ETHNIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND ITS FORMING FACTORS
This article analyzes nature and peculiar features of ethnic self- awareness as the reflection of social being, specific conditions of existence and interactions among ethnic communities. Ethnic self-awareness is the sense of belonging to a certain ethnic community acquired by an individual in the course of internalization and conducive to his/her self-determination and self-actualization in the complex world of social relations, especially inter-ethnic ones. Developed deep in the individual consciousness and actualized only in particular bearers, ethnic self-awareness adopts supra- personal character and reflects the ideology, values, beliefs, worldviews and generalized notions toward which members of an ethnos are oriented perceiving them as their own inner world. Major factors always affecting ethnic self-awareness include common origin, ethnic territory and boundaries, language, ethnonym, culture, some anthropological characteristics and religious principles. High-level self-awareness in an ethnic community keeps it in existence and joins individuals in one ethnos. Reflecting the core ideas of the members of an ethnos, it serves as a basic principle that enables individuals to consciously identify themselves with a specific ethnic group and to maintain spiritual and moral unity with co-bearers of the ethnonym.