The sociological aspects of the study into musical instruments

The paper presents a sociological approach to researching different musical instruments. According to the theory of Bruno Latour, in the social context, the material item is a tool, a determining infrastructure, and a social marker at the same time. Accordingly, a musical instrument is an ordinary instrument of labor that is intended to perform music, a material prerequisite for music performance as a form of social communication, and an indicator of social background and status (it has a set of characteristics based on social status: the coverage area, the repertoire of the ideology and style). Spatial and temporal variations of musical instruments are simultaneously the reflection of social processes such as changing public consciousness, the formation of communities, and communication and the prerequisite for their occurrence and implementation as well. The study of musical instruments in a sociological context is one of the sources for understanding these processes.