Socio-cultural groups. Tasks of culturologists: study of culture as a system of cultural phenomena consideration of cultural codes (code is a way of transmitting information)

part of a common culture, a system of values, traditions, customs inherent in a large social group.

They talk about the youth subculture, the subculture of the elderly, the subculture of national minorities, the professional subculture, the criminal subculture. The subculture differs from the dominant culture in language, outlook on life, behavior, hairstyle, clothing, and customs. The differences can be very strong, but subculture is not opposed to the dominant culture. Drug addicts, deaf-mutes, homeless people, singles, alcoholics, athletes have their own culture. The children of aristocrats or those of the middle class behave very differently from those of the lower class. They read different books, go to different schools, follow different ideals. Every generation and every social group your cultural world.

Counterculture refers to a subculture that not only differs from the dominant culture, but also opposes it, is in conflict with the dominant values.

The terrorist subculture opposes human culture, and the hippie youth movement in the 60s denied the dominant American values: hard work, material success and gain, conformism, sexual restraint, political loyalty, rationalism.

SUPERCULTURE

Along with the concepts of subculture and counterculture, the term "superculture" is gradually being introduced into sociology. The theory of superculture was put forward by the American economist and sociologist K. Baldwing. Superculture is the culture of airports, highways, skyscrapers, hybrid crops and artificial fertilizers, universities and birth control.

Superculture is characterized by global scope. It has a world language - English, and a world ideology - science. Local folk cultures that have survived are interspersed in the superculture like scattered dots, because they are the business of the family, clan, peer group, informal organizations. folk culture protects the sacred, and the superculture encourages the secular. It is spread by formal education and formal organizations.

^ SOCIAL GROUPS

Society is the totality of the most different groups: large and small, real and nominal, primary and secondary. The group is the foundation of human society, since it itself is one of the groups, but only the largest. The number of groups on Earth exceeds the number of individuals. This is possible because one person is able to be in several groups at once.

Under social group commonly understood any set of people selected according to socially significant criteria. These are gender, age, nationality, race, profession, place of residence, income, power, education, and some others.

^ social group – it is a kind of mediator between the individual and society as a whole. But the group is also the environment in which collective processes arise and develop. We will consider such forms of collective behavior as the crowd, the public, panic, rumors, riot and others.

^ GROUP VALUE

The social world differs from the natural world in many ways. It has its own topography, where points of curvature, thickening and rarefaction are marked. It turns out that he also has a peculiar metric. For example, the number of stars in the sky exceeds the number of possible star clusters, and the number of elements is always greater than the number of sets, groups and classes in which they actually belong. So it is in the natural world. But human society is an exception in this sense.

Reference

It turns out that the total number of human groups on Earth exceeds the population by 1.5 - 2 times. So, more than 5 billion people live on the planet, and the number of groups, according to experts, reaches 8-10 billion. And all this is possible due to the fact that one individual can be in 5 groups.

^ Not only society, but also the individual lives according to the laws of the group. Scientists have proven that many human features - the ability to think abstractly, speech, language, self-discipline and morality - are the result of group activity. In the group, norms, rules, customs, traditions, rituals, ceremonies are born. In other words, the foundation is being laid social life. Man needs and depends on the group, perhaps more so than monkeys, rhinos, wolves, or mollusks. People survive only together.

Thus, isolated individual– more the exception than the rule.

Already in antiquity, people lived in groups: mobile communities of primitive hunters and gatherers numbering V 20-30 people leading a wandering lifestyle moved around the planet in search of food. And today a person does not think of himself outside the group. He is a member of a family, a student class, a youth party, a production team, a sports team.

^ BELONGING TO A GROUP

We talked about the fact that status and role are its first building blocks. And again we meet with them, but in a new capacity. Speaking of status, we emphasized what it means social status individuals, in other words, belonging to a certain social group.

The simplest at first glance, the word "belonging" is fraught with many meanings. Some consider belonging to active participation in all areas of the group. Others are only those that are formally listed in a group or organization. Thus, belonging is a whole continuum of transitions of forms from active interaction to mental identification of oneself with the group (ie identification).

But it turns out there is another kind of belonging that a person sometimes does not suspect. For example, sociologists conducted a mass survey and established the numerical distribution in society of: a) unmarried young men, b) young girls and unmarried women, c) single middle-aged women without a specialty, d) elderly people moving from the village and the village to adult children. It is clear that in Everyday life none of us thinks and does not know that, it turns out, he belongs to one of these groups. The term "belonging" is already used for a different, statistical meaning. For a particular person, such belonging is not a real thing. It is real, meaningful, and only needed by a sociologist or statistician.

Thus, belonging may be real, one way or another realized and designated by an individual, or it may not be real, not realized in any way, used by scientists as a criterion for classifying people into categories.

^ CLASSIFICATION OF SOCIAL GROUPS

The whole variety of social groups can be classified depending on:

• 
  group sizes,
• 
  socially significant criteria,
• 
  group identification type.

nominal groups. Their are allocated only for statistical accounting of the population, and therefore they have a middle name - social categories.

Example:

• 
  passengers of commuter trains;
• 
  registered in a mental dispensary;
• 
  buyers of washing powder "Ariel";
• 
  single-parent, large or small families;

• 
  having a temporary or permanent residence permit;
• 
  living in separate or communal apartments.

Social categories - artificially constructed for the purposes of statistical analysis of the population.

That is why they are called nominal or conditional. They are essential in business practice. For example, in order to properly organize suburban train traffic, you need to know what the total or seasonal number of passengers is.

real groups. They are called so because the criterion for their selection is actually existing signs:

• 
  floor- men and women;
• 
  income- rich, poor and prosperous;
• 
  nationality- Russians, Americans, Evenks, Turks;
• 
  age- children, adolescents, youth, adults, the elderly;
• 
  kinship and marriage- single, married, parents, widowed;

• 
  profession (occupation)- drivers, teachers, military personnel;
• 
  location- townspeople, villager, countrymen.

These and some other signs are among the socially significant. There are much fewer such signs than statistical ones (they are spoken of as a countable set).

Since these are real signs, they not only exist objectively (biological sex and age, or economic income and profession), but are perceived subjectively. Young people feel their group affiliation and solidarity in the same way that pensioners feel theirs. Representatives of the same real group have similar stereotypes of behavior, lifestyle, value orientations.

into an independent subclass of real groups sometimes isolated three types and call them the main ones.

• 
  stratification - slavery, castes, estates, classes;
• 
  ethnic - races, nations, peoples, nationalities, tribes, clans;
• 
  territorial - people from the same locality (compatriots), townspeople, villagers.

However, with no less reason, any other real group can be included among the main ones. Indeed, we are talking about interethnic conflicts that have swept the century. We are talking about the conflict of generations, implying that the contradiction of the two age groups is a serious social problem that humanity has been unable to resolve for many millennia. Finally, we are talking about gender inequality in pay, distribution of family functions, position in society, and in this connection we recall patriarchy and feminism.

