Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Ethnos

The term ethnos derives from the Latin world ethnos, which means people. Initially it was used to designate non-Greek people, thus it referred to foreigners. Later, in Catholic-Latin usage a new connotation was ascribed to the term – pagan. Since 18th century the noun ethnos was not associated with the concept pagan. It’s contemporary denotation resembles to it’s original Greek meaning[1].
Due to the some ambiguities between the terms nation and ethny, scientists try to differentiate their meanings and stress their epistemological interconnection while dealing with the problem of nationalism. Bth notions are too awkward from the social sciences point of view. Nation is used interchangeably at least with the four other key concepts: people, state, race, ethnos. As for the term ethny, it’s exact meaning is totally unknown.[2]

[1]Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/
[2]Ghelabi V.Y. Ethnicity in International Conflicts: Revisiting an Elusive Issue

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