UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
Russia, Saint-Petersburg. St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Philosophical Anthropology.
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor.
Russia, St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg State University. Faculty of Philosophy. Department of philosophical anthropology.
PhD in philosophy, professor.
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY IN CULTUROLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE (ANALYTICAL REVIEW)
The article is devoted to the development of cultural geography as a new humanitarian direction on domestic soil. From the author’s point of view, the history of the formation of cultural geography resembles the fate of cultural studies both in terms of the main problems and the criteria of institutionalization. At the same time, the “worlds” of cultural studies and cultural geography today exist independently of each other. Specialists in the field of cultural geography use semiotic, philosophical and cultural methodology, but rarely turn to cultural and philosophical knowledge directly. The author examines the general trends in the relationship between cultural geography and cultural studies. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between the problem fields of cultural geography, human geography, geopoetics, and sacred geography. The article includes an analytical review of the latest sources on cultural geography in Russian and English.
Key words: cultural geography, cultural studies, human geography, poetic geography, geopoetics, sacred geography, cultural landscape, topochron, urban studies
Cultural Geography in Perspective of Cultural Science (an Analytic Review)
The article deals with the development of cultural geography as a new research field in Russia. From the author's point of view, the history of cultural geography examines the fate of culturology in terms of the major problems, as well as the criteria, of institutionalization. However, culturology and cultural geography exist independently of one another today. Specialists in the field of cultural geography use the methodologies of semiotics, philosophy and culturology (cultural studies), but rarely apply them directly to culturology and philosophical knowledge. The author observes the general trends of the relationship between cultural geography, philosophy and culturology (cultural studies) . Special attention is paid to the correlation among fields of cultural studies, urban studies, cultural studies, human geography, geopoetics, and sacral geography. A survey of contemporary publications in Russian and English is included.
Key words: Cultural geography, culturology, cultural studies, human geography, poetic geography, geopoetics, sacral geography, cultural landscape, topochronos, urban studies
Introduction
Cultural geography on domestic soil is undoubtedly experiencing a boom. In this sense, its fate resembles the fate of cultural knowledge - both in terms of issues, and in terms of the timing of its emergence, and in terms of the signs of initial “non-recognition”, and in terms of the criteria of official institutionalization. At the same time, the world of cultural studies and the world of cultural geography still exist relatively independently of each other. As a rule, cultural scientists (as well as philosophers) at the first mention perceive the concept of “cultural geography” as new and obscure. The same applies to the related concept of “human geography”. Cultural
* The work was supported by a grant from St. Petersburg State University, Activity No. 7 for 2011 (compilation of scientific and analytical reviews)
Geographers, for their part, using a similar methodology, rarely turn to cultural and philosophical knowledge directly. Thus, we have a situation of mutual maturation, very reminiscent of the nihilistic (adolescent) stage of development of an individual defending his autonomy and independence.
The purpose of this introductory article is to consider those general trends that in the future may be able to unite the efforts of specialists from different humanitarian profiles and remove some external discrepancies.
Cultural geography has historically emerged as a special direction within socio-economic geography. The subject of her research was the spatial and cultural differences between regions of the Earth, based on the identification of geographical spaces from the point of view
6 | 4(5). 2011 | International Journal of Cultural Studies
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
their cultural identity. The scientific direction itself was founded by the American scientist Carl Sauer in the early 30s of the 20th century. Richard Hartshorne and Wilbur Zelinsky made significant contributions to the development of cultural geography.
In Russia, cultural geography is mainly interpreted as a branch of (meta)geographical research. At the same time, there is an obvious tendency to use in cultural geography the most proven methods of the humanities, primarily semiotic and philosophical-cultural. In the domestic tradition, there are a number of fundamental studies (Yu. M. Lotman, V. N. Toporov, R. O. Yakobson, D. S. Likhachev, S. S. Averintsev, M. M. Bakhtin, A. Ya. Gurevich, M. S. Kagan, A. Ya. Flier, etc.), made in semiotic and historical-cultural keys. They have never belonged to the direction of “cultural geography”, although they implicitly contain the ideas of this direction of humanities. At the same time, there is a special direction in cultural-geographical thought, the followers of which directly develop the ideas of cultural (and humanitarian) geography (Yu. A. Vedenin, R. F. Turovsky, V. L. Kagansky, V. N. Kalutskov , A.G. Druzhinin, D.N. Zamyatin, V.P. Maksakovsky, M.V. Ragulina, I.I. Mitin, O.A. Lavrenova, etc.).
Thus, the general trends in the development of cultural geography indicate that we are dealing with an interdisciplinary research field that requires its interpretation within a broad cultural horizon. There is no doubt that the potential of “landscape” and “topochronous” strategies of cultural and geographical knowledge is very high.
Problems common to cultural studies and cultural geography need to be discussed, such as clarifying areas of knowledge about culture within the framework of a general “classification of sciences,” harmonizing basic research strategies and descriptive procedures, and identifying the local uniqueness of the main spatial universals of culture. Experience shows that the difficulties that arise on the path of serious cultural training are similar to the problems that arise in other areas of humanities (psychology, pedagogy, cultural/human geography, etc.).
Cultural geography, human geography, poetic geography (geopoetics), sacred geography: their relationship.
Geographic knowledge, both physical and social, has a long history. Throughout history, geographers have often described features of the earth's spaces that are today considered to relate to human creativity rather than to the physical characteristics of the landscape. Thus, one of Herodotus’ predecessors, the ancient Greek historian and geographer Hecataeus of Miletus (490-550 BC), along with describing the geographical features of the area, interpreted the nature and habits of the inhabitants of the ancient era, that is, he combined geographical studies with “human studies”.
Having experienced a long “positivist” period in its history, when specific geographical methods in the field of economic, physical, political geography prevailed and were even considered the only possible ones, geographers
physical knowledge has entered a new period of its development. From 1960-1970 In connection with the criticism of positivist and Marxist approaches, the first conceptual studies appeared that combined geographical and general cultural discourses. This is associated with the emergence of such a direction as critical geography.
Critical geography was already on the threshold of that type of cultural-geographical knowledge, which later received the names “humanistic” (in Russian meaningful transcriptions - “humanitarian”) geography and “new cultural geography”.
At the same time, the problem of so-called poetic geography (geopoetics) is becoming relevant today. The general humanitarian roots of geopoetics can be found in ancient culture - both in its artistic aspect and in theoretical research (Aristotle's Poetics). IN national culture the roots of geopoetic thinking can be found both in the works of great poets (A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov, F. I. Tyutchev, N. Gumilyov, A. A. Akhmatova, A. Blok, I. Brodsky) and prose writers ( L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, M. A. Bulgakov, A. Platonov, A. Green), and in other fields of art. Modern cultural thinking “necessarily comes to geopoetics” (V. Kulakov). As numerous studies of semiotic-topological orientation have shown, spatial consciousness today acquires the status of “cartographic” and receives artistic “vision” where the ordinary eye sees only geometric diagrams of cities and transport interchanges.
The founder of Western geopoetics is considered to be Kenneth White, who describes the history of this movement as follows:
“I created the International Institute of Geopoetics on my own in Paris, gathering around myself an intellectual core of about 40 people. The main thing I am interested in is the continuation of life on earth (this is what humanity neglects the most!) and in the expression of meaningful existence on -earth through all the riches of language. To accomplish this task, the category of poetic is fundamental. The poetic underlies all spiritual and intellectual activity. Why can we talk about the category of poetic in linguistics, psychology, sociology, but not in politics?
The urgency of poetic (worldview) is obvious and we need to work on creating a more dynamic, life-giving, life-forming poetics. This is what I have been working on in recent years. This is my own work - in prose and poetry, in collections of essays - and on this our institute is based. This is an interdisciplinary community that unites, for example, geographers, biologists, psychologists and sociologists. The goal of common work is a beautiful and harmonious sense of the world...” (From an interview with Atlas magazine).
We were separated from the earth for a long time: all western philosophy and science is based on classification and division (roughly speaking, in order to “recognize” a thing, a Western person must dissect it, tearing it out of its environment).
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
And only now are we beginning to turn to a more holistic understanding of things.
I prefer to introduce philosophical reasoning into the fabric of the story gradually, unobtrusively, implanting it into existence and travel. Heidegger noted somewhere that it was the Germans who were always guilty of thorough, comprehensive thinking about phenomena, and this thinking is associated, as a rule, with “pacing,” walking, and traveling.
The main question of my close attention is the earth: how to exist on it, how to coexist with it for a person. This is the main question. And not even because most of the answers to it turned out to be untenable and did not stand up to any criticism by time, but more because the need to answer it becomes a matter of survival...” (From an interview with Jonathan Fraser regarding the American edition of the book “La Route Bleue ")1.
Many Western researchers insist on a synthetic understanding of the concept of “cultural geography” (for an overview of their points of view, see the corresponding section of this article), although we do not find an unambiguous understanding here either. For example, one of the authoritative English-language sites gives the following basic definitions:
Cultural geography is one of the two main branches of geography (along with physical geography) and is often referred to as human geography. Cultural geography is the study of the many aspects of culture found throughout the world and how they relate to the spaces and geographic locations in which cultural events occur. and at the same time explores how people move in different directions. Some branches of cultural geography emphasize the study of language, religion, various economic and governmental structures, art, music, and other cultural aspects that explain how and/or why people exist in the areas in which they live. In this sense, globalization becomes an important factor based on which various cultural phenomena easily “travel” around the world<..>. Today, cultural geography has practical significance and in more specialized fields such as feminist geography, children's geography, tourism, urban geography, gender geography and political geography. It develops with the aim of studying a variety of cultural practices and human activities - to the extent that they are spatially interconnected2.
We find a similar understanding in the Encyclopedia Britannica. At the same time, the English-language Wikipedia considers cultural geography to be a section of human geography.
1 See: http://www.liter.net/geopoetics/golov.html
2 http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/culturalovervie.
As for the relationship between cultural and human geography, D. N. Zamyatin has a special point of view on this issue. In particular, he believes that
Human geography is an interdisciplinary scientific direction that studies various ways of representing and interpreting earthly spaces in human activity, including mental activity. The basic concepts that human geography operates on are cultural landscape (also ethnocultural landscape), geographical image, regional (spatial) identity, spatial or local myth (regional mythology). The concept of “human geography” is closely related and intersects with the concepts of “cultural geography”, “human geography”, “sociocultural (social) geography”, “social geography”, “humanistic geography”<...>IN beginning of XXI V. the concept of “human geography” is often perceived as synonymous with the concept of “cultural geography”. Unlike cultural geography, human geography: 1) may include various aspects of the study of political, social and economic geography related to the interpretation of earthly spaces; 2) is positioned as an interdisciplinary scientific field that is not included in its entirety or its main part in the complex of geographical sciences; 3) shifts the center of research activity towards the processes of formation and development of mental constructs that describe, characterize and structure primary complexes of spatial perceptions and ideas...3 In recent years, research on the so-called “sacred geography” has become increasingly relevant. There is no particular debate about its relationship with other “geographies”, and, despite the fact that sacred geography is gradually emerging as a special field of study, it is generally considered one of the sections of cultural geography. Most of the works written in this genre are completely cultural in content and synthesize such areas of cultural knowledge as artistic creativity, religious art and religious philosophy, cultural and historical studies.
