioned reflex when the offspring, through imitation, adopt behavioral stereotypes from their parents and peers, which are also adaptive skills. The systemic connections in an ethnic group are the feelings of “one’s own” and “the other’s”, and not conscious relationships, as in society.
The development of ethnic groups is determined by L.N. Gumilev by the presence of special people in them - passionaries with super energy. The activity and activity 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 activities are associated with the landscape, historical time and cosmic factors (solar activity).
According to the concept of L.N. Gumilyov, ethnicity is not a social phenomenon, subject to the laws of social development. He views ethnos as a natural community that cannot be reduced to any other types of association of people. This is a phenomenon of the biosphere.
Many domestic scientists did not accept the concept of L.N. Gumilyov. Yu.V. Bromley completely rejected the doctrine of passionaries. Ethnicity is defined by him as “a historically established stable intergenerational set of people in a certain territory, possessing not only common features, but also relatively stable characteristics of culture and psyche, as well as self-awareness of their unity and difference from other entities (self-awareness), fixed in self-name (ethnonym) .
The encyclopedic definition of an ethnic group implies a common territory, language and identity.
Since the 50s, significant changes have occurred in the conceptualization of the theory of ethnicity, 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 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 will highlight two main (diametrically opposed) “constructivist” and “primordialist” ones, since they have been operating over the past thirty years.
Constructivism argues that political and cultural identity is the result of human activity. The main thesis of the constructivists comes down to the fact that ethnicity is considered not as a “certain given”, but as a result of creation; it is a social construct, created artificially with the help of rituals, rites, various symbols and ideology.
The primordialist (primordial - original, pristine) approach represents ethnicity as an objective given, that is, ethnic groups are considered as communities that develop historically on the basis of objectively given 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 certain given in social 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 prominently appears as a determining factor.
So, primordialism considers an ethnos as a historically given community, which may 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 a person.
“Modernists” believe that ethnicity is based on the idea of the political origin of nations and is presented in the works of B. Anderson and E. Gellner. They believe that a nation is a product of political action. According to Gellner, in traditional society there could not be a sense of national community, because society was divided by numerous class barriers 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 industrial skills, 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 Latin 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 debate. If we approach the concept historically, then a nation is the “name” of a new people born in France. During the Great French Revolution during negotiations between government representatives (June 1789) and the delegation of the Third Estate, the latter refused to consider themselves “representatives of the French people.” It called itself a “national assembly.” A nation was then considered an association of like-minded people who opposed the old order.
France set an example of nation formation. The French nation was formed from different ethnic groups (Bretons, Provencals, Basques, Northern French people), who came closer to each other in the process of establishing a common economic structure, a national market, and 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 19th century French philosopher and historian E. Renan (1877) and ending with the definition of I.V. Stalin (1913). Having changed the traditional system of research, we will focus on the (conditional) classification of definitions of a nation according to its essential features.
The first group consists psychological definitions nations, the foundation of which was laid by E. Renan, his famous saying: “The existence of a nation is a daily plebiscite.” The Austrian social democrat O. Bauer identified “community of character based on a common destiny” as a distinctive feature of a nation. The second group includes cultural definitions. For example, according to one of the Austro-Marxists, K. Renner (R. Springer), a nation is “a union of individuals who think alike and speak alike.” This is a "cultural union". The basis of the third group - “historical-economic” - is the definition of the famous Marxist theorist K. Kautsky, who identifies language, territory and community of economic life as the main characteristics 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 arose on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life and mental makeup, manifested in a common culture.” This materialistic definition of a nation formed the basis of the fourth group.
The problem of the nation occupies a certain place in Marxist research, although neither K. Marx nor F. Engels engaged in a special analysis of the national question. Within the Marxist tradition further development the theory of the nation received in the works of V.I. Lenin. The Marxist-Leninist approach was distinguished by the fact that the national was subordinate to the class.
