ABSTRACT
The ethnological legacy in our own country is even more abundant and rich. Marxist historical materialism provides a guiding principle for the study of ethnology, but we must not think that ethnology is simply using the viewpoints and methodologies of historical materialism to study nationalities. A nationality is an objectively existing social phenomenon. Ethnology is the science that studies nationalities, including all human communities at various stages of social development. Ethnology may study nationalities of any period, from the remote past to the immediate present, and of any place in the world, but it should focus on contemporary society and culture. Ethnology in the West tends to emphasize only the study of the existing societies, cultures, and ways of life of current nationalities, and to ignore their historical development. Ethnology in the Soviet Union, on the other hand, pays the latter some attention. Ethnology has a close relationship with many other disciplines.