As it seems to the author of this article, from a cultural point of view, the thematic division that exists today within the general problems of cultural geography is not associated with fundamental differences in methodological settings or in the subject of research. More often we are talking about competition between different scientific schools and directions, the struggle for priority, etc.
So, for example, the “absorption” of cultural geography by humanitarian geography can be explained in terminological terms by the fact that the concept “humanitarian” is broader than the concept “cultural”, since the sciences of culture are part of the humanities. But at the same time, the “sciences of culture” include a large
3 Zamyatin D.N. Humanitarian geography: space, imagination and interaction of modern humanities // Sociological Review. T. 9. No. 3. 2010. pp. 26-27.
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
layer of anthropological knowledge, and in this sense there can be no talk of any “absorption”. Rather, we can talk about the intersection of cultural studies and cultural geography. Moreover, such an intersection in which cultural-geographical knowledge can partially be represented as cultural knowledge.
Thus, terminological studies only confuse the essence of the issue. The author of the article believes that from the standpoint of modern cultural knowledge, we can talk about four varieties of cultural geography, which represent unique levels (spheres, layers) of geographical knowledge, considered from a cultural perspective:
1. Macro level: [New] cultural geography
2. Micro level: Human geography
3. Meta-level: Poetic geography (geopoetics - geopoetics)
4. Sacral level: Sacral geography
Our review of the latest literature is based precisely on this understanding of the structure and tasks of cultural geography.
Previous reviews. Many studies in cultural (human) geography contain solid literature reviews. Let's look at two of them.
Harvey, David. Justice, Nature & The Geography of Difference. N.Y.: Blackwell Publishing, 1996.
Hayden, Dolores. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1991.
Lefebre, Henri. The Production of Space / Transl. by Donald Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1991.
Lofland, Lynn. The Public Realm: Exploring the City's QuintessentialTerritory. N.Y., 1998.
Soja, Edward. Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. L., N.Y.: Verso, 1989.
According to N.A. Chernyaeva (and many other modern researchers), today the humanities are experiencing a significant shift in the field of methodology associated with the strengthening of the spatial-geographical component. The former mental matrices based on the historical paradigm (in which any material was located primarily along the time axis and considered in historical development) are being replaced by such ways of understanding the material that can be called geographical. The influence of “geographical” thinking is felt in philosophy, literary criticism, anthropology, sociology and many other fields. Each of these sciences increasingly operates with metaphors of space, starting with the concept of “situated knowledge”, introduced into scientific circulation by feminist theory, the concept of “localized subjective
4 Humanities. Vol. 9. (No. 35 (2005), section “Reviews”.
"localized subjectivity" in cultural studies and cultural anthropology and ending with such metadisciplinary categories as globalization, diaspora, post- and neo-colonization, etc. The new cultural geography, according to many of its followers, provides a means of expression and a voice to those social actors who which are associated with the deterritorialization of modern space - with shifts in state and cultural boundaries, with neo- and postcolonial development, with the marginalization of some and the rise of other territories...
Conceptual reviews of the problems of cultural and human geography are contained in the main works of D. N. Zamyatin, one of the founders of modern Russian human geography.
In the work “Culture and Space: Modeling of Geographical Images,” published in 2006, the author devotes the first chapter (pp. 21-84) to the classification of the variety of sources on the topic under study. The traditions of studying images of geographical space in philosophy, in other humanities, in human geography, natural science, as well as general specifics geographical images in culture. At the end of the chapter, conclusions and references to several hundred sources are provided.
Reviews of varying lengths are also contained in relevant dissertations and monographic studies on the topic.
Review of sources in Russian
Let's start the review with the theses of I. I. Mitin's conceptual speech at a meeting of the Commission on Cultural Geography, held in Moscow in February 2006.
“It is advisable to propose a new framework and more geographical definition of cultural geography as one of the geographical sciences that studies the patterns of formation and development, as well as the rules for the construction and transformation of territorial cultural systems. The latter are proposed to be understood as systems consisting of elements (artifacts and mentifacts) of culture, the relationship between which is mediated by territory. This definition includes all interpretations of cultural landscapes (cultural areas, cultural areas) - both implying real objects and cultural ideas about them; in fact, attention to the second understanding adds a second part of the subject area to cultural geography. In this interpretation, the creation of complex cultural-geographical characteristics is one of the main tasks of cultural geography; this is a research method and form of presentation of information about the territorial cultural system, aimed at reflecting the uniqueness of the place<...>"5.
I. I. Mitin understands cultural geography in an applied (practical) sense, which allows him to model the plan and methodology of specific field research. This point
5 http://rgo.msk.ru/commissions/cultural/2006_02_08-2.html
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
This point of view is extremely important, as it allows cultural geography to remain on solid “geographical” soil, without crossing the line of merging with cultural studies (or with cultural anthropology). In addition, this point of view is quite consistent with the latest trends in Western cultural geography, which emphasizes the practical use of cultural-geographical knowledge.
Dissertation research. In recent years, several doctoral dissertations have been defended on cultural geography in the field of geographical sciences, as well as cultural studies (D. N. Zamyatin) and philosophy (O. A. Lavrenova). Let's highlight some of them.
Ragulina M.V. Cultural geography: Theories, methods, regional synthesis. Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences. Irkutsk, 2005 (specialty 25.00.24)
The scientific problem solved in the dissertation is related to the analytical understanding of the phenomenon of cultural geography, identifying trends in its modern development in Russia. According to the author of the dissertation, cultural geography is a powerful and authoritative branch of human geography, which is currently being rediscovered by Russian geographical thought. The content and capabilities of today's human geography are directly related to the dynamic and not always predictable nature of the changes taking place in society. Not so long ago, the basis of general scientific methodology were evolutionary models that proclaimed the limitless possibilities of technology and scientific and technological progress. Modernization and postmodernization of Western societies gave rise to globalist theories of what seemed like a near future. In Russian geography, the most important problem fields often remained “behind the scenes” and did not fit into its rigid framework. The living tissue of human-natural existence was separated into a strictly defined and ranked subdisciplinary series, where man as such, together with his everyday life world, was simply not appropriate: The hypertrophied anthropocentricity of foreign branches of human geography was criticized as a manifestation of subjective idealism. In Russia, the problems and approaches, the very spirit of anthropogeography at the beginning of the twentieth century. could become a solid foundation; further development of geography.
Kalutskov V.N. Landscape concept in cultural geography. Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Geographical Sciences. Moscow, 2009 (specialty 25.00.24)
The scientific problem to which the dissertation research is aimed can be formulated as the development of a new cultural landscape direction of research in cultural geography. Modern Russian geography has a powerful predecessor in the form of Russian anthropogeography of the first quarter of the 20th century, which allows us to better understand the uniqueness of the processes of humanization of modern Russian geography. However, these processes are quite painful. And it would be a great simplification to see only ideological reasons in everything. Probably, the humanization of geography is influenced to a much greater extent by established scientific traditions, including institutional forms of organization of science, and traditions of geographical
education. At the same time, in each geographical area, in each of its scientific disciplines (even, it would seem, very far from humanitarian issues) there are points of growth that influence the process of humanization of science. In cultural geography, one of these growth points is the landscape concept.
Ethnocultural landscape science is one of the promising areas for the implementation of the landscape concept in cultural geography. In the process of its development, it strives to fully use the cultural and linguistic capabilities of the landscape concept itself and the theoretical and methodological capabilities of the landscape concept. The subject of ethnocultural landscape studies covers a range of issues of ethnocultural development of the Earth's landscapes. It includes four research areas - the doctrine of cultural landscape, ethno-natural landscape studies, anthropological landscape studies and linguistic landscape studies.
Lavrenova O. A. Semantics of cultural landscape. Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Moscow, 2009 (specialty 24.00.01). M., 2010.
This work most clearly demonstrates the relationship between the problems of cultural geography and semiotic analysis, which is used in philosophical and cultural discourse.
As the author writes, the problem of the relationship between culture and space, the spatial characteristics of culture is an area of constant interest for both the humanities and natural sciences. In multidirectional studies of culture, culturally created meanings of geographical space and landscape are becoming increasingly important.
One of the fundamental ideas of the dissertation is related to the fact that the existence of culture in geographical space is inseparable from the process of symbolization of the environment. At the same time, according to O. A. Lavrenova, geographical objects and/or toponyms become metaphors, symbols, signs if the culture has stable associations with certain historical events, artifacts or unique features of the natural landscape. Therefore, we can say that geographic space is inseparable from images and symbols created by culture, which acquire the characteristics of an integral system, which can reasonably be considered as geocultural space.
The cultural landscape is a phenomenon that lies in that section of the semiosphere where the sign systems of culture are directly related to the geographical space in general and its individual objects in particular.
Accordingly, it is possible to raise the problem of studying the cultural landscape as a sign system - the problem of the semantics of the cultural landscape. The study of this problem brings to a new methodological level a whole layer of disparate research on the geography of spiritual culture, philosophical and cultural research in the field of geographical images and ideas as a cultural phenomenon.
Monographic studies and periodicals. The range of monographic research in areas adjacent to cultural geography is extremely large. Let's look at some of the works.
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
Gachev G.D. National images of the world. M., 1993-2007. In this series, the author, in particular, published the following books:
Images of India: experience of existential cultural studies. M., 1993
National images of the world: General issues Russian. Bulgarian. Kyrgyz. Georgian. Armenian. M.: Sov. writer, 1988; M.: Progress, 1995.
Cosmo-Psycho-Logos. M., 1995.
America in comparison with Russia and the Slavs. M., 1997.
National images of the world: a course of lectures. M., 1998.
National images of the world: Eurasia - the cosmos of the nomad, farmer and mountaineer. M.. 1999.
National images of the world. Russia's neighbors. M., 2003.
Mentality of the peoples of the world. M., 2003.
Cosmo-Psycho-Logos. (2nd ed.). M., 2007. Multi-volume work of the famous Russian philosopher and
culturologist, dedicated to the analysis of national images of the world in the dynamics of their development. It provides a detailed presentation of the spatiotemporal characteristics of cultural worlds in their unique historical coordinates. These works have never been “officially” related to the problems of cultural geography; they are not often referred to by representatives of this direction of geographical thought. However, their role in understanding the synthetic nature of the problems of cultural, humanitarian and poetic geography is undoubted.
