Abstract. The article reveals the system of ethnoaesthetic categories as the basic concepts of ethnoaesthetics. In the Kazakh aesthetic science the categories of aesthetics are considered at three levels: 1) philosophical, analyzing aesthetic categories in a philosophical and aesthetic context; 2) art history, considering musical aesthetic categories in Kazakh instrumental music; 3) literary criticism, representing aesthetic categories in the context of Kazakh literature.
The authors consider the system of main ethnoaesthetic categories, divided into the following groups: 1) “beautiful”, “sublime”, “heroic”; 2) “ugly”; 3) “comic” and “tragic”.
The category “beautiful” in ethnoaesthetics has the status of a metacategory, having found the most vivid embodiment in nature and man. The category of “sublime” was formed in Kazakh poetry, receiving a special embodiment in the manifestations of the majestic in nature. The category of “heroic” correlates with “sublime” and “tragic”, manifesting itself in the themes of defending the motherland and fighting against social injustice. The category of “ugly” in ethnoaesthetics receives the least development, developing most in Kazakh oral-poetic creativity and fiction, being realized in symbolic-allegorical, social-moral, physiological manifestations. The category “comic” gets the greatest development, developing at the empirical level in Kazakh oral poetry and fiction (in the genre of literary comedy). The category of “tragic” develops in Kazakh fiction, mainly associated with the theme of tragic love.

Key words: ethnoaesthetics, system of categories of ethnoaesthetics, category “beautiful”, category “sublime”, category “heroic”, category “ugly”, category “comic”, category “tragic”.