The main sections of cultural studies briefly. The main sections of cultural studies
Culturology(lat. culture
Sections of cultural studies:
| Sections of cultural studies | Research areas |
| Fundamental cultural studies | |
| Purpose: theoretical knowledge of the phenomenon of culture, development of a categorical apparatus and research methods | |
| Ontology and epistemology of culture | Variety of definitions of culture and perspectives of knowledge, social functions and parameters. Foundations of cultural knowledge and its place in the system of sciences, internal structure and methodology |
| Morphology of culture | The main parameters of the functional structure of culture as a system of forms of social organization, regulation and communication, cognition, accumulation and transmission of social experience |
| Cultural semantics | Ideas about symbols, signs and images, languages and texts of culture, mechanisms of cultural communication |
| Anthropology of culture | Ideas about the personal parameters of culture, about a person as a "producer" and "consumer" of culture |
| Sociology of culture | Ideas about social stratification and spatial and temporal differentiation of culture, about culture as a system of social interaction |
| Social Dynamics of Culture | Ideas about the main types of socio-cultural processes, genesis and variability cultural phenomena and systems |
| Historical dynamics of culture | Ideas about the evolution of forms of socio-cultural organization |
| Applied Cultural Studies | |
| Purpose: forecasting, designing and regulation of actual cultural processes taking place in social practice | |
| Applied aspects of cultural studies | Ideas about cultural policy, functions of cultural institutions, goals and methods of activity of the network of cultural institutions, tasks and technologies of socio-cultural interaction, including the protection and use of cultural heritage |
2. Culture as a subject of interdisciplinary research (the relationship of cultural studies with other sciences).
An important place in the system of cultural sciences is occupied by philosophy of culture. For a long time, the general theoretical problems of culture were developed within the framework of the philosophy of culture. Now, as already noted, culturology is acquiring an independent status, but still retains close theoretical relations with the philosophy of culture. The philosophy of culture acts as an organic component of philosophy, as one of its relatively autonomous theories. The philosophy of culture represents the highest, most abstract level of the study of culture. She acts as methodological basis of cultural studies.
At the same time, the philosophy of culture and cultural studies differ in the attitudes with which they approach the study of culture. Culturology considers culture in its internal relations as an independent system, and philosophy of culture analyzes culture in accordance with the subject and functions of philosophy in the context of philosophical categories - such as being, consciousness, cognition, personality, society.
Philosophy is the science of the most general principles and patterns of being and cognition. It seeks to develop a systematic and holistic view of the world. And the philosophy of culture seeks to show what is the place of culture in this general picture of being. Philosophy tries to answer the question of whether the world is cognizable, what are the possibilities and limits of cognition, its goals, levels, forms and methods. Philosophy of culture, in turn, seeks to define originality and methodology of cognition of cultural phenomena. An important branch of philosophy is dialectics as a doctrine of universal connection and development. The philosophy of culture reveals how dialectical principles and laws are manifested in the cultural-historical process. It defines the concepts of cultural progress, regression, continuity, heritage. Thus, the philosophy of culture considers culture in the system of philosophical categories and this is its difference from cultural studies.
In the system of knowledge about culture, a special place is occupied by sociology of culture. The importance of this science has recently increased. The specificity of the sociological approach to society lies in the study of it as an integral system. All social sciences, within the framework of their subject, try to present the sphere and side of social life they study as a whole. Sociology (and this is its specificity) studies society as a whole in two directions:
1. Clarifies the relationship of coordination and subordination between the components of the social system.
2. Analyzes the place and role of individual components of the system in the life of society, their structural and functional status in the social system.
In accordance with the specifics of the sociological approach sociology of culture
Explores the place of individual elements and spheres of culture, as well as culture as a whole in the social system;
- studies culture as a social phenomenon generated by the needs of society;
- considers culture as a system of norms, values, ways of life of individuals and various communities, as well as social institutions that develop and disseminate these values.
Like sociology in general, sociology of culture has a multilevel character. The difference between its levels lies in the degree of historical commonality of the analyzed phenomena. Within the sociology of culture, there are three levels:
1. General sociological theory of culture, which studies the place and role of culture in the life of society.
2. Particular sociological theories of culture (sociology of religion, sociology of education, sociology of art, etc.). They explore the place and role of individual spheres and types of culture in community life, their social functions. For example, the sociology of art studies the relationship between art and the viewer, the influence of social conditions on the process of creation and functioning of works of art, the problems of perception and artistic taste. In addition, the problems of culture are considered in the form of certain aspects in industrial sociology, the sociology of the city, the sociology of the countryside, the sociology of youth, the sociology of the family, and other particular sociological theories.
3. Specific sociological studies of culture. They are engaged in the collection and analysis of specific facts of cultural life.
Unlike the philosophy of culture, the sociology of culture is distinguished by a practical orientation.. The sociology of culture is directly related to solving practical problems. It is designed to explore the ways and means of managing cultural processes, to develop recommendations for the integrated development of culture.
Close links exist between cultural studies and cultural history. cultural history studies spatially - temporary modifications of the world cultural and historical process, the development of the culture of individual countries, regions, peoples. Stage - regional type of culture, historical era, cultural space, cultural time, cultural picture of the world - the key concepts of historical and cultural research. The history of culture is at the crossroads historical science, on the one hand, and cultural studies, on the other.
A fruitful approach to the analysis of cultural history was proposed by French historians who united around the journal Annals of Economic and Social History. It was founded in 1929 M. Block(1876 - 1944). The studies of the "Annals" school made it possible to look at the problem of history as the relationship between different cultures. It should be dialogue of cultures when one culture asks questions and receives answers from another culture through a historian striving for ultimate objectivity, with attention to texts, and to the dictionary of culture, and to tools, and to maps taken from ancient fields, and to folklore. All this was done in the works of M. Blok. In the classic work "Feudal Society", he draws on the study of feudalism not only legal, economic documents, but also literary works, epic, heroic legends.
Thus, The Annales school developed a multifactorial approach to the analysis of historical phenomena. Representatives of this trend believed that social facts should be investigated in a comprehensive manner. main role here plays a combination of social and cultural analysis. The ideas of this school were picked up by historians of many countries, and today this direction is considered the most productive. These methodological principles are also used by Russian scientists in their research. These are works on the medieval culture of the West AND I. Gurevich, according to the European Renaissance L.M. Batkin, ancient and Byzantine culture S.S. Averintseva, historical cultural studies MM. Bakhtin.
The adaptive function of culture
The most important function of culture is adaptive, allowing a person to adapt to the environment, which is a necessary condition for the survival of all living organisms in the process of evolution. But a person does not adapt to changes in the environment, as other living organisms do, but changes the environment in accordance with his needs, adapting it to himself. This creates a new, artificial world - culture. In other words, a person cannot lead a natural way of life, like animals, and in order to survive, he creates an artificial habitat around himself.
Of course, a person cannot achieve complete independence from the environment, since each specific form of culture is largely due to natural conditions. From natural and climatic conditions will depend on the type of economy, dwellings, traditions and customs, beliefs, rites and rituals of peoples.
As culture develops, humanity provides itself with ever greater security and comfort. But, having got rid of the old fears and dangers, a person stands face to face with new threats that he creates for himself. So, today you can not be afraid of such formidable diseases of the past as plague or smallpox, but new diseases have appeared, such as AIDS, for which no cure has yet been found, and other deadly diseases created by man themselves are waiting in the military laboratories. Thus, a person needs to be protected not only from natural environment habitat, but also from the world of culture.
The adaptive function has a dual nature. On the one hand, it manifests itself in the creation of the means of protection necessary for a person from outside world. These are all the products of culture that help primitive, and later civilized man, survive and feel confident in the world: the use of fire, the creation of productive agriculture, medicine, etc. This is the so-called specific means of protection person. These include not only objects of material culture, but also those specific means that a person develops to adapt to life in society, keeping him from mutual extermination and death. These are state structures, laws, customs, traditions, moral standards, etc.
There are also non-specific means of protection of a person is a culture as a whole, existing as a picture of the world. Understanding culture as a "second nature", the world created by man, we emphasize the most important property human activity and culture - the ability to "doubling" the world, highlighting in it the sensual-objective and ideal-figurative layers. Culture as a picture of the world makes it possible to see the world not as a continuous flow of information, but to receive this information in an orderly and structured form.
Significant function
Culture as a picture of the world is connected with another function of culture - symbolic, significative, those. naming function. The formation of names and titles is very important for a person. If some object or phenomenon is not named, does not have a name, is not designated by a person, it does not exist for us. By assigning a name to an object or phenomenon and evaluating it, for example, as threatening, we simultaneously receive the necessary information that allows us to act in order to avoid danger. Indeed, when marking a threat, we do not just give it a name, but enter it into the hierarchy of being.
Thus, culture as an image and picture of the world is an ordered and balanced scheme of the cosmos, serving as the prism through which a person looks at the world. This scheme is expressed through philosophy, literature, mythology, ideology, as well as in the actions of people. Its content is realized fragmentarily by the majority of members of the ethnos; it is fully accessible only to a small number of cultural experts. The basis of this picture of the world are ethnic constants - the values and norms of ethnic culture.
2.3 Cognitive (epistemological) function.
An important function of culture is also cognitive (gnoseological) function. Culture concentrates the experience and skills of many generations of people, accumulates rich knowledge about the world and thus creates favorable opportunities for its further knowledge and development. This function manifests itself most fully in science and scientific knowledge. Of course, knowledge is also acquired in other areas of culture, but there it is a by-product of human activity, and in science, obtaining objective knowledge about the world is the main goal.
Science has long been a phenomenon European civilization and culture, while other peoples chose a different way of knowing the world around them. So, in the East, for this purpose, the most complex systems of philosophy and psychotechnics were created. They seriously discussed such unusual for rational European minds ways of knowing the world as telepathy (transmission of thoughts at a distance), telekinesis (the ability to influence objects with thought), clairvoyance (the ability to predict the future) and much more.
The cognitive function is inextricably linked with function of accumulation and storage of information, since knowledge, information are the results of cognition of the world. A natural condition for the life of both an individual and society as a whole is the need for information on a variety of issues. We must remember our past, be able to correctly assess it, admit our mistakes. A person must know who he is, where he comes from and where he is going. In connection with these issues, the information function of culture has been formed.
Culture has become a specifically human form of production, accumulation, storage and transmission of knowledge. Unlike animals, in which the transfer of information from one generation to another occurs mainly by genetic means, in humans, information is encoded in various sign systems. Thanks to this, information is separated from the individuals who obtained it, acquires an independent existence, without disappearing after their death. It becomes a public property, and each new generation does not start its life path from scratch, but actively masters the experience accumulated by previous generations.
Information is transmitted not only in a temporal aspect - from generation to generation, but also within one generation - as a process of exchange of experience between societies, social groups, and individuals. Exist reflexive(conscious) and non-reflexive(unconscious) forms of translation of cultural experience. The reflexive forms include purposeful education and upbringing. Non-reflexive - spontaneous assimilation of cultural norms, which occurs unconsciously, by direct imitation of others.
Sociocultural experience is transmitted through the action of such social institutions as the family, the education system, mass media, and cultural institutions. Over time, the production and accumulation of knowledge is becoming more and more rapidly. In the modern era, information is doubling every 15 years. Thus, culture, performing an informational function, makes possible the process of cultural continuity, the connection of peoples, eras and generations.
Axiological function
Value orientations of people are associated with axiological (evaluative) function their culture. Since the degree of significance of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world for the life of people is not the same, a certain system of values of a society or a social group is being formed. Values imply the choice of one or another object, state, need, goal in accordance with the criterion of their usefulness for human life. Values serve as the foundation of culture, helping society and every person to separate the good from the bad, truth from error, fair from unfair, permissible from forbidden.
The selection of values occurs in the process of practical activity. As experience accumulates, values form and disappear, are revised and enriched. At different peoples the concepts of good and evil are different, it is the values that provide the specificity of each culture. What is important to one culture may not be important to another. Each nation forms its own pyramid, a hierarchy of values, although the set of values itself is of a universal nature. It is possible to conditionally divide (classify) the core values into:
* vital- life, health, safety, welfare, strength, etc.;
* social- position in society, status, work, profession, personal independence, family, gender equality;
* political- freedom of speech, civil liberties, legality, civilian world;
* moral- good, good, love, drrkba, duty, honor, disinterestedness, decency, fidelity, justice, respect for elders, love for children;
* aesthetic- beauty, ideal, style, harmony, fashion, originality.
