What is a sign of ethnic community. Fundamentals of social science

Such communities are also called consanguineous or communities identified on the basis of a particular culture. These include: tribes, nationalities, nations. In any case, when studying ethnic public structures, phenomena, processes, the central base is the category "ethnos", which from Greek origin means: flock, group, swarm, tribe, people.

There are many approaches, concepts regarding the interpretation and definition key concept"ethnos". Some scientists (for example, the American sociologist JI. Warner) allow the use of an ethnic term for every person who considers himself (or is considered) a member of a group that has a certain culture and participates in the activities of the group. According to other scholars (German ethnologist W. Muhlmann), "ethnos" is understood as the corresponding unity and self-consciousness. This is also understood as a set of people who collectively and unconsciously ascribe to themselves certain value characteristics (M. Mazhet, French ethnologist).

Considering the category "ethnos" as the main unit of the ethnic classification of mankind, in a broad sense it is identified with the concept of "people", "nationality" - as special form collective existence of people.

The main ethnic determinant should be considered ethnic self-consciousness, which is seen as the awareness by members of each ethnic group of their belonging to a certain ethnic community based on the common language, culture, historical destiny, recognition of special features.

Unlike race as a product biological development, social communities were the result of social interaction(communications, beliefs, customs, rituals) that united people.

Evolutionists created a theory of the development of ethnic communities, where the beginning was seven "I. A more extensive merger was the clan - historically the first social communities of people, natural consanguine associations. Clans were united into certain tribes, connected not only by blood relationship, but also by faith. The union of clans was a tribe Tribes - a higher form of organization, in the process of cultural development united in nationalities, and those - at the highest stages of development of economic, political and other ties - turned into nations. Let us consider only the main communities.

"People" is an ambiguous term. In the language of political science, "the people" is the name given to the working strata, the classes of town and country. language social sciences- these are communities, in the ethnic hierarchy they stand between the nation and the tribe. They are firmly connected with the territory, have their own language, culture, power system, political system. A people is a cultural and historical community of people. This term can be synonymous with the indigenous ethnic group of the country or a synonym for the ethnic group spread throughout the world. There is a lot of confusion in the social science literature regarding this category, so it is not always correctly used (applied) both at the ethnological and political levels. In fact, a people is the entire population of a particular country or state.

"Nation" is seen as an ethnic and political category. A nation is also a kind of degree of development of culture. This is a stable community of people that historically arose on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and a mental make-up, manifested in a common culture. Nations arose during the period of the birth of capitalism, when political organizations, the domestic market, culture, and economic structure were formed. They are numerous for the nationalities. On the basis of a single territory, language, culture and economy, a single national character and psychological characteristics.

Although in its specificity the term "nation", like ethnos, means "people", in modern ethnological consumption they should still be distinguished. What we call a nation actually reproduces ethnic specificity. In a broad sense, a nation is an ethnos, a community formed on the basis of ethnic tribal values, which have a natural biological character.

There are also multinational states, creating a characteristic national type, such as the United States, where the nation is identified with the state. However, the state may not always be a sign of the nation. V modern world there are practically no ethnically homogeneous (homogeneous) countries. Sociologists have calculated that only a few countries (about 7%) can be conditionally classified as ethnically homogeneous, where the entire main ethnic community makes up almost 100% of the population. In almost 25 countries, the main ethnic community reaches 90% of all residents, in another 25 countries it is 75-90%, in more than thirty countries - from 50 to 70%, in about forty countries - less than half of the population. In some cases, the number of ethnic groups in one country exceeds even one hundred.

This kind of variety ethnic composition population is the result of various factors, in particular, the migration of large masses of people that occurred in all periods of history, caused large-scale and rapid mixing of representatives of different peoples, formed numerous ethnic communities within a particular country.

Ukraine belongs to the multinational countries. According to the 1989 census, more than 127 ethnic groups live on its territory, in particular:

Ukrainians (37400000 people)

Russians (11400000 people)

Other ethnic groups that number from 300 thousand or more (more than 1 million people): Jews, Poles, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Moldavians, Hungarians, Romanians, Gypsies, Tatars, etc.

The term "nationality", as an integral "attribute", is also used in two meanings:

As belonging to a certain nation,

As a community of people who have created their own special culture, but do not have behind them an independent political status of being (who have not reached the degree of nation formation "). The meaning of the nation is based on the fact that:

■ it is a stable form of community;

■ it creates a sustainable cultural outcome;

■ forms a sense of identification of a person with communities (ie, belonging to a nation is the presence of a language, connection with one's native land, a place in history is the basis for self-expression of individuals);

■ Creates a strong sense of solidarity between members and antagonism for outsiders.