The existing approaches to the problem of the nation are determined by 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 ethnosphere does not correspond to current realities in some respects. The ambiguous interpretation and interdisciplinary nature of the concepts used makes it difficult to study ethnic issues. The second circumstance is related to methodology. The fact is that the lack of a theory that adequately reflects the processes occurring 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 unified methodological approach and developed general concept. Taking these circumstances into account, attention was paid to the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study and the disclosure of historical and philosophical aspects of the concepts that will be used in the work, the definition of the author's vision and research approaches.
ETHNOS
ETHNOS (Greek ethnos - group, tribe, people) - an intergenerational group of people, united by long-term cohabitation in a certain territory, a common language, culture and identity. The concept of ethnicity, as a category that generalizes the characteristics of ethnic communities at all stages of human history, was developed primarily in Russian, Soviet and post-Soviet ethnography. The foundations of the theory of E. were laid in the 1920s by SM. Shirokogorov. He considered ecology as the main form of existence of local groups of humanity, and considered its main features to be “unity of origin, customs, language and way of life.” In the 60-80s, Shirokogorov's concept was developed by Soviet ethnographers. Its most consistent Marxist interpretation was the theory of Yu.V. Bromley. He proposed to distinguish ethnicos (E. in the narrow sense of the word) as a collection of people united common language, culture and self-awareness, and ethnosocial organisms, ESO (E. in the broad sense of the word) as E., associated with territorial and political communities. The latter, according to Bromley, are independent macro-units of social development. Depending on their membership in a particular socio-economic formation, ethnosocial organisms appear in the form of a tribe, nationality (slave-owning or feudal), nation (bourgeois or socialist). A significant place in Bromley’s theory was occupied by a detailed classification of ethnic processes - changes in E., interpreted in relation to different eras progress of humanity. In the works of representatives of another theoretical direction A.S. Arutyunov and N.N. Cheboksarova E. was considered in the context of communication theory. E. were presented as areas of increased information density. Particular attention was paid to the intergenerational transmission of information, ensuring the continuity and stability of the ethnic system over time. Stage types of ethnic communities - tribes, nationalities and nations were considered as three different types information density. The concept of Arutyunov and Cheboksarov became the most instrumentally and appliedly productive version of the theory of Elements. A consistently non-Marxist approach to the phenomenon of Elements distinguishes Gumilyov’s work. In them, E. are presented as elements of the ethnosphere - a special biosocial reality that develops according to its own unique laws. E., according to Gumilev, can be in a “persistent” (cyclical) and “dynamic” state. The transition to the latter is due to a kind of mutation - passionary impulses. According to Gumilyov, E. goes through a number of stages of development, and, like a living organism, dies. Thanks to his frank nonconformism, Gumilyov's concept gained extraordinary popularity, especially outside of a professional audience. Despite all the differences, E.'s concepts have a number of common shortcomings. Reliance on concepts, the scope of which is itself a subject of discussion (language, culture, territory), makes the construction of a theory and the very definition of ecology extremely difficult. The concept of ethnicity fully reflects only the properties of ethnic communities of the industrial era - nations. In relation to pre-national stages of development, with their characteristic cultural and linguistic variability and non-ethnic forms of self-awareness, the concept of ethnicity turned out to be unproductive (for example, the category “nationality”). In foreign socio-cultural anthropology, the concept of E. is used relatively rarely, and the construction of its theory is not considered relevant. The more common concept is ethnicity, which reflects belonging to a particular nation or ethnic group.
Newest philosophical dictionary. - Minsk: Book House. A. A. Gritsanov. 1999.
