Theoretical Foundations of the Phenomenon of Ethnos and National Culture

Abstract

Perestroika in the last thirty years of modern society’s consciousness, as we know, contributed to the change of scientific historical views. Historical events began to be rethought, and the results of the ongoing “transformations,” including the era of the Soviet leadership of the country, were evaluated in a new way. In this sense, the study of the problem of ethnicity, and national culture in the Soviet period is even more relevant, which is associated with the processes of ethnic identification, etc. The presented work reflects some concepts and approaches of the methodology of historical science put forward by domestic researchers. An important aspect of modern history is the study of national culture, for a long time clothed under the form of “international,” which did not allow either studying or developing it from the point of view of a distinctive, characteristic of a separate ethnos culture. At the same time, it is necessary to realize that the appeal to the cultural past of ethnic groups of Kazakhstan corresponds to the requirements of modern education of the younger generation, built on the ideas of national origins. The paper attempts to generalize the available conceptual approaches of domestic authors on the issues of ethnicity and national culture. In addition, there is a comparative analysis of the interpretation of the above-mentioned concepts in Soviet historiography, which allows us to trace the fallacy of stereotypes about the problem of ethnicity.