These traits, in turn, give rise to social movements and extreme ideologies. Nationalism occupies a special place among them. By nationalism we mean, as a rule:

■ system of political ideas;

■ a certain set of installations;

■ social movement.

Nationalism comes in various forms: from patriotism (willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of one's own nation) to extreme extremist forms. The main idea of ​​nationalism is the recognition of the individual characteristics of one's own nation as the greatest value, the emphasizing of one's own nation and "attributing" to it a special historical mission (trust of the nation) is exceeded. Here, a tendency to mysticism, mythologizing, intolerance towards a foreign nation is also manifested, which sometimes borders on racism.

Sociologists suggest that over the decades, the nation may be replaced by a form of community that will unite even more people and become a form of more high culture. The first sign of this is the common economic and financial field in most European countries, "transparency" of borders.

When characterizing ethnic communities, it is necessary, first of all, to define the category of "ethnos". Here we refer to Concise Dictionary in sociology, according to which ethnos(Greek - tribe, people) - a stable set of people historically established in a certain territory, possessing common features and stable features of culture (including language) and psychological make-up, as well as awareness of their unity and difference from other similar formations, in other words, ethnic self-awareness. Signs expressing the properties of an already existing ethnic group and separating it from other ethnic groups are language, folk art, customs, rituals, traditions, norms of behavior, habits, that is, components of culture that, being passed down from generation to generation, form the so-called ethnic culture with her own style.

It is very important that an ethnos can only be a cultural community that recognizes itself as such, distinguishing itself from other similar communities, i.e. has an ethnic identity. In sociology, a special section is distinguished - ethnosociology which studies the genesis, essence, functions, general patterns development of ethnic groups, interethnic (interethnic) relations.

Ethnic communities include a tribe, a nationality, a nation. The beginning of the development of ethnic communities was the family. Several or many families formed a genus. The clans united into clans, no longer connected by blood relationship, but by the belief in descent from a common ancestor. Several clans united to form a tribe. Tribes in the course of further cultural development, having passed the stage of nationality, turned into nations.

Let us briefly consider the above types of ethnic communities.

Clans- these are tribal unions, which are the rudiment of political institutions. Clan members recognize themselves as blood relatives. Clans are groups originally characteristic of primitive societies, but in some, transformed forms, they can play an important role in modern society.

Tribe- usually covering a large number of clans and clans - this is a higher form of social organization. The tribe is formed on the basis of a common language, special customs, rituals, characteristic names. The tribe already has the makings internal organization, chief or council of chiefs; tribal councils that decide important issues, religious rites. Tribes are also associated with a specific territory. Even if the tribe leads a nomadic way of life, the area of ​​its nomadism is limited to the territory that it protects. Some tribes, consisting of clans and clans, live apart for a certain part of the year, but once a year or more often gather for common purposes. Known tribes, consisting of several tens of thousands of people. The contours of the economic structure begin to form in the tribes.

Nationality- ethnic and social community, which historically follows the tribe and precedes the nation. The nationality grows out of the mixing of tribes and the formation of tribal unions during the period of the decomposition of the primitive communal system and the establishment of new, private-property relations. In contrast to the clan-tribal organization, built on blood and family ties, territorial ties acquire significance in the nationality, it develops mutual language based on tribal languages. Nationalities are characterized by the presence economic relations, although they do not have such a developed, consolidating character as that of a nation. The first nationalities are formed in a slave-owning society. This process continues in other eras. The development of capitalist relations in the social and, mainly, economic spheres leads to the transformation of a nationality into a nation.

Nation- this is a historically established stable community of people, arising on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, as well as some peculiar character traits, psychology, culture and way of life, etc. The ability to form one's own state, its strengthening and development, as well as the ability to contribute to the universal culture, is considered the main sign of the separation and formation of a nation. The nation begins to take shape during the period of the disintegration of feudalism and the emergence of capitalism. This is facilitated by the elimination feudal fragmentation, the strengthening of economic ties between individual territorial entities, the unification of local markets into a national one.

Nationalism- this is the assertion of one's own nation as the highest value, the superiority of one's own nation, intolerance towards other nations, the desire to subjugate them. Nationalism is often associated with racism based on racial superiority and the chosenness of the nation to fulfill a special mission. Nationalism can also be justified with the help of religion, when a nation claims that it has been chosen by God for a special mission.

