Types and types of culture

Taking the dominant values ​​as a basis, both material and spiritual culture, in turn, can be divided into the following kinds.

Artistic culture, its essence lies in the aesthetic exploration of the world, the core is art, the dominant value is beauty .

Economic culture, this includes human activity in the economic sector, production culture, management culture, economic law, etc. The main value is work .

Legal culture is manifested in activities aimed at protecting human rights, relations between the individual and society, and the state. Dominant value - law .

Political culture is associated with active position human in the organization of government, individual social groups, with the functioning of individual political institutions. The main value is power .

Physical culture, i.e. the sphere of culture aimed at improving the physical basis of a person. This includes sports, medicine, relevant traditions, norms, actions that form healthy image life. The main value is human health .

Religious culture is associated with the directed human activity of creating a picture of the world based on irrational dogmas. It is accompanied by the performance of religious services, adherence to the norms set out in sacred texts, certain symbolism, etc. The dominant value is faith in God and on this basis moral improvement .

Ecological culture lies in the reasonable and careful attitude to nature, maintaining harmony between humans and the environment. The main value is nature .

Moral culture is manifested in the adherence to special ethical standards arising from traditions and social attitudes that dominate in human society. The main value is morality .

This is not a complete list of types of culture. In general, the complexity and versatility of the definition of the concept of “culture” also determines the complexity of its classification. There is an economic approach (agriculture, culture of livestock breeders, etc.), a social-class approach (proletarian, bourgeois, territorial-ethnic), (the culture of certain nationalities, the culture of Europe), spiritual and religious (Muslim, Christian), technocratic (pre-industrial, industrial) , civilizational (the culture of Roman civilization, the culture of the East), social (urban, peasant), etc. However, based on these numerous characteristics, several important ones can be identified: directions, which formed the basis typologies of culture .

This is, first of all, ethnoterritorial typology. The culture of socio-ethnic communities includes ethnic , national, folk, regional culture. Their carriers are peoples and ethnic groups. Currently, there are about 200 states uniting over 4,000 ethnic groups. The development of their ethnic and national cultures is influenced by geographical, climatic, historical, religious and other factors. In other words, the development of cultures depends on the terrain, lifestyle, entry into a particular state, and belonging to a particular religion.

Concepts ethnic And folk cultures are similar in content. Their authors, as a rule, are unknown; the subject is the entire people. But these are highly artistic works that remain in the memory of the people for a long time. Myths, legends, epics, fairy tales belong to the best works of art. Their most important feature is traditionalism.

Folk culture consists of two types - popular And folklore. Popular widespread among the people, but its object is mainly modernity, life, way of life, morals, folklore however, it is more focused on the past. Ethnic culture is closer to folklore. But ethnic culture is primarily everyday culture. It includes not only art, but also tools, clothing, and household items. Folk and ethnic cultures can merge with professional, that is, with the culture of specialists, when, for example, a work was created by a professional, but gradually the author is forgotten, and a monument of art becomes essentially folk. There may also be a reverse process, when, for example, in the Soviet Union, through cultural and educational institutions, they tried to cultivate ethnic culture by creating ethnographic ensembles, performing folk songs. Under certain conditions folk culture can be considered a link between ethnic and national cultures.

Structure national cultures are more complex. It differs from ethnicity by clearer national characteristics and a wide range. It may include a number of ethnic groups. For example, the American national culture includes English, German, Mexican and many others. National culture arises when representatives of ethnic groups realize their belonging to one nation. It is built on the basis of writing, while ethnic and folk may be unwritten.

Ethnic and national cultures may have their own common features that are different from others, expressed in the concept “ mentality "(Latin: way of thinking). It is customary, for example, to single out English as a reserved type of mentality, French as playful, Japanese as aesthetic, etc. But national culture, along with traditional everyday culture and folklore, also includes specialized areas. A nation is characterized not only by ethnographic, but also social signs: territory, statehood, economic ties, etc. Accordingly, national culture, in addition to ethnic culture, includes elements of economic, legal and other types of culture.

Co. second group can be attributed social types. These are, first of all, mass, elite, marginal cultures, subcultures and countercultures.

Mass culture is commercial culture. This is a type of cultural production produced in large volumes, designed for a wide audience of low and medium levels of development. It is intended for mass, i.e., an undifferentiated set. The masses are inclined towards consumer information.

Mass culture appeared in modern times with the invention printing press, the spread of low-quality tabloid literature, and was developed in the 20th century in the conditions of a capitalist society with its focus on market economy, the creation of a mass comprehensive school and the transition to universal literacy, the development of the media. It acts as a commodity, uses advertising, overly simplified language, and is available to everyone. An industrial and commercial approach was applied in the cultural sphere; it became a form of business. Mass culture focuses on artificially created images and stereotypes, “simplified versions of life,” beautiful illusions.

The philosophical basis of mass culture is Freudianism, which brings everything together social phenomena to biological, putting instincts in the foreground, pragmatism, putting benefit as the main goal.

The term " Mass culture "first used in 1941 by a German philosopher M. Horkheimer . The Spanish thinker José Ortega y Gasset (1883 - 1955) tried to more broadly analyze the phenomenon of mass and elite cultures. In his work “The Revolt of the Masses,” he came to the conclusion that European culture is in a state of crisis and the reason for this is the “revolt of the masses.” The mass is the average person. Ortega y Gasset opened preconditions mass culture. This is, firstly, economic: growth in material well-being and relative availability of material goods. This changed the vision of the world; he began to be perceived, figuratively speaking, as serving the masses. Secondly, legal: the division into classes disappeared, liberal legislation appeared, declaring equality before the law. This created certain prospects for the rise of the average person. Thirdly, it is observed rapid population growth. As a result, according to Ortega y Gasset, a new human type- mediocrity incarnate. Fourthly, cultural background. A person satisfied with himself ceased to be critical of himself and reality, to engage in self-improvement, and limited himself to a craving for pleasure and entertainment.

The American scientist D. MacDonald, following Ortega y Gasset, defined mass culture as created for the market and “not quite culture.”

At the same time, mass culture also has a certain positive significance, since it carries a compensatory function, helps to adapt, maintain social stability in difficult socio-economic conditions, and ensures the general availability of spiritual values, achievements of science and technology. Under certain conditions and quality individual works mass culture stand the test of time, rise to the level of highly artistic, gain recognition and ultimately become, in a certain sense, popular.