Synonyms:ethnos- ethnicity, and... Russian orthographic dictionary
- [gr. ethnos people, tribe] a historically emerged type of stable social grouping of people, represented by a tribe, nationality, nation. Dictionary foreign words. Komlev N.G., 2006. ethnicity a, m. (... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language
Isolate, persistent, nationality, people, community, nation, tribe Dictionary of Russian synonyms. ethnicity noun, number of synonyms: 9 isolate (3) ... Synonym dictionary
ETHNOS- (from the Greek ethnos society, group, tribe, people), a historically established stable community of people - tribe, nationality, nation. Basic the conditions for the emergence of E. is the community of territories. and language, which usually then act as signs of E.;... ... Demographic Encyclopedic Dictionary
Greek Ethnos people is a historically emerged stable social grouping of people, represented by a tribe, nationality, nation. The main condition for the emergence of an ethnos is community: self-awareness of the consciousness of its unity and difference from everyone... ... Dictionary of business terms
- (Greek ethnos people), a historically established community of people with a common culture, language and identity. The term is close to the concept of people in the ethnographic sense... Modern encyclopedia
See ethnic community... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
ETHNOS, a, m. (special). Historically established ethnic community - tribe, nationality, nation. Dictionary Ozhegova. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
An established stable community of people. There are 3-4 thousand peoples or ethnic groups in the world. An ethnic community is characterized by: a common language, peculiarities of life and culture, ethnic independence, and common territory. Nations numbering more than 1... Geographical encyclopedia
English ethnosis; German Ethnos. Ethnographic community. Antinazi. Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2009 ... Encyclopedia of Sociology
Ethnicity is the central concept of ethnology. However, in modern ethnological science there is no single understanding of what an ethnos is, what its essence, nature and structure are. Meanwhile, without understanding the essence of this phenomenon, we will not be able to correctly understand many derived concepts and terms; it will be difficult to adequately comprehend phenomena and processes of an ethnic nature.
Ethnic terminology appears in scientific literature in the second half of the 19th century. In our domestic literature, the term “ethnos” appears at the beginning of the twentieth century. Its first detailed description was given in the 20s 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 set of customs, a way of life, “preserved and sanctified by tradition and distinguished by it from those of others.” This is the understanding of ethnicity in S.M. Shirokogorova is surprisingly combined with classifying this community as biological.
Since the beginning of the 70s of the XX century. A discussion developed around the understanding of ethnicity, and studies of the theory of ethnicity began to appear. During the discussion, two main positions on the definition of the concept of “ethnicity” emerged. According to one point of view, ethnic groups are biological units - populations. The natural biological understanding of ethnicity is represented in Russian science by the concept L.N. Gumilyov. Supporters of another position defend the idea of ethnos as a social phenomenon in in a broad sense this word. From the point of view of these scientists, each ethnic group is closely related to a certain human population as a biological community, but lives according to social laws and is governed by social laws.
The most widespread ideas about ethnicity as a socio-cultural phenomenon, formulated by Yu.B. Bromley. Ethnicity (Greek ethnos - tribe, people) is a historically established stable collection of people in a certain territory who have common relatively stable characteristics of language, culture and psyche, as well as an awareness of their unity and difference from other similar entities (self-awareness), fixed in their self-name .
According to these ideas, ethnic groups are characterized by certain ethnic properties (language, culture, ethnic identity enshrined in self-name), but these properties are formed only in appropriate conditions: territorial, natural, socio-economic, state and legal. Ethnicity is a special historically emerged type of social group of collective existence of people. Ethnicity is what constitutes the individuality, the uniqueness of a people, what distinguishes one people from another. Such a community takes shape and develops in a natural-historical way; it does not depend directly on the will of the individual people included in it and is capable of sustainable centuries-long existence due to self-reproduction. The most important thing is that this community is recognized by the people themselves, is reflected in the consciousness of its unity and difference from other communities in the presence of a self-name or common name for your group.
The introduction of the term “ethnos” into scientific circulation is due, first of all, to the polysemy of the word “people”, which is used to designate various social entities(population of the state, settlement group, crowd, etc.). The use of the term “ethnic group,” allowing us to avoid the ambiguity of the word “people,” makes it possible to express the meaning of the word that it has when talking about the peoples of the world, i.e., tribes, nationalities, nations. If we say, for example, “Russian people,” we mean a community of people who consider themselves Russian and in many ways differ 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.