The term "people" is often used. People- in the usual sense - the population of the state, country. In a narrower, concrete sociological sense, a people is an aggregate social groups employed in mass activities in the system of social division of labor (primarily in material production). The people are a single social whole, since they have a common historical destiny, essential signs of a similar way of life and customs, as well as a sense of belonging to a single historical community. The people are the bearer of collective social experience: language, historical memory, cultural property and norms, labor skills and abilities, etc. One of the distinguishing factors of a people is culture. William Thoms coined the term in 1846 folklore, covering myths, legends, proverbs, songs, dances, customs, etc. Peoples also differ in their characteristic material culture- tools, housing, clothing.

In historical terms, social communities of people were preceded by ethnic ones, on the basis of which they appeared in the process of development and complication of human relations.

In social philosophy, the study of ethnic communities of people began to be carried out much later than many other things, but in terms of its importance and significance, it occupies leading place. To date, among scientists there is no single point of view on this issue.

- These are large groups of people united by a community, language and cultural and historical identity. They usually include tribes, nationalities and nations.

Such communities are formed in a certain territory in the course of a joint. Their members have common features of a psychological make-up, and are also clearly aware of their unity and difference from other similar communities. For a group to be recognized as an ethnic community, at least one of the following conditions must be met:

• community members are aware of their belonging to it;
• the common origin of the members of the community is assumed;
• community members have linguistic and cultural unity;
• there is an internal social organization that regulates relations within the community and contacts with others.

Tribe

Historically, the formation of ethnic communities can be counted from the moment of the collapse of the primitive human herd. Initially arises genus A group of people who are related by blood. Members of the genus were aware of their relationship and had a common generic name. The genus included several or many families.

The appearance of the clan was facilitated by the emergence of a primitive community, economic basis which was community property. Joint management of the economy on the basis of communal property, the natural-equal distribution of things, primarily food, joint life and entertainment contributed to the formation of such a community as a clan. It can be said that genus acts as the very first industrial, social and ethnic group of people, united into one joint labor activity, consanguineous origin, common language, common religious and mythological beliefs, customs and features of life.

Several genera could be united in clans - tribal unions. The unity of the clans was based on the belief in a common origin.

Several clans could make up tribe. The basis of the unity of the tribe is blood and family ties; in addition, the tribe lives in a certain territory, its members have a common language or dialect, their own customs and cult, joint economic activity, the beginnings of internal organization (tribal council).

The appearance of the tribe driven primarily by the need conservation and protection of the habitat(territories of residence, places of hunting and fishing) from encroachment by other human associations. A more numerous composition of the population greatly facilitated the task of resettlement and arrangement of life in new territories. Of no small importance was also the protection against the degeneration of the genus, which threatened it because of sexual relations between consanguineous Homo sapiens.

Nationality

Nationalities begin to take shape from tribes after the appearance of the first states. The nationality is characterized by a territorial community united by economic and cultural activities, as well as a single language. Belonging to a nationality is no longer determined only by blood and family ties.

Nation

Nation - the highest form of socio-ethnic community. And this is not surprising, because. it is the unification of people on a national basis that creates the best prerequisites for people to live, to organize production, economic, socio-political and cultural life. The commonality of economic life, a single language, a common territory, certain features of the mental make-up of people, manifested in the specific features of culture, are the main features of a nation.

It can be said that nation- this is a stable association of people connected by a common language, a common territory, a common economic life and some features of the mental make-up of people, expressed in the specific features of the culture of a given people.

The unity of the nation is promoted by:

• common historical memory;
• developed national identity.

Historical memory - it is knowledge of the past, the best achievements of national culture, outstanding representatives of the nation in the field, as well as the desire to act in accordance with the best examples presented in history.

However, since in the history of each nation there were not only heroic pages, but also impartial ones, historical memory also suggests that a nation should admit its guilt for the mistakes made and draw conclusions from the lessons of the past.

National identity - a sense of belonging to a nation, the identification of its interests with its own.

These interests imply, on the one hand, the desire to preserve the national culture, protect its identity, and on the other hand, the desire to enrich their national culture with the best achievements.

Modern humanity is a complex ethnic structure, including several thousand ethnic communities (nations, nationalities, tribes, ethnic groups, etc.), differing both in numbers and in the level of development. All ethnic communities of the world are part of more than two hundred countries. Therefore, most modern states polyethnic. For example, several hundred ethnic communities live in India, and there are 200 peoples in Nigeria. The Russian Federation currently includes more than a hundred ethnic groups, including about 30 nations.

