The Relationship of the Natural and the Social in Intragroup and Intergroup Relations in a Situation of Interethnic Conflicts

Abstract

The problem of interethnic conflicts is currently one of the topics attracting the attention of researchers of various specialties – culturologists, anthropologists, historians, social psychologists and others. The purpose and main task of this study is to analyze from a philosophical point of view the dialectics of the natural and the social in ethnic relations and its manifestation in interethnic conflicts. Accordingly, the article uses dialectical and comparative approaches. The theoretical basis of the study is the author’s concept of the relationship between natural and social in society and a man, which made it possible to identify the structure of ethnic relations according to this criterion, to determine the differences between social-group and natural-group relations. Intragroup and intergroup relations, in which natural components prevail over social ones are designated by the concept of “natural-group relations” (NGR) introduced in the author’s methodology. The specific results of the research and the novelty are the discovery of the specificity of the manifestation of the patterns of natural group relations and the role of suggestion in interethnic conflicts. It is proved that the concept of “group centrism” is not enough for the analysis of groups, since it describes mainly the assessment of one’s group and its values, and the concept of “regularities of natural group relations” denotes the hierarchical structure of a group, mechanisms of forced identification (including by methods of education) and self-identification, intragroup and intergroup relationships, reasons for conformism, etc. The article proves that the symptoms of grouping thinking, which were identified by I. L. Janis in small closed groups, and which are a kind of (NGR) patterns, are manifested with some variations in large groups. It is concluded that authors studying group relations do not pay enough attention to the natural prerequisites for the formation of groups and grouping of thinking, the fact that, due to the need for survival, the desire to unite into groups, to form and protect the uniformity of thinking is inherent in our genetic programs and is supported by suggestion. he further part of the article is devoted to the analysis of two interethnic conflicts based on the developed methodology ‒ the Arab-Israeli and Uzbek-Kyrgyz and the forecast, as well as the possibility of overcoming them.