Many culturologists consider the antipode of mass elitist culture (French favorites, best). This is the culture of a special, privileged layer of society with its specific spiritual abilities, characterized by creativity, experimentalism, and closedness. Elite culture is characterized by an intellectual avant-garde orientation, complexity and originality, which makes it understandable mainly for the elite and inaccessible to the masses.

Elite (high) culture created by a privileged part of society, or at its request by professional creators. It includes fine art, classical music and literature. High culture (for example, the painting of Picasso or the music of Schoenberg) is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an averagely educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary scholars, regulars of museums and exhibitions, theatergoers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population increases, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its varieties include secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is “art for art’s sake.”

It has been known since ancient times, when priests and tribal leaders became the owners of special knowledge inaccessible to others. During feudalism similar relationships were reproduced in various denominations, knightly or monastic orders, capitalism- V intellectual circles, learned communities, aristocratic salons, etc. True, in the new and modern times elitist culture was no longer always associated with strict caste isolation. There are cases in history when gifted individuals, people from the common people, for example Zh.Zh. Russo, M.V. Lomonosov, went through a difficult path of formation and joined the elite.

Elite culture is based on philosophy A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche who divided humanity into “people of geniuses” and “people of utility,” or into “supermen” and the masses. Later thoughts about elitist culture developed in the works of Ortega y Gasset. He considered it the art of a gifted minority, a group of initiates capable of reading the symbols embedded in work of art. The distinctive features of such a culture, Ortega y Gasset believes, are, firstly, the desire for “pure art,” that is, the creation of works of art only for the sake of art, and secondly, the understanding of art as a game, and not a documentary reflection of reality.

Subculture(lat. subculture) is the culture of certain social groups, different or even partially opposed to the whole, but in its main features consistent with the dominant culture. Most often it is a factor of self-expression, but in some cases it is a factor of unconscious protest against the dominant culture. In this regard, it can be divided into positive and negative. Elements of subculture appeared, for example, in the Middle Ages in the form of urban, knightly cultures. In Russia, a subculture of the Cossacks and various religious sects has developed.

Forms of subculture different - the culture of professional groups (theatrical, medical culture, etc.), territorial (urban, rural), ethnic (Gypsy culture), religious (culture of sects different from world religions), criminal (thieves, drug addicts), teenage youth The latter most often serves as a means of unconscious protest against the rules established in society. Young people are prone to nihilism and are more easily influenced by external effects and paraphernalia. Culturologists call the first youth subcultural groups “ teddy boys ", which appeared in the mid-50s of the 20th century in England.

Almost simultaneously with them, “modernists” or “fashions” arose.

By the end of the 50s, “rockers” began to appear, for whom the motorcycle was a symbol of freedom and at the same time a means of intimidation.

By the end of the 60s, “skinheads” or “skinheads”, aggressive football fans, separated from the “mods”. At the same time, in the 60-70s, the subcultures of “hippies” and “punks” emerged in England.

All these groups are distinguished by aggressiveness and a negative attitude towards the traditions that dominate society. They are characterized by their own symbolism, sign system. They create their own image, first of all their appearance: clothes, hairstyles, metal jewelry. They have their own manner of behavior: gait, facial expressions, peculiarities of communication, their own special slang. Their own traditions and folklore appeared. Each generation internalizes the norms of behavior that are ingrained in certain subgroups, moral values, folklore forms (sayings, legends) and through a short time no longer differs from its predecessors.

Under certain circumstances, particularly aggressive subgroups, for example, hippies, can become in opposition to society, and their subculture develop into counterculture. This term was first used in 1968 by the American sociologist T. Roszak to assess the liberal behavior of the so-called “broken generation.”

Counterculture- these are socio-cultural attitudes that oppose the dominant culture. It is characterized by a rejection of established social values, moral norms and ideals, a cult of the unconscious manifestation of natural passions and the mystical ecstasy of the soul. Counterculture aims to overthrow the dominant culture, which is represented by organized violence against the individual. This protest takes various forms: from passive to extremist, which manifested themselves in anarchism, “leftist” radicalism, religious mysticism, etc. A number of culturologists identify it with the movements of “hippies,” “punks,” and “beatniks,” which emerged both as subcultures and as cultures of protest against the technocracy of industrial society. Youth counterculture of the 70s in the West they called it a culture of protest, since it was during these years that young people especially sharply opposed the value system of the older generation. But it was at this time that the Canadian scientist E. Tiryakan considered it a powerful catalyst for the cultural and historical process. Any new culture arises as a result of awareness of the crisis of the previous culture.

It should be distinguished from counterculture marginal culture (lat. region). This is a concept that characterizes values individual groups or individuals who, due to circumstances, find themselves on the verge of different cultures, but have not integrated into any of them.

The concept " marginal personality "was introduced in the 20s of the 20th century by R. Park to indicate the cultural status of immigrants. Marginal culture is located on the “outskirts” of the corresponding cultural systems. An example would be, for example, migrants, villagers in the city, forced to adapt to a new urban lifestyle for them. A culture can also acquire a marginal character as a result of conscious attitudes towards rejection of socially approved goals or methods of achieving them.

3. A special place in the classification of culture occupies historical typology. There are a number of different approaches to solving this problem.

The most common ones in science are the following.

These are the Stone, Bronze, Iron Ages, according to archaeological periodization; pagan, Christian periods, according to periodization, gravitating towards the biblical scheme, such as, for example, G. Hezhel or S. Solovyov. Supporters evolutionary theories In the 19th century, three stages of social development were distinguished: savagery, barbarism, and civilization. K. Marx's formation theory proceeded from the division of the world cultural and historical process into eras: primitive communal system, slaveholding, feudalism, capitalism. According to “Eurocentric” concepts, the history of human society is divided into the Ancient World, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Modern Times, and Contemporary Times.