Many of the values mentioned above may not exist in a given culture. In addition, each culture represents certain values in its own way. So, the ideals of beauty are quite different among different peoples. For example, in accordance with the ideal of beauty in medieval China, aristocratic women had to have a tiny foot. The desired was achieved with the help of painful foot-binding procedures, subjecting them to girls from the age of five, as a result of which these women became crippled.
With the help of values, people orient themselves in the world, society, determine their actions, their attitude towards others. Most people believe that they strive for goodness, truth, love. Of course, what seems good to some people may be bad to others. And this again testifies to the cultural specificity of values. All our life we act as "appraisers" of the surrounding world, relying on our own ideas about good and evil.
Professional culture
Professional culture characterizes the level and quality of professional training. The state of society certainly does not affect the quality of professional culture. Since this requires appropriate educational institutions that provide qualified education, institutes and laboratories, studios and workshops, etc. therefore, a high level of professional culture is an indicator of a developed society.
In principle, it should be available to everyone who is employed in a paid job, whether in the public or private sector. Professional culture includes a set of special theoretical knowledge and practical skills associated with a particular type of work. The degree of mastery of professional culture is expressed in qualification and qualification category. It is necessary to distinguish between a) formal qualification, which is certified by a certificate (diploma, certificate, certificate) of graduation from a certain educational institution and implies a system of theoretical knowledge necessary for a given profession, b) a real qualification obtained after several years of work in this field, including a set of practical skills and skills, i.e. professional experience
Eastern type of culture
Oriental culture refers primarily to its two varieties: Indian culture and Chinese culture.
Indian culture is, first of all, Vedic culture. It is based on Vedic literature, on ancient texts - the Vedas, written in Sanskrit and dating back to the 2nd millennium BC. The oldest period of Indian culture is called Vedic. The Vedas contain the first ideas of people about reality. Vedas (from the Sanskrit word "veda" - "knowledge") - this is knowledge about a person and the world, about good and evil, an idea of \u200b\u200bthe soul. Here for the first time it is said about the law of karma, i.e. about the dependence of a person's life on his actions. The Vedas convey knowledge about systems for achieving perfection and liberating a person from various kinds of addictions. In the Vedas, subject symbols are also given (such as a circle, a swastika - a sign of infinity, a wheel of the Buddha and other symbols of perpetual motion).
Vedic literature is the oldest in human history. The oldest of the books - the Vedas - is the Rig Veda. Her hymns anticipate the Bible. The world of people, according to the Vedas, was subject to a strict cosmic hierarchy. From ancient times there was a division into varnas (colors and categories). Brahmins are sages, interpreters of the Vedas, their symbolic color is white, the color of goodness and holiness. Kshatriyas are warriors and rulers, their symbol is red - power and passions. Vaishyas are farmers, cattle breeders, their symbol is yellow, the color of moderation and diligence. Sudras are servants, the color black is ignorance. The cycle of birth, life and death corresponded to natural cycles.
According to the Vedas, the cycle of births, lives and deaths of people corresponds to natural cycles. The idea of the eternal cycle of life and the idea of an eternal spiritual Source is the foundation of ideas about the eternal immortal soul. According to these ideas, the soul after the death of the body continues to live, moving into the body of the born being. But what body? It depends on many circumstances and is consistent with the so-called. the law of karma. It says that the sum of good and evil deeds of a person (i.e. his karma) received in previous lives determines the form of subsequent births. You can be born a slave, an animal, a worm, a roadside stone. The cause of all your suffering is in you. This idea of karma is the most important, it is a powerful ethical stimulus that determines a benevolent attitude towards nature (since in every natural creation one can see a reborn person, perhaps a recently deceased relative or friend).
The Vedic books give methods and means of liberation from the law of karma. This is a moral and ascetic life, a hermitage, yoga(the word is translated as connection, connection). Yoga is of great importance. It forms a system of self-preparation of a person for a special spiritual life and getting rid of addictions.
Oriental culture relies heavily on mythology. So, the ancient Egyptian sculpture makes a religious and mystical impression. The greatness of the pyramids and the mysterious sphinxes inspired the idea of the insignificance of man in front of the powerful forces of the universe. Ancient Egypt original cult of the pharaoh and the cult of the dead, immortalized in mummies and pyramids. Indian culture was not as religious as Egyptian, it gravitated more towards the world of the living, and therefore paid much attention to the development of moral requirements for a person, the formation of a moral law (dharma) and the search for ways of human unity.
Indian culture, more than other Eastern cultures, is focused on self-development individual and society, the concentration of efforts to develop internal and external culture. The intervention of God is only the completion of the activities of people aimed at improving the world. In Eastern culture, prosperity does not come from outside, but is prepared by the entire cultural work of mankind.
Apparently, here lie the origins of inner depth and psychologism. Eastern culture compared to the western one. It is focused on self-comprehension, in-depth, internal, immanent religiosity, intuitionism and irrationalism. This is the difference between Eastern culture and Western culture.
This specificity is also reflected in contemporary manifestations Indian culture. We are also deeply interested in Tibetan medicine; and methods of healing modernized to European thinking (“raja yoga”, hatha yoga, transcendental meditation), and the activities of the Krishna consciousness society, and the philosophy of life under Rajnesh and others. Vl. Solovyov in his work “Historical Affairs of Philosophy” spoke about the “living fruits” of Indian philosophy, which continues to nourish world human thought with life-giving juices. Not a single philosophy had such an impact on Western culture as Indian. Russian cultural figures N. Roerich became its followers and D. Andreev, and German thinkers and writers - R. Steiner and G. Hesse, and many, many others. G. Hesse, author of the world-famous novels "The Steppe Wolf" and "The Glass Bead Game", in the poem expressed his great love for Indian culture.
The spiritual potential of ancient Indian culture, its moral values remained almost unchanged until today. India has given the world the culture of Buddhism, beautiful literature. Love for man, admiration for nature, the ideals of tolerance, forgiveness and understanding are reflected in the teachings of the great humanist of our time - M. Gandhi. The beauty and originality of Indian culture were embodied in the work of Russians and European artists and thinkers.
ancient chinese culture- other the most important culture East. Comparing it with the Indian one shows how different ethnic groups are able to create qualitatively different cultures. The Chinese ethnos gave rise to a socially oriented culture, in contrast to the Indian one, which is mainly focused on the inner world of a person and his capabilities.
The same role that Buddhism and Hinduism played in Indian culture, played in Chinese culture Confucianism. This religious and philosophical system was founded by one of the most famous sages of antiquity - Confucius. His name comes from the Latin transcription of the Chinese Kong Tzu - "teacher Kun". Confucius lived in 551-479 BC. and created a doctrine that for more than 2 thousand years was the ideological basis of the Chinese empire. Confucius continued the traditions of Chinese culture, laid down in the 2nd millennium BC. He paid special attention not to questions of cosmology, but to practical philosophy: what a person needs to do in order to live with all people in peace and harmony.
The main content of the books of Confucius is associated with moral teachings and justification ethical standards. Within the framework of Confucianism, a system of state-political and individual ethics, norms of regulation and ritual life was developed. The patriarchal nature of Confucian culture is reflected in its demand for filial piety ("xiao"), which extended to both family and state relations. Confucius wrote: “It rarely happens that a person full of filial piety and obedience to elders would love to annoy the ruler. And it does not happen at all that one who does not like to annoy the ruler would have a tendency to rebel. root, then the path is born, filial piety and obedience to elders - is it not in them that humanity is rooted?
In addition to Confucianism, ancient Chinese culture played a special role Taoism, whose ideals were in many ways similar to the moral quest of the Vedic culture of India.
One of the features of Chinese culture was excessive bureaucratization. Since ancient times (at least since the 16th century BC), a bureaucratic system of government has developed in China. Even then, a layer of educated officials stood out, concentrating state power in their hands and regulating the entire life of ancient Chinese society with the help of moral and legal norms and principles of etiquette.
The bureaucracy monopolized the education system, as literacy provided a higher social status and advancement in the state ladder. The lengthy training and the system of the most difficult examinations had no equal in the ancient world. Chinese culture gave the world gunpowder and paper, unique systems of martial arts and peculiar philosophical doctrines.
Eastern culture contains such a wealth of human thought, which leaves few indifferent, both in the East and in the West. The peculiarity of Eastern culture is especially pronounced when compared with Western culture.
Western type of culture
The European (Western) cultural-historical tradition correlated with the East shows us, first of all, a peculiar sequence of epochs (stages) of the development of a civilization that originated in the Aegean Sea basin as a result of the collapse and on the basis of the Cretan-Mycenaean culture. This sequence of historical epochs is as follows:
classical Hellenic culture;
Hellenistic-Roman stage;
Romano-Germanic culture Christian Middle Ages;
new European culture.
The last three steps can also be considered (against the background of the ancient Greek classics) as peculiar variant forms of Westernization of the traditional culture of the Romans and Germans, and then of the entire Romano-Germanic Europe. In Hegel and Toynbee, the two first and two second epochs are combined into independent civilization-historical formations (ancient and Western worlds). For Marx, European antiquity and the Middle Ages, although they form a parallel to the societies of the East based on the Asian mode of production, nevertheless constitute together with them a single pre-capitalist stage of historical development, followed by the universal capitalist era of modern times, which sharply opposes it.
One way or another, but at the origins and in the very foundations of all societies and cultures of the European (Western) civilizational tradition there is something unimaginable from a normal (traditional or Eastern) point of view: economy, society, state, culture, entirely lying on the shoulders of a single, independent , at his own peril and risk, carrying out his "works and days", his activities and communication of a person. A person-society, a person-state, a person-worldview, a truly holistic personality, free and independent in thoughts, words and deeds, Odyssey (as M.K. Petrov says). And, perhaps, it is not at all accidental that the paths traversed by European spiritual culture begin and end with Homer's Odyssey and James Joyce's Ulysses: together with the Odysseys in European culture the market and democracy, civil society and a free personal worldview entered and strengthened in it.
The most important inventions of European culture at the linguistic-sign level of its representation in the spiritual and ideological sphere are philosophy in the above meaning of this concept and science as a specific form of cognitive activity, characteristic of the last era of the Western cultural tradition. The line between "sophianic" and "scientized" forms of culture in general (and also in relation to the specifics of the corresponding worldview forms) is so significant that very often only two major period in the movement of European culture, taken in its relative independence from the socio-economic and national-ethnic areas of manifestation of civilizational and historical life. Namely:
from the middle of the 1st millennium BC n until the 17th century;
period XVII-XX centuries. (two main terms are used for its designation: the period of the new European culture or the period of technogenic civilization).
Taking into account other criteria, and, above all, the representation of Christianity in the European culture, this simple periodization becomes more complicated: usually in this case they speak (meaning the first large period) about the eras of ancient, Greek and Roman culture, about the culture of the Middle Ages and about the culture Renaissance (from this last era, some authors begin the countdown of the new European culture). Within the framework of the second large period, the culture of the Enlightenment, romanticism and the classical German cultural era of the late 18th - early 19th centuries are often singled out. This initial segment of the new European culture coincides chronologically with the era of bourgeois and national revolutions in Western Europe and America. It is also the time of approval of the economic formation of society (capitalism).
Second half of the 19th - 20th centuries are characterized differently. But it is quite obvious that over these one and a half centuries the situation in the culture and public spheres of the Western technogenic civilization - despite the constant flow of updates and a number of social and national-state cataclysms - is stabilizing. Including in relation to the ever wider coverage of non-European cultures by the value orientations of Western civilization. As a result, modern Western culture is evaluated either in line with Spengler's mythology of "The Decline of Europe", or in optimistic and at the same time clearly Eurocentric tones.
Cultural studies as a science. Characteristics of the main sections.
Culturology(lat. culture- cultivation, farming, education, veneration;
Cultural studies as a science began to take shape in the 18th century. It was mainly formed at the end of the 19th century. The name of science was finally fixed by the American scientist White in 1947.
Culturology studies culture in all its forms and manifestations, interconnection and interaction various forms culture, functions and laws of its development, the interaction of man, culture and society.