1. The problem concerns the Whole. It is comprehensible only through the joint efforts of the rational and imaginative thinking, and therefore the work here proceeds in “mental images”.
2. The study is inspired by the pathos of internationalism and equality: in the orchestra of world culture, each national integrity is dear to all others, both with its unique timbre and harmony with everyone.
3. Each nation sees the Unified dispensation of Being (international) in a special projection, which I call the “national image of the world.” This is a variant of the invariant (a single world civilization, a single historical process).
4. Any national integrity is Cosmo-Psycho-Logos, that is, the unity of national nature, mentality and thinking.
5. The nature of each country is a text, full of meanings<.. .>In the course of work during History, a specific people unravels the call and covenant of Nature and creates Culture.
6. Nature and Culture are in dialogue: both in identity and in complementarity: Society and History are called upon to make up for what is not given to the country by nature.
7. The national (like ethnicity and language) is subject to social, class differentiations, strains and splits, but this is a problem of the second stage and aerobatics; First you need to find out what can become split.
8. The national image of the world is reflected in pantheons, cosmogonies, and shines through in a set of basic archetypes-symbols in art. The closest path to us is the analysis of the national imagery of literature and consideration through it
the entire thickness of culture, including natural science - as texts of scientific literature.
This analysis is extended by G. D. Gachev to the cultural and geographical images of various regions of the world.
The first and obvious thing, in the author’s opinion, that determines the type of national model of the world is the nature in which a people grows and creates its history. The nature of each country is not a geographical concept, not the environment. Nature is a mystical substance, “nature” is nature and homeland, mother is the earth to her people. As a metalanguage for my descriptions, the author writes, I use the language of four elements, adhering to the ancient tradition of natural philosophy: earth, water, air, fire, understood broadly and symbolically - the essence of the words of this metalanguage, and eros serves as syntax. I explore, continues G. D. Gachev, which element of culture outweighs, for which people or country space is more important, for which time, what is more characteristic of a given people in culture.
Kagansky V.L. Cultural landscape and Soviet habitable space: Collection of articles. M., 2001 (additionally: Kagansky V.L. Landscape and culture. M., 1997; his: Cultural landscape: basic concepts in Russian geography // Observatory of Culture: journal review. - 2009. - No. 1. P. 62-70)
According to the author, the cultural landscape has become a subject of increased interest in recent decades, especially in Russia. The very concept of “cultural landscape” also attracts considerable attention. It has never belonged entirely to any one field of knowledge or activity, but the cultural landscape as such is explored, conceptualized and represented primarily by geography (understood broadly). One of the leading leitmotifs of all geography is landscape.
V.L. Kagansky adheres to a fairly broad understanding of the term “culture”, which implies, in particular, the consideration of science, and, consequently, the scientific discipline of “geography” as one of the spheres of human culture. Thus, the functioning of the concept of “cultural landscape” in science is a special case of its existence in our culture. A cultural landscape is a phenomenon and subject (both scientific and cultural), which is obviously given as a family of concepts, and none of them can claim universality or monopolism.
Archetype of the cultural landscape. The landscape, according to V.L. Kagansky, is also shaped in that sphere of its existence, which is now commonly called mentality. Images of the landscape, including conceptual images, its self-descriptions, “auto-presentations”, images-and-myths are its component, a special part no less important and no less durable than all the others. This is not an appendage or appendage to the physicality of the landscape, on the contrary: the majority of people live precisely and primarily in this reality of the image, the myth; For most people, phase space is more vital than landscape space. Actually, few people live in the landscape. The character “the author is an inhabitant of the landscape; texts - stories of a traveler through the world of landscape.
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
In many ways, the collection of scientific articles published in Vilnius is adjacent to the previous edition:
P.S. Landscapes: optics of urban research / resp. ed. N. Milerius, B. Cope. Vilnius, 2008.
The collection is an interesting attempt to present a variety of approaches and conceptualizations in the study of urban space in a context that is usually designated as post-socialist. Abbe Riviatura "P.S." in the interpretation of the authors of the book and in its different sections it means Post-soaalist, Post-Soros, and Post-Scriptum, and even Pferd-Starke. The preface to the book explains in detail this author’s move, which makes it possible to highlight various aspects of the formation and existence of post-Soviet urban spaces in an image-style manner. The main goal of this volume is to initiate a discussion about the different dimensions of urban space and how it can be coordinated with the social whole. The collection is intended primarily for university audiences, anyone interested in the methodology of social and cultural research, as well as for various types of researchers of urban space practices.
Main sections of the book:
P.S. cities: Disruption of the order of time and space
P.S. cities: Economics and/or politics?
P.S. cities: Urbanization in question?
According to the author, the cultural landscape is a problematic field of the relationship between culture and space, the spatial characteristics of culture; This is part of the semiosphere, where geographical objects, toponyms, and hydronyms act as signs. The meanings of geographical space created by culture are of great importance in it. Culture restructures the space of its habitat, and ideas about the environment turn into a sign system. Thus, the sign system created by a culture is genetically connected with the basic attitudes and codes of the culture. Realized in space, any culture becomes a spatial phenomenon that cannot be studied without relying on the concepts of the noosphere and pneumatosphere.
The work is interesting in its use of a distinct semiotic and cultural-philosophical methodology, as well as a specific analysis of various geographical spaces, including the semiotics of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Perm.
Abashe V.V. Perm as a text: Perm in Russian culture and literature of the 20th century. Perm, 2008.
The second edition of the book (the first was published in 2000) represents the first volume of a 12-volume project to publish books about Perm, which is currently underway.
According to the author's concept, the Perm text includes a wide range of “internal texts” characteristic of historically important geocultural spaces. Thus, analyzing written sources from Epiphanius the Wise
to Pasternak and modern samizdat poems, the author includes in the concept of the Perm text features of landscape, history, geography, everyday life in their semiotic horizon. Analysis of local Perm texts of the last century leads to the conclusion about the interaction of various semiotic coordinates of a cultural text.
The author's point of view is that the development of modern culture as a whole is characterized by the enlargement of objects of study. The city as a phenomenon of culture and social life is of increasing interest. Here the interests of history, anthropology, sociology, political science and geography meet.
Trubina E. G. City in theory: experiments in understanding space. M., 2011.
The book examines classical and modern theories cities - from the classical Chicago school to the actor-network theory that has emerged in the last decade. Significant ideas of urban theory are reproduced taking into account the specifics of post-Soviet cities and the difficulties that researchers face when studying them. As emphasized in the reviews of this book, it is rather a textbook on the sociology of urbanism, which is quite rare in our educational space. At the same time, the book is built on the basis of a good knowledge of the Western urban tradition and fits well into the general dynamics of the study of modern cities. According to the author, in the course of European philosophy and sociology recording large-scale social transformations of modern times, the city acts as one of the most representative parts of society, personifying the relationship between industrialization and urbanization, alienation and normalization. Urban theory, as the author believes, can be considered part of social theory. The complexity of the interaction between social theory and the city is due to the fact that the city is both the main space in which social change occurs and the key place in which social theory is created.
The book is equipped with interesting applied material, as well as an extensive bibliography for the chapters of the study.
IN Lately, as already indicated, works related to the problems of sacred geography are gaining more and more importance. And although most researchers believe that sacred geography is a special section of cultural geography associated with the study of cultural spaces of various religious content, nevertheless, the specificity of research on sacred geography is quite obvious.
The boundaries of the sacred modern culture are not always recorded accurately. This feature is manifested, in particular, in the ability of our contemporary to freely perform a “nomadic movement”: to cross cultural and geographical boundaries, to move from one cultural
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
ligious center to another, that is, to be a citizen of the world, a man of culture. Religious modifications inherent in a world without borders impose special obligations on all participants in this cultural and geographical process. One of the illustrative concepts within the framework of sacred geography is the book by Lidov A. M. Hierotopy: Spatial icons and paradigm images in Byzantine culture, Moscow, 2009.
The work is devoted to the history and theory of the creation of sacred spaces in culture (using the example of Byzantine art). It is based on research in recent years, which largely continues the author’s work on the symbolism and iconography of Byzantine and Old Russian churches. At the same time, it reflects a fundamentally new methodological approach and a special theory artistic culture. The theory is based on three interrelated concepts introduced by the author into the humanities and included in the title of the book. The most general is the concept of “hierotopy”, according to which the creation of sacred spaces should be considered as a special sphere of creativity and an independent area of historical research. Based on all available sources, the book reconstructs specific projects of “spatial icons” and identifies characteristic “paradigm images”, while at the same time offering a new look at a whole layer of artistic cultural phenomena that previously did not fall into the objective world of art history.
According to the author of the book, the almost complete absence of scientific work in this direction is largely due to the fact that modern language There is no adequate term-concept denoting this field of activity. The widely used term “sacred space” cannot fully correspond to the task, since it has too general character, describing almost the entire sphere of religion. Several years ago, a new concept was proposed - “hierotopy”. The term itself is built on the principle of combining the Greek words “hieros” (sacred) and “topos” (place, space, concept), just like many words that have taken root in modern consciousness over the past hundred years (for example, iconography). The essence of the concept can be formulated as follows: hierotopy is the creation of sacred spaces, considered as a special type of creativity, as well as a special area of historical research in which specific examples are identified and analyzed of this creativity. The task of hierotopy is to recognize the existence of a special and very large phenomenon that requires defining the boundaries of its research field and developing special methods of study.
A series of books by a famous researcher, one of the leaders of Russian human geography. Zamyatin D.N. Humanitarian geography: Space and language of geographical images. St. Petersburg, 2003; Zamyatin D. N. Meta-geography: Space of images and images of space. M., 2004; Zamyatin D. N. Culture and space: Modeling of geographical images. M., 2006.
From his point of view, throughout its history, geography was predominantly a natural science, but not alien to art. Geographers have never forgotten about
images of places and territories, about the beauty of earthly space itself. Geography became interested in space itself quite recently - only in the first half of the 19th century, when the German geographer Karl Ritter formulated methodological basis studying the earth's spaces. While remaining largely a natural science throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, geography gradually increased its humanitarian and scientific capabilities and “ambitions,” trying to understand the laws of human perception and transformation of the Earth.
Actually, the entire series of books by D.N. Zamyatin is devoted to the interpretation of this issue. The range of problems that the author introduces into the field of human geography is impressive. In addition to geopolitical and geocultural discourses, D. N. Zamyatin draws on material from the history of artistic culture, urban studies, philosophy and postmodern culture, and many others. In this understanding, human geography, rather, becomes a type of cultural discipline rather than an independent field of study (it is worth recalling that D. N. Zamyatin defended his doctoral dissertation for an academic degree in cultural studies).