The presence of a variety of approaches to defining the historical typology of culture allows us to conclude that there is no universal concept that explains the entire history of mankind and its culture. However, in last years The attention of researchers was especially attracted by the concept of the German philosopher Karl Jaspers(1883 - 1969). In the book “The Origins of History and Its Purpose” in the cultural-historical process he highlights four main periods . First is the period of archaic culture or the “Promethean era”. The main thing at this time is the emergence of languages, the invention and use of tools and fire, the beginning of sociocultural regulation of life. Second The period is characterized as the pre-Axial culture of ancient local civilizations. High cultures arose in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and later in China, writing appeared. Third stage is, according to Jaspers, a kind of “ world time axis"and refers to VIII - II centuries BC e. This was an era of undoubted success not only in material, but, above all, in spiritual culture - in philosophy, literature, science, art, etc., the life and work of such great personalities as Homer, Buddha, Confucius. At this time, the foundations of world religions were laid, and a transition from local civilizations to a unified history of mankind was outlined. During this period, modern man is formed, the basic categories with which we think are developed.

Fourth stage covers the time from the beginning of our era, when the era of scientific and technological progress began, a rapprochement of nations and cultures is observed, two main directions appear cultural development: “Eastern” with its spirituality, irrationalism and “Western” dynamic, pragmatic. This time is designated as the universal culture of the West and the East in the post-Axial period.

The typology of civilizations and cultures of the German scientist of the early 20th century also seems interesting. Max Weber. He distinguished between two types of societies and, accordingly, cultures. These are traditional societies where the principle of rationalization does not apply. Those that are based on rationality, Weber called industrial. Rationalization, according to Weber, manifests itself when a person is driven not by feelings and natural needs, but by benefit, the possibility of receiving material or moral dividends. In contrast, the Russian-American philosopher P. Sorokin based the periodization of culture on spiritual values. He identified three types of cultures: ideational (religious-mystical), idealistic (philosophical) and sensual (scientific). In addition, Sorokin distinguished cultures according to the principle of organization (heterogeneous clusters, formations with similar sociocultural characteristics, organic systems).

Received quite wide popularity at the beginning of the 20th century Social-historical school, which has the longest, “classical” traditions and goes back to Kant, Hegel and Humboldt, grouping around itself mainly historians and philosophers, including religious ones. Its prominent representatives in Russia were N.Ya. Danilevsky, and in Western Europe - Spengler and Toynbee, who adhered to the concept of local civilizations.

Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky(1822-1885) - publicist, sociologist and natural scientist, one of many Russian minds who anticipated original ideas, which arose later in the West. In particular, his views on culture are surprisingly consonant with the concepts of two of the most prominent thinkers of the twentieth century. - German O. Spengler and Englishman A. Toynbee.

The son of an honored general, Danilevsky, however, from a young age devoted himself to the natural sciences, and was also keen on the ideas of utopian socialism.

After receiving his Ph.D. degree, he was arrested for participating in the revolutionary-democratic circle of Petrashevites (F.M. Dostoevsky belonged to it), spent three months in the Peter and Paul Fortress, but managed to avoid trial and was expelled from St. Petersburg. Later, as a professional naturalist, botanist and fish conservation specialist, he served in the Department of Agriculture; On scientific trips and expeditions he traveled throughout a significant part of Russia, being inspired to do a lot of cultural work. Being an ideologist of Pan-Slavism - a movement that proclaimed the unity of the Slavic peoples - Danilevsky, long before O. Spengler, in his main work “Russia and Europe” (1869), substantiated the idea of ​​​​the existence of so-called cultural-historical types (civilizations), which, like living organisms, are in constant struggle with each other and with the environment. Just like biological individuals, they undergo stages of origin, flourishing and death. The beginnings of a civilization of one historical type are not transmitted to peoples of another type, although they are subject to certain cultural influences. Each “cultural-historical type” manifests itself in four spheres : religious, cultural, political and socio-economic. Their harmony speaks of the perfection of a particular civilization. The course of history is expressed in a change of cultural and historical types that displace each other, moving from the “ethnographic” state through statehood to the civilized level. Cycle of life the cultural-historical type consists of four periods and lasts about 1500 years, of which 1000 years is the preparatory, “ethnographic” period; approximately 400 years is the formation of statehood, and 50-100 years is the flowering of all the creative capabilities of a particular people. The cycle ends with a long period of decline and decay.

In our time, Danilevsky’s idea that a necessary condition for the flourishing of culture is political independence is especially relevant. Without it, the originality of culture is impossible, i.e. culture itself is impossible, “which does not even deserve the name if it is not original.” On the other hand, independence is needed so that like-minded cultures, say Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, can freely and fruitfully develop and interact, while at the same time preserving pan-Slavic cultural wealth. Denying the existence of a single world culture, Danilevsky identified 10 cultural and historical types that have partially or completely exhausted the possibilities of their development:

1) Egyptian,

2) Chinese,

3) Assyro-Babylonian, Phoenician, Ancient Semitic

4) Indian,

5) Iranian

6) Jewish

7) Greek

8) Roman

9) Arabian

10) Germano-Roman, European

One of the later, as we see, was the European Romano-Germanic cultural community.

Danilevsky proclaims a Slavic cultural-historical type that is qualitatively new and has a great historical perspective, designed to unite all Slavic peoples, led by Russia, as opposed to Europe, which has allegedly entered a period of decline.

No matter how one regards Danilevsky’s views, they still, as in their time, feed and fed the imperial ideology and prepared the emergence of such a modern social science as geopolitics, closely related to civilizational approach to history.

Oswald Spengler(1880-1936) - German philosopher and cultural historian, author of the sensational work “The Decline of Europe” (1921-1923). The creative biography of the German thinker is unusual. The son of a minor postal worker, Spengler did not have a university education and was able to graduate only from high school, where he studied mathematics and natural sciences; As for history, philosophy and art history, in the mastery of which he surpassed many of his outstanding contemporaries, Spengler studied them independently, becoming an example of a self-taught genius. And Spengler’s career was limited to the position of a gymnasium teacher, which he voluntarily left in 1911. For several years he imprisoned himself in a small apartment in Munich and began to implement his cherished dream: wrote a book about the fate of European culture in the context of world history - “The Decline of Europe”, which went through 32 editions in many languages ​​in the 20s alone and brought him the sensational fame of “the prophet of the death of Western civilization.”

Spengler repeated N.Ya. Danilevsky and, like him, was one of the most consistent critics of Eurocentrism and the theory of continuous progress of mankind, considering Europe already a doomed and dying link. Spengler denies the existence of universal human continuity in culture. In the history of mankind, he identifies 8 cultures:

1) Egyptian,

2) Indian,

3) Babylonian,

4) Chinese,

5) Greco-Roman,

6) Byzantine-Islamic,

7) Western European

8) Mayan culture in Central America.

