What is a community of people called? Historical communities of people: family, clan, tribe, nationality, nation, race

Society is a holistic sociocultural system, consisting of huge amount subsystems One of them is social community. Any community implies a collection of people who have something the same (for example, interests, tasks or goals). People who unite in a community usually have similar ideas about life and perform similar tasks in society. social roles.

So, we can say that a social community is a collection of human individuals united by similar living conditions, having the same interests, values ​​and realizing their own. The grounds for uniting people can be: their close interaction with each other, common activities, awareness of similar interests, their own culture, formed on the basis of similar ideas about the goals of a given community, moral concepts etc., the presence of a self-government system.

A number of sociologists believe that social communities and groups in most cases do not arise spontaneously. One concept of their emergence was proposed by the American D. Homans, who believed that people, interacting with each other, try to achieve a certain good. The more significant a given benefit is, the more effort a person makes to get closer to other people for whom this benefit is also significant. Speaking in simple language, according to the American sociologist, people unite in groups, form communities and communities only to achieve specific purpose.

One social community may differ from another in the purpose of its formation, the form, and similar associations of people differ in the following characteristics:

By duration of existence: from several minutes (audience concert hall, rally) up to entire centuries (a single nation);

According to the composition of the people included in them: from two people to several thousand (members of a certain party);

According to the density of connections between the main representatives: from closely (office employees) to very amorphous, practically non-interacting formations (football fans).

Sociologists distinguish such a concept as a mass social community, distinctive features which are:

Instability of existence;

The heterogeneity of the people included in it, the impossibility of establishing their exact number;

Functioning on the basis of a particular activity and the impossibility of existing outside of it.

Examples of a mass social community include fans of a particular pop star, fans of a sports club, and members of various associations. A tribe of indigenous people of New Guinea, a single nation, a race, a crowd of protesters near the administration of an enterprise are also massive social communities.

A special place among other associations is occupied by ethnos - a set of people living for a long period of time in a certain territory, having a stable own culture, distinguished by self-awareness, that is, aware of the difference between their association and other similar ones. is formed, as a rule, on the basis of a common territory for living, creating all the necessary conditions for people to interact with each other. Further, when such a social community as an ethnos has already been formed, this attribute becomes secondary or even loses its significance. People who consider themselves to belong may live in different corners Earth and, at the same time, remember and honor the traditions of their ethnic group, celebrate the holidays established by it and adhere to the rules of behavior determined by it.

Socialization of a person is impossible without his interaction with other representatives of the human race. Each of us, to one degree or another, belongs not to one, but to several social communities. A person outside of society ceases to feel like a human being and becomes an outcast.

The concept of a social community of people allows us to consider the stages in the development of the human community as a socio-natural whole, while the features of institutionalization may or may not be considered. The types of social communities of people include: clan, tribe, nationality, nation, non-national inter-national communities.

A clan as a social community of people is determined by the presence of structured family ties. This form of community corresponds to the ancient, original development of human communities. A tribe as a social community is characterized by the fact that it consists of several clans. Within the tribe, the genetic purity of new generations is ensured. A tribe, compared to a clan, is a more progressive form of community, which is characterized by a unified organization of life and the presence of a leadership structure. The existence of tribes is characterized not only by the presence of blood-tribal ties and management structure, but also by a way of life. This method or way of life characterizes specific forms of development of nature by a given community. In this regard, it is necessary to note the existing “specialization” of tribes (livestock breeding, agricultural, fishing, etc.).

Nationality next form social communities of people. Compared to the tribe, the nationality shows a noticeable step towards strengthening socially. organizational characteristics life of the human community, in comparison with the emphasis on the consanguineous aspect (in the tribe). The nationality is characterized by the following features: language, unity of natural characteristics ( ethnic characteristics), manifested in all representatives of a given nationality; cultural features (including ways of life and their reflection in spiritual life), territory of residence.

A nation as a social community of people is characterized the following signs: common language, culture, territory, unity of ethnic features, as well as community economic life. Considering that the presence of an economic process is associated with the manifestation of capitalization of social relations, the symbol of which is large-scale machine production. The community of economic life is established in relation to one or another ethnic group, as taking place only when for of a given people The main feature characterizing the organization of his life is the establishment of connections with nature and with other communities through the creation of his own technologies that use the capabilities of machines. It's about about the transition from natural forms of management on earth to forms of creating an artificial environment that mediates the relationship of the human community to nature. This mediation essentially changes the characteristics of the community itself, in particular, it leads to a weakening of the status of the blood-natural, muscular power of people as the leading one. It is during this period that a connection between people arises and becomes increasingly stronger, due to non-consanguineous characteristics. Although these characteristics remain, they cease to play a decisive, significant role in the human community.