An ethnic community is a stable set of people (tribe, nationality, nation, people) that has historically developed in a certain territory, having common features and stable features of culture, language, mental make-up, self-consciousness and historical memory, as well as awareness of their interests and goals, their unity, difference from other similar entities.

There are different approaches to understanding the essence of ethnic groups.

Various approaches (theories) to understanding the essence of ethnic groups, their origin:

1) Natural-biological or racial-anthropological approach - recognizes the inequality of human races, the cultural superiority of the Caucasoid race. The imperfection of racial characteristics is the basis of the cultural backwardness of nations and nationalities.

2) Marxist theory- proclaims economic relations as the main basis for the formation of a nation. Recognizes the right of nations to self-determination up to secession, the idea of ​​their complete equality, proletarian internationalism.

3) Sociocultural approach - considers ethnic communities as components of the social structure of society, revealing their close relationship with social groups and various social institutions. Ethnic community is an important source of self-promotion and self-development.

4) Passionary theory of ethnogenesis (origin, development of the ethnos) - considers the ethnos as a natural, biological, geographical phenomenon, as a result of the adaptation of the human group to the natural and climatic conditions of habitat. The history of mankind is a chain of numerous ethnogenesis. The source of the emergence of a new ethnos is a passionary impulse. Passionarity is a certain characteristic of the behavior and natural properties of a person, due to the energy of the cosmos, the sun and natural radioactivity that affect society. Passionaries are especially energetic, gifted, talented people.

Types of ethnic communities:

A clan is a group of blood relatives leading their origin along the same line (maternal or paternal).

A tribe is a collection of clans interconnected by common features of culture, awareness common origin, as well as the commonality of the dialect, the unity religious beliefs, rituals.

A nationality is a historically established community of people united by a common territory, language, mental makeup, and culture.

A nation is a historically formed community of people, characterized by developed economic ties, a common territory and a common language, culture, and ethnic identity.

In sociology, the concept of ethnic minorities is widely used, which includes not just quantitative data.

The features of an ethnic minority are as follows:

Its representatives are at a disadvantage compared to other ethnic groups due to discrimination (belittling, belittling, infringement) on the part of other ethnic groups;

Its members experience a certain sense of group solidarity, "belonging to a single whole";

It is usually to some extent physically and socially isolated from the rest of society.

The natural prerequisite for the formation of one or another ethnic group was the common territory, since it created the necessary conditions for people to work together. However, in the future, when the ethnos has formed, this feature loses its main significance and may be completely absent. Thus, even in the conditions of the diaspora (from Gr. diaspora - scattering) some ethnic groups retained their identity without having a single territory.

Other important condition formation of an ethnos - a common language. But even this sign cannot be considered universal, since in a number of cases (for example, the USA), an ethnos is formed in the course of the development of economic, political and other ties, and common languages ​​are the result of this process.

A more stable sign of an ethnic community is the unity of such components of spiritual culture as values, norms and patterns of behavior, as well as the socio-psychological characteristics of people's consciousness and behavior associated with them.

An integrative indicator of the existing socio-ethnic community is ethnic self-awareness - a sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group, awareness of one's unity and difference from other ethnic groups.

An important role in the development of ethnic identity is played by ideas about the common origin, history, historical destinies, as well as traditions, customs, rituals, folklore, i.e. such elements of culture that are passed down from generation to generation and form a specific ethnic culture.

Thanks to ethnic self-awareness, a person keenly feels the interests of his people, compares them with the interests of other peoples, the world community. Awareness of ethnic interests induces a person to activities in the process of which they are realized.

We note two aspects of national interests:

It is necessary to keep its peculiarity, originality in the stream human history, the uniqueness of their culture, language, strive for population growth, ensuring a sufficient level of economic development;

It is necessary psychologically not to isolate oneself from other nations and peoples, not to turn state borders v " iron curtain”, you should enrich your culture with contacts, borrowings from other cultures.

Ethno-national communities develop from a clan, tribe, nation, reaching the level of a nation-state.

A derivative of the concept of "nation" is the term nationality, which is used in Russian as the name of a person's belonging to any ethnic group.

Many modern researchers consider a classic inter-ethnic nation, in which general civil qualities come to the fore and at the same time, the characteristics of the ethnic groups included in it are preserved - language, their own culture, traditions, and customs.

An interethnic, civil nation is a collection (community) of citizens of a particular state. Some scientists believe that the formation of such a nation means the "end of the nation" in the ethnic dimension. Others, recognizing the nation-state, believe that it is necessary to talk not about the "end of the nation", but about its new qualitative state.