As new culture According to Spengler, Russian-Siberian culture is coming. Each cultural “organism” has a lifespan of approximately 1000 years. Dying, every culture degenerates into civilization, moves from creative impulse to sterility, from development to stagnation, from “soul” to “intellect,” from heroic “deeds” to utilitarian work. Such a transition for Greco-Roman culture occurred, according to Spengler, in the Hellenistic era (III-I centuries BC), and for Western European culture - in the 19th century. With the advent of civilization, mass culture, artistic and literary creativity loses its meaning, giving way to soulless technicalism and sports. In the 20s, “The Decline of Europe,” by analogy with the death of the Roman Empire, was perceived as a prediction of the apocalypse, the death of Western European society under the onslaught of new “barbarians” - revolutionary forces advancing from the East. History, as we know, has not confirmed Spengler’s prophecies, and the new “Russian-Siberian” culture, which meant the so-called socialist society, has not yet come to fruition. It is significant that some of Spengler's conservative nationalist ideas were widely used by ideologists of Nazi Germany.

Arnold Joseph Toynbee(1889-1975) - English historian and sociologist, author of the 12-volume “Study of History” (1934-1961) - a work in which he (at the first stage, not without the influence of O. Spengler) also sought to comprehend the development of mankind in the spirit of the cycle "civilizations", using this term as a synonym for "culture". A.J. Toynbee came from a middle-class English family; Following the example of his mother, a history teacher, he graduated from Oxford University and the British School of Archaeology in Athens (Greece). At first he was interested in antiquity and the works of Spengler, whom he later surpassed as a cultural historian. From 1919 to 1955, Toynbee was professor of Greek, Byzantine and later world history at the University of London. During the First and Second World Wars, he simultaneously collaborated with the Foreign Office, was a member of the British government delegations to the Paris Peace Conferences in 1919 and 1946, and also headed the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The scientist devoted a significant part of his life to writing his famous work - an encyclopedic panorama of the development of world culture.

Initially, Toynbee viewed history as a set of parallel and sequentially developing “civilizations”, genetically little related to one another, each of which goes through the same stages from rise to breakdown, collapse and death. Later, he revised these views, coming to the conclusion that all known cultures nourished by world religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.) are branches of one human “tree of history.” They all tend towards unity, and each of them is a particle of it. World historical development appears as a movement from local cultural communities to a single universal human culture. Unlike O. Spengler, who identified only 8 “civilizations,” Toynbee, who relied on broader and more modern research, numbered them from 14 to 21, later settling on thirteen , which have received the most complete development. Driving forces history, in addition to divine “providence,” Toynbee considered individual outstanding personalities and a “creative minority.” It responds to the “challenges” posed to a given culture by the outside world and spiritual needs, as a result of which the progressive development of a particular society is ensured. At the same time, the “creative minority” leads the passive majority, relying on its support and replenished by its best representatives. When the “creative minority” turns out to be unable to realize its mystical “life impulse” and respond to the “challenges” of history, it turns into a “dominant elite”, imposing its power by force of arms, and not by authority; the alienated mass of the population becomes the “internal proletariat,” which, together with external enemies, ultimately destroys a given civilization, if it does not first die from natural disasters.

According to Toynbee's law of the golden mean, the challenge should be neither too weak nor too severe. In the first case, there will be no active response, and in the second, insurmountable difficulties can completely stop the emergence of civilization. Specific examples“challenges” known from history are associated with drying out or waterlogging of soils, the advance of hostile tribes, and a forced change of place of residence. The most common answers: the transition to a new type of management, the creation of irrigation systems, the formation of powerful power structures capable of mobilizing the energy of society, the creation of a new religion, science, and technology.

This variety of approaches makes it possible to study this phenomenon more deeply.

Introduction

In this topic we will look at the concept of culture. Before making this excursion, it is necessary to first understand for yourself how non-trivial the understanding of culture is already at the level of ordinary consciousness. Culture can and does penetrate extremely deeply into our nature, so deeply that we sometimes consider natural what is actually generated by culture, “sifted” through its integral “filter.”

An important place in this topic is occupied by the question of the structure of culture. It should be borne in mind that culture has a very complex structure.

We will also look at the functions and laws of cultural development.

A law is not just any connection, but a significant one, between entities, at the level of entities. In this regard, the law does not reveal itself explicitly, openly in the phenomenon, but requires appropriate understanding, comprehension, and formulation that frees it from secondary, unimportant signs.

The purpose of the work is to consider organizational matters culture, its concept, structure and functions.

What is culture? The essence of culture

Man lives not only in the world of things, but also in the world of concepts. Some of them reflect our everyday life and are accessible to everyone, others only to a narrow circle of initiates.

Culture is multifaceted, and only in the system of values ​​can one sufficiently understand its manifestations. We can talk about the culture of humanity, about the culture different eras(ancient, medieval), about the culture of various ethnic groups and countries (Russian and Russian, French and France), about religious cultures (Buddhist, Islamic, Christian), the culture of various social groups and professions (peasants, townspeople) and even about the culture of individuals (Pushkin, Confucius, etc.).

In the traditional sense, the word “culture” (from the Latin calture) originally meant cultivation, processing of soil.

Subsequently, this term was transferred by the Romans to a person and began to mean his upbringing and education, i.e. "cultivation" of man. Culture in this sense began to be contrasted with the concept of unculture, savagery, and barbarism.

Modern science considers culture as life-creativity, as a creative activity for the transformation of nature and society, the results of which are the constant replenishment of material and spiritual values, the improvement of all essential human powers.

Culture as a phenomenon of the social existence of man and humanity attracts many researchers who try in different ways, depending on general philosophical premises, ideological attitudes and specific knowledge, to analyze a particular area of ​​culture and give their own interpretation of cultural processes, different from other researchers.

However, most experts who study the processes of culture and creativity believe that culture is a set of material and spiritual values, and all acts of human activity.

Culture is the forms of communication and relationships of people in everyday practice.

Culture presupposes a certain level of knowledge characteristic of a given society, and therefore the process of mastering the knowledge, skills, norms and values ​​of society.

