Историческая этнология (Nov 2017)
Tatar identity: current state and perspectives
Abstract
The article continues the author's theoretical reflections on identities – their essence, types, conditions of formation and development – which were started in the previous issue. Considering culture as a basis for ethnic, religious, territorial and civic identities, cultural characteristics of each of them are presented. Ethnic communities are a product of historical development based on the consciousness of common origin and belonging to a group with common cultural values and the solidarity that arises due to that. General group values and symbols allow political circles to mobilize ethnic groups for certain behavior. Therefore, the intensity of ethnic identity manifestation is largely determined by political elites, their goals and strategies. With all the stability of ethnicity in its environment, changes occur both under the pressure of external circumstances and for internal reasons. Thereby, the boundaries of ethnicity, like the degree of solidarity, can change over the cause of time. Ethnic, religious, territorial and civil identities are built into a hierarchical structure. Its destruction is dangerous. The rupture of ideological "hoops" which, through norms and regulations, restrain human passions, inevitably leads to instability, rebellion, revolution, all the way to the civil war.