Abstract on the topic

ethnic communities

1. Ethnos as a global community

2. Enographic groups

3. References

1. Ethnos as a global community

In development human community a certain pattern can be traced - the desire of people to unite in a community. There are various types of communities: group, territorial, professional, ethnic, ethno-social. The last two are most directly related to ethnopolitology.

In the general sense of the word, a community is a collection of people united by stable social ties and relationships and possessing a number of common features that give it a unique identity. Unlike communities created by people consciously, ethnic communities arise historically, regardless of the will and consciousness of people, as a result of the needs social production and community development. The forms of such communities are different - from the primitive human herd to the modern nation. All of them reflect the nature and level of development of the productive forces, social production, the features of the forms of ties and relationships in society. Within the framework of such a community, all life processes are carried out, it is a self-sufficient closed social system. In comparison with other types of associations, such a community is sometimes defined as global.

Each global (ethnic) community is a product of interaction social relations under certain historical conditions. Its content and forms change with changing conditions of existence. With the progress of civilization, the community becomes more complex, internally structured. Each new ethnic community outgrows the previous one and includes several similar communities.

All ethnic communities in ethnology are called ethnos, and the process of forming an ethnos is called ethnogenesis. There are several approaches to understanding the essence of an ethnic group. In our country long years the generally accepted concept was that an ethnos (people) is primarily a social phenomenon and is subject to the laws of the development of society. Recognition of ethnic groups, along with other large social groups, the population of states, allows - with a clear understanding of their specifics - to extend to them a number of stable (natural) qualities and characteristics that are characteristic of large social groups. These include:

1) socio-demographic self-reproducibility. It is provided by biosocial mechanisms that influence the historical evolution of large social systems;

2) formation of group social interests. These interests determine group solidarity (“we”, “our”, “ours”);

3) internal social heterogeneity: large social groups inevitably divide according to different grounds into strata (layers), various subgroups (communities, families, circles, mafias, etc.) and institutions. On the contrary, the solidity, the indivisibility of such groups, is an illusion, however, often supported by interested forces and included in the arsenal of modern social myth-making. It follows from the foregoing that the common interests of members of a large social group may not coincide (and quite significantly) with the interests of intra-group sub-formations;

4) participation in one form or another in the production and consumption of culture. At the same time, the produced and used culture (material and spiritual, commercial and amateur and industrial-professional) acquires - in fact or only in the ideas of the members of the group - the character of a marker of this group. This is how ideas about “our urban traditions” are born, “ local flavor”, diverse cultures and subcultures;

5) awareness by people belonging to a large social group, its reality and their belonging to it. It occurs as the formation and stabilization of the group, under the influence of its interactions with other groups of the same type. At the same time, human consciousness not only fixes the fact of the existence of each given large social group and belonging to it, but also actively contributes to its strengthening, the development of group values, symbols, cultural phenomena, points of view, approaches to life and other stereotypes;

6) manageability and self-governance. Large social groups contain the moment of self-organization, which is ensured by the presence in them of mechanisms for transmitting information, developing and implementing goals; for example, through a variety of social institutions.

The extension of the listed characteristics and tendencies of large social groups to ethnic groups facilitates the understanding of the patterns of structure, functioning and evolution of the latter. Indeed, if it is common for any large social groups to form their own group interests, then there is no reason to think that ethnic groups, as a variety of large social groups, do not possess this quality. Further, if internal stratification is inherent in large social groups, the same can be said about ethnic groups. And one should think that interests - cultural, economic, social, political and others, on the one hand, are strongly influenced by intra-ethnic stratification, and on the other hand, largely determine it. If, in addition, the consciousness and self-consciousness of large social groups has real objects as its source, then the consciousness and self-consciousness of the people included in the ethnos is formed not in an accidental, arbitrary, artificial or imposed way from outside, but in a lawful manner, i.e. under the influence of the development of an ethnos, interethnic interactions and the reflection of these realities in perception and thinking. Ethnic groups or, in other words, ethnic communities (tribes, nationalities different types, nations) - social education, representing the existing complex self-reproducing social systems, the understanding of the structure, functioning and evolution of which is the subject of the science of ethnology (ethnography, ethnology).

Self-consciousness, being an important feature of any ethnic group, is fixed in self-consciousness (ethnonym), which allows it to distinguish itself from others, as well as language, folk art, customs, rituals, norms of behavior, other elements that, being passed down from generation to generation, form an ethnic identity. culture. All these signs are formed in the appropriate conditions - natural, socio-economic, state-legal on the basis of the common territory. With this understanding, an ethnos can be characterized as a set of people who have common relatively stable features of culture and psyche, as well as a consciousness of their unity.

