Theoretical and methodological approaches to ethnic identity

Abstract

The article discusses theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of “ethnic identity” as a key tool of scientific analysis in cultural anthropology and ethnology. The primordialist, instrumentalist and constructivist theories of ethnicity, which in different ways determine the role of the objective and subjective characteristics of its expression, are characterized. Primordialist view on ethnos as organic ethnic unit is based on “primordial” cultural differences (“givens”). Constructivists and instrumentalists have mainly focused on the social organization of ethnic differences and distinctions based on situational processes of inclusion and exclusion. From the standpoint of constructivism, ethnic identity is viewed as a symbolic construct – socially invented, discursively constructed and culturally marked. In the study of ethnic identity, an important role is played by the revealing of the specific distinctive features that separate one ethnic group or category from another. For this, it is necessary to use comparative ethnographic methods aimed at identifying “ethnic boundaries” and “ethnic markers”.