Material and spiritual culture are two types of culture that are opposite in their specific characteristics.
Material culture- the embodiment of materialized human needs, these are the material results of human labor (artifacts) - houses, household items, clothing. It realizes the desire of humanity to adapt to living conditions. Material culture includes: technical structures (tools, weapons, buildings, household equipment, clothing), technologies; physical aspects of human development (physical education and sports; healthy lifestyle culture); various institutions.
Spiritual culture- those phenomena that are associated with the inner world of a person, with his intellectual and emotional activity. As a rule, it includes ideology, science, morality, art and religion, which, in turn, include: norms, rules, samples, standards, models and norms of behavior, laws, values, rituals, symbols, ideas, customs, traditions , language, myths, etc.
In general, spiritual culture acts as an activity aimed at the spiritual development of a person and society.
Mass and elite culture
Popular culture- this is culture everyday life, presented to the widest audience. The mass is a specific form of community of people, which is characterized by aggressiveness, primitiveness of aspirations, reduced intelligence and increased emotionality, spontaneity, readiness to obey a strong-willed shout, changeability, etc.
Mass culture – (pop culture) is characterized by bad taste, cliché, is simplified, entertaining in nature and is very fashionable. It originated in the USA at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries; the founders are considered to be Hollywood businessmen. Mass culture is commercial in nature and aimed at the general public.
Specific features: 1) mass culture belongs to the majority; it is the culture of everyday life;
2) mass culture is not the culture of the social “lower classes”; it exists in addition to and “above” social formations;
4) standard and stereotypical;
5) unable to quickly and adequately respond to changes in culture;
6) is more often of a consumer nature, forms in a person a special type of passive, uncritical perception of this culture;
Spheres of manifestation: The media, the system of state ideology (manipulating consciousness), mass political movements, secondary schools, the system of organizing and stimulating mass consumer demand, the system of image formation, leisure, etc.
Elite culture- highest culture. It is created by a privileged part of society or at its request by professional creators. It includes fine art, classical music and classical literature. As a rule, elite culture is ahead of the level of perception of it by a moderately educated person. The motto of elite culture is “Art for art’s sake.”
Specific features:
1) is of a marked nature; consciously opposes the majority culture;
2) distinguishes high level innovations;
3) the cultural elite does not coincide with the authorities and often opposes them.
Spheres of manifestation: art, religion, science.
Generally, elite culture acts as an initiative and productive principle in any culture, performing a predominantly creative function in it.
Folk culture is a culture addressed wide circles society and includes a wide variety of elements: myths, legends, fairy tales, songs, dances, ditties, etc. Folk culture: Folklore – describes the past. Popular – describes today. Folk art - songs, fairy tales, crafts. There is traditional medicine, folk pedagogy.
Subculture. Since society breaks up into many groups (national, demographic, social, professional, etc.), each of them gradually forms its own culture, i.e. system of values and rules of behavior. Such small cultural worlds are called subcultures. They talk about a youth subculture, a subculture of older people, a professional subculture, a subculture of national minorities, urban, rural, etc. The subculture differs from the dominant one in language, outlook on life, and manners of behavior. Such differences can be very pronounced, however, the subculture is not opposed to the dominant culture.
Counterculture. A subculture that not only differs from the dominant culture, but opposes it, is in conflict with dominant values, is called a counterculture. The subculture of the criminal world is opposed to human culture, and the “hippie” youth movement, which became widespread in the 60-70s. in countries Western Europe and the USA, denied the dominant American values: social values, moral norms and moral ideals consumer society, profit, political loyalty, sexual restraint, conformism and rationalism.
Material culture
Material culture usually refers to artificially created objects that allow people to optimally adapt to natural and social conditions of life.
Objects of material culture are created to satisfy various human needs and are therefore considered as values. When speaking about the material culture of a particular people, they traditionally mean such specific items as clothing, weapons, utensils, food, jewelry, housing, architectural structures. Modern science, by examining such artifacts, is able to reconstruct the lifestyle of even long-vanished peoples, of which there is no mention in written sources.
With a broader understanding of material culture, three main elements are seen in it.