In domestic science for a long time it was customary to single out the stadial-historical varieties of the ethnos, linking them with socio-historical formations. Currently, this typology is supplemented by new approaches, but in general retains its significance. Consider from these positions the main types of ethnos.

The history of global ethnic communities begins with the primitive human herd. It was a community of individuals, equal in rights and duties. Natural differences - age, sex - were not taken into account. Within the framework of this community, all life processes took place, starting from reproduction and ending with the life support and socialization of descendants. The primitive human herd had its own territory, on which a primitive economy was conducted, its own way of life, its own means of communication, self-consciousness, forms of expression of spiritual experiences.

The next, higher, form of ethnic community is the genus. In its development, it has gone through three stages: total clan, maternal clan, patriarchal clan. At the first stage, the genus was a closed and self-sufficient system, i.e. was a global community. In the second and third stages, it was no longer a closed system. With the prohibition of sexual contacts between the closest relatives, a system of interaction of various clans arose as a condition for the reproduction of primitive society. The emergence of the first social institutions - blood relationship, common ancestors, cult ritual, etc. is associated with the era of tribal organization. Such unifying factors as territory, economic life, and language are affirmed.

On the basis of consanguinity, cultural and linguistic unity and common territory, a new type ethnic community and social organization - a tribe that unites several genera. At an early stage, the tribe lacked any form of centralized authority ( supreme body self-government was a meeting of all adult members of a clan or community), the unity of the tribe was maintained through intercommunal marriages and duties of mutual assistance. The territorial and social boundaries of the tribe were not strictly limited, often the tribes did not even have self-names. With the emergence of a more complex social organization (age classes, male unions, etc.), a developed system of leadership, the tribe began to acquire a more precise organization. Appear general forms cultures and ideologies - self-consciousness, religious beliefs, ethnogenetic traditions, etc. Power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the elders - the most authoritative representatives of the older generation, hereditary leaders.

The kinship organization reaches its last stage with the creation of supra-tribal associations - tribal unions, which, as a rule, united neighboring tribes living and related in language. The main motive for creating an alliance of tribes was most often the desire to eliminate tribal strife, to join forces to fight other, unrelated tribes.

However, the emergence of a union of tribes did not mean the final liquidation of the tribal organization.

The development of productive forces, the movement of representatives of different clans and tribes within the framework of tribal unions, ultimately made it impossible to exercise power along the tribal line. The consanguineous principle began to be everywhere replaced by the property-class principle. The tribal organization is being replaced new form ethnic community - people, nationality.

In foreign sociology and political science, the concept of "nationality" does not exist. In our country, it has been widely used since the mid-1920s to designate ethnic groups that are in a stadial relationship between tribes and nations. Peoples in the USSR usually included ethnic groups of up to 100 thousand people, with a small share, employed in industrial production, who did not have statehood in the form of union or autonomous republics. In recent years, this term has begun to fall out of use in our country, it is being replaced by another generally accepted concept - "people". This was largely facilitated by the discussion about the legitimacy of singling out a nationality as a historical type of ethnos.

It cannot be said, however, that the concept of "nationality" is completely devoid of meaning. It is quite acceptable when characterizing ethnic communities of early class formations. In this sense, nationality can be viewed as a certain historical stage in the formation of a people ( Old Russian people). Ethnic self-consciousness at this stage was not quite distinct; it was often replaced by regional (compatriotic) self-consciousness, and sometimes by a sense of religious affiliation.

The term "people" is used in different meanings: as a collective designation of the entire population of the country, as a special historically established multinational political, economic, ideological and cultural community (Soviet people), as a designation of all types of ethnic communities. In the latter case, due to its ambiguity, the concept of "people" is replaced by the term "ethnos".

All characteristics of the people as an ethnic community of a high taxonomic level are the product of an era of property inequality, social class relations. As kinship ties lost their significance, the role of such factors as the unity of the territory, the common language, traditions, and customs increased. On this basis, the people realized their own essence according to the principle of the antithesis “we - they”.