The author is interested in the problem of modeling geographic images, which is one of the most important. The rapid introduction in the last few decades of social scientific and humanities-scientific approaches to various directions geographical research led to the formation of an interdisciplinary problematic methodological field.
Space and time are the most natural and organic coordinates of culture, the author believes. Any culture has its own, unique spatial dimensions. These dimensions are expressed not only in specific geographical conditions, in which culture develops, but also in certain images of space (geographical images) generated by the culture being studied. Geographical images are an essential component of the culture in question, as well as culture in general (taken in its abstract sense). At the same time, these images have significant influence on the formation and development of the culture itself, defining a number of its unique characteristics and phenomena.
Problems of the relationship between culture and space, their interaction turn out to be extremely relevant both in the field of scientific research in various humanities disciplines (cultural studies, political science, history, philology, psychology, etc.), and in the field of direct practical human activity - be it the protection of cultural and natural heritage , external and domestic politics states, international relations, socio-economic development of various regions and countries. A significant part of modern humanities and scientific research is focused on the study of various kinds of spatial concepts and images, and such research has a serious impact on the development of the general methodology of the humanities as a whole (for example, the study of images of space in linguistics and literary criticism). Along with this, most of this kind of work has virtually no contact with similar attempts and research in the natural sciences - primarily in cultural, political and social geography.
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| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
The presence of such a “Rubicon” that has not yet been crossed reduces the overall methodological and applied potential of studying the problems of interaction between culture and space.
D. N. Zamyatin notes that economic practices are increasingly becoming focused on the use of images of space, ranging from images of small rural areas, cities, cultural landscapes and ending with images of administrative and political entities of the state, regional political unions and even civilizations. Cultural policies, political actions and economic decisions in the modern world cannot be imagined without purposeful, well-packaged applied spatial images, which are their integral and significant part.
In fact, the problem of modeling geographical images refers, according to D.N. Zamyatin, to the phenomenology of culture, which analyzes theoretical and methodological searches in other sciences, but at the same time provides a single, “end-to-end” view of the problem posed and, accordingly, determines the range of proposed author of theoretical and methodological techniques.
Additional sources. Generalizing scientific and methodological articles and studies, including a detailed overview of the formation of the idea of cultural geography in Western and domestic humanitarian thought. Research of different genres, sometimes incompatible in historical, cultural, cultural and philosophical concepts, reveals the possibility of a multivariate consideration of the basic ideas of cultural geography. Leading researchers in this area reveal the diversity of approaches in this area6.
Human Geography. Scientific and educational almanac. Vol. I-VI. M.: Institute of Heritage, 2004-20097.
The almanac “Human Geography” is devoted to the study of the “alternative” (and at the same time basic) concept of “humanity”.
6 Vedenin Yu.A., Turovsky R.F. Cultural geography, M., 2001; Kalutskov V.N. Landscape in cultural geography. M.: New Chronograph, 2008; Cultural geography / Scientific. ed. Yu.A. Vedenin, R.F. Turovsky. M.: Institute of Heritage, 2001; Geography of art. Vol. I-IV. M.: Institute of Heritage, 1996-2005.
7 Main issues: Humanitarian geography: Scientific and cultural-educational almanac / Comp., rep. ed. D. N. Zamyatin; auto Baldin A., Galkina T., Zamyatin D. et al. Vol. 1. M.: Heritage Institute,
2004. 431 pp.; Humanitarian Geography: Scientific and cultural-educational almanac / Comp., rep. ed. D. N. Zamyatin; auto Andreeva E., Belousov S., Galkina T. et al. Vol. 2. M.: Heritage Institute,
2005. 464 pp.; Humanitarian geography: Scientific and cultural-educational almanac / Comp., rep. ed. D. N. Zamyatin; auto Abdulova I., Amogolonova D., Baldin A. et al. Vol. 3. M.: Heritage Institute,
2006. 568 pp.; Humanitarian geography: Scientific and cultural-educational almanac / Comp., rep. ed. D. N. Zamyatin; auto Abdulova I., Amogolonova D., Gerasimenko T. et al. Vol. 4. M.: Institute of Heritage, geography) and its related areas. The journal raises current issues related to social and cultural problems of geography and contributes to the development of scientific discussions about them. It strives to be accessible to the international scientific community, inviting foreign authors and experts to collaborate.
The journal supports publications of young scientists (bachelors and masters). All scientific articles in this journal are peer reviewed.
Journal of Cultural Geography Published By: Frequency: 3 issues per year. Volume Number: 28.
Journal of Cultural Geography. Publishing house Routledge (frequency 3 issues per year; Issue No. 28, 2010 - last available issue).
Since 1979, this journal has provided an international forum for scientific research on the territorial aspects of habitation various groups people and their activities. In published studies, these problems are associated with landscape concepts and diverse cultural phenomena. The magazine is distinguished by high quality articles written in an accessible style. In addition to voluminous scientific works, popular essays on special thematic issues related to the main topics of the journal are published. Reviews of new books on cultural geography and related disciplines are also published.
Don Mitchell. Cultural Geography: A Critical introduction. 2000. 325 p.
Don Mitchell. Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction. Published by Wiley-Blackwell, 2000. 325 p.
A critical assessment of the transformations within Western cultural geography that have occurred over the past two decades. Cultural geography, according to the author, explains cultural changes in various geographical areas - from politics to everyday life, in the sphere of production and consumption - up to issues of sexuality, gender, race and nationality.
Specific issues requiring further attention highlighted by Don Mitchell's work include:
Analysis of recent transformations in cultural geographical theory, revision and demand for the most
valuable aspects of old traditions;
Renewal of discussions on the problems of cultural ideology, value production and the role of cultural confrontation in the reproduction of social life.
Development of cultural-geographical theory using the example of understanding modern “culture wars”.
Beyond Territory Dynamic Geographies of Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion and Innovation / edited by Harald Bathelt, Maryann Feldman, Dieter F. Kogler. Published by Routledge, 2011. 294 p. (Series: Regions and Cities)
Beyond the Territory of Dynamic Geographies of Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion and Innovation / ed.: Harald Butler, Marianne Feldman, Dieter F. Kogler. Routledge Publishing, 2011. 294 pp. (series “Regions and Cities”)
The main purpose of the book is to discuss new trends in dynamic geographic innovation. The authors argue that in an era of increasing globalization, two trends seem to be dominant: a rigid territorial model of innovation and localized configurations of innovation activity. The book brings together scientists who work in this field. Instead of addressing well-known concepts and theories, the book aims to discuss unclear (“narrow”) issues associated with rigid territorializations and simplified political activity. The authors present evidence that innovation, although not dependent solely on regional contexts, can have specific effects on the situation in each individual territory. The book introduces new empirical and conceptual data. The work was carried out by an interdisciplinary group of leading scientists in such fields as economical geography, Innovation Research and Political Science. Building on recent discussions around innovation systems of different types, it aims to summarize new economic and cultural innovations and new perspectives in the field of cultural geography research.
It is significant that in the Western tradition there is a practice of publishing reference books (reading books) on cultural geography, which are collections of original articles written in fairly simple language. They are used in educational work with students, and also serve as a kind of “encyclopedia” of the current state of research in cultural geography. One such popular publication is the Handbook of Cultural Geography / ed. by K. Andersson, M. Domosh, S. Pile, and N. Thrift. Sage Press, 2003 (first edition; last edition - 2009). Handbook of Cultural Geography / edited by K. Andersson, M. Domosh, S. Pyle, N. Thrift. Sage Press, 2003 (reprinted every 1-2 years; latest edition 2009)
For Sage, these publications represent an exploration of the “art of cultural geography” in its specific areas. The book is intended for an audience who has a reasonable degree of familiarity with the subject, but who would like to learn more about a particular topic or expand their understanding and scope of work in that area.
According to the editors' view, cultural geography is not simply a "landscape" or "field" discipline. At
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
When discussing the subject of cultural geography, its borders with related humanitarian fields, it becomes obvious that the “field” of cultural geography is defined by a violation of the usual academic boundaries. It is based on an insatiable enthusiasm for finding new problems and ideas.
When we began to draw up a research plan, the authors write in the preface, we decided that we needed to try to give it an interdisciplinarity mode, in some sense breaking the usual boundaries of cultural geography. For this purpose, specialists were invited to edit sections of the directory that reflected the thematic interests of cultural geography. The most important were the “fields of interaction” with other disciplines.
This book contains the main issues that concern cultural geographers and reflects the specifics of the discussions that take place in their environment.
A distinctive feature of cultural geography is the transfer of geographical ideas to a variety of cultural objects. Geographers are interested in why things where they are are represented in their particular meaning, and what happens when they begin to move, cease to be isolated. How and why this happens is also important. In addition, cultural geography can change the style of traditional thinking that exists in geographical knowledge. One could even say that cultural geography is a special style of thinking that absorbs a wide range of questions and ways of answering them.
A handbook of cultural geography, the publishers write, is ultimately a bit of an “undisciplined” affair. We hope to delight readers and help them appreciate not only what is inside the book, but what else can be achieved with the help of the ideas put into it. The book may intrigue, irritate or surprise - but this is exactly what cultural geography is about and strives for. The book includes eight sections (and more than thirty problem articles):
Fabian, Johannes. Memory versus culture. Publishing house Duce Univ. Press, 2007.
In this book, renowned anthropologist Johannes Fabian evaluates contemporary anthropological practices and their new forms. Twelve essays provide theoretical reflections related to the substantiation of the results of the researcher's previous ethnographic work. Fabian examines central issues in theoretical debate that are closely related to the idea of cultural geography: language and time, history and memory, ethnography and the experience of recognition. The author demonstrates a comprehensive vision of the problems of modern anthropology, focusing on the problem of language.
The place of linguistics in modern language is explored, as well as the role of the study of material culture, if we imagine it filled with “other” objects. Moving on to the practice of ethnography, Fabian considers the role of the Internet, field notes, and other written documents associated with ethnographic fieldwork. He understands ethnography as a necessary part of the geographical vision of the world, and cultural memory as a reflection of the results
field research conducted by interested practitioners of the field.
The author writes that when he collected essays for the book (the book itself is a transcription of lectures and seminars held over five years), he grouped the main problems into four headings: "Expanding Anthropology", "Language, Time, Objects", “Forget and Remember” and “Ethnography”. Although each essay was written for its own purposes, the result was a certain sequence that reflected both the personal interests of the author and the interests of the organizers and sponsors with whom he collaborated.
In general, the book represents a typical “movement” of Western anthropological thought, according to which the human sciences should be based on a serious applied foundation, one of which, according to the author, is the “anthropological expansion” of the possibilities of comprehending the space and time of culture.
Additional sources
Carl Sauer on Culture and Landscape: Readings and Commentaries, edited by William M. Denevan and Kent Mathewson. Baton Rouge LU Press, 2009.