Actually objective world created by man - buildings, roads, communications, devices, objects of art and everyday life. The development of culture is manifested in the constant expansion and complexity of the world of artifacts, the “domestication” of the human environment. Life modern man it is difficult to imagine without the most complex artificial devices - computers, television, mobile phones etc., which lie at the basis of modern information culture.
Technologies are means and technical algorithms for creating and using objects of the objective world. Technologies are material because they are embodied in specific practical methods of activity.
Technical culture is the specific skills, abilities, and abilities of a person. Culture preserves these skills and abilities along with knowledge, transmitting both theoretical and practical experience from generation to generation. However, unlike knowledge, skills and abilities are formed in practical activities, usually a present example. At each stage of cultural development, along with the complexity of technology, skills also become more complex.
Spiritual culture
Spiritual culture, unlike material culture, is not embodied in objects. The sphere of her existence is not things, but ideal activity associated with intellect, emotions, feelings.
The ideal forms of cultural existence do not depend on individual human opinions. This is scientific knowledge, language, established norms of morality and law, etc. Sometimes this category includes the activities of education and mass communication.
Integrating forms of spiritual culture connect disparate elements of public and personal consciousness into a coherent worldview. At the first stages of human development, myths acted as such a regulating and unifying form. In modern times, its place has been taken by religion, philosophy and, to some extent, art.
Subjective spirituality is the refraction of objective forms in the individual consciousness of each individual person. In this regard, we can talk about the culture of an individual person (his knowledge base, ability to make moral choices, religious feelings, culture of behavior, etc.).
The combination of the spiritual and material forms the common space of culture as a complex interconnected system of elements that constantly transform into each other. Thus, spiritual culture - ideas, plans of the artist - can be embodied in material things - books or sculptures, and reading books or observing objects of art is accompanied by a reverse transition - from material things to knowledge, emotions, feelings.
The quality of each of these elements, as well as the close connection between them, determine the level of moral, aesthetic, intellectual, and ultimately - cultural development any society.
The relationship between material and spiritual culture
At the same time, spiritual culture is inextricably linked with material culture. Any objects or phenomena of material culture are based on a project, embody certain knowledge and become values, satisfying human needs. In other words, material culture is always the embodiment of a certain part of spiritual culture. But spiritual culture can only exist if it is materialized, objectified, and has received one or another material embodiment. Any book, painting, musical composition, like other works of art that are part of spiritual culture, need a material carrier - paper, canvas, paints, musical instruments etc.
Moreover, it is often difficult to understand what type of culture - material or spiritual - a particular object or phenomenon belongs to. Thus, we will most likely classify any piece of furniture as material culture. But if we are talking about a 300-year-old chest of drawers exhibited in a museum, we should talk about it as an object of spiritual culture. A book, an indisputable object of spiritual culture, can be used to light a stove. But if cultural objects can change their purpose, then criteria must be introduced to distinguish between objects of material and spiritual culture. In this capacity, one can use an assessment of the meaning and purpose of an object: an object or phenomenon that satisfies the primary (biological) needs of a person belongs to material culture; if it satisfies secondary needs associated with the development of human abilities, it is considered an object of spiritual culture.
Between material and spiritual culture there are transitional forms - signs that represent something different from what they themselves are, although this content does not relate to spiritual culture. The most known form sign - money, as well as various coupons, tokens, receipts, etc., used by people to indicate payment for all kinds of services. Thus, money - the general market equivalent - can be spent on buying food or clothing (material culture) or purchasing a ticket to a theater or museum (spiritual culture). In other words, money acts as a universal intermediary between objects of material and spiritual culture in modern society. But this conceals a serious danger, since money equalizes these objects among themselves, depersonalizing objects of spiritual culture. At the same time, many people have the illusion that everything has its price, that everything can be bought. In this case, money divides people and degrades the spiritual side of life.
5. Culture is one of the most important characteristics of the specifics of human life. Each individual is a complex biosocial system that functions through interaction with environment what a person needs for his normal functioning, life and development.
Most human needs are satisfied through work. And the labor process is always carried out with the direct participation and guiding influence of human consciousness, his thinking, knowledge, feelings, and will. System human culture- this is the world of things, objects, and now natural environment created by man to satisfy his needs. This means that culture is the “objectified” world of human spirituality.