Sections of cultural studies:
social - studies the functional mechanisms of the socio-cultural organization of people's lives.
- Humanitarian - concentrates on the study of forms and processes of self-knowledge of culture, embodied in various "texts" of culture".
- Fundamental - develops a categorical apparatus and research methods, studies culture for the purpose of theoretical and historical knowledge of this subject.
- Applied - uses fundamental knowledge about culture in order to solve practical problems, as well as to predict, design and regulate cultural processes.
Table number 3. Sections of cultural studies
Question 1. Culturology: subject, tasks, methods, main sections.
Culturology ( lat. cultura - cultivation, farming, education, reverence; other Greek ????? - knowledge, thought, reason) - a science that studies culture, the most general patterns of its development. IN tasks culturology is includedcomprehension of culture as an integral phenomenon, determination of the most general laws of its functioning, as well as analysis of the phenomenon of culture as a system.Cultural studies took shape as an independent discipline in the 20th century. The term "culturology" was proposed in 1949 by the famous American anthropologist Leslie White (1900-1975) to designate a new scientific discipline as an independent science in the complex of social sciences.Various aspects of the development of culture have always been studied by such social and human sciences as philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, aesthetics, art history, ethics, religious studies, ethnography, archeology, linguistics and many others. Cultural studies arose at the intersection of these areas of scientific knowledge and is a complex social and humanitarian science. The emergence of cultural studies reflects the general trend of the movement of scientific knowledge towards interdisciplinary synthesis in order to obtain holistic ideas about the world, society, and man.
In the foreign scientific classification, cultural studies is not distinguished as a separate science. The phenomenon of culture in Europe and America is understood mainly in the socio-ethnographic sense, therefore cultural anthropology is considered the main science.
Item cultural studies studies:essence and structure of culture; the process of historical development of the world to-ry; national-ethnic and religious features of the cultures of the peoples of the world; values and achievements of mankind in various spheres of economic, political, scientific, artistic, religious and moral activity; interaction of cultures and civilizations.
Those. it creates an idea of the development of various spheres of cultural life, of the process of continuity and of the originality of cultures and civilizations.
Methods cultural studies:
- Empirical methods in cultural studies
–
are used at the initial level of research, are based on the collection and description of factual material within the framework of humanitarian cultural studies.
historical method- is aimed at studying how this culture arose, what stages of development it went through and what it became in its mature form.
Structural-functional method - consists in decomposing the object under study into its constituent parts and revealing the internal connection, conditionality, the relationship between them, as well as determining their functions.
Semiotic method - considers culture as a sign system, i.e. using semiotics.
Biographical method - involves analysis life path cultural figure for a better understanding of his inner world, which reflects the system of cultural values of his time.
Modeling model - associated with the creation of a model of a certain period in the development of culture.
Psychologicalmethod - involves the ability to find out through the analysis of memoirs, chronicles, myths, annals, epistolary heritage, treatises, the most typical reactions of people of a particular culture to the most significant phenomena for them: famine, wars, epidemics. Such reactions are manifested both in the form of social feelings and mentality in general. The use of the psychological method makes it possible, through understanding the nature of a particular culture, to perceive the motivation, the logic of cultural actions.
Diachronic method - involves the clarification of the chronological, that is, the temporal sequence of changes, the appearance and course of a particular cultural phenomenon.
The synchronous method consists in the analysis of changes in the same phenomenon at different stages of a single cultural process. In addition to the above, the synchronic method can also be understood as a cumulative analysis of two or more cultures over a certain period of their development, taking into account existing connections and possible contradictions.
- History of world and public culture(this is the foundation, the basis of science) - this is knowledge about achievements in science, art, about the development of religious thought, the history of culture explores the real process of continuity of cultures of different eras and peoples.
History of cultural theoriesis a story about the process of formation and development of cultural thought, i.e. history of the study of culture.
The theory of culture is the main complex of scientific concepts in the field of culture, the study of the main theoretical problems of cultural studies.
Sociology of culture - explores the process of functioning of culture in society, the characteristics and values of various social groups, the specifics of lifestyle and spiritual interests, explores various forms of deviant behavior common in society.
Cultural anthropology- represents a section related to the peculiarities of the interaction of culture and man, culture and personality.
Applied Cultural Studies- cultural studies, focused on practical actions in the field of culture. We are talking about social work, about activities to preserve the values of culture and assist in the transfer of spiritual experience to other generations.
Question 2. The concept of culture, its essence, structure and functions.
culture, understood in a broad sense, embraces the totality of social values that create a collective portrait of the identity of each particular society.
In a broad sense, the concept "culture"(lat. "cultura") is used asopposition to "nature", "nature"(lat. "natura"). “Culture is everything that is not nature”, i.e. the totality of material and ideal objects, social achievements, thanks to which a person stands out from nature.
In a narrow sense, culture –
it is synonymous with art, i.e. a special sphere of human activity associated with the artistic and figurative understanding of the world in the form of literature, architecture, sculpture, painting, graphics, music, dance, theater, cinema, etc.
Culture is the link between society and nature. The basis of this connection is a person as a subject of activity, cognition, communication, experience, etc.
Speaking of structure culture, it is necessary to designate two spheres of its existence -material and spiritual. Such manifestations of culture are associated with two spheres of human activity: material and spiritual. In them, on the one hand, there is an expression of human forces, on the other hand, their formation and improvement.
Culturologists distinguish the following functions cultures:
- Basic (human)Man lives not in nature, but in culture. In it, he recognizes himself. There are also moments of world understanding, formation, education and sociologization of a person. Otherwise, it is also called a transforming function, since the development and transformation of the surrounding reality is a fundamental need for a person.
informative - provides historical continuity and the transfer of social experience.
Cognitive (epistemological) - aimed at ensuring human knowledge of the world around. It is expressed in science, in scientific research, aimed at systematization of knowledge and disclosure of the laws of development of nature and society, and at the knowledge of man himself.
Communicative- provides the process of information exchange using signs and sign systems.
Regulatory (regulatory or protective function) - is a consequence of the need to maintain a certain balanced relationship between man and the environment, both natural and social.
value (axiological) - culture shows the significance or value of what is valuable in one culture, in another it is not.
Spiritual and moral- the educational role of culture.
Question 3. Evolution of the understanding of the term "culture": from antiquity to the present.
Initially, the concept of culture (cultura) comes into use as a word of Latin origin. It was used inThe Roman Empire in the understanding of processing, cultivating the land, cultivating; inhabit, inhabit the earth.
Those. culture meant the arrangement of a person in a certain territory, cultivation, cultivation of the land. This is where the term comes from. agriculture - agriculture, tillage. Thus, the concept of culture is directly associated with such an important concept for the life of society as agriculture (as a purposeful human activity). In Latin, the harbinger of culture is the term culture - “care, care for a deity, cult (veneration)”.
Thus, the most ancient complex of the concept of "Culture" reflects three facets of a single meaning and represents a holistic formula: arrangement of the place where a person lives, cultivation of the land, veneration of the gods.
For the first time in a figurative sense, the concept of culture was used in his work by the outstanding Roman politician, orator and philosopher Mark Tullius. Cicero (106-43 BC), calling philosophy "the culture of the soul."
The term culture began to be perceived somewhat differently during the heyday of the Christian worldview in Europe. If we talk about the main difference in the worldview and science of that period, then from the cosmocentrism inherent in antiquity, European thought comes to the complete worship of God, worship of God. A person, his desires, his body, his needs become insignificant, only the spirit remains, which is eternal, the salvation of which must be taken care of, and in the Christian world another meaning of culture comes to the fore -reverence, boundless and undivided reverence for God.It was the veneration of the triune God that became in Christianity the basis of the spiritual development of man. Thus, in the Middle Ages, the religious cult became the main thing in the formation of man.
As for secular culture, some Christian theologians interpret it as a preparation for religious enlightenment, while others interpret it as a path of error leading away from the truth in the person of God.
rebirth became the second stage on the way to the justification and definition of the concept of culture. The very attitude towards a person as a separate creative unit, a person, is changing. An anthropocentric picture of the world is being formed. In the Renaissance there is a constant Delight human creativity, new breakthroughs in art, literature, painting, architecture. The study of the culture of ideology continued in the direction of identifying the boundaries between the innate and acquired in a person.
In the Age of Enlightenment, it was believed that culture was not just a striving for freedom or mercy originally inherent in a person, but an activity illuminated by the light of reason. And in this new model of the Enlightenment project, reason, rationalism dominates, and it is on this foundation that the building of European culture is erected. Before this period, the word "culture" was used only in phrases, denoting the function of something, but in contrast to thisGerman enlighteners began to talk about culture in general or about culture as such.
So, in the Age of Enlightenment, the concept of "culture" meansactive transformation of the world by man.
Unlike Cicero, the Enlighteners classify as culture not only the spiritual, but also the material occupations of people. This is the improvement of people's lives with the help of agriculture, crafts, and various techniques. But above allculture is the spiritual perfection of the human race and individuals, the instrument of which is the mind.
Over the centuries, the understanding of culture has varied, evolved, and that certain thinkers put their meaning into a given word in a certain era.
At the moment, culture is a special spiritual experience of human communities, accumulated and transmitted from generation to generation, the content of which is the value meanings of things, forms, norms, and ideals, relationships and actions, feelings, intentions, expressed in specific signs and sign systems. - languages of culture.
Question 4. Enlightenment theories of culture of the 18th century (J.-G. Herder, J.-J. Rousseau, J. Vico)
In the Age of Enlightenment there are treatises and essays devoted to the study of culture as an integral world created by man. Among those who laid the foundations for the study of culture as a holistic phenomenon areJ. Vico (1668-1744)
and German thinker I. Herder
(1744-1803). The fact is that before them the word "culture" was used only in phrases, denoting the function of something. In contrast, the German enlighteners, in particular I. Herder, leadtalk about culture in generalor about culture as such. According to Herder, highthe purpose of man is in the development of two universal principles - Reason and Humanity.For this, enlightenment and education, overcoming ignorance, serve. To investigate the root cause, the spirit of humanity, is the real task of the historian.The highest humanity is manifested in religion. Therefore, reason, humanity and religion are the three most important values of culture.
J. Vico- historian and philosopher, doctor of law and rhetoric of the University of Naples in his main work"Foundations of the New Science of the General Nature of Nations»
puts forward ideas about the cultural unity and diversity of the world, the dynamics of the cyclical development of culture and the change of eras.In his statements, he relies on the ancient ideas of the Egyptians, according to which they divided the time that passed before them into three main periods: the age of the gods, the age of heroes and the age of people, and he takes these views as the basis of the universal history that he intends to create. Historical evolution, according to Vico, is formed and replaced by different eras or "ages".Each of the epochs differs only in the inherent features of art and morality, law and power, myths and religion, but the cycle of cycles reflects the infinity of human development.. Throughout the work, Vico consistently illustrates the coincidence of phenomena and causes, finds analogies in the development of human history and culture.
Over the course of time, epochs succeed each other, and Vico is talking only about the endless evolution of history. Speaking about the change of cycles in history and culture, Viko draws attention to the emergingat the end of the cycle, barbarism into which all nations fall.Barbarism, from his point of view, is regarded as an integral period in the progressive development of mankind. He divides this phenomenon into two types -natural barbarism, the story begins with him; the second - more refined and aggressive is inherent in historical development in subsequent cycles, people are more high level culture, the cruelty of this barbarism is distinguished by more skillful and secret means. (We can draw parallels with fascism).
Such ideas of Vico formed the basis of the future cultural studies, cultural anthropology.
J.J. Rousseau created his own "anti-culture concept". In his treatise "Reasoning. Did the revival of science and arts contribute to the improvement of morals?" he says that everything beautiful in a person comes out of the bosom of nature and deteriorates in it when he enters society.
Question 5.
Formation of cultural studies as a science. Theory of L. White.
Beginning with European enlightenment Gradually, but steadily, an interest in culture as an integral social and anthropological reality is being formed. Subsequently, researchers of history, culturologists, will call this a culture-centric picture of the world.
culture in all its diversity and richness, it is in the center of attention of philosophers, anthropologists, as well as writers, artists, politicians.