Landscape and culture: studies of Carl Suarez. Texts and comments / ed. W. M. Denevan and Kent Mafeson, 2009.
A collection of original texts by a famous Western theorist in the field of cultural and landscape geography, with comments, introductory and concluding articles by the editors of the publication.
Piet, Richard. Reflections on Modern Geography, Blackwell Publishing, 1998.
The work, written by a professional geographer, is based on historical, applied and theoretical material that reveals the interaction of cultural and geographical spaces in the dynamics of their development.
Zelinsky W. Globalization Reconsidered: The Historical Geography of Modern Western Male Attire // Journal of Cultural Geography. 2004; Zelinsky W. This Remarkable Continent: An Atlas of North American Society and Cultures. (with John F. Rooney, Jr., Dean Louder, and John D. Vitek) College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 1982.
Zelinsky, Wilbur. Reassessing globalization: The historical geography of modern Western men's clothing // Journal of Cultural Geography, 2004; Zelinsky, Wilbur. This Wonderful Continent: An Atlas of North American Society and Its Cultural Diversity (with the participation of Zelinsky's students and colleagues), 1982.
Classic studies of one of the patriarchs of American cultural geography (born 1921), which has gone through a large number of editions in different languages. A series of articles in the Journal of Cultural Geography (1985-2005), as well as about 10 fundamental monographic studies, provide an objective picture of the development of American cultural geography in the 20th century.
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
David Atkinson. Cultural Geography - Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.
The book by the famous American author sets as its main task the definition of the real territory that is “occupied” by cultural geography. The work reveals the range of ideas with the help of which this scientific space is formed. The book is primarily addressed to students of humanities.
A companion to cultural geography / ed. by James S. Duncan, Nuala Christina Johnson, Richard H. Schein. 2004. 529 pp.
A [companion] guide to cultural geography / edited by: J. S. Duncan, Christina Johnson, Richard N. Shine.
The book presents a series of essays exploring the comparative cultural geographies of nature, identity, landscape, and power. In practice, it represents an introduction to modern cultural geography, based on the interpretation of the subjective-objective premises of its interaction with sociology, anthropology (personality theory), natural science and political philosophy.
Conclusion
From the point of view of cultural studies, cultural geography today covers a wide range of social and humanitarian disciplines related to the idea of culture. It acquires its identity as an interdisciplinary direction, the object of study of which is both the spatial diversity of cultures and the problem of their localization in different regions of the Earth. In a broader sense, we are talking about the mutual influence of various symbolic spaces of culture in the topos (and chronotope) of its development. Cultural studies today need to “turn over” the traditional concept of “chronotope” and turn to topochronic research, nurturing the ideas of sustainability, spatial and territorial localization cultural sites, cultural semantics
spaces. In this regard, the theoretical foundations of cultural geography seem to be quite universal in the general humanitarian (and cultural) horizon. Therefore, it requires careful consideration of methodological issues.
A comparative analysis of domestic and Western sources shows that in Russia the formation of cultural geography occurs with a delay of about 30-40 years. If in Western humanities the quantity and quality of published works is at the level of development of other fields of knowledge (cultural anthropology, economic and political geography, comparative studies within the framework of Cultural Studies, etc.), then we are still talking only about the formation of cultural-geographical knowledge, on defining the boundaries of its competence and lines of interaction with other areas of humanities. In this sense, the fate of cultural geography resembles the fate of cultural studies on domestic soil, which is also in its infancy.
There is an urgent need not only for close interaction between cultural scientists, philosophers and specialists in cultural geography, but also a clear request for a philosophical and cultural understanding of the problems of cultural geography. Currently, cultural scientists and philosophers practically do not deal with these problems, do not know about the existence of a special geographical discourse in the field of culture, and do not mention cultural geography in their research. For its part, the cultural-geographical community has little interest in what is happening in the field of cultural studies. Points of intersection are formed, so to speak, at the level of the “reference apparatus”: in scientific works, different authors cite the same sources (for example, Yu. M. Lotman or V. N. Toporov), but that’s all ends.
It seems that this situation is temporary, and normal scientific contacts will be established in the coming years.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In Russian
R. S. Landscapes: Optics of Urban Research. Vilnius, 2008.
Abashev V. S. Perm as a text: Perm in Russian culture and literature of the 20th century. Perm, 2008.
Vedenin Yu. A., Turovsky R. F. Cultural geography, M., 2001.
Gachev G.D. National images of the world. M., 1997-2007.
Geography of art. Vol. WELL. M.: Institute of Heritage, 1996-2005.
Human Geography. Scientific and educational almanac. Vol. ¡-IV / Ed. D.N. Zamyatina. M.: Heritage Institute, 2004-2007.
Gumilyov L.N. Ethnogenesis and biosphere of the Earth. L.: Leningrad State University Publishing House, 1989. 495 p.
Deleuze J., Guatari F. Capitalism and schizophrenia: A thousand plateaus. M., 2010.
Druzhinin A. G. Theoretical basis geography of culture. Rostov-on-Don: Publishing house of SKNTs VSh, 1999. 114 p.
Zamyatin D.N. Humanitarian geography: Space and language of geographical images. St. Petersburg, 2003.
Zamyatin D. N. Culture and space: Modeling of geographical images. M., 2006.
Zamyatin D. N. Meta-geography: Space of images and images of space. M., 2004.
Zamyatin D. N. Modeling of geographical images: The space of human geography. Smolensk, 1999. 256 p.
Kagansky V.L. Cultural landscape and Soviet inhabited space. M., 2001.
Kagansky V.L. Landscape and culture. M., 1997.
KalutskovV. N. Landscape in cultural geography. M.: New Chronograph, 2008.
Cultural geography / Scientific. ed. Yu. A. Vedenin, R. F. Turovsky. M., 2001.
Cultural landscape as a heritage object / Ed. Yu. A. Vedenina, M. E. Kuleshova. M.: Institute of Heritage; St. Petersburg, 2004.
Cultural landscape of the Russian North / Rep. ed. A.A. Ivanova, V. N. Kalutskov. M., 1998.
Lavrenova O. A. Spaces and meanings: semantics of cultural landscape. M., 2010.
17 | 4(5). 2011 | International Journal of Cultural Studies
International Journal of Cultural Research
© Eidos Publishing House, 2011. For personal use only. www.culturalresearch.ru
© Publishing House EIDOS, 2011. For Private Use Only.
UVAROV Mikhail Semenovich / Mikhail UVAROV
| Cultural geography in a cultural perspective (analytical review) |
CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY
Lidov A. M. Hierotopy: Spatial icons and paradigm images in Byzantine culture, Moscow, 2009. Lotman Yu. M. Unpredictable mechanisms of culture. Tallinn, 2010. Lotman Yu. M. Semiosphere. M., 2006. MaksakovskyV. P. Geographical culture. M., 1998. Ragulina M. V. Cultural geography: theory, methods, regional
synthesis. Irkutsk, 2004. Trubina E. G. City in theory: experiments in understanding space. M., 2011.
Fadeeva T. M. Crimea in sacred space. Simferopol, 2002. Cultural landscape of the Russian North / Rep. ed. A. A. Ivanova,
V. N. Kalutskov. M., 1998. Streletsky V. N. Cultural geography in Russia: features
formation and development paths // Izvestia RAS. Ser. geographical. 2008. No. 5.
Existing S. Ya., Druzhinin A. G. Essays on the geography of Russian culture. Rostov-n/D, 1994.
On English language A companion to cultural geography / ed. by James S. Duncan, Nuala
Christina Johnson, Richard H. Schein. 2004. 529 p. Bridging the Gap: Connecting Christian Faith and Professional Practice in a Pluralistic Society/ Dort College Press, 2009.
Carl Sauer on Culture and Landscape: Readings and Commentaries, edited by William M. Denevan and Kent Mathewson. Baton Rouge LU Prss, 2009.
David Atkinson. Cultural geography. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.
Debres, Karen. Burgers for Britain: A Cultural Geography of McDonald's UK. Journal of Cultural Geography. 2005.
Donald, Mitchell. Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction. 2000. 352 p.
Fabian J. Memory against Culture. Duce Univ. Press, 2007.
Fabian J. Moments of Freedom: Anthropology and Popular Culture. Unov. Press of Virginia, 2008 (2nd ed.)
Handbook of Cultural Geography / ed. by K. Andersson, M/ Domosh, S. Pile, and N. Thrift. Sage Press, 2003 (first edition).
Peet, Richard. Modern Geographical Thought; Blackwell; 1998.
Postmodernism and the Postsocialist Condition: Politicized art under socialism / ed. by Martin Erjavec. Univ. of California Press, 2003.
Social and Cultural Geography. Routledge Press, Vol. 12, 2010.
Zelinsky W. Globalization Reconsidered: The Historical Geography of Modern Western Male Attire // Journal of Cultural Geography. 2004.
Zelinsky W. This Remarkable Continent: An Atlas of North American
Society and Cultures. (with John F. Rooney, Jr., Dean Louder, and John D. Vitek) College Station: Texas A&M University Press. 1982.
Option 1.
2.Choose the correct answer. Objective signs of civilization include:
A. common history;
B. self-identification of people;
A. 3-4 thousand years BC; B. 4-5 thousand years BC; V. 5-6 years BC
4.Choose the correct answer. National religions include:
A. Buddhism. B. Judaism. B. Islam.
5. Choose the correct answer. Orthodoxy is professed by:
A. in Italy; B. in Moldova; V. in Spain.
6. Choose the correct answer. What religion is practiced in Mongolia?
7. Match:
A. Christianity. 1. Saudi Arabia.
B. Islam. 2. Myanmar.
B. Buddhism. 3.Armenia.
“The cultural heritage of a civilization that has inherited the values of previous cultures is rich and diverse. It includes traditions and customs, the art of ceramics, carpet weaving, embroidery, majestic castles and palaces, mosques.” ____________________________
9. Select features characteristic of Western civilizations:
A. Self-contemplation; B. Liberalism; B. Free market.
10. Select the characteristics that characterize Russia as European country:
A. The principle of collectivism;
B. Private property, market relations.
Geography test. Grade 10. Theme: “Geography of culture, religions, civilizations.”
Option 2.
1.Choose the correct answer. Geography of culture studies:
A. spatial organization of society; B. territorial differences in culture and its individual elements; B. ways of creating cultural values.