It is a nation that is characterized by a community of economic life, therefore, the community of people in its development directly leads to the emergence of new communities - international ones, in which people go beyond the boundaries of connections defined with an emphasis on natural and social aspects.

The emergence of international communities occurs when the community of economic life covers a number of regions in which different peoples are present. Within international communities (the American people, Soviet people) the problem arises of preserving the cultural identity of the incoming peoples and their languages.

Within the framework of the global economic process, there is a gradual transformation of the features of cultural life different nations, including their languages. In this regard, the task is to achieve a conscious orientation towards preserving cultural achievements of all peoples. This task is essentially the task of opposing the actual human technologization social life, within the framework of which the person himself turns into a cog in an impersonal process that does not have proper cultural definitions.

Theory serving technologization public life, which substantiates its positivity or at least neutrality in relation to the process of destruction of culture, is the theory of cosmopolitanism. main idea this theory is that a person should not look for cultural context own existence, that, being in the flow of technological manipulations called in a modern way existence of human civilization - a person must abstract from the absence of the first and the presence of the second and in his existence find a replacement for the lost content in the social technological movement. In other words, a cosmopolitan is one who, regardless of location and social context of existence, feels equally good and is not a defender of any existing or lost cultural worlds.

The point is that the position of a cosmopolitan characterizes the individual’s rooted-external relations to any cultural content. A cosmopolitan is characterized by a predominance of non-cultural definitions of existence and a complete focus on civilizational definitions. It is this position, which expresses and substantiates cosmopolitanism, that is carefully veiled, since only in the subtext is a connection between the purely civilizational position of the individual and the interests of the dominant social groups revealed. In categorical terms, the position of cosmopolitanism could be expressed in the form of a loss of the connection between the universal and the particular. Real option is that the universal does not exist outside the particular. The universal planetary idea, which cosmopolitanism adopts, is absolutized as a result of cosmopolitans’ assertion of the insignificance, insignificance for a person of one or another feature of a territorially defined area on the planet. It is in this that the separation of the substantial basis of participation in the universal material world is expressed, which is always expressed in the presence of a person’s homeland, that is, a place on the planet, loving which, a person loves the entire planet. Cosmopolitanism characterizes a person as a citizen of the World. This expresses the presence of a manipulative-correlative status. Here the relationship of the individual with the sphere of alienated-normative regulating characteristics of existence is established. The universal, manifesting itself, receives its content and meaningfulness through the general and the particular. In relation to this sphere, a person acts as a unit that must. relating to it, obeying its standards. It is subordination that is central to the definition of the concept of citizen. This definition does not specifically emphasize cultural opportunities person.

The idea of ​​world citizenship arises on the basis of deepening capitalist transformations of social relations. This idea is intended, firstly, to justify the rejection of the significance and intrinsic value of a person’s cultural position, replacing it with the ability to adapt to the “technologization” of social life. Secondly, the idea of ​​world citizenship is aimed at destroying the national in relation to countries that are more technologically developed. In this sense, manipulation with the phenomenon of the national arises: the national is opposed to the world. The need to maintain the specificity of the national is denied on the basis of the affirmation of the need to subordinate it to the world. However, this manipulation with the concept of the national is based on an abstract understanding of the concept of the world. When the world is considered a-national, it appears to really not exist. This line of thinking is common. In this case, an ideological procedure takes place, as a result of which the world is cleared of the national array. After such purification, the concept of the world includes an indication of the presence of a certain array (number) of participants, units of the economic financial process that covers everyone, and also the concept of the world includes an indication of the involvement of these units in the general technological, financial process that covers everyone. Thus, we are talking about abstract image the process of civilizational movement taking place everywhere, in which the individual is, to one degree or another, an accomplice and expresses the image of a cosmopolitan - a citizen of the world. Since this process has its own norms and regulations in relation to which a given individual determines his place, including we are talking about a place that is not fixed at any point globe. This is explained by the fact that the world process, as such, should be determined not so much by the results that characterize it, but by the facts of the continuation of the movement that has begun. We are talking about an economic process that covers the whole world. For him, the various national characteristics public life. Therefore, the real status of the national is leveled, giving way to the actual economic status. Under the flag of cosmopolitanism, various, not only national, but also political, religious, ideological and other problems are being solved.

The problem of globalization as a problem of economic superiority of the developed and an attempt to forcefully join this level is economically insufficient developed countries is currently a powerful trend in the world process, which ignores national traditions, and forces us to intensively develop the national economy.

