For the process of human development is characterized by one pattern. It manifests itself in the desire of people to form communities. Researchers distinguish their various types. So, there are professional, group, territorial, ethnosocial, ethnic communities. The last two species are studied by entopolitology.
Community in the broad sense is a collection of people who are united by stable relationships and social ties. This set is endowed with certain signs that give it a peculiarity.
Ethnic communities, unlike others that are formed consciously, are created historically, regardless of the consciousness and will of people. These aggregates arise due to the needs of social development and production. Ethnic communities had a different form - from the primitive communal herd of people to modern nations. Each of these forms reflects the level of development and the nature of social production, production forces, as well as the characteristics of relationships and types of ties in society. Ethnic communities, in their framework, together with all life processes, are very self-contained closed systems. Compared with other types of social structures, such systems are considered global.
Each such community represents a certain “product” of the interaction of social relations within a concrete historical framework. In accordance with a change in the conditions of existence, the form and content of the system change. With the development of civilization, there is a complication of community, the formation of an internal structure. In this case, each subsequent system goes beyond the previous one.
In ethnology, communities are usually considered as an ethnos. The process of formation of an ethnos is called "ethnogenesis." There are several approaches to understanding the essence of system formation. In Russia, for a long time, there existed and used as a generally accepted concept that a people (ethnos) is mainly a social phenomenon and is subject to the laws in accordance with which society develops. The recognition of nationalities (along with other large social groups) by the population in the country allows them to extend to them some regular, stable characteristics and qualities inherent in large social associations.
These characteristics, in particular, include:
- The formation of group public interests that form solidarity within the system.
- Ability to socio-demographic self-reproduction. This ability is due to the presence of biosocial mechanisms that affect the historical development of large social structures.
- Inner heterogeneity. In large social associations, separation into layers inevitably occurs.
- Within each structure, to one degree or another, the formation and consumption of material, spiritual, professional, commercial, amateur and other values takes place.
- Awareness by people who belong to one large social group of their belonging to it and its reality.
- Self-management and controllability. For large social groups characterized by the presence of self-organization structure. This is ensured by the presence in groups of levers of information transfer, development and implementation of goals.
It should be noted the close connection of the concepts of "ethnos" and "culture". Moreover, self-awareness is of great importance in the formation of spiritual values. It acts as a sign of any social structure. We should also not forget about the relationship between the concepts of "language" and "ethnos." All these signs are formed in accordance with the surrounding conditions and in the aggregate they allow to distinguish one social group from another.