Thus, we can conclude: real groups are real problems for society. Nominal groups do not provide a spectrum of social problems comparable in scope and nature.

Indeed, it is difficult to imagine that society was shaken by contradictions, say, between passengers on long-distance and short-range trains. But here is the problem of refugees or "brain drain" associated with real groups, allocated on a territorial basis, worries not only armchair scientists, but also practitioners: politicians, the government, social protection agencies, and ministries.

Behind the real groups are aggregates. That's what they call populations of people identified on the basis of behavioral characteristics.

These include the audience (radio, television), the public (cinema, theater, stadium), some types of crowds (a crowd of onlookers, passers-by). They combine the features of real and nominal groups, therefore they are placed on the border between them. The term "aggregate" refers to a random collection of people. Aggregates are not studied by statistics and therefore do not belong to statistical groups.

Moving further along the typology of social groups, we will meet social organization. This is an artificially constructed community of people. It is called artificial because an organization created by someone for the fulfillment of some legitimate purpose, such as the production of goods or the provision paid services, through institutionalized subordination mechanisms(hierarchy of positions, power and subordination, reward and punishment). industrial enterprise, collective farm, restaurant, bank, hospital, school, etc. - types of social organization.

In terms of size, they are very large (hundreds of thousands of people), large (tens of thousands), medium (from several thousand to several hundred), small or small (from one hundred to several people). In essence, social organizations are an intermediate type of association of people between large social groups and small groups. In other words, they end the classification of large groups and begin the classification of small ones.

Here lies the border between secondary and primary groups in sociology. ^ Only small groups are classified as primary, and all others are classified as secondary.

Small groups are a small group of people united by common goals, interests, values, norms and rules of behavior, as well as constant interaction.

Before moving on to a more detailed consideration of social groups, we clarify the term "social community". It is used in two senses, and you will find both in the literature. In a broad sense, it is synonymous with a social group in general. IN narrow sense only territorial groups are called social communities. Sociologists define it as a set of people who have a common and permanent place of residence, who interact, exchange services, depend on each other and joint activities satisfy general needs.

^ ETHNIC COMMUNITIES

These communities are also called consanguineous . TO they include clans, tribes, nationalities, nations, families, clans. They are united on the basis of genetic ties and constitute an evolutionary chain, the beginning of which is the family.

Family - the smallest consanguineous group of people connected by the unity of origin (grandmother, grandfather, father, mother, children).

Several families that have entered into an alliance form a clan. Families united in clans.

^ clan - a group of blood relatives bearing the name of the alleged ancestor. The clan retained common ownership of land, blood feuds, and mutual responsibility. As remnants of primitive times, they remained in some areas of Scotland, among the Indians of America, in Japan and China. Several clans united to form a tribe.

^ Tribe - a higher form of organization, covering big number clans and clans. They have their own language or dialect, territory, formal organization (chief, tribal council), common ceremonies. Their number reached tens of thousands of people.

In the course of further cultural and economic development, the tribes were transformed into nationalities, and those - at the highest stages of development - into nations.

Nationality - an ethnic community that occupies a place on the ladder of social development between the tribes and the nation. Nationalities arise in the era of slavery and represent a linguistic, territorial, economic and cultural community. The nationality exceeds the tribe in number, blood ties do not cover the entire nationality.

^ Nation - an autonomous, not limited by territorial boundaries, political grouping, whose members are committed to common values ​​and institutions. Representatives of one nation no longer have a common ancestor and a common origin. They don't have to have mutual language, religion, but the nationality uniting them was formed thanks to a common history and culture.

The nation arises in the period of overcoming feudal disunity and the birth of capitalism. During this period, a high degree of political organization, classes, an internal market and a single economic structure, their own literature, and art were formed. Nations are more numerous than nationalities, and number tens and hundreds of millions. On the basis of a common territory, language and economy, a single national character and mental warehouse. Arises very strong feeling solidarity with their nation. National patriotic and national liberation movements, ethnic strife, wars and conflicts arise as a sign that a nation has been formed and is fighting for its sovereignty.

PUBLIC

The main exponent of the sociological approach to the public at the turn of the 20th century was the French sociologist Gabriel da TarD (1843-1904). In Opinion and the Crowd (1901), he compared two social formations, the crowd and the public. Unlike the crowd, whose psychic unity is created by physical contact, the public is a spiritual community: individuals are physically dispersed, but spiritually connected with each other. At the core lies the similarity of opinions.

According to G. Tarde, the public is a product of the new time. Its origins are in secular salons and clubs of the 18th century. However, the real flowering of the public begins with the advent of newspapers, and later - radio and television. Technical media, public secondary and higher education have turned the public into the most numerous form of association of people. If the personality is leveled in the crowd, then in the public it gets the opportunity of self-expression. Thanks to the funds mass media hundreds of millions of people can actively participate in political and cultural events and express their opinion.

Millions of dollars are spent by industrial companies on advertising, market surveys, and television campaigns in support of one candidate or another. All of them are addressed to the public.

1. The subject of cultural studies. Culturology in the system of humanitarian knowledge.

Culturology is the science of the most general patterns of development of culture, of the multiplicity of development of different cultures.

The subject is culture taken as an integral phenomenon (material, spiritual, socio-political) and interpreted (considered) in the course of historical development.

Culturology - studies the patterns of emergence and development of culture, the principles of its functioning, the relationship and interdependence of individual cultures that differ in spatio-temporal, socio-political and other characteristics.

The theory of culture explores culture as a system of social phenomena and as a social process.

Cultural studies is a complex scientific discipline based on:

Anthropology (the science of man),

History (culture is considered from the perspective of historical development),

Philosophy (first section - philosophy of culture)

Social psychology (explores the problem of mentality)

Sociology (the science of society, the processes taking place in society, the interaction of the individual and society)

Aesthetics (science of beauty) and other humanitarian disciplines..

Cultural studies was formed as a separate independent discipline already in the 20th century.

For the first time the term cultural studies was used by the German scientist Ostwaldt (1909), who substantiated the need systems approach to the study of culture.

At present, cultural studies are considered as the methodological basis of the whole complex of sciences about culture.

Tasks of cultural studies:

1. study of culture as a system cultural phenomena

2. consideration of cultural codes (code - a way of transmitting information) - pre-written, written, screen and communication methods.

3. resolution of the problems of socio-cultural dynamics, i.e. development

4. study of the mental content of culture

5. consideration of the typology of culture and cultural units.

Research methods:

1. historical

2. comparative historical

3. civilizational-typological

4. morphological (morpho-form)

5. semiotic, i.e. sign-linguistic (there are various groups languages ​​- natural, artificial (computer, Morse code), secondary (language of dance, music),

6. systemic

7. statistical, etc.

