Signs of the ethnos

The word "ethnos" is translated from Greek as "people" and means a group of people who are united by subjective or objective characteristics. These include culture, language, territory of residence and self-awareness. In 1923 the Russian scientist SM Shirokogorov, who had emigrated abroad after the October Revolution, introduced the term "ethnos" into Russian. True, its meaning is much broader than just "people."

The main features of the ethnos, in the opinion of some scientists, are language and culture. Others add here ethnic self-awareness and common territory of residence. Still others add to these attributes the general psychological essence of people. In other words, an ethnos can consist of biological and socio-economic characteristics of a particular people or nation. It began to form 100,000 years ago. Before its emergence, there were concepts such as family, then genus and clan.

Ethnic groups include tribes, nationalities, and complete this chain of the nation. Unlike the states, they do not disintegrate, but move independently on any territories. It is necessary to distinguish such features of the ethnos as statehood, the general economy and social development. This concept gradually evolves and goes through stages from the tribe and nationalities, subsequently becoming a nation. The biological community of the ethnos is changing to a socio-political one.

The first step in its formation is the tribe. Initially, it consisted of people who spoke the same language and lived in the same territory. This was inherent in the clan system, after the collapse of which a new community of people is being formed under the name of "nationality".

For the first time the nationalities began to emerge during the slave system and feudalism. The signs of the ethnos that distinguished them are not only language and common territory, but also culture and economy. The nationality is much greater than the tribe, and the kinship ties in it are different than that observed in the tribe.

Ethnic groups unite in states where absolutely unrelated ethnoses can be included. The peoples themselves are unstable and in the epoch of feudalism they often disintegrated, thus forming new groups. In large numbers, they arose during the formation of states.

The signs of the ethnos of the nationality are, above all, national self-awareness. The last, the highest type of ethnos is the nation.

Nations began to emerge in the period of the emergence of capitalism. At this time, a common economic structure and market relations begin to take shape, and art and literature appear.

The nations number hundreds of millions of people, and thanks to a common language, territory and economy, a single psychotype and national character are formed. Nations emerged as a result of industrialization and capitalization of society. They have been actively fighting for their sovereignty throughout history, as manifested in ethnic conflicts and ethnic strife.

The signs of a nation are not only the social and economic unity of people, but also cultural, religious, and spiritual intimacy. A community of people can not be a nation unless it speaks the same language or has a social and economic union.

The signs of a nation are indispensable for the nation to consider itself a nation. People who do not have a spiritual or religious community, culture or territory, there are no signs of the nation.

The main types of ethnos are a tribe, a nationality and a nation. Do not confuse such concepts as a nation and nationality. In Russia, nationality is a narrow notion of a person's belonging to a certain nationality, in other countries the concept of nationality is associated with citizenship. For a deeper understanding of the issues related to the development of human society, it is necessary to study these types of ethnos more deeply.