Educational factors and ethnic characteristics vary. Thus, the formation of each ethnic group is determined by direct contacts of the people included in it, which, as a rule, is only possible if people live in the same neighborhood, that is, on 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 ethnic group: it ensures the development of economic and other types of ties between parts of the ethnic group; the natural conditions of this common territory influence the lives of people, reflected in some general features of their economic activity, everyday culture and value-normative systems. However, territorially separated ethnic groups can retain their specific cultural features 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 ethnic group and a factor in its existence. Integrity of the territory - the most important condition formation of an ethnic group, but an already formed ethnic group does not necessarily preserve it.
The primary territory on which the formation of an ethnos occurs can then expand as a result of the resettlement of the ethnos or lose its compactness, decrease in size, and be dismembered into parts due to migrations of other ethnic groups within its borders. However, territorially separated ethnic groups can retain their specific cultural features and the former self-name of the community for a long time. And bearers of the same identity, living even in territories distant from each other, often retain their ethnic identity from generation to generation (for example, Armenians in Russia, Lebanon, Syria, the USA, Ukrainians in Russia, the USA, Canada, etc.).
The Miao and Yao peoples are settled in Southern China, Vietnam, and Laos, and in all these countries they live in islands among the main population.
Mexicans are not only in Mexico, millions of them live and work in the United States.
The Quechua Indian people live not only in Peru and Bolivia, where their language is recognized as one of the official languages, but also in Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile.
An ethnos can even change its territory throughout its history, moving entirely or almost entirely to a new location. Kalmyks just four centuries ago lived in Central Asia, and from the 17th century. they live in the Lower Volga region (more precisely, in the western part of the Caspian lowland). Over the past fifteen hundred years, the Hungarian ethnic group has changed four, and possibly five, territories of settlement.
Thus, having acted 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 population groups. As a result of such a close connection, language usually acts as one of the most important objective properties of an ethnic group, 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 when parts of one ethnic group speak different languages. Thus, in Russia, separate groups of the united 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 language.
One should also keep in mind cases where parts of the same ethnic group speak very 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 main language - English. It is also spoken by residents of the United States, most Canadians, the population of the island of Jamaica in Central America, New Zealanders and most Irish. Nevertheless, these are all different peoples.
And yet language occupies the most important place among the main characteristics of a people, despite all the exceptions. In the case when several ethnic groups speak the same language, as a rule, each ethnic group brings its own specifics to this language. It may consist 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 their 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 relationships.
Along with language, the specific elements of their material and spiritual culture are of utmost importance for the sustainable functioning of an ethnic group.. These are, first of all, those components that are characterized by tradition and stability: customs, rituals, folk art, norms of behavior, etc. At the same time, the bearer of ethnic specificity is often (especially in modern conditions) there is also professional spiritual culture, primarily artistic. Features of culture in a broad sense include ethnic features of the way of life of a people.
What is it, each people’s own special way of life, how is ethnic uniqueness expressed in culture in the broad sense of the term? How does it manifest itself or can it manifest itself?
Of course, in many ways. For example, how people work, what tools they use. Is, say, the “design” of a plow, one of the oldest arable tools, with which peasants cultivated the land for many centuries? of Eastern Europe? Meanwhile, their designs numbered several dozen. Residents of the center of Russia, Lithuania, and Belarus used different plows.
The Ukrainian cart, which was mostly harnessed to oxen, was very different from the Russian cart, which was usually pulled by a horse. But the traditional Latvian cart is also different from the Russian one, although both are harnessed to horses.
The traditional dwellings of different peoples of the world are unique. There are pile buildings, floating dwellings, portable dwellings, etc. Russian peasants in the past in almost any natural conditions Traditionally, houses were built from wood. Even if they moved to areas where there is no forest. In the polar tundra, log houses were built from driftwood - logs nailed to the shore of the sea or river.