Culture is a product of human activity, and activity is a person’s way of being in the world. The results of human labor are constantly accumulating, and therefore the cultural system historically develops and is enriched by many generations of people. Everything achieved by humanity in legal, political, government activities, in educational systems, medical, consumer and other types of services, in science and technology, art, religion, philosophy - all this belongs to the world of human culture:
· fields and farms, industrial (factories, factories, etc.) and civil (residential buildings, institutions, etc.) buildings, transport communications (roads, pipelines, bridges, etc.), communication lines, etc. .;
· political, legal, educational and other institutions;
· scientific knowledge, artistic images, religious doctrines and philosophical systems, family culture
It is not easy to find a place on Earth that has not been developed to one degree or another by human labor, that has not been touched by the active hands of man, that has not had the stamp of the human spirit on it.
The world of culture surrounds everyone. Each person is, as it were, immersed in a sea of things, objects of human culture. Moreover, an individual becomes a person insofar as he assimilates the forms of activity for the production and use of cultural objects (developed by previous generations of people). In the family, at school, in higher education educational institution, at work, in communication with other people, we master the system of objective forms of culture, “deobjectify” them for ourselves. Only on this path does a person change himself, develop his inner spiritual world, their knowledge, interests, morals, skills, abilities, worldview, values, needs, etc. The higher the degree of a person’s mastery of cultural achievements, the greater the contribution he can make to its further development.
Culture appeared simultaneously with man himself, and the first cultural phenomena were the tools created by our distant ancestors.
Culture is a single, complex, integrated phenomenon of human nature, which is conditionally (according to the degree of predominance of the spiritual or material components) often divided into humanitarian and natural science cultures.
It is unlikely that today anyone will be able to describe the entire variety of cultural values achieved and being achieved by humanity. We can highlight only some of the most significant areas of human culture today. Such a division is arbitrary, controversial and largely depends on the views of a particular person. Humanitarian culture.
Humanitarian culture in the modern sense is a human worldview, embodied practically and predicted theoretically, based on the belief that the World around us can be imagined in consciousness. In other words, it is a universal complex of material and spiritual values, created exclusively by the subjective (personal) consciousness of man and society. This is morality, religion, art, politics, philosophy, etc., which is included in the concept of spirituality.
Humanitarian culture is focused on universal human values, such as humanism, democracy, morality, human rights, etc. But the researcher of this culture is located within the problems under consideration. Philosophical systems, religions, philological studies include features inherent in their creator. His whole life is often inextricably woven into the “fabric” of these systems, religions, etc. Therefore, the research methods used in the field of humanities are strikingly different from the natural sciences and come down mainly to interpretations, interpretations, and comparisons.
Great value in the humanities they have teleological or finalist explanations, the purpose of which is to reveal the motives and intentions in people’s activities. Interest in such explanations has increased in lately, it was determined by the results obtained in synergetics, ecology and other natural sciences. But still higher value in humanitarian fields has research method, associated with interpretation, which is usually called hermeneutic.
6. Culture acts as an important factor in the social renewal of society. It is sensitive to all changes occurring in society, and itself has a significant impact on social life, shaping and determining many social processes.
Modern Western sociologists assign a large role to culture in the development of modernization processes. In their opinion, a “breakthrough” of the traditional way of life in a number of countries should occur under the direct influence of their sociocultural contacts with already existing centers of market-industrial culture. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the specific historical conditions of these countries, their traditions, features national character, existing cultural and psychological stereotypes, etc.
Special role cultures in the evolution of society were noted by the classics of world sociological thought. It is enough to cite M. Weber’s famous work “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”, where it was shown how the ideological principles of Protestantism determined the formation of the system value orientations, motivation and behavioral stereotypes that formed the basis of capitalist entrepreneurship and significantly contributed to the formation of the bourgeois era.
The role of culture as a factor social change especially increases during the period of social reforms. This can be clearly seen in the example of our country.
In these conditions, the development of a new cultural policy becomes especially important. Cultural policy is understood as a set of measures to regulate the development of spiritual and value aspects of social life. Culture plays the role of forming value-oriented, optimally organized and socially effective activities.