2. Culture as a social phenomenon: concept, essence.

The period of antiquity (2 thousand BC - 4th century AD)

For the first time the word culture appears in ancient Rome and translated from lat. means cultivation, processing, but already the Roman thinker Cicero used this term in a figurative sense in relation to a person - “cultivation of the human soul” (education, education).

The era of the Middle Ages (late 5th century - 14th century)

In this era, the concept of culture was considered as a derivative of the word "cult" (deification, veneration). The culture was religious in nature.

Creative skills of man were realized through the love of God.

The era of the Renaissance (Renaissance) of the 15th - 1st half of the 17th century secular trends appear in culture (the system of secular education, secular genres in painting, etiquette (1st book on etiquette in Italy in 1557).

The beginning of the era of modern times (mid-17th - early 20th centuries) - the beginning of bourgeois revolutions in Europe)

There are various interpretations of the concept of culture. For the first time as an independent concept, the term culture was used by the German jurist of the 17th century. - Pufendorf (as a synonym for public civil status). The conceptual foundations of culture were developed by German philosophers of the late 18th century. - I third of the 19th century. - Herder, Kant, Hegel.

By culture, they understood, first of all, the spiritual side of human life, that sphere that goes beyond the limits of human nature and the traditions of his social existence. creative act insights they put above all else.

Herder considered culture as "the second genesis of man", that is, the second birth of man.

Kant connected culture, first of all, with the moral side. "Only 2 things are worthy of wonder and awe - the starry sky above us and the moral law in us." Morality makes a person a person.

In parallel with a positive assessment of culture, a negative view of culture is also being formed, where it is seen as a means of enslaving a person (J.J. Rousseau, F. Nietzsche, Z. Freud). They considered man as a natural being in its essence, man is anti-cultural.

Rousseau saw in man an ideal, beautiful creation from the very beginning. In society, thanks to culture, negative qualities (cruelty, envy) are formed in it.

The basis of the views of Nietzsche and Freud is the contradiction between the natural inclinations in man himself and the existing norms of collective morality. Obeying them, a person comes into conflict with himself and becomes weak, notorious.

Freud went down in history as the author of a theory of personality based on the concept of "libido". Meaning: in the process of life, a person accumulates excessive sexual energy (libido), which he can sublimate (transfer, transform at a higher level) into various areas (politics, science, art ...). Freud turned to the life and work of outstanding people, in particular, the titans of the Renaissance (L. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael).

3. Structure and functions of culture.

Structurally divided

According to the subject - the carrier (individual, collective, nation, people, ethnic group, humanity (at different stages).

A subculture is an autonomous culture of a certain social group with its own norms and values ​​(youth subculture).

Acculturation is the process of an individual's entry into society, familiarization with culture (emigration).

By species - based on species human activity: material, spiritual, social.

Material culture is a sphere of materially transforming human activity and its results:

Production culture (equipment, tools, technologies)

culture of life

culture of dwelling

culture human body (Physical Culture)

Work culture (Economist's pipes)

Spiritual culture is a sphere of spiritual activity and its results:

Culture is legal

Culture moral (ethical)

Scientific

Pedagogical

artistic

aesthetic

Spiritual culture is the correspondence of the level of development of the individual to the level of development of society (Giordano Bruno)

Spiritual culture forms the intellectual qualities of a person

Social culture - reflects the relations that arise between people in society (at the level of the state, dictatorship, democracy).

By levels

1. mass - elite

2. official - underground

3. ordinary - specialized

The nature.

1. professional culture is a set of knowledge, skills and abilities required to perform their job duties.

2. common culture- compliance of the level of development of the individual, society with the needs of the time

1. COGNITIVE - includes the values ​​of culture, both material and objectified spiritual (based on any find, we draw conclusions about the entire era)

2. praxeological - includes social institutions involved in the creation, preservation and dissemination of cultural values

3. regulatory - includes social institutions that regulate people's relationships (relationships between people in the West and East are different)

You can take time parameters - past, present, future.

Culture Functions:

1. adaptive - helps a person adapt to the world around him (parents adapt more to children or vice versa)

2. human-creative - contributes to the formation of a particular type of personality

Eastern type - naturalness, religiosity, humility

antique type - the desire for beauty, harmony

medieval type - chivalry - valor, courage, bravery

clergy - a person tries to be useful

burgher type - industriousness, diligence Renaissance type - modern type - strives for innovation

3. social memory function (informative)

meaning - each generation, entering into life, masters the achievements of previous generations (Euclid, Pythagoras, Geradot, Plato, Aristotle)

4. epistemological (cognitive) - is realized through scientific research.

The 20th century brought 8527 scientific discoveries to the world (spacewalk, information technology, cloning).

5. compensatory (protective) - contributes to the survival of a person, the realization of his creative abilities (religion, science, art).

Diana Gurtskaya - blind singer

6. axiological (value) - helps a person choose for himself certain values ​​in life

7. function of catharsis (purification) -

religion - confession, confessing a person is cleansed

art - music - listening to music relieves stress

painting - a person is cleansed and healed

8. game function - a person in the process of life combines various roles

9. semistic (sign-linguistic)

Language is a means of fixing, storing, processing, broadcasting cultural information.

The language of science, youth, colloquial, slang, the language of painting, art.

10. integrating and disintegrating functions (unifying and separating) - religion, politics.

Since culture and society are interconnected, the latter is a powerful structure-forming factor for it. This is expressed, in particular, in the fact that each social group has a cultural identity. It is determined by the place of a particular social group in politics, economics, social production, etc. In this regard, society makes different demands on representatives of different groups, and, on the other hand, different groups have different needs and opportunities to satisfy them. This means that the "cultural map" of a society corresponds to its "social map".

Analyzing the sociological cut of the structure of culture in connection with the social structure of society, one can single out such elements as the culture of various strata and classes (workers, peasants, intelligentsia), various social groups of a non-class nature: professional (engineers, teachers, etc.), social -demographic (youth, pensioners), national, ethnic, confessional, etc.

Distinguished by its specificity, the culture of each of the social groups also has features inherent in the culture of a particular society as a whole.

Based on these methodological principles, one can treat, for example, the problem youth culture. Indeed, young people, being a special socio-demographic group, with specific needs and ways to satisfy them, also have a pronounced cultural identity. However, this in itself youth culture can be neither good nor bad - it all depends on what cultural system it is inscribed in. In accordance with this, if the culture of society as a whole is in crisis, then the youth culture will also be marked by its stamp, and the crisis features in it will be more pronounced and often uglier than in the "adult" culture: the socio-psychological characteristics of young people, their maximalism will affect , craving for everything unusual, thirst for thrills, etc.