Clothing is a special feature of the ethnic group.. Based on the clothes of a Russian peasant woman early XIX V. It was often possible to determine her “small” homeland. It was ever possible for the Uzbeks to determine from just one skullcap which area a person came from. And now in everyday life they talk about folk Russian, Tajik or Latvian clothing. However, the clothes of different peoples are becoming more and more the same type, losing their ethnic character. National costumes in many cases become only festive clothing.
Sometimes the formation of an ethnos is facilitated by the common religion of the groups of people included in it. For example, Croats, Serbs and Bosniaks in Yugoslavia have the same language, but Croats are Catholics, Serbs are Orthodox, Bosniaks are Muslims; and Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks are considered as three different people. (By the way, 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 of different 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-awareness of members of an ethnos seems to focus the idea of a common origin and historical destinies the people included in it.
Even if, for example, separate groups of Russians, Spaniards, Armenians, Poles live in different countries, any of these groups recognizes a certain commonality with all groups bearing the same name. In addition, representatives of each of these groups of people of the same name usually distinguish themselves from members of all other similar communities. In this case, the antithesis: “we - they” plays a huge role. It is noteworthy that the very idea (including the everyday one) of the existence of the category of human communities we are considering inevitably presupposes such a difference.
Whatever exactly ethnic self-awareness finds its expression in, the very fact of its manifestation, separation in the minds of people with some ethnic characteristics from people with other ethnic characteristics, marks the formation of a new ethnic group. When Belarusians began to think and talk about themselves as people who were 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 everyday life, they transferred to the level of consciousness - the subjective level - some objective indicators of their existence, realized them.
Or, for example, when we talk about Hungarians as an ethnic group, it always goes without saying that Hungarians imagine that they are different in some way
from the Germans, the Japanese, from any other ethnic group. That is, we Hungarians are like this, and everyone else is different.
Each of the ethnic groups has an indispensable external sign- self-name ( given name, ethnonym). The very existence of self-awareness - an ethnonym - suggests that this community has formed an ethnic identity.
Thus, an ethnos is characterized not only by the possession of a commonality of certain objective properties. An ethnos is only that collection of people that recognizes itself as such, distinguishing itself from other similar communities. This awareness by members of an ethnos of their group unity is ethnic self-awareness, the external expression of which is self-name. Such ethnic self-awareness, formed during ethnogenesis, then actually acts not only as the most important determinant of ethnicity (in this regard, pushing aside even the sign of the native language), but also as a force that unites members of an ethnos and contrasts them ethnically with other ethnic groups.
ETHNOSIS AND ITS STRUCTURE
To try to understand the essence of modern ethnic problems, it is necessary to dwell in more detail on the subject of study - ethnic groups - and describe the ethnic structure of humanity.
Concept "ethnos" is not usual in our everyday discussion; more often we talk about nations, nationalities, peoples, national relations, national problems.
Word "ethnos" is Greek in origin and means “tribe”, “people”, “group of people”, “clan”. In modern scientific language there is no unified understanding of the essence of an ethnos. Different scientists define differently the characteristics that make up the concept of “ethnicity”. In sciences that study national relations, the concept of “ethnicity” is central. Ethnic groups are one of the oldest types of human communities.
Ethnos- this is a naturally formed group of people with their own behavioral stereotypes, characteristics of culture, psyche, opposing itself to all other similar groups: “we” - “they”.
There are many derivatives from the word “ethnos”. The basis of the word “ethno” is most often used in the meaning of “folk”. The terms “ethnic” and “ethnicity” are widely used, but they also have a special meaning in Western science and most often refer to national minorities and diasporas. In Western science, the meaning of the word “ethnicity” is extremely rarely used as a term; In Russian, the term “ethnic” is closely related to the concept of “ethnos”.