7. The post-industrial state of human civilization is rightfully associated with the development of the information society - a society whose level is decisively determined by the quantity and quality of accumulated information, its freedom and accessibility. The emergence of the information society is inextricably linked with the awareness of the fundamental role of information in social development, consideration of such phenomena as information resources, new information technologies, and informatization in a broad sociocultural context.
The formation of the information society required ensuring the adequacy of education to the dynamic changes occurring in nature and society, the entire human environment, the increased volume of information, the rapid development of new information technology. Organization is of particular importance in the information society. information education and improving the information culture of the individual.
Today there is every reason to talk about the formation of a new information culture, which can become an element general culture humanity. This will include knowledge about the information environment, the laws of its functioning, and the ability to navigate information flows. Information culture is not yet an indicator of general, but rather professional culture, but over time it will become important factor development of each personality. Concept " information culture"characterizes one of the facets of culture associated with the information aspect of people's lives. The role of this aspect in the information society is constantly increasing; and today the totality of information flows around each person is so large, diverse and ramified that it requires him to know the laws of the information environment and the ability to navigate in information flows, otherwise he will not be able to adapt to life in new conditions, in particular, to change. social structures, the consequence of which will be a significant increase in the number of workers in the field information activities and services.
Currently, there are many definitions of information culture. Let's look at some of them.
IN in a broad sense information culture is understood as a set of principles and real mechanisms that ensure positive interaction between ethnic and national cultures, their connection into the common experience of humanity.
In a narrow sense - optimal ways of handling signs, data, information and presenting them to interested consumers to solve theoretical and practical problems; mechanisms for improving technical environments for the production, storage and transmission of information; development of a training system, preparing a person for effective use information media and information.
Information culture of humanity in different times were shaken by information crises. One of the most significant quantitative information crises led to the emergence of writing. Oral methods of preserving knowledge did not ensure complete preservation of the growing volumes of information and recording of information on a material medium, which gave rise to a new period of information culture - documentary. It included a culture of communication with documents: extracting fixed knowledge, encoding and recording information; documentary search. Handling information has become easier, the way of thinking has undergone changes, but oral forms of information culture not only have not lost their significance, but have also been enriched by a system of relationships with written ones.
The next information crisis brought to life computer technologies that modified the information medium and automated some information processes.
Modern information culture has absorbed all its previous forms and combined them into a single tool. As a special aspect social life it acts as a subject, means and result of social activity, reflects the nature and level of practical activity of people. This is the result of the subject’s activity and the process of preserving what was created, distributing and consuming cultural objects.
Currently, a basis is being created for the formation of a contradiction between the category of individuals whose information culture is formed under the influence of information technology and reflects new connections and relationships of the information society, and the category of individuals whose information culture is determined by traditional approaches. This creates different levels its quality with the same expenditure of effort and time entails objective injustice, which is associated with a decrease in the possibilities of creative manifestation of some subjects compared to others.
Related information.
Spiritual culture is science, morality, ethics, law, religion, art, education. Material means tools and means of labor, equipment and structures, production (agricultural and industrial), routes and means of communication, transport, household items.
Material culture is one of the parts of an integral human culture, the results creative activity, in which natural object and its material are embodied in objects, properties and qualities and which ensure human existence. Material culture includes a variety of means of production: energy and raw materials resources, tools, production technology and infrastructure of the human environment, means of communication and transport, buildings and structures for domestic, service and entertainment purposes, various means of consumption, material and object relations in the field of technology or economics.
Spiritual culture is one of the parts of an integral human culture, the total spiritual experience of humanity, intellectual and spiritual activity and its results, ensuring the development of man as an individual. Spiritual culture exists in various forms. Customs, norms, patterns of behavior, values, ideals, ideas, knowledge that have developed in specific historical social conditions are forms of culture. In a developed culture, these components turn into relatively independent spheres of activity and acquire the status of independent social institutions: morality, religion, art, politics, philosophy, science, etc.
Material and spiritual culture exist in close unity. In fact, everything material, obviously, turns out to be a realization of the spiritual, and this spiritual is impossible without some material shell. At the same time, there is a significant difference between material and spiritual culture. First of all, there is a difference in subject matter. It is clear, for example, that tools and, say, musical works are fundamentally different from each other and serve different purposes. The same can be said about the nature of activity in the sphere of material and spiritual culture. In the sphere of material culture, human activity is characterized by changes in the material world, and man deals with material objects. Activities in the field of spiritual culture involve certain work with a system of spiritual values. This also implies a difference in the means of activity and their results in both spheres.