Joint work that brings together a certain amount helps to develop a similar attitude towards life values and traditions for every person. At the same time, sociology in in this case understands labor not as the production of something or processing, but as a global process.

Before the Renaissance, the concept of “people” was associated exclusively with the idea of ​​a community of people; there was even a descriptive concept of “the flock of Christ”, synonymous with the category “people”. Obviously, the ontological interpretation does not have a sociological basis, with such an understanding there is no internal gradation (in the herd everyone is equal, everything is interspersed), functionality. Meanwhile, with the development philosophical thought and the development of a number of social concepts for understanding the individual and community, it became obvious that the “people”, even as a tribe, is heterogeneous, there are groups, micro- and macro-, there are collectives that have a role in the formation of the people, nationality, and the formation of the historical process.

The historical role of the people and the definition of community in the key to the development of history

The role of the people in historical changes varies depending on the era. For example, revolutionary upheavals certainly became a stimulus for development, but wars destroyed some communities, causing regression. Similarly in the production sphere, which more defines the essence of the “people” as social: the formation of an economic balance and the satisfaction of consumption norms led to stagnation, but the growth of needs against the background low level production - to progressive development (mechanization, technical revolutions, scientific discoveries). It is logical to assume that joint work and the struggle for progress are related characteristics, giving the people as a social community. The unity of the people is increasingly closer to the human essence and manifests itself with the development of society.

It is curious that, for example, such a unifying category as “language”, “linguistic communication” loses to the “labor” unifying factor. The language of the people, not being a determining factor in the community of the people, is a support for creating connections between people, while labor determines the specifics of development and the very possibility of unity.

After considering the factors of creating a community of people, I would like to determine whether these factors mean anything in uniting the people, whether it is worth defining the spiritual culture, psychological and social characteristics. Even specialized literature, unfortunately, will not provide an exact answer to this question. Little attention is paid to spiritual factors; priority is given to objective material and production ones.

Drawing conclusions, we can confidently say that a national community, being a union, a connection of people, can be built not only on material, but also on subjective-conscious factors, and, moreover, without them normal social society almost impossible.

Philosophy: lecture notes Shevchuk Denis Aleksandrovich

4. Ethnic communities of people

4. Ethnic communities of people

Social communities of people were historically preceded by ethnic ones, on the basis of which they emerged in the process of development and complication of human relations. IN social philosophy the study of ethnic communities of people began to be carried out much later than many other things, but in terms of its importance and significance it ranks leading place. To date, there is no common point of view among scientists on this issue. We will consider two of them - Marxist and Weberian.

Along with Marx and Engels, V.I. Lenin played a major role in developing the theory of ethnic and national communities, their emergence and development. Their ideas on this problem are fundamentally historical and economic in nature. According to the founders of Marxism, the first known forms of community of people in the pre-class period were the clan and tribe. Before the advent of the clan organization of people, humans were characterized by a herd form of existence. The emergence of the genus was facilitated by the emergence primitive community, economic basis which was communal property. Joint farming on the basis of communal property, natural-equal distribution of things, primarily food, common life and entertainment contributed to the formation of such a community as a clan. It can be said that genus acts as the very first production, social and ethnic group people, united into one joint whole labor activity, consanguineous origin, common language, common religious and mythological beliefs, customs and features of life. As it changes and develops economic activity tribal forms of human community evolved and became more complex.

The next larger form of ethnic community of people is tribe. Its appearance is explained by the need, first of all, to preserve and protect the habitat (territory of residence, hunting and fishing grounds) from encroachment by other human groups. More numerous composition population greatly facilitated the task of resettlement and establishment of life in new territories. Of no small importance was also the protection against the degeneration of the race, which threatened it due to sexual relations between consanguineous homo sapiens. The tribal form of social life becomes significantly more complicated; leaders, military commanders, priests, and new governing bodies appear, without which the clan previously managed. This is explained by the fact that along with tribal property and tribal organization of social life, tribal property appears, and all this required new forms of management. We can say that a tribe is a community of people larger than a clan, usually consisting of several hundred or even thousands of people. Each tribe included at least two clans. For its time tribal form of human existence was the most optimal social community that corresponded to and stimulated production activity. This, apparently, can explain the existence of such a form of community among almost all peoples of the world and its preservation in some regions of the world right up to the present day.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the tribal community in the formation cultural humanity in general and each individual individually. First of all, it contributed to a greater extent to the improvement of tools and the development of norms and rules social behavior, development of primitive culture and language of communication. Essentially, society for the first time had the opportunity to preserve production experience, forms of social management, the beginnings of culture, achievements in the development of language, beliefs, traditions and, in a more perfect form, pass this on to subsequent generations.

