The article presents a historical review and theoretical analysis of the cognitive map of barbarity as the basis for studying the basic terminology that has developed in barbaristics. For the first time, an attempt is made to analyze the cognitive potential of barbaristics, referring to its conceptual structure. The most significant terms, notions and innovative essences, their role in the structure of the barbarian's cognition are considered. It is emphasized that in the processes of symbol formation there was a movement from notion to innivative essence, in the study of the history of barbarity — from notional to conceptual cognition. The conditions of the general expansion of the archaic semantics of the term “barbarian” and the features of its translation and transmutation in time and space are considered. The key characteristics of the notion of “barbarity” as a stable socio-cultural phenomenon are identified and disclosed in historical retrospect. The emerging notions of «new» and «latent» barbarity are specially analyzed.
