The concept of "ethnos" has become widespread in our country largely due to the outstanding work of Lev Gumilyov "Ethnogenesis and the biosphere of the earth." The original theory of passionarity attracted the attention of not only scientists, but also the general public. In reality, however, the concept of "Ethnos" appeared a long time ago.
Instructions
Step 1
The term "ethnos" is of Greek origin. So the ancient Greeks called foreign peoples - everyone who did not belong to the Greek civilization. In the Russian language, instead of it, the word "people" was used for a long time. The "ethnos" entered scientific use in 1923. thanks to the works of the Russian scientist-emigrant S. M. Shirokogorova. In his view, an ethnos can be called a group of people speaking the same language, having a common origin and a single way of life. Thus, Shirokogorov singled out a community of culture: language, customs, faith, traditions as an obligatory feature of an ethnos.
Step 2
In modern science, the science of ethnology deals with the problems of the existence and development of ethnic groups. Within its framework, there are two main approaches to the interpretation of the term "ethnos". The first approach considers ethnos as a form of existence of the person himself, as well as his culture, taking into account natural factors. Lev Gumilyov's theory of ethnogenesis is based on this interpretation.
Step 3
The second approach considers an ethnos as a historical and social system that has its own period of origin, development and change in structure. With such a view of an ethnos, its historical boundaries may not coincide with the boundaries of national states. As an example, we can take the history of the Jewish people, which existed for a long time outside the state form.
Step 4
Summarizing these two approaches, we can conclude that an ethnos is a large group of people united by a common language, lifestyle, cultural traditions and realizing themselves as a single community. Historically, the formation of ethnic groups often occurs around such stable cultural elements as language or religion. For example, in this aspect we can talk about Christian culture or Islamic civilization.
Step 5
The main prerequisites for the formation of an ethnos are a common territory and a certain common language as a means of communication. Moreover, a common language can be formed on the basis of several multilingual elements. As additional conditions for the formation, one can name the closeness of members of the community in racial terms, the presence of large mestizo (mixed) groups and common beliefs.