2.Choose the correct answer. The subjective signs of civilization include:
A. common history;
B. self-identification of people;
B. commonality of forms of material culture.
3.Choose the correct answer. The first civilizations arose:
A. 7-8 thousand years BC; B. 4-5 thousand years BC; B. 3-4 years BC
4.Choose the correct answer. World religions include:
A. Buddhism. B. Judaism. B. Confucianism.
5. Choose the correct answer. Islam is practiced by:
A. in Algeria; B. in Moldova; V. in Spain.
6. Choose the correct answer. What religion is practiced in China:
A. Buddhism; B. Shintoism; B. Taoism.
7. Match:
A. Christianity. 1. Mongolia.
B. Islam. 2. Sweden.
B. Buddhism. 3.Turkey.
8. Determine what civilization we are talking about:
“This civilization organically absorbed Indian elements of pre-Columbian cultures and civilizations. Indian culture suffered great losses. However, its manifestations can be found everywhere...” ____________________________
9. Select the features characteristic of the civilizations of the East:
A. Self-contemplation; B. Adaptation to natural conditions; B. Free market.
10. Select the characteristics that characterize Russia as an Asian country:
A. The principle of collectivism;
B. Individualism, priority of the individual;
B. The supreme owner is the state.
Geographical knowledge is a universal element of the general culture of mankind and the foundation of modern civilization. Geography is one of the oldest areas of human knowledge, studying all phenomena and processes that have a spatial component, these are objects of the world around us - material and ideal. In each object, phenomenon, process, geography considers their internal territorial structure and external territorial connections. Among them there is such a concept as “culture”, in various and numerous forms, associated with nature and human economy: “the space of the Earth organizes culture, and culture organizes space” (Baburin, Mazurov, 2000).
The concept of “culture” means cultivation, education, development, reverence. The entire scope of this concept is enormous - it is everything that is created by people, the entire totality of products of human activity. Culture is a phenomenon that cannot be understood without relating it to nature. That is, culture is the totality of material and spiritual values created and accumulated by humanity, it is the diversity of forms of human life, it is the cultivation of life, nature, its humanization.
By geographic culture we understand the social and individual quality of a person, reflecting the value and personal attitude towards living nature, a healthy lifestyle and the environment and manifested in the process of participation in spiritual and practical activities for their knowledge, development, transformation and preservation. Geographical culture of a person is a system of life values based on knowledge about the nature of the Earth, the reasons for its diversity, the population and its economic activities, regulating the behavior of a schoolchild in the process of relationships “man - nature - society - culture”.
V.P. Maksakovsky, highlighting the concept of “culture,” named four of its important components:
I. Geographical picture of the world.
II. Geographical thinking.
III. Methods of geography.
IV. The language of geography.
The geographical picture of the world helps to comprehend the laws of interaction between society and nature in various aspects. It makes it possible to determine both the general culture of a person and his personal position in the present and future of the planet. Geographical culture also implies mastering specific geographical thinking - complex thinking.
It is also important to note the methods of geography - comparative descriptive, statistical, historical, economic and mathematical, method of geographical zoning, etc. But, in my opinion, one of the most important methods of the science of geography, which distinguishes a geographer from a specialist in another field of knowledge, is cartographic method. The map gives an idea of the relative position of objects, their sizes, the degree of distribution of a particular phenomenon, and much more. N. N. Baransky emphasized that “the map, along with the text, is, as it were, the “second language” of geography, just as drawing is the second language of geometry” and that “every geographical research comes from the map and comes to the map, it begins with the map and ends with a map."
It is especially important to note that N.N. Baransky directly linked mastering the language of the map with geographical thinking, for those who are accustomed to “putting their judgments on the map” think geographically. He assigned the role of the object language of geography to the map. (Maksakovsky, 1998)
In addition to the language of maps, the language of geography includes the language of concepts and terms, the language of dates and numbers, the language of scientific facts and the language of geographical names.
Susable development- Sustainable development or Sustainable development? In English, the concept of “sustainable development” is equivalent to the expression: sustainable development. Word Sustainable literally means "Life Sustainer" or "Life Sustainer". The word development, in addition to “development”, fundamentally means “manifestation”. It is the term Sustainable development was specifically introduced by the United Nations International Commission on Environment and Development (IECED) in 1987 in the Brundtland Report to refer to development in which “meeting the needs of the present does not undermine the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The main functional concepts of this concept are the needs of people for natural resources and environmental benefits and the limitations of the environment’s ability to satisfy the current and future needs of people.
At the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro (1992), a detailed analysis of the environmental situation in the world was presented. The conference was attended by heads of state and government, who for the first time had to make a difficult decision to change the ideological strategy of humanity.
Every action taken has an impact on tomorrow. Sustainable development is a long-term vision that requires a thoughtful, systematic approach that takes into account all factors that influence the formation of a safe and prosperous future. This is a creative process, and it is based on a balance between one’s own interests and the interests of society, and an awareness of responsibility to new generations. The concept of sustainable development was a logical transition from the greening of scientific knowledge and socio-economic development, which began rapidly in the 1970s, when humanity was faced with the manifestation of global environmental problems. The response to this concern was the creation of international non-governmental scientific organizations for the study of global processes on Earth, such as the International Federation of Institutes of Advanced Study (IFIS), the Club of Rome (with its famous report “The Limits to Growth”), the International Institute for Systems Analysis, etc.
Sustainable development as an ideological model attempts to integrate the environmental, social and economic dimensions of the environment in a global perspective. The task of society is not only to reduce resource consumption, but also to change the structure of consumption. The goal of sustainable development is the survival of humanity as a whole and improving the quality of life for each individual. The result should be a world in which:
V social sphere- power is decentralized, citizens and governments are able to resolve conflicts without the use of violence, justice and fairness are the highest values, material wealth and social security are provided to everyone, means mass media objectively reflect what is happening and connect people and cultures together;
in the environmental sphere - a stable population, preservation of ecosystems in diversity and the coexistence of nature and human cultures in mutual harmony, organic food;
in the economic sphere - minimal environmental pollution and minimal amount waste, work that elevates people and worthy remuneration, intellectual activity, social and technical innovations, expansion of human knowledge, creative self-realization of man.
Stop unbridled consumer growth, reconsider the barbaric attitude towards resources, reduce production and life waste to the possible minimum, completely reorganize the education system, provide a rational new approach to the construction and improvement of housing, subordinate the development, planning and management to strict mathematical models, introduce a new control system, based on certification - these are the tasks of sustainable development for the near future, on the implementation of which the very possibility of the future for subsequent generations depends.
Geographical culture as a factor of sustainable development. One cannot but agree with the words of Yu. G. Simonov: “Humanity had to go through all this and spend trillions of dollars so that environmental problems would quietly move aside and give way to “sustainable development” programs. Professionally, neither doctors nor biologists could create a system of integral scientific knowledge in this area, as is now clear. They knew man and partly nature. But they did not know the laws of economic development. They didn't know a lot. After all, before this they had not even come close to the problems of interaction between nature, economy and population. Analysis of such a system could only be found in the books of geographers. But it sounded more like a slogan or a dream. Geography, one of the oldest fields of knowledge, for a number of reasons was late involved in solving these problems. Paradox"
Geographers play an important role in implementing the concept of sustainable development in the real world. And in order for this implementation to be possible, it is important what level of geographic culture the society has reached. The level of geographic culture of modern society is becoming an important indicator of the general culture of the population, a measure and criterion of human development. A sign of the geographical culture of modern man is a stable, established idea of the Earth, of his state, of his small Motherland. This is an individual experience and impressions of travel, expeditions, and recreation. The development of geographical thinking is an important task in the development of geographical culture on the path to sustainable development.
The uniqueness of geography stems from the basic approach of this science to the surrounding world. The question "where?" is key to this approach. But geographers also study the important concept of “territoriality,” which includes such categories as location, location, environment: natural, social, economic.
The geographical thinking of people, its scale, should today become the cornerstone of our entire house called “Earth - Biosphere”. This is the global nature of this thinking.
Geographical culture is part of universal human culture.
Part 1 – introduction
“Geography is the only ideological subject in school that forms in students a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the Earth. That is why geographic culture is an integral part of general culture.”Vladimir Pavlovich Maksakovsky.
Today, people around the world continue to ask the age-old question:“How to equip your earthly Home for yourself and future generations?”
The wider (and deeper) the geographical horizons of a particular people, the more opportunities they have.
Today, a “geographical renaissance” is taking place in education, if you can call it that - they have turned their face to geography again.
In geography, the unfading romance of wanderings is surprisingly combined with a special, deeply scientific vision of the world. There is hardly another science that would be equally interested in living nature and the territorial organization of human life and activity. Problems of interaction between nature and society.
Vladimir Pavlovich Maksakovsky paid great attention to the study of geographical culture as a world-historical phenomenon. Maksakovsky reveals the concept of “geographical culture”, identifying the following groups in it:
1- geographical knowledge involved in the formation of a scientific worldview;
2- polytechnic knowledge about science, technology, production and management, in the coverage of which geography participates “on an equal basis” with others academic disciplines;
3- environmental knowledge and skills, in the formation of which geography plays an outstanding role (at the same time these are elements of environmental culture);
4- geographical thinking;
5- specific “language” of geography, as an element of geographical culture.
Should be added:
- introduction of cartographic knowledge into the everyday life of society;
- fundamental knowledge in the field of political and socio-economic geography, contributing to the formation of a “market” culture.
The question of geographic culture is very relevant, because the level of this education is still not high enough. Geography at school is one of the
educational subjects, with the goal of giving students a holistic understanding of the modern world, the place of Russia in this world, and developing cognitive interest in other peoples and countries.
K. D. Ushinsky, justifying the role of geography as an academic subject, especially noted the importance of students’ knowledge of the geography of their homeland in preparation for independent life.
Part 2 – examples from work experience
How do I try to incorporate the ideas of geographic culture into the teaching process in my lessons? As an example, I chose lessons through which I try to continue shaping the image of Russia in different aspects, based on reliable facts and emotional images.
9th grade. The regional section, the theme “Central Russia” provides excellent opportunities for the formation of geographical culture in the broadest sense of this concept. After a brief general introduction, students are divided into groups at will, taking into account their interests. Each group receives the task of creating a route through the cities and towns of Central Russia and preparing a performance. The topics of these routes are: Group 1 – economists compile an overview of the major industrial centers of C.R. - mechanical engineering, metallurgy, chemical and textile industries (Moscow, Yaroslavl, Lipetsk, Nizhny Novgorod, etc.); Group 2 – art critics – estate museums associated with the names of great writers, artists, composers (Tolstoy, Chekhov, Turgenev, Yesenin, Tchaikovsky, Levitan); 3 group - let's call them pilgrims , which go to the cities of the Golden Ring, temple complexes - these are national shrines of the Russian people (Sergiev Posad, Rostov the Great, etc.); Group 4 – masters of golden handsmake a route by year and place where folk crafts originated and were preserved (Rostov enamel, Mstera, Palekh, Fedoskino, Zhestovo, Torzhok); Group 5 – naturalists go in search of natural monuments, national parks and reserves (Meshchera, Ugra, Lake Pleshcheyevo, Valdai, etc.); if desired, you can organize; 6 group - cities associated with the names of scientists and other famous people (Lipetsk - Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, Kaluga - K.E. Tsiolkovsky, Vladimir - A.G. Stoletov, Korolev,) or take a trip to the cities - Science cities... Each group prepares a speech using digital resources on the recommendation of the teacher, for example, the Culture of the Russian Federation portal in the “Image of Russia” section, where you can find objects of interest + Google maps, with the help of which a route is laid and travel time from point to point is calculated. The performances are illustrated with colorful presentations, musical fragments (where appropriate), as well as samples of folk crafts. Each group plots its route on the contour map, marking “stopping places.” After the performances of all groups, you can overlay maps and find places where objects with different features coincide - draw a conclusion, for example, Yaroslavl is not only an ancient historical center that is a UNESCO heritage site, but also a large industrial center where the world's first synthetic rubber plant was founded ; or Meshchera National Park, is also associated with the name of the writer K.G. Paustovsky, who glorified these magnificent places in his works.
