The article presents the ethno-cultural identity as a reality of social self-understanding. It is noted that the processes, associated with the globalization of cultural practices and erosion of the ethno-cultural identity of modern societies, actualize the question of the prospects of historical preservation of the very foundations of public life. The social meanings of human existence are preserved not only due to the new cultural production; this production itself becomes possible, reliable and historically effective with ongoing comprehending of the roots of tradition, from which novation grows, including the one of visual forms of everyday and festive folk culture. The postmodern man of the end of the 20th — beginning of the 21st century has a weakened ability to perceive the value-visual codes of tradition, which causes the global simplification and individualization of social self-understanding. The absence of a natural practice of creative reflection on the particular visual material — directly or in the creative process — eliminates the perception of the value foundations of culture within the boundaries of the world of things, that as a result become valuable in themselves, as objects of satisfaction of basic needs. The issue of historical preservation of the foundations of social life becomes, in essence, the question of ethno-cultural identity, actual reformatting of modern ethno-cultural practices, new initiatives of preservation of the traditional foundations of culture to save the “human capital” in the global world, which seeks, as far as possible, to preserve its humanitarian nature and historicity.