The concept of marginality is a sociological term that originated in science in the 1920s. But the marginals themselves - people who make up a special social group - existed long before scientists introduced this term. These are people who, for some reason, did not fit into the socio-cultural system of society. Large groups of marginals began to form at the beginning of the 20th century. But, probably, the first marginal appeared in the primitive era.
The term "marginality" was introduced by American sociologists in order to characterize the social phenomenon they observe: the creation of closed communities by immigrants due to their inability to immediately fit into the American way of life. For the new term, the Latin word marginalis was chosen, which means "on the edge". Thus, immigrant communities were characterized as groups pulled out of their native cultural layer and did not take root on a new soil.
The marginal group is characterized by its own special culture, which often comes into conflict with the dominant cultural attitudes in society. A typical example is the Italian mafia in America. Don Corleone and his family are marginalized in American society.
So, in the strict sense of a social term, the first marginals appeared in the late 19th - early 20th centuries in the seething cauldron of American immigration. They were people of two cultures, simultaneously belonging to two worlds. Not only in the USA, of course, similar phenomena were observed: for example, Brazil at about the same time invited Italian immigrants to the plantations, who did not immediately fit into the existing society on an equal footing with the descendants of the Portuguese, and were often perceived as "white negros".
Marginalized groups can also emerge as a result of major social upheavals. For example, the revolution in Russia has led to the emergence of a large number of marginals - people pulled out of the framework of their class and with difficulty finding a place for themselves in the new society. For example, street children of the 1920s are a typical marginal group.
Gradually, the concept of marginality in science expanded. The concept of “individual marginality” has appeared. It is broader than marginality as a social phenomenon. I. V. Malyshev in his book "Marginal Art" characterizes marginality as "non-systemic". People who preserve the past can be marginalized; ahead of their time; simply "lost" and not finding a place for themselves in society and its culture.
In this sense, according to Viktor Shenderovich, Sakharov, Thomas Mann, and even Christ can be called marginals.
So, the first marginal, most likely, appeared at the dawn of mankind. Perhaps the first homosapiens were just marginalized!
Since society is wary of the marginalized, the life of "non-systemic" people throughout the history of mankind has been difficult and, alas, usually short. Some of them became social lumpen, outcast pariahs, but many managed to move culture forward, to outline new guidelines for the development of society.
Outrageous artists, for example, were often marginalized. They boldly discarded traditional values and created their own. For example, Diogenes was a marginal. The decadents were marginalized. Soviet dudes were marginal.
At the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st centuries, there were much more marginals than in any other historical era. Various informal movements are, as a rule, marginalized. The tolerance of modern society allows representatives of the marginalized strata to live in their own coordinate system more freely than before.
