Americans: How Did They Come to Be and What Are Their Prospects? (An Anthropological Study)

This article, drawing on S. M. Shirokogorov’s theory of ethnos, which views ethnos as a nonlinear process encompassing ethnic communities characterized by various psycho-mental complexes, examines common issues in the ethnic history of Americans. The key stages comprising this history are identified: the development of slavery and racial segregation, victory in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the expansion of the West, the political changes of the 1960s, and the mass migration of Latinos. These changes resulted in a "blurring" of the dominant Anglo-Protestant psycho-mental complex, based on Protestantism, individualism, and the work ethic. These new conditions determined the recognition of those who are different as equally worthy. The transformation of the American population into a multiracial, multiethnic, and multireligious entity has led to a crisis in the pre-generational model of migrant assimilation and identity-constructivist approaches to addressing pressing issues of domestic stability. Based on this study, it is concluded that Russian research on ethnicity theory is essential to supplement the existing research arsenal in the US humanities.