Marr himself did not construct a theory of ethnogenesis. Although in
earlier times he wrote about the history of Japhetic languages as that of Japhetic
tribes,34 he later claimed that all the languages of the world were related
to each other, and these relations were not racial (ethnic) but social. He
recommended not using the term tribe (plemia or etnos; in todays usage, ethnic
group), at least in its conventional meaning, asserting that it was not a
racial but socioeconomic concept.