In addition, it must be borne in mind that young people, being homogeneous in terms of demographics - age - are heterogeneous in terms of social characteristics. In this regard, we can talk about the culture of rural and urban youth, students and workers, students and engaged in professional work, etc. At the same time, we must not forget that the idea of ​​the human-creative function of culture is also fundamental in the analysis of the sociological plane of the structure of culture. This means that behind the difference in sign-symbolic forms, in which the diversity of views, tastes, preferences, behaviors characteristic of various social groups is “wrapped”, “packed”, there is always an “image of a person”, the most typical for this particular group. This image is formed as a real result of the impact of the requirements that are imposed on the representatives of this group by society and the social group itself as a whole, which has its own development goals.

The meaning of the above can be explained by the example of such a phenomenon as corporate culture, i.e. the culture of corporations as specific socio-economic entities. In the West, he attracted attention for a long time, which was reflected in well-known books - "The Man of the Organization" by W. White, "The Man of the Company" by M. Maccoby, etc. Our corporate culture declared its existence relatively recently and, accordingly, recently became the subject of scientific analysis. At the same time, it should be noted that often the authors of works devoted to corporate culture are busy with a scrupulous analysis of its semiotics, but forget about the human dimension. corporate culture, which for her, as for any cultural phenomenon, is the main one.

The determining factor of corporate culture is the goals and objectives of the corporation as an element of the socio-economic structure of society. They consist in optimizing the activities of the corporation, which is reflected in such indicators as increasing the profits of the corporation, increasing the level of its competitiveness.

To achieve these goals, the corporation, like society as a whole, has no other way than to develop it in the appropriate direction and use the human potential of the corporation's employees. To do this, first of all, the requirements that should be made to the employees of the corporation are comprehended. They have a very wide range - from education to norms of behavior. These requirements are set out in special documents, which have a mandatory part, which usually bears the loud name "Corporation Philosophy", "Corporation Values", etc.

The means of demonstrating the internal unity of the corporation and distinguishing it from others are its emblem, uniform, etc. The uniform is also a way of ranking within the corporation, as it has differences corresponding to the position and status of the employee. This circumstance turns the uniform into one of the incentives for intensifying labor efforts in order to achieve a higher status. The most important function of the uniform is to curb, introduce into a certain framework those manifestations of human individuality that hinder the achievement of the goals of the corporation.

In corporate culture, a large place is also occupied by various ways rewarding successful workers and punishing negligent ones.

An indispensable requirement for employees is the presence of such a quality as devotion to the company. It can manifest itself, for example, in the fact that the employee does not use his legal leave. Lack of loyalty to the firm can be grounds for dismissal.

All of the above strongly suggests that main problem, the solvable corporate culture is a combination of the interests of the firm (corporation) as a whole and the interests of its employees. In this case, the interest of the corporation is decisive, the interests of individual employees are satisfied and stimulated to the extent that this contributes to the achievement of the goals of the corporation as a whole.

Thus, we can conclude that corporate culture is nothing more than a system of methods and results of the development and use of the human potential of the personnel of a company (corporation) in order to optimize the activities of a corporation and increase its level of competitiveness.

Using this example, we can be convinced that the choice of one or another approach to the definition of culture plays a decisive role in the analysis of individual cultural phenomena and thus provides greater or lesser opportunities for comprehending their essence.

Thus, the heuristic approach, from the point of view of which culture is interpreted as creativity, can give little to define corporate culture, since it is based not on creativity, but on the strict implementation of certain rules.

The axiological approach to the definition of the phenomenon of corporate culture makes it possible to focus on the specifics of the values ​​that are characteristic of it. As a result, we will see that at the head of the hierarchy of corporate culture values ​​is the interest of the firm as a whole. The subordinates in relation to it are the values, the content of which are certain human qualities that the employees of the company should possess in accordance with their position and status.

Thus, the axiological approach reveals the need for an anthropological approach.

The semiotic approach, at first glance, gives the impression of a very rich analysis of corporate culture in its possibilities. Indeed, here is the semiotics of clothing, and the semiotics of communication and emblematics. However, as we have seen, everything is the same behind all this: certain requirements for a person, and the level of his compliance with them, the degree of effectiveness of his work.

From the point of view of a technological or activity approach, corporate culture can be defined as a system of methods and results of the activities of a specific team that has a socio-economic nature and is called a corporation, firm, etc. As we can see, the “field” of corporate culture is covered by this definition extremely broadly, however, the hallmarks of corporate culture are not visible in it. They can be found if we answer the question about the functions of corporate culture, that is, using a functional approach. It allows you to see that the main function of corporate culture is to ensure the viability of the corporation as a whole, achieve the goals of its activities, increase its competitiveness. Following this, the question arises of how the corporate culture performs its functions. There can be only one answer: it performs its functions by influencing a person in a certain way, i.e., designating value orientations, creating rules of conduct, various ways of rewarding for their implementation and punishing violations, etc.

Thus, we see that the most meaningful definition of corporate culture, as well as culture in general, can be given from the point of view of the anthropological approach. However, it should be noted that the anthropological approach makes it possible to use the epistemological possibilities of all other approaches.

The proposed scheme can be used to determine all elements of the structure of culture, including its sociological profile. The necessary logical steps of this scheme are indications of the human-creative aspect of this or that element of culture and its functional specificity. More detailed analysis allows you to see the axiological, semiotic, activity-technological and other aspects of one or another element of the structure of culture.

The combination of these methods can also be used to analyze such an element of the sociological cut of the structure of culture as the culture of various ethnic, national and confessional groups.

ethnicity is one of historical forms communities of people. The hypothesis that the origin of ethnic form community is associated with the period of decomposition of the social organization of the primitive tribal type. In other words, in its original form, an ethnos is an association of tribes. The impetus for the association was the need to adapt to the environment. In accordance with this, and also in order to ensure a certain level of integration and organization within the ethnic community, knowledge, skills, certain rules of behavior, ways of justifying them and monitoring their implementation, etc., were needed, i.e., it was necessary and, accordingly, a certain culture developed.

Thus, the most important characteristics ethnic culture are her deepest historical roots and originality associated with the specific conditions in which it took shape and developed.

A nation is a much later form of a historical community than an ethnos. The most reasonable is the point of view according to which the formation of nations is associated with capitalism as a socio-economic system that creates a solid economic basis for the unification of ethnic groups.

A confession is a religion. Accordingly, confessional groups are social groups whose integrative principle is belonging to one or another confession, one or another religion. It is also the dominant feature of the culture of these social groups.

The most important structure-forming factors of the culture of ethnic, national and confessional groups are cultural heritage, tradition, historical experience of interaction with the natural and social environment.

Not less than an important factor that determines the specifics of the culture of ethnic, national and confessional groups is their desire to preserve their identity, that is, the desire to be themselves, to defend their interests. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, society has a powerful influence on national-ethnic and confessional cultures. Its interest lies in maintaining its unity and its identity in the face of other communities.

