Arriving in big and small foreign cities, visiting other countries, we meet a huge number of interesting and not so people. Many of them proudly elevate themselves to the status of “native” of the city N. Despite the fact that their ancestors arrived in this locality 50 years ago.
Let's figure out who has the right to call himself a true indigenous settler, local resident and aboriginal. Simple communication, literary sources, and even the media are often teeming with misinterpretations of these concepts. It should be noted that in different languages and different cultures, the interpretation and perception of the phrase “native” can be equivalent in meaning to the word “native”, while their close synonym “local” in almost all countries has a completely different, but everywhere exactly the same meaning.
Very well, the first two concepts are interpreted in the 168th Convention of the International Labor Organization. This document states that there are two explanations for the concept of “native”. Based on the first, indigenous tribes (peoples) are groups of people who live for several generations in a given country, but whose cultural traditions and foundations differ from the cultural traditions of the rest of the population. The second category includes those people who lived in this area long before the colonists appeared. This is the “native”.
An excellent example for this term are the indigenous peoples of America - the Indians. Long before the appearance of the British in the New World there were tribes who were engaged in hunting, lived in wigwams and smoked a pipe of peace. They wore huge feather hats and loincloths. They had their own traditions and foundations. When the first British landed on the territory of America, the Indians met them very friendly. They helped the masters from the Old World survive during droughts and crop failures. Thanks to the participation in the life of the British of this ethnic group, such a holiday as Thanksgiving appeared.
Currently, Native American Indigenous people live mostly in a separate territory within the country, which is called a reservation. The descendants of those first Englishmen who arrived on the territory of the modern USA are also indigenous. People who come to America daily to find a better life and stay forever gradually become the local population.
Many people often ask the difficult question of "what is the name of a native of a country or region." Of course, everything is easy and clear with the population of Moscow, Belarus, Ukraine, the USA, England and many others. But there are rare exceptions where it is impossible to apply the connection between the name of the place of residence and its resident. So, for example, the
native of Sakhalin is called the orc. His brother from Israel is a saber, and from Siberia a chaldon. The native inhabitant of the country of yoga and the Ganges - India - is called an Indian (or Hindu). But not an Indian. There are many more interesting names for natives of different countries.
Currently, the borders and time frames of this term have been erased, and the fifth generation, living in the territory of a country, is proudly calling itself indigenous.