From the moment of its appearance, the tribal community acted as a socio-productive and at the same time ethnic community. With the formation of the social division of labor and, in particular, the separation of cattle breeding from agriculture, the emergence of various crafts, the emergence of exchange relations and property inequality, the need to create a more perfect community of people, bonded not only by blood ties, but also by other relationships that open up new opportunities for development of humanity. Nationality became such a form of community of people. The new aspects that determined its essence were closer territorial ties between people belonging to different clans and tribes and united with each other not by consanguinity, but by joint production, economic and cultural activities. At this stage of development, the political and legal aspect in human relations is noticeably strengthened, and further social and class differentiation between people occurs. With that said nationality can be defined as a community of people living in the same territory, united by a common language, mental characteristics, culture and way of life, enshrined in customs, morals, and traditions. At this stage, production and economic activity people, culture receives new development, social-class differentiation between people increases, prerequisites are created for the political isolation of peoples from each other, that is, the formation of independent states.

The next higher form of community of people, in which the ethnic moment begins to differentiate from the social-production one and acquire to a certain extent independent meaning is a nation. The formation of a nation is facilitated, first of all, by the need to expand and consolidate territory, the complication of economic and production relations, and the unification of peoples close in language, mental make-up and culture. The determining factor in uniting people into a nation is the development of production and economic relations. In socio-political terms, this leads to rapid education nation states. Today, the most common ethnic community of people is the nation. And this is not surprising, since it is the unification of people along national lines that creates the best preconditions for people to live and organize production, economic, socio-political and cultural life. A common economic life, a common language, a common territory, some features of the mental make-up of people, manifested in specific features Cultures are the main features of a nation. It can be said that A nation is a stable association of people connected by a common language, a common territory, a common economic life and certain characteristics of the mental makeup of people, expressed in the specific features of the culture of a given people.

As we see, ethnic communities people have a historically transient nature, and this indicates that when certain conditions, associated with changing economic conditions and the need to establish new relationships between people, the emergence of new ethnic communities of people is possible.

Like many of his like-minded people who consider capitalism the most perfect form of socio-economic structure, Weber does not consider economic conditions as a fundamental prerequisite for the formation of nations. He is silent about the previous ethnic communities of people. A nation, according to Weber, cannot be defined based on the empirical properties that characterize it. Those who try to do this come to believe that certain groups of people have a specific sense of solidarity towards each other. In this case, we are talking more about an emotional assessment than a conceptual approach. Meanwhile, in society there is neither agreement nor consensus on how to limit the number of such groups of people, nor on the nature of public actions that could be considered a manifestation of solidarity. In addition, according to Weber, a nation cannot be identified with the people of a separate state belonging to a specific political community. Numerous political communities, for example, in Austria before 1918 (the year of the collapse of the Austrian Empire) included social groups that decisively separated their “nation” from the “nations” of other groups (here the concept of nation is identified with the concept of nationality, which is illegal because, although These concepts are very similar, but there are significant differences between them). A nation cannot also be defined by the linguistic affiliation of people, since people living in the same language can speak the same language. different countries(eg North Americans and British). On the other hand, such a community of people does not seem absolutely necessary, since in official documents used in interstate relations, along with the concept, for example, the Swiss nation, the concept of the Swiss people is used.

Some researchers consider cultural characteristics, inherent in one or another community speaking the same language. But this is not typical for everyone. This is acceptable for Austria, Russia and to a lesser extent for the USA and Canada. Moreover, even those who speak the same language, even within the same country, can reject national homogeneity and claim belonging to a different culture. And for this they have certain reasons - different religions, differences in habits, customs, social structure, lifestyle. In addition, the manifestation of the national is demonstrated differently among different peoples. All this, according to Weber, gives reason to believe that, apart from emotional feelings and elements of prestige, there are no other convincing arguments that would justify the existence of nations. Judging by Weber's works, he prefers to analyze the life of society without taking into account the existence of ethnic communities, but only through the analysis of its socio-economic communities.

In general, Weber's views on ethnic communities of people and, in particular, on the nation reflect the situation that has developed in Western sociology on the issue of the essence and role of the nation in modern social life. Essentially, even among those who recognize the existence of this problem, there is no consensus on how it should be interpreted, and besides them, there are those who deny the need to deal with this issue at all, since it is allegedly created artificially.

Control questions

1. What is social stratification and social mobility in society?

2. The teaching of Marxism about classes, social groups and the causes of class confrontation.

3. M. Weber on the social structure of society.

4. Clan, tribe, family, community - the original forms of community of people.

5. Nationality and nation, ways of their formation.

6. Forms of social relations and their essence (economic, legal, political, religious, etc.).