Original scientific paper
What do We Owe to Širokogorov? (A Contribution to the Theory of Ethnos)
Dunja Rihtman-Auguštin
; Institute for Folklore Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The paper gives a critical review of the theory of ethnos put forward by the Russian ethnologist S. M. Širokogorov. This author understood ethnos as an all-encompassing process of adaptation to various types of environment, in which all human communities – throughout history – take part, and in which they themselves change. This process has various aspects: the ethnographic, psychomental or linguistic aspects, the aspect of continuity, the psychological and biological aspects. In one word, the process of ethnos is responsible for the existence and development of human societies. Širokogorov based his theory on many years of research among the Tungus and other Siberian tribes in the first quarter of this century. Although today's leading Soviet theorists do mention him, they do not apply the model of ethnos as a process. The paper concludes by suggesting that this model should be applied in ethnological research on ethnic processes.
Keywords
ethnos; adaptation; Širokogorov
Hrčak ID:
128045
URI
Publication date:
29.9.1989.
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