The process of merging one people with another takes place peacefully or militarily, in the phase of ethnic conflict, only in a violent way or only in the form of peaceful cooperation?

Assimilation is the process of merging one people with another. There is such a phenomenon both on a voluntary basis and by force.

The concept of "assimilation" is used in ethnography and sociology. It means the loss of an ethnic group or a part of it, of one or another of its distinctive features. As a result, they are borrowed from another people. In general, assimilation is a true ethno-cultural shift. It occurs in the self-consciousness of a single social group, which once represented a different community.

Varieties of the concept

The process of merging one people with another takes place peacefully or militarily? There is no single answer to this question. The concept of "assimilation" differs in syncretism and polysemy.

The process of merging one people with another occurs in some cases voluntarily. Here you can talk about natural assimilation. But sometimes the merging of one people with another is by violent methods. In such cases, they speak of artificial assimilation.

Also, the process of merging of peoples can be complete or partial, social or ethnic.

Ways of assimilation

If the merger of one people with another occurs naturally, this process takes a long time. Assimilation in this case occurs gradually. It is carried out as a result of contacts of various ethnic groups of the population. At the same time, certain socio- and ethno-cultural traditions are transferred from one group to another.

If the process of merging one people with another occurs through violent actions, then there is a deliberate destruction of ethnosocial systems.

Artificial assimilation is caused purposefully. The main way to achieve this goal in this case lies in the implementation of targeted public policy. At the same time, the process of merging of one people with another occurs only as a result of colonization, economic expansion, religious and cultural-language domination, forced deportation, creation of quasi-societies standing over the nation (the Aryan race, the Soviet people), etc. Often forced assimilation is achieved by Political dictatorship. Consider different types of assimilation in more detail.

The influence of culture

With such assimilation, the process of merging one people with another takes place peacefully or as a result of military operations. Thus, people living in a certain locality and having this or that ethnicity can take on a completely different culture, which has political significance or superiority.

An example of this is the gradual adoption of Latin culture and language by enslaved peoples.

Cultural assimilation occurs either accidentally or compulsorily. The history of mankind has accumulated many examples of both the first and second versions of the development of events. Sometimes one culture spontaneously adapts to another. But sometimes it happens by violent methods. The older and richer culture forcibly unites the weaker ones.

Culture of immigrants

The term "assimilation" sometimes applies to people who have voluntarily resettled in a foreign country for them. To a new place they bring their own traditions and customs that are different from the ones available here.

As a result, certain cultural changes are taking place in society. And they are not an ordinary one-way process. The concept of assimilation suggests that weak cultures necessarily merge into one, stronger one. All this will happen through the adaptation of peoples and through their direct contact.

Continuity of assimilation

The process of merging one people with another takes place in the world all the time. There are no restrictions on specific countries and regions. So, knowing the languages you can work and study internationally. This will enable you not to limit yourself to the boundaries of any one group. People living in different countries contribute to the formation of a global culture, which is supplemented by various elements of customs and traditions of various ethnic groups.

Sometimes the process of merging of one people with another occurs in the phase of the hobby of a different, more attractive culture, as well as in cases of inter-confessional and inter-ethnic marriages. The compulsory nature of assimilation can be said in cases of forced resettlement of peoples, with military annexation, partial extermination of ethnic groups (genocide) and the suppression of certain cultural and linguistic phenomena by the state.

Forced assimilation

The history of mankind is familiar with the basic methods of total transformation of the conquered ethnic group. They consist in changing the language, culture, and religion. This method was used by the conquerors, "taming" the peoples conquered by them.

This practice, as a rule, was used in earlier times, during the period of colonial conquests. However, the use of such methods can still be seen today.

The birth of a new community

The process of merging one people with another occurs in the phase of ethnic rapprochement. With the contacts of two, and sometimes even more peoples, a community is born that has new traditions and customs.

It is a product of interaction and mutual enrichment of not only cultures, but also their individual constituent elements.

An important stage in this process is language assimilation. This stage of the formation of a new culture begins after the everyday rapprochement of peoples.

Phases of ethnic assimilation

The processes of rapprochement of peoples were actively studied by the American sociologist R. Park. In his opinion, ethnic assimilation goes through the following phases:

1. Contact.
2. Competition.
3. Adaptation.
4. Assimilation itself.

The researcher considers the fusion of their cultures to be the core of the processes of rapprochement of peoples. At present, this is observed especially often. The internationalization of the world economy provokes such a process. In this case, assimilation is nothing more than a specific direction of national policy, the purpose of which is to unphysically destroy an ethnos.

Spread

Ethnic assimilation is particularly widespread in states with a high level of economy. These are, first of all, those states in which there is a large number of immigrants.

The process of merging one people with another in this case consists in the actual dissolution of an earlier independent ethnos in the environment of another, as a rule, large people. At the same time, ethnic self-consciousness changes with the assimilated. For them, the process will become ethno-transformational. The other side will pass through the ethno-revolutionary process, as its self-consciousness will not undergo any changes.

Assimilation can be observed not only in modern developed countries. This process existed in all periods of human history. The most striking example is the assimilation by the Russian people of the Finnic-speaking tribes of measures, muroms and marshes. This process occurred during the period when there was Kievan Rus.

Speed of propagation

The processes of rapprochement of peoples in different countries are not the same. Their speed is influenced by such factors as the size of the assimilated ethnic group, the time of its stay in the new environment, the nature of the resettlement, the occupation, the social and legal status, the frequency of mixed marriages, marital status, and so on.

It is believed that the rapprochement of peoples occurs at a faster rate if there is a maximum similarity in their economic activities. However, the influence of this factor is ambiguous. As a rule, the similarity of economic activities contributes to the intensification of assimilation processes. Of course, getting into a close economic environment, the ethnic group merges with it fairly quickly. But thus there are competitive collisions. They occur between the indigenous and the alien population. This, in turn, makes the assimilation process extremely difficult.

The speed of the fusion of nationalities largely depends on the marital status of immigrants. Work in other countries come, as a rule, men. At the same time from their number there are married, arrived with families or without, and also bachelors.

Which men will most likely merge with the indigenous people? Of course, they are single. They will marry local girls and create a new family.

How will other categories of immigrants behave? The one who came with his family, the process of assimilation will last a long time. After all, communication with close people will allow them not only to preserve, but also to reproduce the old ethnic community.

Even more slowly, the process of assimilation of those men who left their families is under way. They live by the idea of returning to their homeland and consider the host country to be only a temporary refuge. Of course, they have to adapt to the existing local conditions. However, they do not want to dissolve in a new environment.

The speed of the process of assimilation is greatly influenced by the ratio of the level of culture of two or more contacting peoples. Such a process will be most rapid in the case of equal conditions. High rate of assimilation also occurs when an ethnic group hits an environment that is slightly higher than its level of culture.

And what happens when there are sharp differences? In this case, the process of merging the peoples becomes very difficult.

If ethnic groups that are similar in their culture and language (for example, Belarusians and Russians) participate in the assimilation process, then it acquires a number of features that significantly differentiate it from the usual. In such cases, one can speak of ethnic conversion.

Despite the speed with which the process of merging one community with another is going on, in spite of the ways of its implementation, there is a linguistic and cultural rapprochement of a certain circle of people. Gradually, the differences that at the initial stage existed between people of different ethnic origins are leveled, and sometimes even destroyed.