If we look at different cultures and traditions, including in the temporal plane, we will see that every nation has an economic way of life, creates tools for labor, all social life is regulated by the rule of law, all cultures develop, are on different stages development, progress. He begins to move away from the positions of Eurocentrism and realize the significance and uniqueness of each culture, whichall cultures are equal, equal in rights, there are no worthy or contemptible cultures, they are all original, this diversity is the main wealth of the cultural life of the world. Such fields of science as cultural anthropology, ethnography and sociology appear. The term culturology appears in the work of the English anthropologist E. Tylor (1832-1917), "Primitive Culture", he substantiates the concept of culture, defines regular connections between cultural phenomena, develops methods for classifying the stages of cultural development, compiles an ethnographic and anthropological description of the cultures of more than 400 peoples and ethnic groups of different countries.
Anthropologist Leslie White (1900-1975) devoted his works to substantiating cultural studies as a science; in 1949 he published the scientific work "The Science of Culture", in which he proposes to call the branch of the humanities cultural studies. It was he who gave worthy arguments in favor of the fact that this science should stand out from the complex of humanitarian knowledge about culture into a separate discipline. This allows us to consider him the founder of culturologists. L. White considered culture as a symbolic reality. A person has a unique ability to give objects and phenomena around him a certain meaning, to endow them with meaning, to create symbols. It is this ability to symbolize, according to White, that creates the world of culture.These are values, ideas, faith, customs, works of art, etc., which are created by man and endowed with a certain meaning, outside this circle, objects lose their value, turn into material - matter, clay, wood, nothing more.The symbol is the starting point for understanding human behavior and culture.
White distinguishes 3 kinds of symbols: ideas, relations, external actions, material objects.All these types are related to culture and express a person's ability to symbolize. Culture is not just objects, without a human thought process, without its ability to evaluate and symbolize, it is a void, but endowed with symbols and meanings, this environment turns into a human habitat, and in turn contributes to the value understanding of human existence, helps a person adapt to the world around him . Thus,White considers k-ru as an integral system, divided into three interrelated areas:
- technological- equipment, means of protection, transport, materials for building a dwelling, this is the provision of human interaction with nature
social - relations between people in all spheres of society, it determines the development of a person's social environment
spiritual sphere. Knowledge, faith, customs, myths, folklore, religion, mythology, philosophy, art, morality, etc. develop on this basis. This creates the spiritual world of man.
Question 6. Typology of culture: ethnic, national, world, regional culture.
Typology means a certain classification of phenomena according to the generality of any signs. The type of culture can be understood as a commonality of features, characteristics, manifestations that distinguishes these cultures (culture) from others, or the fixation of certain, qualitatively homogeneous stages in the development of culture.Typology of culture is knowledge, understanding, description, classification of manifestations of culture according to some principle..
Any typological scheme is based on the general idea that the history of mankind includes two main periods:archaic (primitive) and civilizational.
It is worth distinguishing between the concepts of typology of cultures - this is a method of cultural and historical analysis, and the typology of cultures is a system of selected typical models of cultures, the result of applying the method.
In the typology, the following types of culture are distinguished:
- ethnic culture- the culture of a certain ethnic group (social community of people), the creative form of its life activity for the reproduction and renewal of being. Ethnic culture is based onethnic community: she originally biological., the oldest date back to prehistoric times. They are based ongeneral hereditary psychophysiological characteristics of people,connected by the unity of origin, and in the early stages and a certain area of \u200b\u200bdwelling.Ethnic culture is a set of cultural features related mainly to everyday life, everyday culture.It has a core and a periphery. ethnic cultureincludes tools, customs, customs, values, buildings, clothing, food, means of transportation, housing, knowledge, beliefs, folk arts. Formationethnic culture going on in progress :
- synthesis of primary factors: language, development of the territory, location, climatic conditions, features of housekeeping and life;
- synthesis of secondary generative factors: the system of interpersonal communication, the evolution of cities, the predominance of a particular religion; the formation of a certain economic and cultural type in the economy; creation of an education system, ideology, propaganda; influence of political factors;
psychological characteristics, stereotypes of behavior, habits, mental attitudes; external interactions with other ethnic groups within the nation-state and beyond.
- national culture unites people living in large areas and not necessarily connected by consanguinity. Compulsory condition the emergence of national culture, experts consider a new type of social communication,associated with the invention of writing, with the moment of birth literary language and national literature.It is thanks to writing that the ideas necessary for national unification gain popularity among the literate part of the population. The concept of national culture cannot be defined outside the existence of state structures in this culture. So nations can bemonoethnic and polyethnic. It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of "nation" and "people".Nation - a territorial, economic and linguistic association of people, having a social structure and political organization. National culture includes, along with traditional household, professional and everyday, also specialized areas of culture. Ethnic cultures are part of the national culture.
- World -
it is a synthesis of the best achievements of all national cultures of the peoples inhabiting our planet.
Regional culture - Regional culture is a variant of a national culture and at the same time an independent phenomenon that has its own patterns of development and the logic of historical existence.It is distinguished by the presence of its own set of functions, the production of a specific system of social relations and its own type of personality, the ability to influence the national culture as a whole.Behind the differentiation of concepts lies the understanding that there are forms and mechanisms that turn the culture of the region into a regional culture. On the other hand, this allows us to include the concept of regional culture in the typological range of historical and cultural phenomena.
Question 7. Elite and mass culture. Concepts of mass culture in cultural studies.
Elite (high) culture
created and consumed by the privileged part of society - the elite(from fr. Elite- the best choice, favorites),or by her order by professional creators.The elite is the most spiritually capable part of society.High culture includes fine arts, classical music and literature. It is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. The circle of consumers of high culture is a highly educated part of society (critics, literary critics, theatergoers, artists, writers, musicians). This circle widens as the level of education of the population increases.Secular art and salon music are considered varieties of elite culture. The formula of elite culture is"art for art's sake"and the practice of "pure art".The meaning of elite culture is in the search for beauty, truth, the education of the moral qualities of the individual.
Mass culture(from lat massa- lump, piece and cultural- cultivation, education)does not express exquisite tastes or the spiritual quest of the people. It appeared in the middle of the twentieth century, whenMedia (radio print, television)penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. The term "mass culture" was first introduced by the German philosopher M. Horkheimer
in 1941 and by the American scientist D. Macdonald in 1944.
Mass culture
May beinternational and national. She possesses less artistic valuethan elite. She has the mostwide audienceand it is copyrighted. Pop music is understandable and accessible to all ages to all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education, because. Mass culturesatisfies the immediate needs of people.
Therefore, its samples (hit songs) quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete and go out of fashion. This does not happen with works of elite and popular culture.
Mass culture is a state, or more precisely, a cultural situation corresponding to a certain form of social arrangement, in other words, culture "in the presence of the masses."In order to be able to talk about the presence of mass culture, it is necessary that its representative, a historical community called the mass, appear on the historical arena, and also that the corresponding type of consciousness, mass consciousness, acquire the dominant value.Mass and mass consciousness are connected and do not exist in isolation from each other. They act simultaneously as the "object" and "subject" of mass culture. It is around the masses and mass consciousness that his “intrigue” revolves.
Accordingly, only where we find the beginnings of these social and mental attitudes, we have the right to speak of the presence of mass culture. Therefore, both the history and prehistory of mass culture do not go beyond the framework of the modern European past. The people, the crowd, the peasants, the ethnos, the proletarians, the broad urban "lower classes", any other pre-modern European historical community and, accordingly, speak, think, feel, react in specific cases.She models situations and distributes roles.
The goal of the masses of culture is not so much to fill leisure and relieve tension in an industrial and post-industrial society, butstimulation of consumer consciousness in the recipient(viewer, listener, reader) thatforms a special type - passive, uncritical perception of this culture in humans. This creates a personality that is easy to manipulate.
Formed by mass culture, mass consciousness is diverse in manifestation. It is distinguished by conservatism, inertness, limitation, and has specific means of expression. Mass culture focuses not on realistic images, but on artificially created images (image) and stereotypes, where the main thing is the formula. This situation encourages idolatry.
Mass culture has given rise to the phenomenon of a consumer society in which there are no spiritual values.
Question 8. Mainstream, subculture and counterculture: typology, main features.
Mainstream(mainstream) - the predominant direction in any area (scientific, cultural, etc.) for a certain period of time.Often used to refer to any "official", mass trends in culture, art, in contrast to the alternative, underground, non-mass, elitist direction.I single out meistirim in cinematography and music.
Mainstream cinema , is usually used in relation toNorth Americancinema - blockbusters, and films of eminent European directors. in Russia the term mainstream in relation to cinema began to be used especially activelyafter the reform of the system of state financing of domestic cinema with the priority allocation of budgetary money for "major" film studios, whose high-budget films form the basis of the "mainstream" of Russian cinema.
Musical mainstream is used to refer to the most radio-played and commercially profitable trend in popular music, within which elements of the most popular styles of the moment can be mixed. The concept originated in the United States in the 1940s. The strongest influence on the music mainstream comes from the US (Billboard), the UK, Germany and Scandinavia.
It can also be distinguishedmainstream in literature is, for example, the great popularity of the detective genre among modern readers.
Subculture(lat. sub - under + cultura - culture; = subculture) -part of the culture of a society that differs from the prevailing one, as well as social groups of carriers of this culture.The concept was introduced in 1950 by American sociologist David Riseman . A subculture may differ from the dominant culture in its own value system, language, demeanor, clothing, and other aspects. There are subculturesformed on national, demographic, professional, geographical and other bases. In particular, subcultures are formed by ethnic communities that differ in their dialect from the language norm. Another well-known example is youth subcultures. A subculture may arise from fanaticism or hobbies. Most often, subcultures are closed and tend to isolate themselves from mass culture. This is due to both the origin of subcultures (closed communities of interest) and the desire to separate from the main culture.
Subcultures:
- Allocate musical a subculture that is associated with certain genres of music (hippies, rastamans, punks, metalheads, goths, emo, hip-hop, etc.). The image of musical subcultures is formed largely in imitation of the stage image of performers popular in this subculture.
Art subculture originated from a passion for a particular art or hobby, an example being anemo.
Interactive subcultures appeared in the mid-90s with the spread of Internet technologies: fido communities, hackers.
Industrial (urban) subcultures appeared in the 20s and are associated with the inability of young people to live outside the city. Part of the industrial subcultures came out of industrial music fans, but computer games had the greatest influence on them.
to sports subcultures include Parkour and football fans.
Question 9. The problem of "East-West", "North-South" in cultural studies.
East-West. When meeting with eastern countries, even an uninitiated person is struck by theiridiosyncrasy and dissimilarityto what we are accustomed to seeing in Europe or America. Everything is different here: architecture, clothing, food, lifestyle, art, language, writing, and folklore, in a word, the most obvious components of any culture. Is it true,for the European eye, the East appears as something uniformly "Eastern", although in reality the differences between the countries of this region are sometimes very large.In the literature of the XX century. The famous English writer Rudyard became the most striking exponent of the idea of the incompatibility of Western and Eastern cultures. Kipling (1865-1936), whose work was largely intended to show thatEast is East and West is West and that they will never understand each other. True, this last assertion is now refuted by life itself.
Differences between East and West, although they are smoothed out under the pressure of modern technotronic civilization, but stillremain very significant.
This is not least due to a certain "Eastern" type of thinking, closely associated with Eastern religions, which, with the exception of Islam, seem to be more tolerant, more prone to pantheism, i.e. deification of nature, and more "inscribed" in the very matter of culture.
In the East, in particular in India, religion and culture have practically coincided for thousands of years.For an oriental person, unlike a European, they are characterized by: great introversion, i.e. focus on oneself and one's own inner life; less propensity to perceive opposites, which are often denied; great faith in the perfection and harmony of the surrounding Universe, and hence the orientation not to its transformation, but to adaptation to a certain "cosmic rhythm".
In general, somewhat schematizing,the eastern type of thinking in relation to the outside world is more passive, more balanced, more independent of external environment and focused on unity with nature.
It can be suspected that it is precisely these "compensatory" qualities of the Eastern worldview in our turbulent times that have become the reason for the current observable in Europe, America, and recently in our country, passion for Eastern religions, yoga and other similar beliefs, aimed not at "conquest" nature, but on the development of the secrets of man himself.