In Russian social science, for a long time, the dominant point of view was that material culture is primary, and spiritual culture has a secondary, dependent, “superstructural” character. This approach assumes that a person must first satisfy his so-called “material” needs in order to then move on to satisfying “spiritual” needs. But even the most basic “material” needs of humans, for example food and drink, are fundamentally different from the seemingly exactly the same biological needs of animals. An animal, by absorbing food and water, really only satisfies its biological needs. In humans, unlike animals, these actions also perform a sign function. There are prestigious, ritual, mourning and festive dishes and drinks, etc. This means that the corresponding actions can no longer be considered the satisfaction of purely biological (material) needs. They are an element of sociocultural symbolism and, therefore, are related to the system social values and norms, i.e. to spiritual culture.
The same can be said about all other elements of material culture. For example, clothing not only protects the body from adverse weather conditions, but also indicates age and gender characteristics, and a person’s place in the community. There are also work, everyday, and ritual types of clothing. The human home has multi-level symbolism. The list can be continued, but the examples given are quite sufficient to conclude that it is impossible to distinguish purely biological (material) needs in the human world. Any human action is already a social symbol that has a meaning that is revealed only in the sphere of culture.
And this means that the position about the primacy of material culture cannot be considered justified for the simple reason that there is no material culture in " pure form"simply doesn't exist.
Thus, the material and spiritual components of culture are inextricably linked with each other.
After all, when creating the objective world of culture, a person cannot do this without changing and transforming himself, i.e. without creating oneself in the process of one's own activity.
Culture turns out to be not only an activity as such, but a way of organizing activity.
Everything a person does, he does ultimately for the sake of solving a given problem.
In this case, human development appears as the improvement of his creative powers, abilities, forms of communication, etc.
Culture, if viewed broadly, includes both material and spiritual means of human life, which are created by man himself.
Material and spiritual things created by human creative labor are called artifacts.
This approach makes it possible to use the cognitive capabilities of a wide variety of research methods created by representatives of the sciences that study culture and have high heuristics.
In fact, the question is quite complex, and during my time studying sociology I spent more than one night trying to figure it out. In general, I will try to state what I have learned and, I hope, it will be useful to someone. :)
What is material culture
This concept includes those objects that were created artificially to satisfy social and natural human needs. For example, this could be clothing or weapons, jewelry or the home itself. All this is included in the concept of the material culture of a certain people. In a broad sense, this includes the following elements:
- objects - devices or roads, objects of art and homes;
- technologies - because they are a material reflection of thought;
- technical culture - this includes skills or certain abilities that are passed on to subsequent generations.
What is spiritual culture
She was not reflected in objects - she does not control things, but everything connected with feelings and intellect. These include:
- perfect shapes- for example, language or generally accepted principles. Sometimes this includes education;
- subjective forms - in this case we are talking about the knowledge possessed by individual representatives of the people;
- integrating forms - this concept includes various elements of both personal character and social consciousness, for example, legends.
The relationship between the spiritual and the material
Naturally, both forms cannot help but interact; moreover, they are closely intertwined with many interrelations. For example, the thoughts of an architect, that is, the spiritual component, finds its imprint in the material - the building. At the same time material object- a beautiful building, finds expression in feelings and emotions - spiritual.
Of particular interest is the fact of the reflection of the spiritual in the material - things that receive the status of a cultural object after processing by human hands. Moreover, they relate to both the material and the spiritual, possessing, in addition to practical benefits, also a certain spiritual meaning. This is typical for primitive society when things symbolized spirits or stored information in the form of engraved text.
Any culture is multifaceted and multifaceted. But conditionally it can be divided into two spheres of activity, into two forms. These are the material and spiritual spheres of culture.
TO material culture include the entire area of human material and production activity and its results - tools, homes, everyday items, clothing, vehicles, methods of practical activity to create means of production and consumption, etc.