The concept of “ethnos” in Russian ethnology is often correlated with the concept of “people”. The word "people" has several meanings:
population of a country;
workers, just a group, a crowd of people (in the expression: there are a lot of people on the street, etc.);
in the meaning of “ethnos”, “ethnic community”.
There are also other concepts such as subethnos And superethnos. A subethnos is an ethnic system that is an element of the structure of an ethnos. Superethnos is an ethnic system consisting of several ethnic groups that arose simultaneously on the same territory and manifests itself in history as an integrity.
Each ethnic group has the ability to self-regulate, that is, the ability to develop in a direction that ensures existence and adaptation to the environment with the least possible costs and losses. Ethnologists even use a measure of the stability of an ethnic group - an indicator that determines the degree of resistance of an ethnic group to external influences.
Ethnic groups (or ethnic groups) are defined primarily by those characteristics that the group members themselves consider significant for themselves and which underlie self-awareness.
TYPESETHNOSIS
ANDTHEIRREGULARITIES
Ethnicity is often viewed as a generic concept. There are three historically established types of ethnic groups:
clan-tribe (for primitive society);
nationality (for slave-owning and feudal societies);
3) nation (for capitalist society). Distinctive features of the ethnic group: physical appearance,
geographical origin, economic specialization, religion, language, housing, clothing and food.
There are basic characteristics, common to all ethnic groups:
common language, religion;
the presence of the territory in which a given ethnic group lives (not always fulfilled);
general material and spiritual culture;
4) general ideas about territorial and historical origin;
5) general formalized ideas about the homeland and the state;
6) awareness by group members of their belonging to an ethnic group and a sense of solidarity based on this.
Patterns of ethnicity:
behavioral patterns that are typical for all members of the ethnic group;
behavioral, communication, value, socio-political and cultural models of certain groups within an ethnic group. They regulate the relationship between various groups within the ethnic group.
Historically, the first types of ethnic communities were clans and tribes. Tribal communities existed for several tens of thousands of years, and, as social life became more complex, new types of ethnic groups emerged - nationalities. They are formed on the basis of various tribal unions living in a certain territory.
But later these processes are replaced by opposite trends of unification, consolidation into a more integral ethnic system - a nation. Nation- this is a type of ethnic group that consolidates into a single organism, primarily on the basis of a common economic life.
There are several thousand ethnic groups living in the world. They differ from each other in their numbers, level of social development, language and culture, and racial appearance.
The number of different ethnic groups is very significant. Thus, the number of the largest nations (Chinese, US Americans, Russians, Brazilians...) exceeds 100 million people. Tiny endangered ethnic groups do not number even 10 people. There are significant differences between ethnic groups in socio-economic development. Highly developed ethnic groups and those still at the primitive stage coexist nearby. Each nation speaks a special language, although it happens that several ethnic groups use the same language or, conversely, one ethnic group speaks several languages. At the same time, many languages are related to each other. The range of similarities and differences in the culture of different peoples is also significant.
Concepts such as assimilation, consolidation, integration, and mixing also apply to ethnicity. For example, interethnic integration is a process of interaction between unrelated peoples, during which a new ethnic group emerges.
Ethnicity is also characterized by socialization, which occurs through institutions such as school, a person’s environment, religious institutions, family, etc.
Unfavorable factors in the development of an ethnic group:
high infant mortality rate;
high mortality among adults;
spread of respiratory infectious diseases;
alcoholism;
a large number of single-parent families, divorces, illegitimate children, abortions, parents’ refusal to raise children;
low quality of housing, overcrowding;
social passivity;
high crime rate, including juvenile crime;
unemployment.
ETHNONYMS
All ethnocultural communities are identified by their name. Sometimes self-designations differ from how an ethnic group is defined in scientific literature or in the surrounding society. There are two types of them - enpre-ethnonyms And exoethnonyms.
Endoethnonyms are self-names that a group assigns to itself. Exoethnonyms are names given from outside through cultural contacts, administration, or proposals made by scientists.