North South. Along with the East-West problem, the North-South problem has recently become increasingly important. The "South" refers to the social and cultural world of the peoples of the subtropical zone - the African continent, Oceania, Melanesia. The peoples living to the north form the socio-cultural world of the "North", in which dance plays a leading role. Thus, improvisational jazz has become widespread in our time (starting with L. Armstrong's "hot five", which introduced traditions born in Negro music into the culture of the North).
The art of the South left its mark on the work of such outstanding European artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as Gauguin, Vlaminck, Matisse, Picasso, Dali, and others. African culture was one of the sources of expressionism and cubism in painting. Many European and American poets and writers (Apollinaire, Cocteau and others) reflected her motives in their works. The echo of African culture is present in philosophy (for example, in the concept of "respect for life" by the European thinker of the 20th century A. Schweitzer, who spent a long time in the wilds of Africa). Thanks to Negro athletes with their passion, perfected technique and rhythm of movements, many sports spectacles have become livelier, sharper and more dynamic: football, basketball, boxing, athletics, etc.
Thus, the culture of the South is already having a noticeable impact on the North. At the same time, there is an intensive assimilation by the southern peoples of the achievements of the culture of the northern countries. Further strengthening of contacts between North and South will undoubtedly contribute to the mutual enrichment of these social and cultural worlds.
Question 10. Religion as a phenomenon of culture, the main features and characteristics.
Religion is a multifaceted, branched, complex social phenomenon, represented by various types and forms, the most common of which are world religions, which include numerous directions, schools and organizations.
In the history of culture, the emergence of three world religions was of particular importance:Buddhism in the 6th century BC e., Christianity in the 1st c. AD and Islam in the 7th century. n. e.These religions have made significant changes in culture, entering into a complex interaction with its various elements and aspects. The term "religion" is of Latin origin and means "piety, shrine".Religion is a special attitude, appropriate behavior and specific actions based on belief in the supernatural, something higher and sacred.In interaction with art, religion addresses the spiritual life of a person and interprets the meaning and goals of human existence in its own way. Art and religion reflect the world in the form of artistic images, comprehend the truth intuitively, through insight. They are unthinkable without an emotional attitude to the world, without a developed imagery, fantasy. But art has broader possibilities of figurative reflection of the world, which go beyond the bounds of religious consciousness. The primitive culture is characterized by the indivisibility of social consciousness, thereforein ancient times, religion, which was a complex synthesis of totemism, animism, fetishism and magic, was merged with primitive art and morality.All together they were an artistic reflection of the nature surrounding man, his labor activity - hunting, farming, gathering. First, obviously, a dance appeared, which was a magical body movement aimed at appeasing or frightening the spirits, then music and mimicry were born. Religion had a huge impact on ancient culture, one of the elements of which was ancient Greek mythology.Ancient Greek mythology had a great influence on the culture of many modern European peoples. Religion has had a great influence on literature. The three major world religions - Buddhism, Christianity and Islam - gave the world three great books - the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran.The role of religion in the history of world culture was not only that it bestowed these holy books- sources of wisdom, kindness and creative inspiration. Religion has had a considerable influence on the literature of different countries and peoples.
Thus, Christianity influenced Russian literature.
Question 11. The theory of cultural-historical types N.Ya. Danilevsky.
Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky (November 28 (December 10), 1822 - November 7 (19), 1885) - Russian sociologist, culturologist, publicist and naturalist; geopolitician,one of the founders of the civilizational approach to history, the ideologist of pan-Slavism.
In my work "Russia and Europe" Danilevsky criticized Eurocentrism, which dominated the historiography of the 19th century, and, in particular, the generally accepted scheme for dividing world history intoAntiquity, Middle Ages and Modern Times. The Russian thinker considered such a division to have only a conditional meaning and completely unjustifiably “tying” phenomena of a completely different kind to the stages of European history.
The concept of "cultural-historical types"- central to the teachings of Danilevsky. By his own definition,an original cultural-historical type is formed by any tribe or family of peoples, characterized by a separate language or a group of languages that are quite close to each other, if at all, according to their spiritual inclinations, they are capable of historical development and already out of infancy.
Danilevsky singled out Egyptian, Chinese, Assyrian-Babylonian-Phoenician, Chaldean or ancient Semitic, Indian, Iranian, Jewish, Greek, Roman, New Semitic or Arabian and Germano-Romance as the main cultural and historical types that have already realized themselves in history. or European, as well as Mexican and Peruvian, which did not have time to complete their development.
main focus Danilevsky paidGermano-Romance and Slavic types: considering the Slavic type more promising,he predicted that in the future the Russian-led Slavs would take the place of the declining Germano-Romance type on the historical stage. Europe, according to Danilevsky's forecasts, should be replaced by Russia with its mission of uniting all Slavic peoples and high religious potential.The triumph of the Slavs would mean the "decline" of Europe, which is hostile towards its "young" rival - Russia.
Like the Slavophiles, Danilevsky believed that European and Slavic statehood came from different roots. Considering the signs that determine the allocation of types, namely large ethnographic differences,Danilevsky indicates the differences between the Slavic peoples and the German ones in three categories: ethnographic features (mental structure), religiosity, differences in historical education. This analysis is a continuation and extension of the cultural comparative analysis of the early Slavophiles.
Danilevsky's book contains many thoughts, the value of which increased significantly at the end of the 20th century. One of them is a warning from the author of "Russia and Europe" aboutdangers of denationalization of culture.The establishment of the world domination of one cultural-historical type, according to Danilevsky, would be disastrous for mankind, since the domination of one civilization, one culture would deprive the human race of the necessary condition for improvement - the element of diversity. Considering that the biggestevil is the loss of "moral national identity", Danilevsky resolutelycondemned the West for imposing its culture on the rest of the world.Earlier than most of his contemporaries, the Russian thinker understood that in order for the "cultural power" not to dry out in humanity in general, it is necessary to resist the power of one cultural-historical type, it is necessary to "change the direction" of cultural development.
He insisted that“The state and the people are transient phenomena and exist only in time, and therefore, only on the requirement of this temporary existence of theirs can the laws of their activity be based”. Considering the concept of human progress as too abstract, Danilevsky practically ruled out the possibility of direct continuity in cultural and historical development.
"The beginnings of civilization are not transmitted from one cultural-historical type to another."Various forms of influence of one cultural type on another are not only possible, but actually inevitable.
Actually, the key point in Danilevsky's concept, which to this day is included in courses in the history of sociology around the world, iscyclical civilizational process.Unlike Toynbee and Spengler, Danilevsky does not focus his attention on the signs of decline or progress, but collects extensive factual material that makes it possible to see the repetition of social orders behind many historical features.
Question 12. The doctrine of the "ideal types" of culture M. Weber.
Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (April 21, 1864 – June 14, 1920) was a German sociologist, historian and economist.
The most important place in Weber's social philosophy is occupied by the concept of ideal types.Under the ideal type, he meant a certain ideal model of what is most useful to a person, objectively meets his interests at the moment and in general in the modern era.In this regard, moral, political, religious and other values , as well as the installations of behavior and activities of people, rules and norms of behavior, traditions arising from them.
Ideal types of Webercharacterize, as it were, the essence of optimal social states - states of power, interpersonal communication, individual and group consciousness.Because of this, they act as a kind of guidelines and criteria, based on which it is necessary to make changes in the spiritual, political and material life of people. Since the ideal type does not completely coincide with what is in society, and oftencontrary to reality(or the latter contradicts him), he, according to Weber, carries intothe features of utopia.
Nevertheless, ideal types, expressing in their relationship a system of spiritual and other values, act as socially significant phenomena. They contribute to the introduction of expediency in the thinking and behavior of people and organization in public life. Weber's doctrine of ideal types serves for his followers as a kind of methodological setting for understanding social life and solving practical problems related, in particular, to the ordering and organization of the elements of spiritual, material and political life.
Weber identifies twoideally typical organizations of economic behavior: traditional and goal-oriented.
The first has existed since antiquity, the second develops in modern times.. The overcoming of traditionalism is connected with the development of a modern rational capitalist economy, which presupposes the existence of certain types of social relations and certain forms of social order. Analyzing these forms, Weber comes to two conclusions: the idealthe type of capitalism is described by him as the triumph of rationality in all spheres of economic life, and such a development cannot be explained solely by economic reasons.
Question 13. Psychoanalytic concepts of culture (3. Freud, K. Jung, E. Fromm).
Of particular interest in the cultural studies of psychoanalysis is psychoanalysis and the concept of culture of the Austrian psychiatrist S. Freud.
Z. Freud replaced the problem of death,essentially identical to it, but not leading to the transcendentbirth problem. The concepts of "death" and "birth" really merge into one, and the task of cultural studies within the framework of classical psychoanalysis can be designated asstudy of the three most important stages, the birth-death of the substantive system "man-culture":
1.
The culture of birth together with the first great man as a system of his phobic (phobia-fear) projections,functionally disintegrating into a set of provoking prohibitions and a set of obsessive rituals of their symbolic violation.
2
. Culture turns its productive side, acting as a program of incarnation worked out for centuries, a symbolic series of "ancient temptations", lures of individuations. It awakens ancient, archetypal experiences in the child's memory field with the help of their symbolic real or fantasy repetition in early childhood - in fairy tales, games, dreams.
3. Culture is extremely repressive;its purpose is to protect society from the free individual,who rejected both biological and mass-like regulators, and means - total frustration, the distillation of freedom into guilt and expectation of punishment,pushing the individual either to the impersonality of mass identifications, or to auto-aggressive neuroticism, or to aggression directed outward, which increases cultural pressure and aggravates the situation. Culture is consolidated as an enemy of any manifestations of human individuality.Z. Freud developed a universal methodology for controlling the degree of repressiveness of culture, which he called "metapsychology".
Carl Gustave Jung- Swiss psychologist, philosopher and psychiatrist developed his own version of the doctrine of the unconscious, calling it "analytical psychology" and wanting to emphasize both his dependence and independence in relation to Freud.Jung considered the “psychic” to be the primary substance, and the individual soul appeared to him as a luminous point in the space of the collective unconscious.If Freud saw the essence of the personal and general cultural evolutionary process in rationalization (according to the principle: where there was “it”, there will be “I”), then C. G. Jung connectedthe formation of a personality with a harmonious and equal "cooperation" of consciousness and the unconscious, with interpenetration and balancing in a person of "male" and "female", rational and emotional principles, "Eastern" and "Western" elements of culture, introverted and extraverted orientations, archetypal and phenomenal material of mental life.
The next step towards complicating the model of the structure and behavior of personality in culture was the theory E. Fromm. Erich Frommdevelops an original version of the anthropology of culture, tries to build a new humanistic religion. He focuses not on the revolution and not on medical measures, but on the tasks of cultural policy. Psychoanalysis , according to Fromm, combined with Marx's theory of alienation, class struggleallows you to reveal the true motives of human actions.
From the position of modern existential-personalist ethics, Fromm rebels against all authoritarianism, insisting that inIn each historical and individual situation, a person must make a choice himself, without shifting responsibility to anyone and without boasting about his past achievements.
Fromm sees the meaning of the cultural-historical process in the progressive "individuation", i.e. in the liberation of the individual from the power of the herd, instinct, tradition, but history is not a smoothly ascending, but a reciprocating process in which periods of liberation and enlightenment alternate with periods of enslavement and clouding of the mind, i.e. "Escape from freedom". Fromm derives the specificity of culture not only from the nature of man, given by existential needs, but from the features of the “human situation”.Reason is the pride of man and his curse. The desire for spiritual synthesis is the strong side of E. Fromm's work, but it also turns into eclecticism. But the spirit of optimism, humanism and courage in posing the most painful and intricate questions of civilization, faith in the possibility of their reasonable solution make Fromm's cultural studies fascinating and inspiring.
Question 14. A. Toynbee's concept of local civilizations.
Among the most representative theories of civilizations is primarily the theory of A. Toynbee (1889-1975), who continues the line of N.Ya. Danilevsky and O. Spengler. Histheory can be considered the culminating point in the development of theories of "local civilizations".Monumental study by A. Toynbee"Comprehension of history"many scholars recognize it as a masterpiece of historical and macro-sociological science. The English culturologist begins his research with the statement thatthe true field of historical analysis must be societies that have, both in time and in space, an extension greater than nation states. They are called "local civilizations".