In everyday terms, culture appears as collective image, combining art, religion, science, etc. Culturology uses the concept of culture, which reveals the essence of human existence as the realization of the creative process and freedom. It is culture that distinguishes man from a primitive being.

We must distinguish:

• - firstly, freedom as an inalienable spiritual potency of a person;
• - secondly, awareness and conscious social realization of freedom.

Without the first, culture simply cannot appear, but the second is achieved only at relatively late stages of its development.

The concept of “culture” means the universal attitude of a person to the world, through which a person is aware of the world and himself.

Each culture is a unique Universe, created by a person’s specific attitude to the world and to himself.

In other words, by studying different cultures, we study not just books, cathedrals or archaeological finds - we discover other human worlds in which people live and feel differently than we do.

Every culture is a way of human creative self-realization.

Therefore, understanding other cultures enriches us not only with new knowledge, but also with new creative experience.

The concept of culture is so broad and multifaceted, it includes such a number of completely heterogeneous components that to summarize all this wealth with one lapidary definition means either to become its content, or to limit ourselves to the most general abstraction.

However, we have so far taken only the first step towards a correct understanding and definition of culture.

How is man's universal relationship to the world realized?

How is it embedded in human experience and passed on from generation to generation?

Answering these questions means characterizing a culture.

A person's relationship to the world is determined by meaning. Meaning relates any phenomenon, any object to a person: if something is devoid of meaning, it ceases to exist for a person.

Meaning is the content of human existence, taken in a special role: to be a mediator in a person’s relationship with the world and himself. It is meaning that determines what we seek and what we discover in the world and in ourselves.

The meaning must be distinguished from the meaning, i.e. objectively expressed image or concept. Even if the meaning is expressed in a concept or image, in itself it is not necessarily objective. The meaning is not always realized by a person, and not every meaning can be expressed rationally. But both meanings can become universally meaningful, uniting many people and serving as the basis for their thoughts and feelings.

It is these meanings that form cultures.

Man endows the whole world with these meanings, and the world appears for him in its universal human significance. Culture is the universal way in which a person makes the world “his own,” turning it into a House of meaningful existence.

Thus, the whole world turns into a carrier of human meanings, into a world of culture.

From here we can define culture.

Culture is a universal way of creative self-realization of a person through the establishment of meaning, the desire to reveal and affirm the meaning of human life in its correlation with the meaning of existence.

Culture appears to a person as a world of meaning that inspires people and unites them into a community.

In order to reveal the essence of culture, it is necessary to repeat again. The term culture originally meant the cultivation of the soil, its cultivation, i.e. change in natural site under human influence, as opposed to those changes caused by natural causes. A stone polished by the sea surf remains a component of nature, and the same stone processed by a savage is an artificial object that performs a certain function accepted in a given community - instrumental or magical.

Thus, this initial content of the term expresses the peculiarity of culture - the human principle inherent in it - and focuses on the unity of culture, man and his activity.

According to the most common understanding of this term today, culture is the meaning-bearing and meaning-transmitting aspect of human practice and its results, the symbolic dimension of social events that allows individuals to live in a special life world, which they all more or less understand, and to perform actions, the nature of which is understood by everyone else. .

The history of the concept of culture and the diversity of its interpretations suggest the question: is it possible to have a strict and at the same time universal definition of culture?

The difference in cultures presents a lot of inconsistencies, significant differences. But everything that is not accepted and understood by us is not always a delusion. Each culture has its own specifics.

The West sought to answer the questions of what the world is and what is the place of man in this world.

The East reproduced the world from its inner feeling and comprehension of man as the only self-worth worthy of attention.

The essence of transmitting the traditionality of culture is that, with the help of a number of special techniques, the spiritual personality of the teacher is reborn in the student.

The history of culture appears as a catastrophic goal. Each new generation, in accordance with the conduct of the cultural process, would have to create the same structures in the same place, or, more simply put, create a bicycle.

Culture acts as a sensitive seismograph of life events. The intellectual potential of not only an individual, but also the entire people, even all of humanity, depends on its condition and development. Where else in culture does it live and manifest itself? folk spirit? Every culture is a culture of the spirit, because has a spiritual basis - it is a product of the creative work of the spirit on natural elements.

Introduction

Culture is a key concept in cultural studies. There are a lot of definitions of what culture is, because every time they talk about culture, they mean completely different phenomena. We can talk about culture as “second nature,” that is, about everything that is created by human hands and brought into the world by man. This is the broadest approach and, in this case, weapons of mass destruction are also, in a certain sense, cultural phenomena. We can talk about culture as a kind of production skills, professional virtues - we use such expressions as work culture, football playing culture and even card playing culture. For many, culture is, first of all, the sphere of spiritual activity of people throughout the entire historical development of mankind. Culture is always national, historical, specific in its origin and purpose, and the concept - world culture - is also very conditional and represents only the sum of national cultures. Scientists of various specialties - historians, art historians, sociologists, philosophers - study world culture in all its national, social, specific historical manifestations.

From the point of view of a culturologist, culture is generally recognized intangible values ​​created throughout human history; firstly, class, estate, group spiritual values, characteristic of different historical eras, secondly, which may be especially important, the relationships between people that develop as a result and process of production, distribution and consumption of these values.

In this work I will try to define the concept of “culture” and consider what functions it performs in our society.

culture ethnocentrism relativism conflict

Concept of culture

The word "culture" comes from the Latin word colere, which means to cultivate, or to cultivate the soil. In the Middle Ages, this word came to mean a progressive method of cultivating grains, thus the term agriculture or the art of farming arose. But in the 18th and 19th centuries. it began to be used in relation to people, therefore, if a person was distinguished by elegance of manners and erudition, he was considered “cultured.” At that time, the term was applied mainly to aristocrats in order to separate them from the “uncultured” common people. German word Kultur also meant a high level of civilization. In our life today, the word “culture” is still associated with the opera house, excellent literature, and good education.

The modern scientific definition of culture has discarded the aristocratic connotations of this concept. It symbolizes beliefs, values ​​and means of expression(used in literature and art) that are common to a group; they serve to organize the experience and regulate the behavior of members of this group. The beliefs and attitudes of a subgroup are often called a subculture. The assimilation of culture is carried out through learning. Culture is created, culture is taught. Since it is not acquired biologically, each generation reproduces it and passes it on to the next generation. This process is the basis of socialization. As a result of the assimilation of values, beliefs, norms, rules and ideals, the child’s personality is formed and his behavior is regulated. If the process of socialization were to cease on a mass scale, it would lead to the death of culture.