Spiritual culture includes the sphere of spiritual production (production of ideas, knowledge, spiritual values) and its results embodied in science, philosophy, art, religion, morality, etc.
The basis of existence material culture things are the result of human material and creative activity. Things in their totality create a complex and branched structure of material culture. It contains several important regions.
Agriculture (breeding, plant varieties, animal breeds, cultivated soils). Human survival is directly related to these areas of material culture, since they provide food as well as raw materials for industrial production.
Buildings and structures (housing, offices, places of entertainment, educational activities; workshops, docks, bridges, dams, etc.).
Tools, devices and equipment designed to support all types of human physical and mental labor.
Transport and communications.
Communications (mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, computer networks)
Technologies - knowledge and skills in all listed areas of activity.
Spiritual culture is a multilayered formation. Its basis knowledge, which are products of human cognitive activity, recording the information he receives about the world around him and himself, his views on life and behavior. Knowledge satisfies certain human needs, primarily related to the need to ensure the lives of people in society. For the same purposes, various value systems, allowing a person to realize, choose or create forms of behavior approved by society. Culture is the way and sphere of creating cultural values. The concept of values as an important, fundamental element of culture was first formulated I. KANTOM. One of the founders of the theory of values, in which they are presented as cultural phenomena, is G. RICKERT.
Under values is understood as a life guideline that encourages a person to take actions and actions of a certain kind. Cultural values- a set of historically and nationally determined objects, phenomena, ideas that have social and cultural significance for humans and society. Value is not the object itself, but special kind the meaning that a person sees in it. When a person knows nothing about an object, it has no value for him. The concept of “value” is not equal to the concept of “usefulness” (the value can be useless, and vice versa), it differs from the concept of “cost” (value is a monetary expression of value; a penny item can be valuable).
The selection of values in society occurs in the process of practical activity.
The world of values is very diverse. Among this variety, the following can be distinguished: TYPES OF VALUES:
Final values(close concept vital values, from the Latin concept of life) – the highest values and ideals, more important than which there is nothing. These are life, health, happiness, love, friendship, honor, dignity, legality, humanism... These Cs are necessary in themselves.
Economic values – entrepreneurship, the presence of equal conditions for commodity producers, favorable conditions for production, etc.
Social values – social status, hard work, family, tolerance, gender equality, personal independence, etc.
Political values – patriotism, civic engagement, legitimacy, civil liberties, etc.
Moral values – goodness, goodness, love, duty, selflessness, fidelity, honesty, fairness, decency, respect for elders, etc.
Religious – God, faith, salvation, grace, Holy Scripture, etc.
Aesthetic values – beauty, harmony, style, etc.
It is on the basis of values that those existing today are formed varieties of spiritual culture: 1) morality, 2) politics, 3) law, 4) art, 5) religion, 6) science, 7) philosophy.
Spiritual material culture is always interconnected, since it cannot exist in complete isolation from one another. Material culture is always the embodiment of a certain part of spiritual culture. And spiritual culture can exist only by being reified, objectified, and having received one or another material embodiment. Example: any book, painting, musical composition, like other works of art, need a material carrier - paper, canvas, paints, musical instruments, etc.
It is often very difficult to understand what type of culture - material or spiritual - a particular object or phenomenon belongs to. Thus, we will most likely classify any piece of furniture as material culture. But if we talk about a three-hundred-year-old chest of drawers exhibited in a museum, we can talk about it as an object of spiritual culture. And a book, an indisputable object of spiritual culture, can be used to light a stove instead of firewood. Cultural objects can change their purpose. How then to distinguish them? The criterion can be an assessment of the meaning and purpose of an object - if an object or phenomenon satisfies the primary (biological) needs of a person, it is classified as material culture, but if it satisfies secondary needs associated with the development of human abilities, it refers to spiritual culture.
In addition, between material and spiritual culture there are transitional forms – signs - material objects that represent something other than what they themselves are. The most famous form of sign is money, used by people to denote all kinds of services. Money is a universal market equivalent that can be spent on buying food or clothing (material culture), or we can use it to buy a ticket to a theater or museum (spiritual culture). Money is a universal intermediary between objects of material and spiritual culture. This is their serious danger, since they equate these objects with each other, depersonalizing objects of spiritual culture.