Students create their own projects in groups obtain information independently regulating your actions and the actions of your team members - this impliescommunicative aspect; cognitive growth interest (after all, many had no idea where famous writers or scientists were born and lived); they are also built on this material meta-subject connections with literature and history. Main idea or target such a lesson - to show the territory of Central Russia, which is significant for our country, from different sides: in economic, historical, cultural, natural senses; show the importance of preserving traditions, cultural heritage and natural factors for preserving the identity of our people; also show in geographical concentration - a combination in a certain territory of the most important objects for the Russian people. Of course, the red thread of this lesson is education patriotism. Also, each proposed route can become a topicfor research work or to take a summer trip, which is what I do.
8th grade. When studying a topic"Vegetable and animal world Russia" or "Natural areas of Russia"I developed a lesson-conference “The importance of Russian forests.”The main idea is to destroy the stereotypical consumer idea of city dwellers about forests, to show their incredible importance in our everyday life. I start the lesson by reading from a magnificent passage by K. G. Paustovsky “The Forest of Meshchera”. Then a challenge - “provocation” of the student: - “Why do we need detailed knowledge about forests if we live in a city?” Teacher: “I want to convince you that the forest plays a big role in the modern life of people, knowledge about forests will be useful, and you will help me with this. But first of all, look at the map natural areas, in what zone is our city built?” Carrying out requires preparation. Students receive preliminary assignments in groups - to prepare speeches on behalf of people different professions: 1) historians - “the formation of the Russian people in the forest zone, the forest fed and clothed...”; 2) economists - “how forest resources are used in industry - 20 thousand types of products; how wood of certain species is used (pine, spruce, larch, birch, linden, etc.); 3) a group of ecologists - “the forest is the lungs of the planet, the protection of arable land, water resources, etc.”; 4) doctors - “doctor’s advice - how to be treated with forests, a person’s physical and mental health”; 5) tourists - use photographs from personal archives of the annual school tours in Lembolovo as an example of our stay in the forest (photos of garbage heaps that other tourists leave behind); 6) forest defenders - foresters - “how people sometimes behave in the forest, what they leave behind and what are the consequences” (here you can also recall A.P. Chekhov’s lines from the play “Uncle Vanya” - “Russian forests are cracking under the ax... there are fewer and fewer forests , the rivers are drying up"; 7) culturologists - "the aesthetic significance of forests - forests have inspired many poets, musicians and artists" - poems by Bunin, excerpts from the works of Paustovsky, music by P.I. Tchaikovsky from “The Seasons” accompanies the display of paintings by great artists.
Lesson summary – reflection – are diverse: 1) test “Formation of the spiritual makeup of a Russian person according to Klyuchevsky (select from the list of traits formed by the forest); 2) a table called “Final document of the conference”, where students briefly enter all the main ideas of the lesson; (*attached) 3) you can offer to develop “Commandments for those going into the forest” at home; as well as acquaintance with the diversity of Russian forests - a change in forest communities in the meridial and latitudinal directions. 4) How do you understand the phrase of Academician Likhachev -“The forest is the center of morality”?– this discussion brings us to the concepts of a moral and ethical plan;
The purpose of this lesson is not only educational - continue the formation of ideas and knowledge about the peculiarities of nature in Russia, the interconnection of the components of nature, show the importance of forest resources in their various aspects; continue the formation of environmental knowledge, show the significance of this knowledge. Metasubject connections are present in full - this historical material related to the formation of the Russian people, their relationship to forests and the use of their resources, biology – the impact of forests on human health; literature – poems by I.A. Bunin, P. Brovko, excerpts from the works of A.P. Chekhova, K.G. Paustovsky and others;art– reproductions of great masters – I.I. Shishkin, I.I. Levitan, music – use of musical design (Tchaikovsky, “The Seasons”); chemistry – chemical signs and symbols; compounds that pollute atmospheric air. Personal - the influence of forests on the physical, mental and spiritual health of people - “how to be treated with forests”; the need for knowledge about forests is dictated by the fact that residents of St. Petersburg are residents of the forest zone; fostering a sense of patriotism; careful attitude to the forests; spiritual, aesthetic development personality, love for nature through its understanding; education of moral categories through understanding the consumer attitude of a person to forests - “the forest is the center of morality” - Academician Likhachev.Communicationaspects are manifested throughstories of students who act as representatives of different professions and their discussions. Regulatory - select the main ideas of the lesson; work with maps, diagrams, digital material; culture of oral and written speech, culture of public speaking, intellectual skills - analysis, generalizations, abstraction of situations.Educational environment:use - demonstration of a presentation as illustrations for a lesson, materials from a personal photo archive (tourist gathering); map of vegetation or, better yet, natural zones of Russia; tables, illustrations of forests; wood collection for clarity; Handout. Of course, you can study the zones according to a standard plan, which the students themselves draw up. We stick to it, but you can highlight your own flavor for each zone. For example, while studying the tundra zone, I decided to focus on the peculiarities of life of the population. I found a wonderful film on YouTube - “The Harsh Life in
tundra." This is a short story of a Nenets boy who goes in search of a reindeer herd. Not only the system of survival in these harsh conditions, traditions, but also his feelings are shown. The guys respond very vividly to this story - they gain a true understanding of what the geographical environment is.
7th grade. Oceans theme. "Comparative characteristics of the oceans."
Students go on expeditions across the oceans.
Stage 1 - work in pairs.Each pair receives a card with a task on two oceans in certain specialties:historians, climatologists, geomorphologists, biologists, economists and ecologists. Assignment - using texts§15, 16 about the oceans fill out the cards; prepare a story on your topic.*task cards 1 are attached
Stage 2 - work in fours.“Specialists” are united in fours, i.e. turn to the students sitting behind them, receive a card with questions for comparison in these specialties, write down the answers on the card.*task cards 2 are included
Stage 3 of the speech - homework.1 version of speeches - stories from groups of “specialists” (1-historians, 2-climatologists, hydrologists, 3-geomorphologists, 4-biologists, 5-economists, ecologists); Option 2 – specialists who performed work in one ocean are united in the “oceans” group (Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic)
Stage 4 – results - participants enter data into the table* table attached;or a test is offered * attached
Personal - try yourself in a new activity as a “specialist” and evaluate your own activities, expand your range of interests, demonstrate creativity, gain experience in speaking this issue. Regulatory - determine the goal, planning - build a chain of necessary knowledge, select information on a given issue, convert the information into a table, compare objects, evaluate the results of your own activities and compare and evaluate the work of others. Cognitive - research:identifying sources (textbook, maps, Internet) and searching for the necessary information; brain teaser: highlighting essential features, drawing up a plan, presenting information in table form and answering questions with “conclusions” in their specialties;iconic-symbolic:preparing a story about “your own ocean in your specialty.”Communication- organization of work in pairs, and then in fours; be able to express your judgment and defend your point of view, evaluate the answers of your classmates.
Conclusion. Today's humanity is the product of its yesterday's actions to use, adapt and change the nature of the Earth, first in the interests of its survival and then development. Therefore, the basics of geographical knowledge should become a necessary element of the culture of modern man.
Genetic, axiological, humanistic, normative and sociological aspects of culture
In the genetic aspect, culture is considered as a product of society. In this case it is fixed as general difference human life activity from biological forms of life, as well as the qualitative originality of historically specific forms of this life activity at various stages of social development, within certain eras (“civilizations”), ethnic and national communities. “The term “culture” absorbs the entire sum of achievements and institutions that distinguish our life from our ancestors from the animal world and serve two purposes: the protection of man from nature and the regulation of relations between people” (Sigmund Freud).
In the axiological aspect, culture acts as a set of material and spiritual values achieved in the process of mastering the world. At the same time, material and spiritual values, on the one hand, reflect the level of achievements of mankind, and on the other, act as a specific object of development. “Culture is a system of values with the help of which society integrates, supports the functioning and interconnection of its institutions” (P.A. Sorokin).
In the humanistic aspect, culture is revealed as the development of man himself, his spiritual and creative abilities. Hence the following definition: “Culture is the production of man himself in all the richness and versatility of his social connections and relationships, in the entire integrity of his social existence” (V.M. Mezhuev).
In the normative aspect, culture acts as a system that regulates social relations in society and orients a person in the world. This means that the product of human activity is not only objects of material and spiritual life, but also all the relationships that develop between people in the process of their interaction (economic, political, moral, psychological, etc.). This is also culture. “Culture is a historically and socially determined, objectified in various products of human activity, a person’s attitude towards nature, society and himself” (I.P. Weinberg).
In the sociological aspect, culture is expressed as the activity of a historically specific social subject (society, class, social group, human), as well as the state and development of a particular method of production. “Culture is a special dimension of society...” (A. Kroeber). “Culture is the totality of the achievements of society in its material and spiritual development...” (A. Schweitzer).
An activity-based approach to understanding culture
It is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that the highlighted aspects of culture are not just
They complement each other, they intersect: one is in the other. This circumstance
allows an attempt to combine different aspects of consideration
culture in a unified approach. This approach, in our opinion, is
active. The essential definition of culture will, in our opinion, be
following: culture is the way a person carries out various types of
activities and their results. The culture of one historical era from another,
What distinguishes one region from another is not only the dominance of certain species
human activities, but also ways of their implementation. The more species
human activity we will highlight, the more deeply we will reflect the culture of the country,
region, etc. In the process of development of society, more and more new species arise
human activity. At the same time, some of them die off. This process
endless. All types of human activity can be divided into
material, spiritual and material-spiritual (spiritual-material).
Culture and civilization
The term "civilization" is widely used in science. It has many
values. In cultural studies, the concept of civilization is developed for consideration
unity and diversity of culture (unity combined with diversity).