Culture shapes the personalities of members of society, thereby largely regulating their behavior.

How important culture is for the functioning of the individual and society can be judged by the behavior of people who have not been socialized. The uncontrollable, or infantile, behavior of the so-called jungle children, who were completely deprived of communication with people, indicates that without socialization people are not able to adopt an orderly way of life, master a language and learn how to earn a living. As a result of observing several “creatures that showed no interest in what was happening around them, rocking rhythmically back and forth like wild animals in a zoo,” an 18th-century Swedish naturalist. Carl Linnaeus concluded that they were representatives of a special species. Subsequently, scientists realized that these wild children did not develop the personality that requires communication with people. This communication would stimulate the development of their abilities and the formation of their “human” personalities. If culture regulates human behavior, can we go so far as to call it oppressive? Often culture does suppress a person's impulses, but it does not eliminate them completely. It rather defines the conditions under which they are satisfied. Culture's ability to control human behavior is limited for many reasons. First of all, the biological capabilities of the human body are unlimited. Mere mortals cannot be taught to jump over tall buildings, even if society highly values ​​such feats. Likewise, there is a limit to the knowledge that the human brain can absorb.

Factors environment also limit the impact of culture. For example, drought or volcanic eruptions can disrupt established farming practices. Environmental factors may interfere with the formation of some cultural patterns. According to the customs of people living in tropical jungles with a humid climate, it is not customary to cultivate certain areas of land for a long time, since they cannot produce high grain yields for a long time. Maintaining sustainable public order also limits the influence of culture. The very survival of society dictates the need to condemn such acts as murder, theft and arson. If these behaviors became widespread, the cooperation between people needed to gather or produce food, provide shelter, and carry out other important activities would become impossible.

Another important part of culture is that cultural values ​​are formed based on the selection of certain behaviors and experiences of people. Each society carried out its own selection of cultural forms. Each society, from the point of view of the other, neglects the main thing and deals with unimportant matters. In one culture, material values ​​are barely recognized, in another they have decisive influence on people's behavior. In one society, technology is treated with incredible disdain, even in areas essential to human survival; in another similar society, ever-improving technology meets the needs of the times. But every society creates a huge cultural superstructure that covers a person’s entire life - youth, death, and the memory of him after death.

As a result of this selection, past and present cultures are completely different. Some societies considered war to be the noblest human activity. Others hated her, and representatives of still others had no idea about her. According to the norms of one culture, a woman had the right to marry her relative. The norms of another culture strongly prohibit this. In our culture, hallucinations are considered a symptom of mental illness. Other societies regard "mystical visions" as the highest form of consciousness.

In short, there are a great many differences between cultures.

Even a cursory contact with two or more cultures convinces us that the differences between them are endless. We and they travel in different directions, they speak a different language. We have different opinions about what behavior is crazy and what is normal, we different concepts virtuous life. Much more difficult to determine common features, characteristic of all cultures, are cultural universals.

What is culture

There are several interpretations of the origin and meaning of the word culture.

In the textbook on philosophy Radugin A.A. The term “culture” is considered to be of Latin origin – cultura. According to Radugin, initially this term meant cultivating the soil, cultivating it in order to make the soil suitable for meeting human needs, so that it could serve man. In this context, the author writes, culture was understood as all changes in a natural object that occur under human influence, in contrast to those changes that are caused by natural causes.

According to other sources, culture in a figurative sense is the care, improvement, and ennoblement of a person’s bodily, mental, and spiritual inclinations and abilities; accordingly, there is a culture of the body, a culture of the soul, and a spiritual culture. The German word Kultur also meant a high level of civilization. In modern scientific literature there are more than 250 definitions of culture.

In a broad sense, culture is the totality of manifestations of the life, achievements and creativity of a people or group of peoples (the culture of a nation, states, civilizations - hence the many religions, beliefs, values). Culture, considered from the point of view of content, is divided into various areas, spheres: mores and customs, language and writing, the nature of clothing, settlements, work, perception, economics, the nature of the army, socio-political structure, legal proceedings, science, technology, art , religion, all forms of manifestation of the objective spirit of a given people. Cultured man owes everything to education and upbringing, and this constitutes the content of the culture of all peoples, preserving cultural continuity and traditions as a form of collective experience in relationships with nature.

The modern scientific definition of culture has discarded the aristocratic connotations of this concept. It symbolizes the beliefs, values ​​and expressions (as used in literature and art) that are common to a group; they serve to organize the experience and regulate the behavior of members of this group. The beliefs and attitudes of a subgroup are often called a subculture.

Cultural theorists A. Kroeber and K. Kluckhohn analyzed over a hundred basic definitions and grouped them as follows.

1 Descriptive definitions, which are based on the concept of the founder of cultural anthropology, E. Taylor. The essence of these definitions: culture is the sum of all types of activities, customs, beliefs; it, as a treasury of everything created by people, includes books, paintings, etc., knowledge of ways to adapt to the social and natural environment, language, customs, a system of etiquette, ethics, religion, which have developed over centuries.

2 Historical definitions emphasizing the role of social heritage and traditions inherited by the modern era from previous stages of human development. They are also accompanied by genetic definitions that assert that culture is the result of historical development. It includes everything that is artificial, that people have produced and that is passed on from generation to generation - tools, symbols, organizations, general activities, views, beliefs.

3. Normative definitions emphasizing the significance of accepted norms. Culture is the way of life of an individual, determined by the social environment.

4. Value definitions: culture is the material and social values ​​of a group of people, their institutions, customs, and behavioral reactions.

5. Psychological definitions based on a person’s solution to certain problems at the psychological level. Here, culture is a special adaptation of people to the natural environment and economic needs, and consists of all the results of such adaptation.

6. Definitions based on learning theories: culture is behavior that a person has learned and not received as a biological inheritance.

7. Structural definitions highlighting the significance of moments of organization or modeling. Here culture is a system of certain characteristics interconnected in various ways. Material and intangible cultural characteristics, organized around basic needs, form social institutions that are the core (model) of culture.

8. Ideological definitions: culture is the flow of ideas passing from individual to individual through special actions, i.e. using words or imitations.