For example, Iroquois is a name originally given by the Algonquin Indians to their neighbors and communicated to European colonists. The term "Bushman" was long used by colonial administrators and later by scholars to refer to the Aboriginal people living in the wooded savannah of South Africa. The names Chechens and Ingush come from the names of the settlements Chechen-aul and Angusht on the territory of the former Russian Empire; Uzbeks, Nogais - from the personal names of the khans of nomadic tribal groups; Georgians - from the distorted name of St. George (Gurji).
The names of a number of peoples were established on the basis of geographical and political-administrative terms and became firmly entrenched in self-awareness. Sometimes early tribal self-names mean in the corresponding languages simply “people” (“Nenets”, “Nivkh”, “Ainu”, “Inuit”), etc. Very often peoples pronounce their name differently in their native language: Georgians call themselves Kartveli, Armenians - hai etc.
Activists of ethnopolitical movements sometimes advocate changing the names of peoples in favor of the “original” ones, especially if the ethnonyms have any negative meaning (for example, “Eskimos” - “those who eat raw meat”). Sometimes renames are made without any special motivation, solely for the purpose of distancing themselves from political regimes (for example, changing the name “Yakuts” to a new self-name “Sakha”).
THREE MAIN APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF ETHNOSIS
There are several main approaches to the study of ethnicity.
Primordialism- originated in the 19th century. in Germany. The founder of the primordialist (from English - “original”, “original”) approach is Yu. V. Bromley. Ethnicity is unconditional and not subject to change. The approach is divided into two directions: natural and evolutionary-historical:
the emergence of ethnicity is explained using evolution. The main concept of the approach is nepotism - altruistic behavior that reduces the contribution of an individual to the genotype of the next generation, but increases the likelihood of transmitting the genes of this individual indirectly;
evolutionary-historical direction, according to which an ethnos is a group of people who speak the same language and recognize their common origin. An ethnos has common, relatively stable values of culture and psyche. Language is not only a condition for the formation of an ethnos, but also the result of ethnogenesis. According to this approach, the existence of an ethnic group can be determined objectively; ethnic groups can also be objectively distinguished from other social and biological communities such as classes, estates, religious groups, races, castes, etc. Ethnic groups are seen as based on cultural unity and, therefore, as ontologically real.
Instrumentalism. Within its framework, ethnicity was considered as a tool used by political leaders to achieve their interests, in the struggle for welfare, status, and power. An essential feature of all instrumentalist theories is their reliance on functionalism and pragmatism. Ethnicity is a product of ethnic myths that are created by the elite of society and used by it to achieve certain benefits and gain power. The cultural characteristics, values and activities of ethnic groups are the tools used by the elite to achieve these goals. For the sake of putting into practice the ideas of equality, justice and human dignity, ethnic groups support the elite in its aspirations, mobilizing for their implementation. The approach is focused on identifying those functions that are performed by communities and ethnic groups.
Constructivism(USA, Canada, Australia). Its appearance is explained by the lack of natural rootedness of ethnic groups in these countries, with the exception of indigenous Indian tribes and Australian aborigine tribes. According to the constructivist approach, ethnicity is an intellectual construct created by writers, scientists, and politicians. For constructivism, ethnicity is a matter of consciousness; membership in an ethnic group depends on how the individual imagines what this group is. Ethnicity in constructivism is a community of people formed on the basis of cultural self-identification. A sign of an ethnic community is the idea or myth about the common historical fate of this community.
Modern ethnology, based on the philosophy of postmodernism, goes even further and emphasizes the uncertainty, infinity and fluidity of ethnicity. Now the broadest definition of ethnicity is used, the importance of the subjective psychological aspect of considering the problem is emphasized: collective consciousness, mythology, imagination.
DOMESTIC THEORIES OF ETHNOSIS. THE THEORY OF PASSIONARITY L. N. GUMILEV
In modern Russian ethnology, there are two radically different theories of ethnos.
