In specialized literature, the designations of an ethnos, nation, and civilization are often confused. The terminology and concepts on this part are purely theoretically poorly developed. Several types of designations of the human community coexist. But most converge on one thing: an ethnos is a collective with a common and carefully preserved from generation to generation myth of their own origin.
To make it easier to use the system of concepts, it is necessary to sort through the terms "local civilization", "people", "nation", "ethnos". It will take a little culturological analysis. Ethnicity - the smallest group in number. Such associations, and diverse ones, may be included in a nation. The last few groups are united by the concept of "people." And finally, a civilizational community appears. Most often this is a state. That it is the boiler in which ethnic groups are formed.
Shirokogorov and Gumilyov
Social, cultural, biological community as a unit of the demographic process - this is a term synthesized from two teachings, denoting an ethnic group. This is a demographic process associated with both available resources (Shirokogorov) and the pulsation of energy (Gumilyov).
Types of ethnic groups
Ethnicity is, first of all, a community of people, based on blood ties, that is, gender. Thus, in early communal times, primitive people were gathered by tribes. From these ties, a nation gradually formed.
Further, on a purely geographical basis, with the development of civilizational factors, nations formed. The road that leads most directly to this unification can be described as exactly demographic, when marriages are concluded within a separate group for so long that genetics manages to consolidate not only their external similarity, but also many character traits. And when both the physical appearance and customs are common, the group can reasonably be called an ethnos. Self-awareness and self-identification are strong here, and the clear separation of strangers from their owns plays the most important role. The cultural core of such a community is a common territory, collective holidays, legends and myths, language, customs, the whole way of life.
Generational Memory
Information should be continuously and constantly transmitted from senior to younger, continuity should be strengthened by ties, only this will ensure the stability of the ethnic system. Otherwise, the community breaks up. So, an ethnos is primarily biological kinship (endogamy), rituals and holidays as a cultural means of rallying, a single language, the same way of life and economy, political unanimity.
Demographic material, or Three kinds of identity
Any political formations are based precisely on ethnicity, linking roles and linking all institutions of society. From the simplest political form - the tribe - a complex state grows up, where the ethnic group is a small part of the community that we call the "people." The latter is above state roles and estates, it is comprehensive. It can be united both by religion (the Orthodox people or the orthodox), and secular culture. A nation as such, bound by common traditions and customs, or by a common political movement, is only one of those forms that are designated by the concept of "people." Common history and a unified national culture are important here. The main thing is to understand that ethnos, people (nation) and civilization are phenomena that are defined in different layers of the development of society.