9. Symbolic definitions: culture is the organization of various phenomena (material objects, actions, ideas, feelings), consisting in the use of symbols or depending on it.

It is easy to notice that each of the listed groups of definitions captures some important features of culture. However, in general, as a complex social phenomenon, it eludes definition. Indeed, culture is the result of human behavior and the activities of society, it is historical, includes ideas, models and values, selective, studied, based on symbols, “super-organic”, i.e. does not include the biological components of a person and is transmitted by mechanisms other than biological heredity; it is emotionally perceived or rejected by individuals. And yet this list of properties does not give us a sufficiently complete understanding of the complex phenomena that are meant when it comes to the cultures of the Mayans or Aztecs. Ancient Egypt or Ancient Greece, Kievan Rus or Novgorod.

1.2 Idea of ​​values

Culture is material and spiritual values. By value we mean the definition of a particular object of material or spiritual reality, highlighting its positive or negative significance for man and humanity. Only for man and society do things and phenomena have a special meaning, consecrated by customs, religion, art and, in general, the “rays of culture.” In other words, real facts, events, properties are not only perceived and cognized by us, but also evaluated, causing in us a feeling of participation, admiration, love or, on the contrary, a feeling of hatred or contempt. These various pleasures and pains constitute what is called taste. We, for example, experience pleasure when “seeing an object that is useful to us, we call it good; when it gives us pleasure to contemplate an object that is devoid of immediate usefulness, we call it beautiful.”

This or that thing has a certain value in our eyes due not only to its objective properties, but also to our attitude towards it, which integrates both the perception of these properties and the characteristics of our tastes. Thus, we can say that value is a subjective-objective reality. “Everyone calls pleasant what gives him pleasure, beautiful - what he only likes, good - what he values, approves, that is, what he sees as objective value.” There is nothing to say about how significant value judgments are for a person’s reasonable orientation in life.

Every thing involved in the circulation of public and personal life or created by man, in addition to its physical nature, also has a social existence: it performs a function historically assigned to it and therefore has social value. Values ​​are not only material, but also spiritual: works of art, achievements of science, philosophy, moral standards, etc. The concept of value expresses the social essence of the existence of material and spiritual culture. If something material or spiritual acts as a value, this means that it is somehow included in the conditions of a person’s social life and performs a certain function in his relationship with nature and social reality. People constantly evaluate everything they deal with in terms of their needs and interests. Our attitude towards the world is always evaluative. And this assessment can be objective, correct, progressive or false, subjective, reactionary. In our worldview, scientific knowledge of the world and the value attitude towards it are in inextricable unity. Thus, the concept of value is closely related to the concept of culture.

Culture, being transformed, is passed on from one generation to another. In cultural heritage it is necessary to thoughtfully separate what belongs to the future from what has passed into the past.

1.3 Types, forms, content and functions of culture

The diversity of the subject type of culture is determined by the diversity of human activity itself. It is very difficult to classify different types of activities, as well as the type of culture represented. But let us accept conditionally that this can be applied to nature, society And to an individual person.

Types of culture in relation to nature

In this context, the culture of agriculture is distinguished, as well as the plant itself, landscape reclamation, i.e. complete or partial restoration of a certain natural environment disturbed by previous economic activities.

This also includes the general culture of material production, as an impact on natural environment. Basically, such an impact is detrimental to nature, and this is an environmental problem that threatens the existence of civilization itself.

Kinds cultural activities in society

Material production, as a mediator between society and nature, also includes specifically social types of cultural activity. This includes, first of all, labor. Even K. Marx distinguished between living and materialized labor. The culture of living labor is the culture of direct productive activity and the culture of managing anything. Obviously, in the end we will come to the totality of knowledge, skills and abilities of an individual, which determines his culture and attitude to work.

The concept of “culture” is used when characterizing historical eras or monuments, when characterizing societies and regions, when characterizing nationalities.

This concept is applied in relation to certain areas of activity and life (art, physical culture, everyday culture), as well as in relation to types of art ( theatrical culture, culture of architecture). The level or degree of development of society, represented in any achievements, is also characterized by the concept of “culture”.

The concept of “culture” in relation to an individual

The culture of an individual does not exist in isolation from the listed cultural species. The concept of “culture” is applied to literally every human ability - physical or spiritual (mental). General culture of a person still presupposes the unity and harmony of his body and soul (psyche). The ancient sages attached great importance to the culture of the human psyche.

Subject and personal types of culture.

Among the shortcomings in understanding culture, we note its reduction to an external, objective form. But the world of culture that we see is one of its parts. Seeing objects - all more or less developed living beings have this ability. A person is distinguished by intelligent vision, or mental vision. English writer O. Wilde believed that only a superficial person does not judge by appearance. For an intelligent person, the appearance of anything speaks volumes. Russian philosopher V.S. Soloviev once wrote:

Dear friend, don’t you know

That everything we see

Only a reflection, only shadows

From the invisible with our eyes...

The object form of culture is its visibility. Culture has a personal aspect that is imprinted in things. But to see a personal expression of culture, you need to be a person. Each of us sees the personal world of culture exactly as much as we ourselves are a person. To the same extent, we bring something of ourselves into culture, i.e. We serve as its source.

The word “culture” is in the vocabulary of almost every person.

But this concept has very different meanings.

Some understand by culture only those values ​​of spiritual life, others narrow this concept even more, attributing to it only phenomena of art and literature. Still others generally understand culture as a certain ideology designed to serve and ensure “labor” accomplishments, i.e., economic tasks.

The phenomenon of culture is extremely rich and diverse, truly comprehensive. It is no coincidence that cultural scientists have long found it difficult to define it.

However, the theoretical complexity of this problem is not limited to the ambiguity of the concept of culture itself. Culture is a multifaceted problem of historical development, and the word culture itself will unite diverse points of view.

The term culture goes back to the Latin word “cultura” which meant cultivating the soil, cultivating it, i.e. a change in a natural object under the influence of man or his activity, in contrast to those changes caused by natural causes. Already in this initial content of the term, language expressed an important feature - the unity of culture, man and his activities. The world of culture, any of its objects or phenomena are perceived not as a consequence of the action of natural forces, but as the result of the efforts of people themselves aimed at improving, processing, transforming what is given directly by nature.