Ideally, the combination of the interests of individual groups and society as a whole is possible on the path to the implementation of the harmonious principle of development. This implies the need to stimulate the processes of deepening the features of the diversity of the elements of the system while strengthening their unity.

The realization of this ideal in reality is a very difficult matter. History and modernity show us, as a rule, the hypertrophy of one of these tendencies: a tendency towards differentiation (deepening of diversity) to the detriment of unity or a tendency to strengthen unity to the detriment of diversity.

Overcoming one-sidedness in the interaction of ethnic and national cultures, on the one hand, and the culture of a multinational and multi-ethnic society, on the other, is possible on the paths of implementing binary and polyary models of ethnic cultures.

By binary and polyary models of the development of cultures, in this case, we mean their two-base or multi-base nature in the ethnic sense, i.e., the inclusion in the culture of one ethnic group of a fairly significant share of the culture of another or other ethnic groups.

In favor of the binary model of the development of culture, first of all, arguments “from the individual” can be made. As you know, the feeling of community with one's ethnic group is one of the most powerful human emotions. This is due to very important circumstances, namely of cultural origin: with mother's milk, a person absorbs native language, native tunes, observes the manner of speaking and acting. As a result, ethnic culture lives not only in the mind of a person, but also in the subconscious, and whoever tries to uproot it from there deprives a person of the basis of his life. In addition, ethnic culture is important for a person in the sense that it is the basis for the development of the essential forces of a person, denoted by the categories "personal" - "public". They find their most striking expression in the feeling of the owner (“mine!”) And in the feeling of community, that is, belonging to a particular group (“we!”, “Our”).

If the feeling of the owner is the source personal development and is associated with the need for self-expression, then the sense of community is associated with the need for security, that is, in that which ensures not only development, but life itself. So, an ethnic community is a collective, belonging to which is very significant for a person. This is due to the fact that an ethnic community, as a rule, is a fairly large group of people living at the same time, connected by a single culture. In addition, thanks to the same culture, a person feels his community with countless generations of people who lived earlier. Thus, ethnic culture is one of the most powerful roots, thanks to which a person "grows" not only into modernity, but also into the thickness of centuries. It is thanks to ethnic culture that a person feels the ground under his feet, stands firmly on the ground and, therefore, feels quite protected, like a child next to his mother.

However, it is precisely in the logic of the “from the individual” argument that the statement about the need for representatives of small nations to enter the expanses of world culture will also be legitimate, which is possible only through the culture of large ethnic groups. This greatly enhances the sense of rootedness of the individual in this world due to belonging not only to one's ethnic group, but also to a large ethnic group, to all of humanity.

An argument “from cultural studies” can also be brought in favor of the binary model. The harmony of the development of world culture, as well as the harmony of the development of any other object, is possible if there are at least two necessary features: diversity and internal unity of its constituent elements. With regard to world culture, this means both the need to develop the culture of all the ethnic groups of the Earth, and the need to strengthen their unity. The binary nature of the development of the culture of small ethnic groups makes it possible to support both tendencies.

As for the small peoples of the North of Russia, for them the natural basis of their culture, along with the culture of a particular ethnic group, is the culture, and above all the language of the Russian people.

It should be emphasized that the idea of ​​the binary development of the culture of small peoples does not contain any secret meaning, consisting in the recognition of any of their inferiority. The fact is that the binary development of culture is characteristic of large ethnic groups: it is enough to point to Anglomania, Francomania, Germanmania, characteristic of Russia in different periods of its development, to the boom that is currently taking place in connection with the study of the English language, which gives a way out on those areas of culture that turned out to be insufficiently developed in our country. Moreover, it can be argued that the binarity - necessary condition development of any ethnic culture. At the same time, the most developed cultures are not limited to binary and boldly use the principle of polyphony, or polyarity, while maintaining their identity.

Japan can serve as an example. As a result of the “grafting” of Western culture, it received a powerful impetus for development. But another and necessary side of the success of this development is the preservation of traditional ethnic culture.

Apparently, there is reason to believe that large ethnic groups just formed from those small ethnic groups that turned out to be quite open to the influence of other ethnic cultures. Extrapolating this regularity for the future, it will probably be quite legitimate to assert that the binarity, and even more so the polyarity, of ethnic culture is a guarantee of its viability.

As far as the culture of confessional groups is concerned, the principles of binarity and polyarity are unlikely to be effective here, since two-faith or multi-belief is difficult to implement in practice, if at all possible.

In this area, the principle of freedom of conscience, i.e. the freedom to profess any faith, and the principle of religious tolerance, i.e. respect for all religions and denominations, the condemnation of attempts to present this or that religion or denomination as the only true and only possible one, are of decisive importance.

The culture of personality. One of essential elements sociological cut of the structure of culture is the culture of the individual. The concept of "personality" correlates with such concepts as "man", "individual", "individuality".

The broadest content in this series is the concept of "man". In the "Anthropological Structure of Culture" section of this textbook, it was already noted that a person is a unique being, which is a unity of the material (body) and spiritual (mind, mind, feeling), subjective (creator) and objective (creature, created), individual (I) and universal (genus, cosmos, universe), personal (mine) and public (ours), biological and social.

The concept of "man" can be defined through each of these pairs of categories. So, for example, we can say that a person is a being that is a unity of matter and spirit, or that a person is a being that is a unity of subject and object, etc. All these will be definitions that cover the scope of the content of the concept “human being” rather broadly. ".

However, we are faced with the task of identifying the relationship between the concepts of "man" and "personality". To solve it, the most suitable definition of the concept of "man" through a pair of categories "biological" and "social". This definition sounds short: "man is a biosocial being."

As a biological being, man is nothing but an animal. It is distinguished from other animal species by the fact that it lives in society, that is, it is a social being. It is this social component of a person that is usually called “personality”. Personality is a set of socially significant features of a person - this is one of the definitions of the concept of "personality". It is often criticized for its seeming mechanistic, dry, one-sided sociologism. In this regard, dozens and even hundreds of other definitions are opposed to it. It is probably not an exaggeration to say that there are as many definitions of the concept of “personality” as there are definitions of the concept of “culture”, “man”, etc. This is due to the fact that they are given from different points of view and therefore characterize different sides such complex phenomena.

As noted above, the criteria for choosing the most fruitful approaches to the definition of a concept are the breadth of coverage of the scope of the content of the concept being defined and the depth of comprehension of its essence.

The above definition of personality as a set of socially significant features of a person meets these criteria to the greatest extent.

It allows you to focus on the most essential, which makes the concept of “personality” necessary, that is, on the fact that a living being that has the biological characteristics of a person becomes a personality if it acquires traits that make it significant for society. From this point of view, the biological characteristics of a person (blood type, height, weight) are not included in the characteristics of his personality if they do not affect his behavior and place in society.