The emergence of peoples was due to the mixing and consolidation of tribal groups during the formation of early states. The first peoples arose in the regions ancient civilizations- in Egypt, Mesopotamia. In Europe, the formation of peoples, for the most part giving rise to European ethnic groups, began with the migration of peoples (IV-VII centuries). On the territory of Russia, the beginning of the formation of peoples falls on the end of the 9th-10th centuries. The peoples were formed from multilingual and multicultural components, some of which were subjected to assimilation and were included in the emerging ethnos as a substrate. So, for example, during the formation of the Old Russian people, in addition to the Slavic tribes, Finno-Ugric and Baltic ethnic components entered it. As the people formed, the ties between its individual parts strengthened, a common language was formed (other languages ​​disappeared or turned into dialects), a territorial, cultural and economic community. The integrating indicator of these processes was the emergence of a new single ethnonym, under which this people became known to its neighbors. In the future, some of the peoples were transformed into nations, others continue to exist in modern societies as ethnic minorities.

2. Ethnographic groups

It should be borne in mind that any, even the most consolidated peoples are not highly homogeneous (homogeneous) communities. In the composition of the people there are groups that retain differences from the main ethnic array. They are usually called ethnographic. Ethnographic groups are territorially isolated parts of the people, whose culture, way of life and language retain a certain originality. Such groups may also differ religiously. Feature groups - the presence of their own self-name, and sometimes dual self-consciousness. In the latter case, they are also called ethnic (subethnic) groups or subethnic groups.

Some ethnographic groups originate from other ethnic formations that became part of the people and were not completely assimilated (Russian meshchera on the middle Oka). Others are the result of the expansion of ethnic territory, when a part of an ethnic group that finds itself in a different natural environment, surrounded by other peoples, develops over time specific features culture and language (Kamchadals, Russian-Ustyans, Markovians, and others among the Russians, Mingrelians, Svans among the Georgians). An ethnographic group can also arise as a result of religious (Old Believers, Orthodox Kryashen Tatars) or class (Cossacks) differentiation of an ethnic group.

In the Soviet ethno-political tradition, another designation for a part of the people that, for one reason or another, was cut off from its ethnic mass, was widely used - the national group. This concept denoted the totality of people of a certain nationality living outside their state formations: Russians outside Russia, Ukrainians in Canada, etc. In relation to the USSR, Poles, Germans, Koreans, representatives of other peoples were considered national groups. At present, this concept is almost out of use, it is often replaced by the concept of ethnic (national) minorities.

In modern political practice, in recent years, another terminological characteristic of a territorially isolated group of people, the diaspora, has become widespread. There are works in which the diaspora is even considered as a certain typological category of an ethnic group. Without going into a discussion about such an original point of view, we only note that this concept should not be confused with an ethnic (ethnographic) group. The diaspora, unlike an ethnic (ethnographic) group, does not have a cultural identity that distinguishes it from the main ethnic mass. The Russian diaspora in Western Europe or America (at least in the period of its formation and mature functioning) is distinguished from the Russians not by the features of culture or self-consciousness, but only by the territory of residence.

The most accurate, in our opinion, characterization of the diaspora is given by Yu.P. Platonov: “The diaspora is understood as an ethnos or a part of an ethnos living outside its historical homeland or the territory inhabited by an ethnic array and not wanting to lose ethnic group characteristics that noticeably distinguish it from the rest of the population of the host country, and also forced (consciously or unconsciously) to obey what is accepted in it order".

A part of this or that people that has broken away from its main body may form a diaspora, or it may not. Diaspora as a set of places of settlement of a particular people outside the territory of their origin is not only and not so much a way to preserve their ethnic parameters (language, mentality, culture, self-consciousness, etc.) in a different ethnic environment, but, above all, a form adaptation to the new social and cultural environment of the host society. From these positions, the Tatars living, for example, in Primorsky Krai, are unlikely to be a diaspora, since the social and cultural environment of this subject of the federation is practically no different from the Republic of Tatarstan.

In our opinion, the desire to preserve one's ethnic distinctiveness, one's "self" in a foreign ethnic environment is not the most important indicator of a diaspora. There are many other means for this, especially in those states where public life based on the principles of cultural pluralism. A diaspora arises when the people who make it up feel “out of place” among the surrounding population, experience stress from a change of residence and, for these reasons, strive for a certain isolation from external reality, looking for the notorious straw of a drowning person in communal solidarity. For the Russian peoples (with very rare exceptions), no matter what territory of the Russian Federation they live in, all these circumstances are unlikely to be relevant. This equally applies to a significant part of our recent compatriots from the Union republics, who in Moscow, and in Vladivostok, and in dozens of other cities and villages of the Russian Federation feel like a fish in water.