Toynbee has more than twenty such developed "local civilizations".These are Western, two Orthodox (Russian and Byzantine), Iranian, Arabic, Indian, two Far Eastern, ancient, Syrian, Indus, Chinese, Minoan, Sumerian, Hittite, Babylonian, Andean, Mexican, Yucatan, Maya, Egyptian and others. He also points tofour civilizations that stopped in their development - the Eskimo, Momadic, Ottoman and Spartan and five "stillborn».
The formation of civilizations cannot be explained either by a racial factor, or by a geographical environment, or by a specific combination of such two conditions as the presence in a given society of a creative minority and an environment that is neither too unfavorable nor too favorable.
Toynbee thinks thatthe growth of civilization consists in a progressive and accumulative internal self-determinationor self-expression of civilization, in the transition from a coarser to a more subtle religion and culture. Growth is a continuous "retreat and return" of the charismatic (God's chosen, destined from above to power) minority of society in the process of always new successful response to the always new challenges of the external environment.
At least 16 out of 26 civilizations are now "dead and buried." Of the ten civilizations left alive, “Polynesian and nomadic ... are now at their last gasp; and seven of the eight others are more or less threatened with destruction or assimilation by our Western civilization.” Moreover, no less than six of these seven civilizations show signs of breaking and decay. What leads to decline is that the creative minority, intoxicated with victory, begins to "rest on its laurels", to worship relative values as absolute. It loses its charismatic appeal and most do not imitate or follow it. Therefore, more and more force has to be used to control the internal and external proletariat. In the course of this process, the minority organizes a "universal (universal) state", similar to the Roman Empire, created by the Hellenistic dominant minority to preserve themselves and their civilization; enters into wars; becomes a slave to inert institutions; and itself leads itself and its civilization to death.
By Tylor civilizations are divided by him into three generations.First generation - primitive, small, non-literate cultures. There are many of them, and their age is small. They differ in one-sided specialization, adapted to life in a specific geographical environment; superstructural elements - statehood, education, the church, and even more so science and art - are absent in them.
In second-generation civilizations, social bonding is directed towards creative individuals who lead the pioneers of a new social order.Civilizations of the second generation are dynamic, they create large cities like Rome and Babylon, they develop the division of labor, commodity exchange, the market. There are layers of artisans, scientists, merchants, people of mental labor. A complex system of ranks and statuses is being approved. Here the attributes of democracy can develop: elected bodies, legal system, self-government, separation of powers.
Civilizations of the third generation are formed on the basis of churches: from the primary Minoan, the secondary Hellenic is born, and from it - on the basis of Christianity that arose in its depths - the tertiary, Western European is formed. In total, according to Toynbee, by the middle of the 20th century. of the three dozen civilizations that existed, seven or eight survived: Christian, Islamic, Hindu, etc.
Question 15. The concept of socio-cultural styles P.A. Sorokin.
The Russian scientist Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968) created an original concept of the sociology of culture, believing that the true cause and condition for the natural development of society or the "world of society" is the existence of a world of values, the meanings of pure cultural systems.A person is the bearer of a system of values, which means that he also represents a certain type of culture.. According to Sorokin, each type of culture is determined by the social system, the cultural systems of society and the person himself, the bearer of cultural values. The type of culture is revealed in people's ideas about the nature of the existing real world, about the nature and essence of their needs, and about possible methods for satisfying them. These representations characterizethree main types of culture - sensual, ideational and idealistic.The first of them, the sensory type of culture, is based on the sensory perception of the world by a person, which is the main determinant of socio-cultural processes. From Sorokin's point of view, modern sensory culture is under the sign of inevitable collapse and crisis. The ideational type of culture, according to the scientist, is the dominance of rational thinking, and it characterizes different peoples in certain periods of their development. This type of culture, Sorokin believes, is especially characteristic of countries Western Europe. And finally, the third type of culture is the idealistic type, which is characterized by the dominance of intuitive forms of cognition of the world.
If the world of modern culture is characterized by a passion for science and the dominance of materialism, then in the future humanity must move away from these values and create a new type of socio-cultural processes based on the values of religion and creative altruism.
Sorokin's work had a significant impact on the work of other culturologists, drawing their special attention to the study of the origins of the ancient cultures of Asia and Africa. Investigating the system of value orientations of a particular society, culturologists obtain data on the impact of values on various aspects of sociocultural life - law and legislation, science and art, religion and church, social structure subordinate to a certain system of values.
According to P. A. Sorokin, a certain type of culture should have the following features: a) purely spatial or temporal neighborhood; b) indirect causal relationships; c) direct causal relationships; d) semantic unity; e) causal-semantic relationship.
Actually, the typology should have the following features: firstly, the enumeration in this type of relationship usually exhausts itself; secondly, typology always has a single basis, that is, all signs have a single basis. However, the creation of a typology can be hindered, firstly, by the fragility of the cultural characteristics themselves, and secondly, in the course of development, the differences between certain cultures can be erased; thirdly, the ideological and semantic core inherent in any culture can cause unequal social consequences; fourthly, when cultures converge within the dominant culture, some initially imperceptible, opposite to its spirit phenomena arise, which in the future can significantly transform the very appearance of this culture.
Question 16. O. Spengler on the relationship and fate of culture and civilization.
Book by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936)" Sunset of Europe "became one of the most significant and controversial masterpieces in the field of sociology of culture, philosophy of history and philosophy of culture. World history is the alternation and coexistence of different cultures, each of which has a unique soul. The title of Spengler's work "The Decline of Europe" expresses its pathos. He claims , Whatthe heyday of Western European culture ended. It has entered the phase of civilization and cannot give anything original either in the realm of the spirit or in the realm of art.. History breaks up into a number of independent, unique closed cyclic cultures that have a purely individual destiny, are sentenced to survivebirth, formation and decline. Philosophers usually attribute to culture everything that rises above nature. The huge ethnographic material collected by researchers after Spengler testifies:Culture is actually a unique creative impulse.This is indeed a sphere of the spirit, which is far from always inspired by the needs of practical use. Primitive man, if you look at him with modern eyes, did not understand his own benefit. However, following Spengler, we can say that anyculture inevitably passes into civilization.
Civilization is destiny, rock culture.
The transition from culture to civilization is a throw from creativity to barrenness, from becoming to ossification, from heroic "deeds" to "mechanical work." Civilization, according to Spengler, usually ends in death, for it is the beginning of death, the exhaustion of the creative forces of culture.Culture comes from a cult, it is connected with the cult of ancestors, it is impossible without sacred traditions. Civilization, according to Spengler, is the will to world power.Culture is national, civilization is international.Civilization is a world city. Imperialism and socialism are equally civilization, not culture. Philosophy, art exist only in culture, in civilization they are impossible and not needed.. Culture is organic, civilization is mechanical.Culture is based on inequality, on qualities. Civilization is imbued with a desire for equality, it wants to settle in numbers. Culture is aristocratic, civilization is democratic.
Each cultural organism, according to Spengler, is pre-measured for a certain period (about a millennium), which depends on the internal life cycle. Dying, culture is reborn into civilization. The decline of Europe, first of all, the decline of the old European culture, the exhaustion of its creative forces, the end of art, philosophies, religions. European civilization is not over yet. She will celebrate her victories for a long time. But after civilization, death will come for the Western European cultural race. After that, culture can flourish only in other races, in other souls.
Question 17. E. Tylor and D. Fraser about primitive culture.
In 1871 the main work was published Tylor, glorified his name, - "Primitive culture".Culture here is only spiritual culture: knowledge, art, beliefs, legal and moral normsetc. In both earlier and later writings, Tylor treated culture more broadly to include at least technology as well.Tylor understood that the evolution of culture is also the result of historical influences and borrowings.. Although Taylor was aware thatcultural development is not so straightforward.Yet for Tylor as an evolutionist, the most important thing was to show the cultural unity and uniform development of mankind, and in pursuing this main goal, he rarely looked around. Much attention is paid in "Primitive Culture" to the theoretical substantiation of progress in the cultural history of mankind. The question of the relationship between progress and regress in the history of mankind, Tylor decided quite unambiguously.“If we judge from the data of history, then the initial phenomenon is progress, while degeneration can only follow it: after all, it is necessary to first achieve a certain level of culture in order to be able to lose it.”
Tylor introduced into ethnography the concept"primitive animism". Tylor illustrated his animistic theory of the origin of religion with impressive comparative ethnographic and historical material, designed to show the spread of animism on the globe and its evolution over time.In our time, the prevailing opinion is that the original layer of religious beliefs was most likely totemism,in which people, in the only form possible for them at that time, realized their inseparable, as it were, family connection with the immediate natural environment.
Frazier was the first to suggest the presenceconnections between myths and rituals. His research was based onthree principles are laid down: evolutionary development, the psychic unity of mankind, and the fundamental opposition of reason to prejudice. First job " totemism published in 1887. Fraser's most famous work, which brought him worldwide fame, is " golden branch "("The Golden Bough") - was first published in 1890. This book contains and systematizes a huge factual material on primitive magic, mythology, totemism, animism, taboo, religious beliefs, folklore and customs of different peoples. This book draws parallels between ancient cults and early Christianity. Labor has been extended to 12 volumes over the next 25 years.
D. D. Fraser deduced three stages of the spiritual development of mankind: magic, religion and science.According to Frazer, magic precedes religion and disappears almost entirely with its advent. At the "magical" stage of development, people believed in their ability to change the world around them in a magical way. Later, people lost faith in this and the idea became dominant that the world is subject to gods and supernatural forces. At the third stage, the person refuses this idea as well. The prevailing belief is that the world is not controlled by God, but by the "laws of nature", knowing which, you can control it.
Question 18. Cultural genesis, the origins of culture and its early forms.
Cultural genesis is the process of the emergence and formation of the culture of any people and nationality in general and the emergence of culture as such in a primitive society.
The culture of primitive society covers the longest and perhaps the least studied period of world culture. Primitive, or archaic culture has more than 30 thousand years.Under primitive culture, it is customary to understand an archaic culture that characterizes the beliefs, traditions and art of peoples who lived more than 30 thousand years ago and died long ago or those peoples (for example, tribes lost in the jungle) that exist today, preserving the primitive image intact life. Thus, primitive culture embraces mainly the art of the Stone Age.
The first material evidence of human existence are tools. Thus, the manufacture of tools, the emergence of burials, the emergence of articulate speech, the transition to a tribal community, the creation of art objects were the main milestones in the formation of human culture.
Based on the data of archeology, ethnography and linguistics, it is possible to designate main
features of primitive culture.
Syncretism
primitive culturemeans indivisibility in this era of various spheres and phenomena of culture.The following manifestations of syncretism can be distinguished:
Syncretism of society and nature
.
The clan, the community were perceived as identical to the cosmos, they repeated the structure of the universe.Primitive man perceived himself as an organic part of nature, feeling his kinship with all living beings.This feature, for example, is manifested in such a form of primitive beliefs as totemism.
Syncretism of the personal and the public.
Individual sensation in primitive man existed at the level of instinct, biological feeling. But on a spiritual level, he identified himself not with himself, but with the community to which he belonged; found himself in the feeling of belonging to something extra-individual. A person initially became just a person, displacing his individuality. Actuallyhis human essence was expressed in the collective "we" of the kind. This means that primitive man always explained and evaluated himself through the eyes of the community. Fusion with the life of society led to the fact thatthe worst punishment, after the death penalty, was exile.For example, in many archaic tribes, people are convinced that hunting will not be successful if the wife, who remains in the village, cheats on her husband, who has gone hunting.
Syncretism of various spheres of culture
.
Art, religion, medicine, producing activities, obtaining food were not isolated from each other.Art objects (masks, drawings, figurines, musical instruments, etc.) have long been used mainly as magical means. Treatment was carried out with the help of magical rites. For example, hunting. Modern man needs only objective conditions for the success of hunting. For the ancients, the art of throwing a spear and silently making their way through the forest, the right direction of the wind and other objective conditions were also of great importance. But all this is clearly not enough to achieve success, because the main conditions were magical actions.The hunt began with magical actions on the hunter. At the very moment of the hunt, certain rituals and prohibitions were also observed, which were aimed at establishing a mystical connection between man and animal.
etc.................