The concept of "individuality" is related to the concept of "man" in a different way than the concept of "personality". It denotes a combination of both biological and social properties of a person, forming a kind of inimitable, unique integrity. As for the concept of "individual", it is the poorest in terms of content in the named series of concepts. Its main meaning is the separateness of this particular person. For animals in such cases, the concept of "individual" is used.

So, personality is a set of socially significant features of a person.

Significant features of a person are his social roles (profession, position, marital status, etc.).

However, the most socially significant feature of a person is his culture, i.e. his dressing, processing, cultivation, “ennoblement.

It depends on this how he performs his social roles and, ultimately, his social weight and significance.

Thus, the concept of "culture of personality" allows you to pay attention to the main thing that makes a person a socially significant being.

The structure of a person's culture can be analyzed in terms of all those parameters, cuts, according to which we analyze the structure of culture in general and the structure of the culture of this or that society in particular.

The meaning-forming core of personality culture is the methods and results of solving the main anthropological contradictions by a particular personality and the level of development of the essential forces of a person.

So, one of the important characteristics of the culture of the individual is the direction, intensity, ways of satisfying spiritual interests and needs, their relationship with the needs of the body; the predominance of spiritual or, on the contrary, bodily needs of interests.

This criterion for assessing the culture of personality is widely used in everyday life, in particular, in such expressions, for example, as “a spiritual person” or, on the contrary, “a soulless person”.

The structure of spirituality, that is, the predominance of rational or emotional principles, is also one of the important criteria for the culture of the individual. In addition, the “quality” of emotionality and rationality, that is, the culture of feelings and the culture of thinking, are also subject to evaluation.

A large layer of problems is associated with the analysis of personality culture in the light of the categories "subjective" - ​​"objective". The first level of meanings is found easily and quickly: it is the assessment of the personality in terms of "creative" and "uncreative". The first of them corresponds to the category of "subjectivity", the second - "objectivity".

However, the property of objectivity is expressed not only in the absence of creative initiative, passivity, but also in a number of positive qualities, for example, discipline, i.e. the ability to clearly comply with the norms and rules provided for in a particular field of activity, learning ability, i.e. the ability to assimilate knowledge previously obtained by someone, etc. These concepts also evaluate personality culture.

In addition, the category of "objectivity" as applied to the analysis of personality culture includes another important meaning. It lies in the fact that a person is an object of influence on her by the culture of her immediate environment (family, company), the culture of various social groups of which she is a member, the culture of a particular society as a whole, and finally, world culture. All this creates a very complex interweaving of which the culture of the individual is formed. Biographies of prominent people who had a great impact on the course historical process, show how much they themselves were a "product" of the culture of their family, their country, their era.

Important aspects of personality culture are also revealed in the light of the "individual-universal" categories. "Bright individuality" - such is the well-known and widespread formula for the integral assessment of the culture of the individual. Expressions opposite in meaning to it - “a gray personality”, “a person without a face”, etc. indicate the absence of a pronounced individuality, features of originality, uniqueness.

One of the cardinal characteristics of personality culture is associated with the categories of "public - private". Their application allows us to assess the place and role of public and personal interests and ideals in the life of an individual, whether the main thing for her is the desire for the public good or, on the contrary, to achieve personal well-being.

Finally, important aspects of personality culture are revealed in the light of the categories "biological - social". Here the question may arise about the legitimacy of using the category "biological" in connection with the category "personality", which, as mentioned above, just points to the social component of a person in its difference from his biological substrate. However, there is no contradiction here. The meaning of the category "personality" is not to leave the biological nature of man out of sight, but to emphasize the decisive role of the social in relation to the biological in man. This role, i.e., the socialization of the biological, is carried out precisely thanks to culture, and, on the other hand, one of the indicators of the culture of the individual is the degree and forms of socialization of manifestations of animal instincts characteristic of it - sexual, instinct of aggression, instinct of safety, etc.

So, we can get a meaningful description of the culture of personality by considering its structure in the light of the concept of "essential human strength". In this case, such indicators are revealed as the level of development of the essential forces of a person and their relationship to each other, i.e. harmony (diversity in unity) or disharmony (hypertrophy of one of them with a lack of development of the other).

Another aspect of the analysis of the structure of personality culture is its consideration in the light of those concepts and categories that were used in Sec. 2.5. "Activity cut of the structure of culture". The most important of them is the concept of "moral culture", which characterizes the degree of implementation of values, principles and norms of morality in various types, directions, aspects of human activity.

The most important components moral culture personality are knowledge and ideas about the norms, values ​​and principles of morality, the ability to make moral judgments (rational component), culture of feelings (emotional component), culture of behavior and culture of action (practical component). The peculiarity of the moral culture of the individual lies in the fact that it is such only in the presence of all its main components - rational, emotional and practical. The defectiveness of one of them makes it impossible for the manifestation of the other two. Thus, the lack of knowledge about the norms and values ​​of morality makes moral feelings unaddressed, and behavior and actions are chaotic and meaningless, a low level of development of moral feelings deprives knowledge about moral values efficiency, and behavior and actions - internal incentive. And finally, arbitrarily rich knowledge of morality and refined moral feelings are also depreciated in the absence of their external manifestation in the form of behavior and deeds.

Another indicator of the moral culture of the individual is its presence in all activities of the individual. There can be no question of a high level of moral culture if a person acts in accordance with the norms of morality in one area and violates them in another.

Great value also has an aesthetic culture of the individual. Its elements are knowledge and ideas about aesthetic norms and values, the ability to make aesthetic judgments (rational component), the culture of feelings, i.e. the ability to experience emotions from the perception of such properties of the surrounding world and its individual phenomena as beauty, integrity, harmony (emotional component), the desire and ability to embody aesthetic values ​​in their activities (practical component).

The peculiarity of the aesthetic culture of the individual lies in the predominance of the emotional component in it. In addition, the specificity of the aesthetic culture of the individual lies in the fact that it contains such an element as taste. It can be defined as a synthesis of the rational and emotional components of the aesthetic culture of the individual, manifested primarily in the understanding and sense of proportion, the boundary beyond which integrity, harmony, beauty are violated, certain properties turn into something else or their opposite.

Moral culture and aesthetic culture of the individual are interdependent and complementary. Thus, a high level of moral culture is impossible without a high level of aesthetic culture, since a person who is insensitive to beauty and harmony cannot bring these properties into human relations.

A high level of aesthetic culture is also impossible without a high level of moral culture, since an aesthetic sense of proportion, aesthetic taste are inextricably linked with discipline, the ability to self-restraint, i.e., properties developed in the sphere of moral culture.

Moral and aesthetic culture are decisive in characterizing the culture of the individual.

