13.02.2021THE THEORY OF ''ETHNOS'' BY SERGEI SHIROKOGOROFF
One of the first authors in Soviet ethnography to address the issue of ethnos was Sergei Shirokogorov (Сергей Широкогоров). He first coined the term "ethnos" in the 1920s1, when ethnos entered Western science in its current sense only in the 1960s, and the word had a more negative connotation, in the West it was a word that came to replace the word "race"and it meant "minority".
Shirokogorov was one of the first specialists to realize the need to define terms separately. He defines the term ethnos as follows: "A group of people who speak the same language, accept their common origin, master systematic customs, way of life, preserve, sanctify their traditions, differentiate themselves from other similar groups2." This is the first definition of an ethnic unit. Of course, it is clear that there is a need to define and clarify the different sub-elements. For example, it may not be clear to everyone what Shirokogorov means by tradition. Turning to the discussion of the word nation, Shirokogorov notes that it is already connected with the state and may include different ethnic groups3. However, not all nations can be classified under the same status, as was the case with ethnic groups. For us, the general cultural system he created may be important. As we have seen from the definition of ethnos, it is directed towards cultural peculiarities. Shirokogorov considers that one of the main problems of ethnography is to trace all human intellectual and psychological activities. From this point of view, he builds the body of knowledge. In culture, Shirokogorov distinguishes three categories: material culture (clothing, food, construction art), social culture, which includes the forms of social organization (family, clan), state bodies, and, of course, spiritual culture (religion, science, philosophy, aesthetics, art)4: According to Shirokogorov, these three categories (material, social, and spiritual) are placed on one side of the research question and on the other side are the mental-psychological processes of a person. A similar view was later expressed by the American anthropologist Clifford Geertz. He points out that human thinking its culture is a parallel process that one does not follow or precede the other but goes together5.
Thus, we can state that Shirokogorov is the first to form a three-part model of culture, which is now taught in courses of different ethnographic and cultural orientations. At the same time, in this context, he uses human activity, which is expressed in thought and behavior. We can think that a change in culture is a change in behavior, and vice versa.
One possible addition when Shirokogorov speaks of intellectual peculiarities, it does not mean that he discriminates between the intellectual levels of different ethnic groups. When one says intellectual, one must understand the peculiarities, draw an artificial scale for the mental abilities of the ethnos and look from the context of high and low.
2 Широкогоров С., Этнографические исследования: Этнос. Исследование принципов изменения этнических явлений, Книга вторая, изд. Дальхевосточного университета, Владивосток, 2002, с. 42.
3 Широкогоров, 2002, с. 43.
4 Широкогоров, 2002, с. 44.
5 Geertz C., The interpretations of cultures, Basic Books, New York, 1973, pp. 55-83.
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