The morphology of culture is a section of cultural studies that studies the internal organization of culture, its constituent blocks. According to the classification of M. S. Kagan, there are three forms of objective existence of culture: a human word, a technical thing and social organization, and three forms of spiritual objectivity: knowledge (value), project and artistic objectivity, which carries artistic images. According to the classification of A. Ya. Flier, culture includes clear blocks of human activity: the culture of social organization and regulation, the culture of knowing the world, man and interpersonal relations, the culture of social communication, accumulation, storage and transmission of information; culture of physical and mental reproduction, rehabilitation and recreation of a person. The morphology of culture is the study of the variations of cultural forms depending on their social, historical, geographical distribution. The main methods of cognition are structural-functional, semantic, genetic, general systems theory, organizational and dynamic analysis. The morphological study of culture involves the following directions studies of cultural forms: genetic (the generation and formation of cultural forms); microdynamic (the dynamics of cultural forms within the life of three generations: direct transmission of cultural information); historical (dynamics of cultural forms in historical time scales); structural-functional (principles and forms of organization cultural objects and processes in accordance with the tasks of meeting the needs, interests and demands of members of society).
Within the framework of cultural studies, the morphological approach is of key importance, since it allows us to identify the ratio of universal and ethno-specific characteristics in the structure of a particular culture. The general morphological model of culture - the structure of culture - in accordance with the current level of knowledge can be represented as follows:
- o three levels of connection of the subject of socio-cultural life with the environment: specialized, translational, ordinary;
- o three functional blocks of specialized activities: cultural modes of social organization (economic, political, legal culture); cultural modes of socially significant knowledge (art, religion, philosophy, law); cultural modes of socially significant experience (education, enlightenment, mass culture);
- o ordinary analogues of specialized modalities of culture: social organization - household, manners and customs, morality; socially significant knowledge - everyday aesthetics, superstitions, folklore, practical knowledge and skills; transmission of cultural experience - games, rumors, conversations, advice, etc.
Thus, in a single field of culture, two levels are distinguished: specialized and ordinary. ordinary culture - a set of ideas, norms of behavior, cultural phenomena associated with the daily life of people. Specialized the level of culture is divided into cumulative (where professional socio-cultural experience is concentrated, accumulated, values of society are accumulated) and translational. At the cumulative level, culture acts as a relationship of elements, each of which is a consequence of a person's predisposition to a certain activity. These include economic, political, legal, philosophical, religious, scientific, technical and artistic culture. Each of these elements at the cumulative level corresponds to an element of culture at the ordinary level. They are closely related and influence each other. Economic culture corresponds to housekeeping, family budget management; political - mores and customs; legal culture - morality; philosophy - an ordinary worldview; religions - superstitions and prejudices, folk beliefs; scientific and technical culture - practical technologies; artistic culture - ordinary aesthetics (folk architecture, the art of decorating a home). At the translational level, the interaction between the cumulative and ordinary levels exchange of cultural information takes place.
There are communication channels between the cumulative and ordinary levels:
- o the field of education, where the traditions, values of each of the elements of culture are transmitted (transferred) to subsequent generations;
- o mass media (MSK) - television, radio, print, where there is an interaction between "high scientific" values and the values of everyday life, works of art and mass culture;
- o social institutions, cultural institutions where knowledge about culture and cultural values become available to the general public (libraries, museums, theaters, etc.).
Levels of culture, their components and interaction between them are reflected in fig. 1.
The structure of culture includes: substantive elements that are objectified in its values and norms, and functional elements that characterize the process of cultural activity itself, its various sides and aspects.
Thus, the structure of culture is a complex, multifaceted formation. At the same time, all its elements interact with each other, forming a single system of such a unique phenomenon as culture appears before us.
The structure of culture is a system, the unity of its constituent elements.
The dominant features of each of the elements form the so-called core of culture, acting as its fundamental principle, which is expressed in science, art, philosophy, ethics, religion, law, the main forms of economic, political and social organization, mentality and way of life. Specialist
Rice. 1.
The identity of the "core" of a particular culture depends on the hierarchy of its constituent values. Thus, the structure of culture can be represented as a division into a central core and the so-called periphery (outer layers). If the core provides stability and stability, then the periphery is more prone to innovation and is characterized by relatively less stability. For example, modern Western culture is often called a consumer society, since it is precisely these value bases that are brought to the fore.
In the structure of culture, material and spiritual cultures can be distinguished. IN material culture includes: the culture of labor and material production; culture of life; topos culture, i.e. place of residence (dwellings, houses, villages, cities); culture of attitude to one's own body; Physical Culture. Spiritual culture acts as a multi-layered formation and includes: cognitive (intellectual) culture; moral, artistic; legal; pedagogical; religious.
According to L. N. Kogan and other culturologists, there are several types of culture that cannot be attributed only to material or spiritual. They represent a "vertical" section of culture, "penetrating" its entire system. These are economic, political, ecological, aesthetic cultures.
Cultural studies has become one of the most significant and rapidly developing humanities, which undoubtedly has its reasons. Let's try to characterize some of them.
1. Modern civilization is rapidly transforming the environment, social institutions, and way of life. In this regard, culture attracts attention as an inexhaustible source of social innovation. Hence the desire to reveal the potential of culture, its internal reserves. Considering culture as a means of self-realization of a person, one can identify new inexhaustible impulses that can influence the historical process, the person himself.
2. The need to study the phenomenon of culture is due in part to the professorial ecological crisis. At the present stage of its development, culture is causing more and more harm to the environment. Involuntarily, questions arise: is culture not hostile to nature? is it possible to harmonize their relationship?
3. The question of the relationship between the concepts of culture and society, culture and history is also relevant. In the past, the social cycle was much shorter than the cultural one. When a person was born, he found a certain structure of cultural values. It has not changed for centuries. In the 20th century, the situation changed dramatically. Now, during one human life, several cultural cycles pass, which puts a person in an extremely difficult position. Everything changes so quickly that a person does not have time to comprehend and appreciate certain innovations and finds himself in a state of loss and uncertainty. In this regard, it is of particular importance to identify the most significant features of the cultural practice of past eras in order to avoid moments of primitivization of modern culture.
Culturology is a complex science that studies all aspects of the functioning of culture, from the causes of its occurrence to various forms of historical self-expression.
The main components of cultural studies are the philosophy of culture and the history of culture, areas of humanitarian knowledge that have existed for a long time. Having merged together, they form the basis of cultural studies as a complex science. Philosophy of culture is a branch of cultural studies that studies the concepts of the origin and functioning of culture. cultural history- a section that studies the specific features of cultures of various historical stages. In cultural studies, historical facts are subjected to philosophical analysis and generalization. Depending on the aspect on which the main attention is focused, various cultural theories and schools are created.
The new sections of cultural studies, the main parameters of which are still being formed, are the morphology of culture and the theory of culture. The morphology of culture is understood as a branch of cultural studies that studies the structure and development of culture. Some aspects of morphology and cultural theory were discussed in chapter 1.
Although culture has become a subject of knowledge since the emergence of philosophy, as an independent phenomenon, it began to be closely studied only in the 18th-19th centuries. Initially, this was carried out within the framework of the philosophy of history and ethics and was associated with the philosophical concepts of J. Vico (1668-1744), J. G. Herder (1744-1803), I. Kant (1724 - 1804). Paying due attention to questions of culture, these thinkers did not yet make it a direct object of study. It acted only as an accompanying link in understanding the existence of history and morality.
The great German poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) tried to remove the contradiction between "natural", "sensual", on the one hand, and "moral", on the other, indicated in the works of his predecessors. According to Schiller, culture consists in harmony and reconciliation of the physical and moral nature of man: "Culture must give justice to both - not only to one rational impulse of a person as opposed to the sensual, but also to the latter as opposed to the first." Among Schiller's younger contemporaries - Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling, the brothers August and Friedrich Schlegel - the aesthetic principle of culture comes to the fore. Its main content proclaims the artistic activity of people as a means of overcoming the animal, natural principle in them. aesthetic views Schelling are most fully set out in his book "Philosophy of Art" (1802-1803), where the desire to show the priority artistic creativity before all other types of human creative activity, put art above both morality and science. “Art is, as it were, the completion of the world spirit,” he wrote, “because in it they find a union in the form of the final subjective and objective, spirit and nature, internal and external, conscious and unconscious, necessity and freedom. As such, art is the self-contemplation of the absolute ". In a somewhat simplified way, culture was reduced by Schelling and other romantics to art, primarily to poetry. To a reasonable and moral person, they to a certain extent opposed the power of a person-artist, a person-creator.
In the works of G. V. F. Hegel, the main types of culture (religion, art, philosophy, law) are represented by stages in the development of the world mind. Hegel creates a universal scheme for the development of the world mind, according to which any culture embodies a certain stage of its self-expression. The world mind is manifested in people as well. Originally in the form of language, speech. The spiritual development of the individual reproduces the stages of self-knowledge of the world mind, starting with "baby talk" and ending with "absolute knowledge", i.e. knowledge of those forms and laws that govern from within the entire process of the spiritual development of mankind. From Hegel's point of view, the development of world culture reveals such integrity and logic that cannot be explained by the sum of the efforts of individual individuals. The essence of culture, according to Hegel, is manifested not in overcoming the biological principles in man and not in the creative imagination of outstanding personalities, but in the spiritual familiarization of the individual with the world mind. "The absolute value of culture lies in the development of the universality of thought," wrote Hegel.
In the works "Phenomenology of Spirit", "Philosophy of History", "Aesthetics", "Philosophy of Law" Hegel analyzed the entire path of development of world culture. No other thinker has done this before him. Nevertheless, in the works of Hegel, culture does not yet appear as the main subject of study. Hegel analyzes, first of all, the history of the self-disclosure of the world mind.
Works that are adequate to the modern idea of cultural studies appear only in the 2nd half. XIX century. One of them can rightly be considered the book of an Englishman Edward Burnett Tylor (1832-1917) "primitive culture"(1871). Claiming that "the science of culture is the science of reform," he considered culture as a process of continuous progressive development. Tylor gives one of the first definitions of culture of a generalizing nature, which is considered to this day canonical: "Culture or civilization in in a broad, ethnographic sense, it is composed in its entirety of knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws, customs, and some other abilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
Tylor looked at culture as a continuous chain of transformations of the products of human thought and labor from less perfect to more perfect. With him, all objects and ideas develop "one of the others." This approach is called evolutionary.
In 1869 and 1872 two works appear that are now invariably included among the most significant for the course of cultural studies. These are "Russia and Europe" by the Russian researcher Nikolai Danilevsky and "The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music" by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Here all the signs of a true cultural study are already present: the material on the history of culture is philosophically interpreted and accompanied by calculations of a general theoretical order. And most importantly, culture and its forms are the main object of consideration. The views of Danilevsky and Nietzsche on culture will be discussed in the next chapter. It should only be noted that the fact of the emergence of cultural studies did not yet mean the emergence of science itself. Neither Danilevsky nor Nietzsche called themselves culturologists, and they hardly suspected that they were becoming the forefathers of a new science. Danilevsky perceived himself more as a historian, although he was a biologist by education, and Nietzsche quite naturally acted as a philosopher.
Georg Simmel (1858-1918) pays special attention to the conflict moments in the culture of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, trying to give them a deeply objective explanation. At the beginning of the 20th century, from the point of view of the philosopher, there is a sharp deviation of the line of development of culture from the previous paths. In The Conflict of Modern Culture (1918), Simmel explains the desire to destroy all old forms of culture, characteristic of this historical period, by the fact that in recent decades humanity has lived without any unifying idea, as it was until mid-nineteenth century. Many new ideas arise, but they are so fragmented and incompletely expressed that they cannot meet an adequate response in life itself, they cannot rally society around the idea of culture. "Life in its immediacy seeks to embody itself in concrete forms and phenomena, but due to their imperfection, it reveals a struggle against any form," Simmel writes, substantiating his vision of the cause of crisis phenomena in culture. Perhaps the philosopher managed to discover one of the most significant indicators of the cultural crisis as such, namely the absence of a global socially important idea capable of uniting all cultural processes.