In addition, in the activity aspect, one can single out such elements of personality culture as ecological culture, economic culture etc., each of them, in turn, can be structured according to all the grounds discussed above: spiritual and practical, ideal and real layers and levels, etc.

Thus, a person is a cultural microcosm that exists in accordance with all the laws of the cultural macrocosm, that is, the culture of a particular society. The cultural microcosm is the individual expression of the cultural macrocosm.

Society is a socially consolidated stable group of people pursuing equally stable goals and interests. Culture is a cumulative way of realizing the goals and interests of people, the main technological and social parameters of which are determined by a complex system of "social conventions" (agreements) reached by this society over many generations of its integrated existence, which can be called the social experience of this collective. Culture can hardly reproduce itself. This society reproduces itself in the next generations as a specific social entity through the transmission of its culture.

Place and functions of culture in society

Culture unites the human community in time and space. The task destined for culture - to bind people into society and societies - finds expression in a number of its specific functions. Let's consider the main ones.

1. The function of adapting to the environment

It can be considered the most ancient and perhaps the only one common to humans and animals, although, unlike them, Homo sapiens went immeasurably further than other creatures in their protection from elemental forces and is forced to adapt to two types of circumstances - natural and social. All, what helps a person to survive and thrive in his natural environment, being a product of culture, performs the function of adaptation.

2. Cognitive (or epistemological) function

It finds its expression primarily in science, in scientific research. This is most clearly manifested in the modern scientific and technological revolution. The cognitive function of culture has a dual focus: on the one hand, on the systematization of knowledge and the disclosure of the laws of development of nature and society, on the other hand, on the knowledge of man himself. At the present stage of the development of civilization, the first direction immeasurably prevails over the second. Man comprehended the world much better than the depths of one's own soul, one's own intellect.

3. Informative function

Provides historical continuity and the transfer of social experience. Humanity has no other way to preserve, increase and spread in time and space the accumulated spiritual wealth, as through culture. Culture is not inherited genetically and biologically. A person comes into this world as, to some extent, a blank sheet of paper on which the older generations - the bearers of the previous culture - write their letters.

4. Communicative function

Inextricably linked with the informative. The carriers of the communicative function are mainly verbal language, specific “languages” of art (music, theater, painting, cinema, and so on), as well as the language of science with its mathematical, physical, chemical and other symbols and formulas. The original sign systems existed for a long time and were transmitted from generation to generation, from person to person only orally and graphically, over relatively short distances in time and space. With the development of technology, the latest vehicles and the media (print, radio, television, film, audio and video recordings), the communicative possibilities of culture, that is, its ability to preserve, transmit and replicate cultural values have increased immeasurably.

5. Regulatory and regulatory function

It manifests itself primarily as a system of norms and requirements of society for all its members in all areas of their life and activity - work, life, intergroup, interethnic, interpersonal relations. The main task of this function is to maintain social balance in this or that society, as well as between separate groups of people in the interests of survival human race or any part of it. The normative-regulatory function of culture is carried out by it at a number of levels. The highest of them are the norms of morality, which change in the course of history and from people to people. The next level at which the regulatory function of culture is carried out is the rule of law. Moral norms are contained mainly in religious texts and documents, as well as in secular moralistic literature. Rules of law, invariably based on moral norms and concretizing them (compare murder out of jealousy and murder under aggravated circumstances), are set out in detail in constitutions and laws. At the same time, they acquire not only moral, but already legal force. Differences in the norms of law among different peoples are much more noticeable than in the norms of morality. This is due to the specific history of each nation, its temperament, the level of culture achieved and other factors. In addition to the norms of morality and law, the regulatory function of culture is also manifested in the norms of behavior at work, at home, in communication with other people, in relation to nature. This level includes the rules of education, etiquette, personal hygiene, the culture of communication with people, and so on.

6. Evaluation function

It is expressed in the fact that the people representing it in theory and in practice seek to answer the question posed by Socrates: “What is good?”. Throughout the history of mankind, its brightest minds, as it were, classify all objects and phenomena of the surrounding world in terms of their “usefulness” or “harmfulness” for the survival of future generations. In the course of practical activities, natural selection values ​​produced by the human intellect as the main driving force of culture. With the accumulation of experience, many values ​​are revised and “fall away”, new ones appear, enriching the already established tradition. Different peoples at different stages of development have different concepts of “good” and “evil” and developed value systems, but they all have a certain universal “core”, which is gradually expanding.

7. Function of differentiation and integration of human groups

It boils down to the following: just as it is impossible to imagine a language “in general”, because it exists only in the form of a multitude of specific languages, so culture always appears before us in some specific national-historical form. It is in this diversity that the wealth of world civilization lies. In real life, ethnic groups, nations and countries are separated not so much by geography and political borders, which are easily overcome and changeable, but by their cultural and psychological characteristics, which have a long history and great resistance to assimilation and alien influences. The whole course of world history teaches: despite the loss of both economic and political independence, despite attempts to create huge “empires”, small ethnic groups and peoples were preserved and revived as such precisely thanks to loyalty to their culture, psychological make-up, way of life, mores and customs, faith and the like.

8. The function of socialization (or human-creative)

Associated with the implementation of one single and most important task: make a biological individual intelligent public man . In other words, all the functions of culture listed above - from the function of adaptation to the function of delimitation and integration of human groups - are combined in this one synthetic function and are subordinate to it. The process of socialization consists in the assimilation by the human individual of a certain system of knowledge, norms and values ​​that allow him to act as a full member of society. At the same time, we are talking not only about the fact that each of us is shaped and educated by the surrounding social environment, but also about the need for active inner work of the person himself, striving to preserve and improve his uniqueness in any conditions.

Separate consideration of the main functions of culture in society, of course, is very conditional. IN real life it is impossible to separate them. They are closely intertwined, pass one into another and practically represent single process, in general, providing the cultural and historical movement of mankind.

Personality and culture

How social phenomenon, culture is a specific way of organizing and developing human life, represented in the products of material and spiritual production, in the system of social norms and institutions, in spiritual values. Although culture is a product of the collective life of people, its practical creators and performers are individuals. Traditionally, every individual acts in relation to culture simultaneously in several guises.

1. As a "product" of culture, introduced into its norms and values, trained in the technologies of activity and the ethics of interaction with other people in the process of socialization carried out in the course of child education, upon receipt of the total and special education, through contacts with their social environment (family, friends, colleagues). Receiving everyday information of an ordinary and specialized nature, comprehending artistic images and moral conflicts in works of literature and art, a person is directly or indirectly formed as a person, socially and culturally adequate to society. This process does not end with maturity; adjustment of the parameters of this adequacy continues throughout a person's life.
2. As a “consumer” of culture, using the norms and rules of the culture he has assimilated in his social practice and especially in interaction with other people, using languages ​​and symbols of communication, knowledge, evaluative standards, typical ethical forms, tools and methods of personal self-identification and social self-realization in this community.
3. As a "producer" of culture, either creatively generating new cultural forms, or reproducing or evaluating existing forms, which, by the very fact of individual interpretation, can be qualified as an act of creativity.
4. As a “translator” of culture, because by reproducing any cultural patterns in practical actions and judgments, a person thereby transmits information about them to other people.