The concept of civilization appeared in ancient times as a definition
qualitative difference between ancient society and the barbarian environment.
The concept of “civilization” comes from the Latin civilis - civil,
state and in its very first meaning expresses the level
social development, achievements, advantages of living in a civilian
society, a complex of human achievements befitting a civil
state, such as courtesy, friendliness, courtesy.
In the modern encyclopedic dictionary, civilization is defined as
the final stage of development of any culture or period
social development, which are characterized by a high level of scientific and
technical achievements and the decline of art, primarily literature.
Let's consider main traditions of understanding the relationship between culture and civilization .
1. Historical tradition: civilization denotes a historical era,
specific stage of social development that began in the life of the people after
era of savagery and barbarism, which is characterized by the emergence of classes, cities,
orderliness of the social system, state, trade, private
property, writing. This point of view belongs to F. Engels and L.
2. Civilization is synonymous with culture, one concept replaced the other
in New Time. Civilization was understood as a product spiritual development
humanity, is associated with the development of the human mind and enlightenment.
3. Civilization is the death of culture, the final moment of its development. This point
vision belongs to the German scientist O. Spengler (1880-1936).
O. Spengler in his book “The Decline of Europe” formulated his understanding of civilization.
According to O. Spengler, each cultural organism is given a predetermined period.
Each culture goes through the age stages of an individual. Everyone has
your birth, your childhood, your youth, your manhood, your old age, your death. Stage
birth and development - culture itself, the stage of aging and dying -
civilization. Dying, culture is reborn into civilization. On the stage
civilization, culture degenerates, it becomes mass, dominates
technology, politics, sports.
Spengler considered the main features of civilization to be “sharp, cold
rationality", intellectual hunger, practical rationalism, change
spiritual being mental, admiration for money, development of science,
irreligion and similar phenomena.
4. Civilization is identified with a high level of material
human activities: tools, technologies, economic and political
relations and institutions, and culture is seen as a manifestation of spiritual
essence of man. This point of view is shared by N. A. Berdyaev (1874-1948) -
Russian religious philosopher and S.N. Bulgakov (1871-1944) - Russian philosopher,
economist, theologian.
5. Civilization is seen as a certain stage in development
cultures of individual peoples and regions. This point of view belongs to A. Toinbee
(1889-1975) - English historian, cultural scientist, sociologist and P. Sorokin
(1889-1968) - Russian-American sociologist, philosopher and cultural scientist.
In all the cases considered, culture and civilization are closely related to each other
each other, and this connection is based on a certain concept of culture. WITH
civilization is associated with material success, and with culture - the spiritual world
person. The concept of culture is more independent, it is a universal concept,
This is the basis for the development of civilization. Civilization is a temporary concept, socially
technical dimension of culture.
The difference between culture and civilization, leading to certain social
systems to their contradiction, is not absolute, but relative.
History shows that the humanistic values of a culture can be embodied in
life with the help of a developed civilization. In turn, high civilization
can be built on the basis of cultural creativity and inspiring
cultural meanings.
6. In the concept of K. Jaspers, civilization is interpreted as the value of all
crops Culture is the core of civilization.
7. The idea of civilization as
the pinnacle of humankind's technical achievements related to space exploration,
the introduction of computer technology and unprecedented energy sources. WITH
civilization is associated with material success, and culture is associated with the spiritual world of man.
Civilization is a certain part or degree of development of culture, it
involves the development of intelligence and morality, the degree and level
humanizing peoples. The process of culture goes from barbarism to civilization.
The diversity of cultures and civilizations is a historical wealth
humanity, and interaction through dialogue is therefore essential
a way of mutual understanding between peoples, the development of genuine interest and spirituality.
The famous researcher of globalization processes I. Wallerstein states: “We
must enter into a grand global dialogue." Dialogue presupposes
installation for interaction and mutual understanding between people, desire
join the values and achievements of another culture, learn and accept it
originality and uniqueness, treat it with respect and tolerance. This
the task is extremely complex, requiring a certain education and
emotional mood, overcoming monologue and authoritarian style
consciousness and behavior. In the context of globalization, dialogue becomes important
methodological guideline for the development of cultural studies.
In the final section of the UNESCO program document “Culture -
it is synonymous with life" (1985) puts forward the idea of mutual understanding between people based on
common experiences: “It is not necessary to speak the same language in order to feel the fear of death in the same way, to experience beauty in the same way, to experience the same
anxiety about the uncertainty of the future."
At the initiative of UNESCO, the first year of the new millennium was called the “Year of
dialogue of civilizations". A significant event in the study of the universal
cultural diversity was a comparative study of 600 cultures conducted
Moreover, in 2005, the publication in Russian of a multi-volume
international collective work "History of Humanity".
In the twentieth century it became obvious that the dialogue of cultures and civilizations
involves mutual understanding and communication not only between different
cultural and civilizational formations within large cultural
zones, but also requires the spiritual rapprochement of vast cultural regions,
which formed their own set of distinctive features at the dawn of civilization. Talking about
Union of the Mediterranean cultural group and Indian-Far Eastern,
modern domestic researcher G. Pomerants puts forward the following
dialogue option: “Europe has set an example of unity in national diversity,
China is an example of the unity of spiritual diversity. One can imagine
the future as a combination of European pluralism of ethnic cultures with Chinese
pluralism of spiritual cultures."
Dialogue is a question not only of humanitarian contacts between large cultures, but
and about the method of introducing an individual person to the spiritual world of these
cultural formations. According to M.M. Bakhtin, culture can
exist only on the borders: between today and the past, between
various forms cultural activities, between the works of different authors.
Dialogue as a principle of cultural development allows not only organic
borrow the best from the world heritage, but also forces a person to submit “his own”
internal rethinking of cultural values, only active dialogue with cultural forms makes a person cultural, connected to the big
space of culture.
The following can be distinguished main trends in the interaction of cultures and
civilizations in the modern world:
1) dialogue of cultures based on the principle of complementarity;
2) principles of non-violence;
3) tolerance and cultural pluralism as a condition and result of dialogue;
4) “greening” of technogenic civilization, i.e. bringing into the West
the world of Eastern ideas of respect for the surrounding world and reverence for life;
5) “rationalization” of ecological civilization, i.e. bringing into
the eastern world of ideas about the rational structure of human nature and society, and
also individual activity activity;
6) interaction of collectivism and individualism as principles
respectively the eastern and western worlds;
7) the relationship between globalization and national identity in development, which
manifests itself in the so-called “glocalization”, i.e. unity of the global (universal,
universal, global) and local (local, special or even unique).
True, it should be noted that along with the dialogue of cultures and civilizations
some researchers (in particular, American analyst S. Huntington)
note a tendency towards a clash of civilizations, the emergence of conflicts in
basis of intercivilizational differences. Of course, such a tendency exists in
global development: just remember the wars in Yugoslavia and the Middle East
etc. But it must be taken into account that today the development of the principle of dialogue between cultures
and civilizations – a real opportunity to overcome the deepest contradictions
spiritual crisis, avoid ecological dead end and atomic night.
Concept World Heritage
World Heritage refers to outstanding cultural and natural monuments,
recognized as the property of all humanity, which must be reliably
stored in an unchanged and intact state for the purpose of transmission to subsequent
generations.
In 1972, at the 17th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, it was adopted
Convention “On the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage”.
The Convention proclaims universal (international) responsibility for
preservation of globally significant cultural and natural sites, regardless of
what area of the world they are located in. Special responsibilities for conservation and
The maintenance of such facilities naturally falls on the country party to the Convention.
Since 1978, the World Heritage List has been maintained and published, which includes:
a) interesting cultural sites (World Cultural
heritage);
b) natural phenomena (World Natural Heritage);
c) cultural and natural objects, valuable from both points of view (World
cultural and natural heritage). An object can be added to the List only if
provided that he has an exceptional – “outstanding universal” –
value, to determine which a system of 10 criteria has been developed (object
must fully satisfy at least one of them). It is important
authenticity (authenticity) and integrity of a cultural or natural object.
As of January 1, 2012, the List included: 936 objects in 153
countries of the world, including: 725 cultural heritage sites, 183 natural
heritage and 28 – cultural and natural. They are located in different regions of the world,
on the territory of 153 states. The largest number of such facilities is in Italy (47),
in Spain (43), in China (41), and Russia, with its 24 World Heritage Sites
(including 15 cultural and 9 natural) – is in ninth place in the world.
The Heritage Institute began to deal with World Heritage issues in
mid-1990s, that is, shortly after Russia, as
successor to the USSR, joined the UNESCO Convention “On the Protection of World Heritage Sites”
cultural and natural heritage" (1991) and the first Russian objects
appeared on the World Heritage List.
The main purpose of the World Heritage List is to make known and protect
objects that are unique in their kind. For this and because of
Striving for objectivity, evaluation criteria were drawn up. Initially (from
1978) there were only criteria for cultural heritage sites - this
the list consisted of six items. Then, to restore some balance
natural objects appeared between different continents and a list for them
of four points. And finally, in 2005, all these criteria were brought together,
and now every World Heritage site has in its description at least one
Cultural criteria:
(i) The object represents a masterpiece of human creative genius.
(ii) The object indicates significant interaction between human
values in a given period of time or in a certain cultural space,
in architecture or technology, in monumental art, in planning
cities or creating landscapes.
(iii) The object is unique or at least exclusive to
cultural tradition or civilization that still exists or has already existed
(iv) The property is an outstanding example of design, architectural
or technological ensemble or landscape that illustrates a significant
period of human history.
(v) The object is an outstanding example of human traditional
structures, with traditional use of land or sea, being an example
culture (or cultures) or human interaction with the environment,
especially if it becomes vulnerable due to the strong influence of irreversible
changes.
(vi) The object is directly or materially connected with events or
existing traditions, ideas, beliefs, artistic or
literary works and is of exceptional global importance. (By
In the opinion of the UNESCO committee, this criterion should preferably be used together with
any other criterion or criteria).
Natural criteria:
(vii). The object represents a natural phenomenon or space
of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.
(viii) The site is an outstanding example of the main stages of the history of the earth, in
including a monument of the past, a symbol of ongoing geological
processes in the development of relief or a symbol of geomorphic or
physiographic features.
(ix) The property is an outstanding example of ongoing environmental or
biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, freshwater, coastal
and marine ecosystems and plant and animal communities.
(x) The property includes the most important or significant natural
habitat to preserve its biological diversity, including
endangered species of exceptional global value from the point of view of science and
Cultural geography as a science
The geography of culture can be defined as an interdisciplinary scientific field, the subject of study of which is the spatial diversity of culture and its distribution across the earth's surface. The term itself (cultural geography) was first used in our country by L.S. Berg in 1913, and abroad - in the USA in 1925 by geographer Karl Sauer.