Nation is a global social community, self-sufficient social system, which arose on the basis of one or several peoples as an expression of a new level of development of productive forces and production relations. The formation of nations is based on the processes of eliminating feudal fragmentation, developing commodity-money relations, creating a single internal market, a centralized state, and unifying language and culture. Not last role also play factors such as long-term cohabitation various peoples on the same territory, trust in each other, mutual respect for traditions and customs, complementarity.

The term "nation" in progress historical development changed its meaning several times. None of the concepts of the nation that exists today is generally accepted. Western sociology is dominated by the view that a nation is a collection of citizens of one state, i.e. territorial-political community. In Central and Eastern Europe, the concepts of "nation", "people" and "ethnos" are often put on an equal footing, thus recognizing the nation as an ethnic community. In the middle of the 20th century, it was customary in our country to consider a nation the highest form ethnos that replaced the nationality. This recognition, in particular, is based on the well-known definition of a nation by I. Stalin: “A nation is a historically established stable community of people that has arisen on the basis of a commonality of four main features, namely: on the basis of a common language, a common territory, a common economic life and a common mental make-up manifested in the commonality of the specific features of the national culture.

In fact, ethnicity and nation are completely different social phenomena. “A nation, unlike an ethnos,” writes V.M. Mezhuev, “is something that is given to me not by the fact of my birth, but by my own efforts and personal choice. I do not choose an ethnos, but I can choose a nation ... Nation - this is the state, social, cultural affiliation of the individual, and not his anthropological and ethnic certainty.

Most modern nations have developed from different ethnic communities in the process of joint life within the framework of a single state, which ultimately became the most important factor in the formation of a nation. “The idea of ​​nations,” says V.A. Tishkov, - is born among peoples who are not necessarily culturally homogeneous, as political program to create sovereign civil communities, and it is states that create nations.” In this regard, one cannot fail to recall the famous Italian G. Garibaldi: "We made Italy, now we will make Italians."

The borders of the nation and the state coincide, but it is not the nation that forms the borders of the state, but the state - the borders of the nation.

The formation of nations is connected with the emergence and development of capitalism. The development of commodity-money relations gradually led to the formation of an economically unified socio-historical organism (Yu.I. Semenov's term), which was at the same time a centralized state. With the advent of such an organism (sociora), the objective interests of the bulk of the people who were part of it also arose. By the time the French state was formed, for example, only three million out of twelve spoke French and could be considered ethnic French. This multi-lingual and multi-ethnic community (the Celts of Brittany, the Basques of the south of France, the Germans of Alsace and Lorraine, etc.) became a single French nation in the course of the anti-feudal movement, in the course of the struggle for the conquests of the Great French Revolution, against attempts to revive the feudal order. Only in the process of such a struggle could the idea of ​​national unity, a civil society that has the right to create a state and control power, mature. Without this, the French nation would not have been able to take shape.

On the basis of several ethnic communities, many nations were formed Western Europe. Thus, the Swiss nation consists of four ethnic groups speaking German, French, Italian and Romansh. Two large ethnic communities - the Flemings and the Walloons - form the basis of the Belgian nation. This situation is typical for many countries of Western Europe.

The population of a socio-historical organism (state) can also represent one ethnic community. In this case, the nation can be simultaneously an ethnic group. Such a nation is usually called an ethnonation. Basically, on the basis of one ethnic group, in particular, the Portuguese, Icelandic, Norwegian and Swedish nations were formed. but similar examples not so numerous. In practice, the boundaries of a centralized state rarely coincide with ethnic boundaries. There are several thousand ethnic communities (ethnic groups) in the world and only about 200 states.

Therefore, at the moment, ethnopolitical scientists have agreed to call the state-forming ethnic groups (nation-forming) the core ethnic communities in a particular state. This does not mean that there is one ethnic group in this state, it means that it dominated in the creation of this particular state. In Russia - Russians, in Germany - Germans etc.

According to Yu.I. Semenov, the main thing that makes this or that community a nation is the presence of one common fatherland among its constituent people. The people who make up an ethnos may or may not form a nation. On the other hand, the concept of the state may or may not coincide with the concept of the fatherland. For people living in a state, it may or may not be their common fatherland. If the population of the state is a representative of one ethnic group, this set of people will necessarily be a nation. When there is no such coincidence, it all depends on whether the representatives of the ethnic groups inhabiting the country consider the whole country as their fatherland or only that part of it in which they live compactly. The process of transformation of an ethnos into a nation is usually called the nationalization of an ethnos, and the purposeful actions of the state, its political institutions or the ethnopolitical elite to turn an ethnos into a nation are called nation-building.

Bibliography

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2. Gemner E. Nations and nationalism. M, 1991.

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