Currently, the concept of culture means a historically certain level of development of society, creative powers and abilities of a person, expressed in the types and forms of organization of people’s lives and activities, as well as in the material and spiritual values ​​they create.

Therefore, it is possible to understand the essence of culture only through the prism of human activity and the peoples inhabiting the planet.

Culture does not exist outside of man. It is initially associated with a person and is generated by the fact that he constantly strives to seek the meaning of his life and activities, to improve himself and the world in which he lives.

A person is not born social, but only becomes so in the process of activity. Education, upbringing is nothing more than the mastery of culture, the process of transmitting it from one generation to another. Consequently, culture means the introduction of a person to society, society.

Any person, growing up, first of all masters the culture that was already created before him, masters the social experience accumulated by his predecessors. Mastery of culture can be carried out in the form of interpersonal relationships and self-education. The role of the media—radio, television, and print—is enormous.

By mastering previously accumulated experience, a person can make his own contribution to the cultural layer.

The process of socialization is a continuous process of mastering culture and at the same time individualization of the individual; the value of culture rests on the specific individuality of a person, his character, mental makeup, temperament-mentality.

Culture is a complex system that absorbs and reflects the contradictions of the whole world. How do they manifest themselves?

In the contradiction between socialization and individualization of the individual: on the one hand, a person inevitably becomes socialized, assimilating the norms of society, and on the other hand, he strives to preserve the individuality of his personality.

In the contradiction between the normativity of culture and the freedom that it provides to a person. Norm and freedom are two poles, two fighting principles.

In the contradiction between the traditional nature of a culture and the renewal that occurs in its body.

These and other contradictions constitute not only the essential characteristics of culture, but are also the source of its development.

Culture is a very complex, multi-level system.

It is customary to subdivide culture according to its bearer. Depending on this, it is quite legitimate, first of all, to distinguish world And national culture.

World culture- is a synthesis of the best achievements of all national cultures various peoples inhabiting our planet.

National culture, in turn, acts as a synthesis of cultures of different classes, social strata and groups of the relevant society. The uniqueness of national culture, its uniqueness and originality are manifested both in spiritual and material spheres life activity.

In accordance with specific media, there are also culture of social communities, families, individuals. It is generally accepted to distinguish folk And professional culture.

Culture is divided into certain types and childbirth. The basis for such a division is to take into account the diversity of human activity. This is where material and spiritual culture stand out. But their division is often conditional, since in real life they are closely interconnected and interpenetrating.

An important feature of material culture is its non-identity with either the material life of society, or material production, or materially transformative activities.

Material culture characterizes this activity from the point of view of its influence on human development, revealing to what extent it makes it possible to apply his abilities, creative possibilities, talents.

Material culture- this is the culture of labor and material production; culture of life; topos culture, i.e. living place; culture of attitude towards one's own body; Physical Culture.

Spiritual culture is a multi-layered formation and includes: cognitive and intellectual culture, philosophical, moral, artistic, legal, pedagogical, religious.

According to some cultural experts, individual species culture cannot be classified only as material or spiritual. They represent a “vertical” section of culture, “permeating” its entire system. This is economic, political, environmental, aesthetic culture.

Historically, culture is associated with humanism. Culture is a measure of human development. Neither advances in technology nor scientific discoveries by themselves do not determine the level of culture of a society if there is no humanity in it, if culture is not aimed at improving man. Thus, the criterion of culture is the humanization of society. The purpose of culture is the comprehensive development of man.

There is another division based on relevance.

Relevant is the culture that is in mass use.

Each era creates its own current culture, which is well illustrated by fashion not only in clothing, but also in culture. The relevance of culture is a living, direct process in which something is born, gains strength, lives, and dies.

The structure of culture includes substantial elements that are objectified in its values ​​and norms; functional elements, characterizing the process of cultural activity itself, its various sides and aspects.

The structure of culture is complex and multifaceted. It includes the education system, science, art, literature, mythology, morality, politics, law, religion. Moreover, all its elements interact with each other, forming a single system of such a unique phenomenon as culture.

The complex and multi-level structure of culture also determines the diversity of its functions in the life of society and individuals.

Culture is a multifunctional system. Let us briefly describe the main functions of culture. The main function of the cultural phenomenon is human-creative, or humanistic. Everything else is somehow connected with it and even follows from it.

The most important function of broadcasting social experience. It is often called the function of historical continuity, or information. Culture, which is a complex sign system, is the only mechanism for transmitting social experience from generation to generation, from era to era, from one country to another. After all, apart from culture, society does not have any other mechanism for transmitting all the rich experience accumulated by humanity. Therefore, it is no coincidence that culture is considered the social memory of humanity. The break in cultural continuity dooms new generations to the loss of social memory with all the ensuing consequences.

Another leading function is cognitive (epistemological). It is closely related to the first and, in a certain sense, follows from it.

A culture that concentrates the best social experience of many generations of people immanently acquires the ability to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world and thereby create favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development.

It can be argued that a society is intellectual to the extent that it uses the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of a person. The maturity of a culture is largely determined by the extent to which it has mastered the cultural values ​​of the past. All types of society differ significantly primarily on this basis. Some of them demonstrate an amazing ability, through culture, to take the best that people have accumulated and put it to their service.

Such societies (Japan) demonstrate enormous dynamism in many areas of science, technology, and production. Others, unable to use the cognitive functions of culture, still reinvent the wheel, and thereby condemn themselves to backwardness.

The regulatory function of culture is associated primarily with the definition of various aspects, types of social and personal activities of people. In the sphere of work, everyday life, and interpersonal relationships, culture in one way or another influences the behavior of people and regulates their actions, actions, and even the choice of certain material and spiritual values. The regulatory function of culture is based on such normative systems as morality and law.

The semiotic or sign function is the most important in the cultural system. Representing a certain sign system, culture presupposes knowledge and mastery of it. Without studying the corresponding sign systems, it is impossible to master the achievements of culture. So, language is a means communication between people, the literary language is the most important means of mastering national culture. Specific languages ​​are needed to understand the special world of music, painting, and theater. Natural sciences also have their own sign systems.

The value or axiological function reflects the most important qualitative state of culture. Culture as a value system forms in a person very specific value needs and orientations. By their level and quality, people most often judge the degree of culture of a person.

Moral and intellectual content, as a rule, acts as a criterion for appropriate assessment.