Simmel's point of view is also extremely interesting because it was expressed precisely at the time when culturology was finally turning into an independent science. The feeling of crisis, which is characteristic of the assessment of the state of culture by various thinkers, to a certain extent predetermined the completion of the formation of the science of culture. This happened under the influence of certain events in European culture. They testified to a profound turning point in history, which had not been equaled in previous centuries. The First World War and revolutions in Russia, Germany, Hungary, a new type of organization of people's lives, due to the industrial revolution, the growth of man's power over nature and the disastrous consequences of this growth for nature, the birth of an impersonal "man of the masses" - all this obliged us to take a different look at the character and the role of European culture. Many scientists, like Simmel, considered its situation extremely deplorable and no longer considered European culture as a kind of cultural standard, they spoke of a crisis and the collapse of its foundations.
Here is what the Russian philosopher L. M. Lopatin wrote at the end of 1915 about the events of that time: " Modern world is experiencing a huge historical catastrophe - so terrible, so bloody, so fraught with the most unexpected prospects, that before her thoughts go numb and her head is spinning ... In the now raging unprecedented historical storm, not only blood flows like rivers, not only states collapse ... not only peoples perish and rise, something else also happens... Old ideals are crumbling, former hopes and persistent expectations are fading... And most importantly, our very faith in modern culture: because of its foundations, such a terrible animal face suddenly looked out at us that we involuntarily turned away from it with disgust and bewilderment. And the persistent question is raised: what, in fact, is this culture? What is its moral, even just life value?
Subsequent events in Europe and in the world showed that L. M. Lopatin did not in the least exaggerate the significance of crisis phenomena in culture. It became obvious that a person and culture itself can develop in a completely different way than it once seemed to the humanists of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, that the ideal of a self-developing creative personality in the 20th century was another utopia. A paradoxical situation developed: historical and technical development continued, and cultural development slowed down, turned back, as it were, reviving in man the ancient instincts of destruction and aggression. This situation could not be explained on the basis of traditional ideas about culture, according to which it is a process of organizing and ordering history itself.
Consequently, culturology as a worldview science finally strengthened its position as a result of the awareness of the crisis state of culture at the beginning of the 20th century, just as the boom experienced by culturology now is explained by the crisis of the state of culture of its end.
The feeling of discomfort and uncertainty was so strong that the first volume of Oswald Spengler's The Decline of Europe, published in 1918, was greeted with unprecedented interest. The book was read and discussed not only by specialists: philosophers, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, etc., but by all educated people. It has become an integral part of many university programs. And this despite significant criticism of many of the provisions expressed by Spengler. The question of the reasons for such interest in this work is legitimate. After all, Spengler literally repeated some of the points written for half a century before the work N. Danilevsky "Russia and Europe", which was noticed only by a narrow circle of professionals.
Undoubtedly, it was a cultural and historical situation. The very name "The Decline of Europe" sounded as relevant as possible. Most of Spengler's contemporaries really felt that they were living in a world of the collapse of old habitual cultural norms, and inevitably posed the question whether this meant the end of European civilization in general or was it the beginning of the next round in its development. Reading Spengler, people tried to find an answer to the question of the fate of culture.
Many scientists involved in various aspects of the humanities considered it a matter of honor to take part in the creation of a general theory of culture, reflecting the multidimensionality and complexity of this concept. The term "culturology" did not appear immediately. It was introduced around the 40s. at the initiative of the American cultural researcher and anthropologist Leslie Alvin White. In his works "The Science of Culture" (1949), "The Evolution of Culture" (1959), "The Concept of Culture" (1973) and others, White argued that cultural studies represent a qualitatively higher level of human comprehension than other social sciences, and predicted she has a great future. It so happened that by the time White introduced the name, science itself was already actively functioning.
At the same time, one cannot ignore the fact that cultural studies to this day remains the most controversial and paradoxical science. To create a science of culture, equal in logic, internal unity, fundamentality to other humanities, turned out to be an extremely difficult task: the object of study itself is too multifaceted. This is the reason for the diversity of philosophical approaches to explaining both the essence of culture and the laws of its functioning. This is also the specific attraction of cultural studies.
Until recently, culture was studied, including in higher education, within the framework of long-established scientific disciplines: philosophy, history, linguistics, ethnography, art history, archeology. Traditional sciences studied certain types and elements of culture: language, law, morality, art. However, it gradually became clear that such an approach is narrow and does not give a holistic view of culture as a complex, multifaceted phenomenon, represented in all spheres of public life. In the middle of the 20th century, the formation of cultural studies began as a general, integral science of culture, as an independent scientific discipline.Culturology gradually acquires its status, subject, appropriate research methods. The term "culturology" itself has been used since the beginning of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, an American scientist L. White (1900-1975)introduced the term "culturology" into a wide scientific circulation and substantiated the need for a general theory of culture.
At present, culturology has not yet completely separated from philosophy and specific sciences. It is formed on the basis of these sciences and takes a lot from them: the categorical apparatus, principles, methodology and research methods.
At the present stage cultural studies It appears as a science that studies culture as a complex system that is in constant development and in relationships with other systems and society as a whole.
Culturology includes two main sections:
Theoretical cultural studies;
- empirical and applied cultural studies.
TO theoretical level includes all types of knowledge of culture, which provide the development and construction of a scientific theory of culture, i.e. a logically organized system of knowledge about culture, its essence, patterns of functioning and development. In the system of theoretical knowledge of culture, general and particular theories of culture are distinguished. To the main problems general theory of culture include the problems of its essence, structure, functions, genesis, historical dynamics, typology. Private theories of culture study certain spheres, types and aspects of culture. Within their framework, economic, political, legal, moral, aesthetic, religious culture, the culture of everyday life, the service sector, management, the culture of the individual, the culture of communication, and the management of culture are studied.
TO empirical level includes those forms of scientific knowledge of culture, thanks to which the accumulation, fixation, processing and systematization of material about specific cultures and their components is ensured. Empirical level gives the most concrete, detailed and diverse knowledge about culture.
Applied Cultural Studies uses fundamental knowledge about culture in order to solve practical problems, as well as to predict, design and regulate cultural processes.
The theoretical and empirical levels of the study of culture are organically interconnected and presuppose each other. Empirical research provides material for theoretical generalizations and is a criterion for testing the truth and effectiveness of a theoretical concept. The theory logically combines empirical data and gives them a semantic explanation, interpretation.
In addition, theory guides empirical research. Whether the researcher is aware of it or not, it is the theory, the theoretical idea, the idea that provide guidance on what to study, how to study, and why to study.
2) The Eastern Mediterranean is the birthplace of three world religions.
In the world-historical process, different religions play different roles.
The most noticeable, as indicated, is performed by those that are accepted
call the world according to the number of believers: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam.
It was these religions that showed maximum adaptability to changing
social relations and went far beyond the territory where
originally arose. The religions of the world have never remained unchanged, and
transformed in accordance with the course of history. Origin of the world
religions is no different from the origin of religions in general. They have become global
immediately, but only in the course of the historical process.
Buddhism originated in India in the 6th-5th centuries. BC e. under the dominance
slaveholding relations. Early Buddhism is characterized by the desire
indicate a way out of the plight of people in the recognition of their spiritual equality,
supposedly enabling everyone to seek salvation, regardless of their
social position. Formed at the beginning as one of the many sects
(or philosophical schools) of North India, Buddhism then spread widely
throughout India, and later in the countries of South, Southeast and Central Asia. He
showed great plasticity, incorporating religious beliefs and cultures
different countries.
Christianity, originating originally in the Eastern Mediterranean in
Jewish ethnic environment as one of the sects of Judaism, later, although not immediately,
but decisively broke with this maternal basis, entering into
contradiction. Almost ousted from its homeland, Christianity found
extraordinary power of expansion. In the 1st century n. e. it spread among the slaves -
freedmen, poor or disenfranchised, conquered or dispersed by Rome
peoples. And then, in the course of the historical process, it penetrated into all zones of the earthly
ball.
This was largely facilitated by the rejection of Christianity from ethnic,
social restrictions and sacrifices. The main ideas of Christianity -
the redemptive mission of Jesus Christ, the second coming of Christ, the Last Judgment,
heavenly reward, the establishment of the kingdom of heaven.
Christianity has three branches: Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism,
which, in turn, includes currents - Lutheranism, Calvinism,
Anglicanism.
Islam originated in Arabia in the 7th century. n. e. in other social conditions. In contrast
from Buddhism and Christianity, it arose not spontaneously, but as a result of
purposeful actions of the feudal Arab nobility, interested in
joining forces to carry out territorial seizures and trade
expansion. Islam has spread widely among many countries in Asia and Africa.
The historical fate of all three world religions, despite their diversity
historical environment has something in common. Originating originally in one
certain ethnic cultural environment, each of these three religions in
further spread widely in different countries, falling into various conditions,
flexibly adapting and simultaneously influencing them. Already this alone
circumstance says a lot from the point of view of the interaction of these religions
and the arts of various peoples.
3) The Bible as a cultural monument.
The Bible is a collection of ancient folklore.
The Bible is considered to be the Book of Books. She consistently ranks 1st in
world in terms of honor and readability, total circulation, frequency of publishing and
translations into other languages. On its meaning for believing Christians in general
do not have to speak. The Bible is the symbol and banner of the culture of almost two
millennia. The Bible is the life of entire peoples and states, cities and villages,
communities and families, generations and individuals. According to the bible are born and
die, marry and marry, educate and punish, judge and rule,
learn and create. They swear on the Bible, as on the most holy of all that is only
can be found on the ground. The Bible has long and irrevocably entered the flesh and blood
everyday life and spoken language. Biblicalisms with which our
speech and which have long turned into sayings, many do not even notice (voice
crying in the desert, a scapegoat, whoever does not work does not eat, bury
talent into the ground, unbelieving Thomas, etc.).
It is unlikely that there will be another such monument in the history of writing, about which
they wrote so much, they would argue as much as the Bible. And they were hardly given alone
the book has such different assessments - from religious admiration for it to
humorous retelling of biblical stories (Leo Taxil "Entertaining
Bible"). In the religious literature we also find many writings,
The Bible is a collection of dozens of religious and historical books,
legislative, prophetic and literary and artistic content. IN
It is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. Christians recognize
both of these parts are sacred, but the New
covenant. Only the Old Testament refers to the history of the ancient East, the most
voluminous parts of the Bible.
The Old Testament is divided into three major sections: 1 - Pentateuch; 2-
Prophets; 3 - Scriptures. The five books of the first section are Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. The second section includes the books "Jesus
Nun", "Judges", two "Books of Samuel", two "Books of Kings", stories about
twelve "minor prophets". The third section includes the "Psalter", "Parables
Solomon", "Job", "Song of Songs", "Ruth", "Lamentations of Jeremiah", "Book
preacher" ("Ecclesiastes"), "Esther", the books of the prophets Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah,
two books of Chronicles.
4) The ideals of the culture of the Enlightenment.
The era of the European Enlightenment occupies an exceptional place in history
human civilization due to the global scale and long-term
value. The chronological framework of this era is determined by a major German
scientist W. Windelband as a century between the Glorious Revolution in England and
The Great French Revolution of 1789 Socio-economic prerequisites
cultures of the Enlightenment are the crisis of feudalism and began three
centuries earlier, the development of capitalist relations in Western Europe.
The defining feature of Enlightenment culture is the idea of progress,
which is closely intertwined with the concept of "mind". Here it is necessary to take into account
a change in the understanding of “mind” - until the middle of the 17th century. mind, perceived
philosophers as a “part of the soul”, after Locke it becomes more of a process
thinking, acquiring at the same time the function of activity. Closely related to
science, the mind becomes its main tool. It was during the Age of Enlightenment
the concept of “belief in progress through reason” was formulated, which determined
long-term development of European civilization and brought a number of destructive
consequences for humanity.
The culture of the enlighteners is characterized by the absolutization of the importance of education in
the formation of a new person. It seemed to the figures of that era that enough
Short description
Until recently, culture was studied, including in higher education, within the framework of long-established scientific disciplines: philosophy, history, linguistics, ethnography, art history, archeology. Traditional sciences studied certain types and elements of culture: language, law, morality, art. However, it gradually became clear that such an approach is narrow and does not give a holistic view of culture as a complex, multifaceted phenomenon, represented in all spheres of public life. In the middle of the 20th century, the formation of cultural studies began as a general, integral science of culture, as an independent scientific discipline. Culturology is gradually acquiring its status, subject, research methods corresponding to it. The term "culturology" itself has been used since the beginning of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the American scientist L. White (1900-1975) introduced the term "culturology" into a wide scientific circulation and substantiated the need for a general theory of culture.