The author of one of them is L.N. Gumilyov, who considers ethnicity as a natural, biological phenomenon. According to Gumilyov, ethnos is a biophysical reality, clothed in one or another social shell, it is biological characteristics. Ethnicity is a geographical phenomenon associated with the landscape that feeds and accommodates it. At the same time, man is also part of the biosphere of our planet. Through his activities, man violates the carefully adjusted mechanisms of self-regulation of the biosphere and, instead of the expected improvement in his living conditions, he may face an environmental disaster. The onset of such an environmental crisis is one of the reasons for the death of ethnic groups.
Another essential characteristic of an ethnos is its close connection with energy. As part of the Earth's biosphere, ethnic groups must participate in all biosphere processes. The source of energy is the Sun, cosmic radiation and radioactive lava in the bowels of the Earth. Gumilyov's hypothesis is that several times per millennium the Earth is exposed to some type of cosmic radiation of increased activity. Gumilev called this property passionarity, and people who are carriers of this property - passionarities. By getting together, such people set common goals and achieve their implementation. When ethnic groups interact with each other, the rhythms of their passionary fields overlap each other. In this case, either harmony can arise, when the phases of their vibrations coincide, or disharmony. In the first case, ethnic fusion, assimilation, and fruitful ethnic contacts are possible; in the second, a violation of the rhythm of one or both fields, which undermines the systemic connections of ethnic groups and, under unfavorable conditions, can lead to the death of participants in such contact.
DEMOGRAPHIC
CLASSIFICATION OF THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
At classification of ethnic groups the most objective and simple ones are demographic characteristics, First of all, numbers. Let us note in this regard that the number of a people not only characterizes its size, but also reflects its ethnic history. Quantity often turns into quality here too; the formation and development of large nations usually differs significantly from the formation and development of small ethnic groups. The interaction of peoples and the development of ethnic processes is largely determined by the numerical ratio of contacting groups. When studying ethnic processes, quantitative relationships are usually considered within certain territorial boundaries (administrative boundaries).
According to 1983 data, there were 7 peoples in the world with a population of over 100 million people: Chinese (1 billion people), Hindustani (over 200 million people), US Americans (180 million), Bengalis (over 160 million), Russians (approx. 150 million), Brazilians (approx. 130 million), Japanese (approx. 125 million). These peoples make up more than 40% of the total population of the Earth. Another 11 nations, each numbering from 50 to 100 million people, make up 16 % population of the planet. At the same time, 170 nations ranging from 1 to 5 million people represent 8% of the human population. There are ethnic groups on Earth numbering several thousand and even hundreds of people (for example, the Izhorians - a people of the Finnish group living in the Leningrad region, number 600 people, or the Yukaghir in Yakutia - 800 people).
The question arises about the historical perspective of the smallest ethnic groups: will they not be completely absorbed by larger ethnic groups? The possibility of absorption (assimilation) of small ethnic groups by a larger one certainly exists; Moreover, this phenomenon has happened throughout human history and is happening now. However, this process of assimilation is quite lengthy and, it happens, a small ethnic group is almost completely integrated into the surrounding ethnic group in cultural and linguistic terms, but also retains its ethnic identity for many generations. In many countries of the world, under the auspices of the UN and UNESCO, measures are being taken to preserve small ethnic groups.
Having classified ethnic groups according to their numbers, we have not yet touched upon another important aspect of the problem: the dynamics of the numerical composition of ethnic groups. In some ethnic groups there is a rapid increase in their numbers, in others the numbers have stabilized or are increasing slightly, while others, on the contrary, are characterized by a decrease. Moreover, the distribution of ethnic groups according to the dynamics of their numbers has a pronounced territorial character. The smallest population growth is observed in European countries, the largest population growth is typical for the countries of Asia and Africa, and somewhat less for Latin America.
