The entity of people with special health needs (SHN), in particular with disorders of the autistic spectrum becomes an important socio-cultural subsystem. This subsystem covers not only persons with SHN, but also their environment. The implementation of the correctional system is a disadvantage, in comparison with the inclusive model in which people with SHN are integrated into society. The problem for the solution of which the authors’ efforts are made is that, for the present, the considerable part of the world population is not ready to accept the autistic community as a real agent of the social planning, which fulfills its own management strategies. Researchers of autism quite often ignore a position of the most autistic community on this or that question. The purpose of this article consists in search of approaches to creation of a conceptual model of autism and autistic community, which could form the reliable basis for development of the social technologies promoting a full integration of the people with special health needs into society. Mainly theoretical methods of research are used: logical analysis, elements of the structural-functional analysis, comparative analysis, and also axiological approach. At the same time, an attempt to generalize a primary data obtained by empirical methods, such as observation, participant observation, questioning, the content analysis, interview is made. It is shown that for the stated goal to be achieved it is fruitful to consider a phenomenon of autism in the prospect of cultural anthropology. The concept of autistic culture is clarified and its relevance for study of autism and autistic community is substantiated. Some features of autistic culture are revealed. The discussion showed that many criteria of autism can be fully understood from the cultural-anthropological standpoint. The proposed approach meets the principles of post-non-classical rationality and allows to mitigate the social-biological dilemma. The results obtained can form a methodological-and-world-outlook basis for investigations in the fields of pedagogics, psychology, culturology.
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