Culture as a system

Historically, culture has been a product of the joint life of people, a system of agreed procedures and methods of their collective existence and interaction in order to achieve common goals, satisfy group and individual interests and needs (both material and cognitive, symbolic, evaluative). But it is not a mechanical sum of all acts of human life. Its core is a set of “rules of the game” of collective existence, a system of normative technologies and evaluation criteria developed by people for the implementation of certain socially significant intellectual and practical actions (with varying degrees rigidity of their normative regulation).
As a social phenomenon culture is a systemic formation and is a set of elements, interconnected and forming subsystems of culture as a whole. In the structure of culture as a system, three of its subsystems can be distinguished, reflecting the main groups of people's needs, namely: material, social and spiritual needs.

material culture

It covers the industrial and household spheres of human activity. It represents the so-called "objective field" of culture: dwellings, equipment, household items, clothing, in a word, everything that forms the forms of satisfying the material needs of a person as a representative of his era. So a refrigerator, a TV set, a computer are objects that were created by man himself as an expression of his growing needs for comfort, efficiency in obtaining information or organizing his activities.

social culture

It covers the social sphere of people's life and appears in the form of standards, rules and norms of their interaction as carriers of certain social statuses and performers of relevant social roles within various social communities (for example, ethnic), social groups (for example, professional). These standards and models (a teacher teaches, a doctor treats, parents take care of children), a person learns in the process of socialization. They are fundamentally important, as they reflect our mutual social expectations and make life together people (in politics, in family life, in business relations) possible and expedient.

spiritual culture

The sphere of human activity, covering various aspects of the spiritual life of man and society. It represents the spiritual world of each individual person and his activity to create spiritual “products” (creativity of scientists, writers, legislators), the products of spiritual activity themselves in the form of spiritual values ​​(cloths, customs, scientific theories). Spiritual culture includes religion, science, enlightenment, education, art, language, writing, and so on.

Culture and cultures

The concept of "culture" is nothing more than a speculative category that marks a certain class of phenomena in the social life of people, a certain aspect of their coexistence. Different populations of people live on Earth as autonomous communities in markedly different natural and historical conditions. The need to adapt to these diverse conditions led to the addition of equally specific ways and forms of the implementation of the collective life of people.

Such complexes of specific ways and forms of life activity are called local cultures of the respective communities (peoples). Some of these cultures are similar to each other due to the genetic relationship of the peoples practicing them or the similarity of the conditions for their emergence and history, others differ as much as the living conditions of the ethnic groups that gave rise to these cultures differ. But "no man's culture" or "culture in general" in principle can not be. In contrast to the biological properties of a person, the norms of culture are not inherited genetically, but are assimilated only by the method of training. Hence, as many communities have existed in history, so many relatively self-sufficient cultures are found, which does not exclude a significant external similarity of some of them.

Universal and national in culture

Recognition of the plurality of cultures leads to the formation of different opinions and conclusions. Some scholars proceed from the idea of ​​the equality of cultures, the impossibility of opposing them as different values. Others, on the contrary, believe that the diversity of cultures does not exclude the principle of hierarchy. In this frame of reference, some cultures are evaluated as significant, developed, value-rich and fruitful. Others, on the contrary, are perceived as less wealthy, patriarchal, emaciated and lost their supremacy.

National and universal are two interrelated aspects of the development of culture as an integrity. However, the experience of the 20th century revealed limitations of the Eurocentric approach to culture when technogenic European culture was declared dominant, basic in relation to all other regional and national cultures. It became obvious that each culture has its own specific unique value. Different groups of countries, nationalities are divided not by regions, but by their cultural, national characteristics, each of which is important in the universal process.

National culture is a plastic whole that changes in an evolutionary way. Therefore, transplantation, the mechanical replacement of some elements with others, cannot give positive results; simply copying the values ​​of other cultures would be the greatest mistake. The full development of world culture, the entry of any country into the civilized community of peoples is possible only on the basis of the comprehensive development of national culture.

Trends in cultural universalization in the modern world

The modern era is characterized by the formation of a single planetary civilization, the formation of a universal culture based on the idea of ​​the integrity of the world. This process involves the adoption by representatives of different national cultures of the system universal values, settings and landmarks. However, cultural universalization does not mean unification, reduction of the entire diversity of national cultures to any single model. We are talking, first of all, about the relationship, the interaction of national cultures, which is possible provided that common cultural prerequisites are accepted, otherwise mutual understanding will be difficult.

The formation of a universal culture is facilitated by an increase in the growth and intensity of various connections- political, economic, communication, cultural. Phenomena that arise in one region or sphere of life quickly spread throughout the world and are reflected in the development of various areas. The trend of cultural universalization manifests itself when a nation or a social group is ready to accept the elements of universal culture corresponding to its level of development and capabilities.

Active intercultural interaction, carried out thanks to modern information technologies, the development of transport communications, the flourishing of travel and tourism, contribute to the transformation of the entire planet into a "global village". In this regard, there is an idea that national cultures in these conditions are gradually losing their originality and uniqueness. traditional cultures there are fewer and fewer of them, and almost all of them are experiencing the onslaught of modernization. Therefore, at present, there are increasing trends in preserving the characteristics of national cultures, which oppose universalization and globalization.

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Cultural subject. Culturology in the system of the humanities knowledge.

Culturology - the science of the most general patterns of development of culture, of the multiplicity of development of different cultures. Item - culture, taken as an integral phenomenon (material, spiritual, socio-political) and interpreted (considered) in the course of historical development. Culturology - studies the patterns of the emergence and development of culture, the principles of its functioning, the relationship and interdependence of individual cultures that differ in spatio-temporal, socio-political and other characteristics. The theory of culture explores culture as a system of social phenomena and as a social process. Culturology - complex scientific discipline based on:

on anthropology (the science of man), history (culture is considered from the perspective of historical development), philosophy (the first section is the philosophy of culture) social psychology(explores the problem of mentality) sociology (the science of society, the processes taking place in society,
interaction between the individual and society)

aesthetics (science of beauty) and other humanitarian disciplines.
Culturology It was formed as a separate independent discipline already in the 20th century.
First time term cultural studies was used by the German scientist Ostwaldt (1909), who substantiated the need for a systematic approach to the study of culture. At present, cultural studies are considered as methodological framework the whole complex of cultural sciences. Tasks of culturologists :

study of culture as a system of cultural phenomena consideration of cultural codes (code is a way of transmitting information) -
pre-written, written, screen and ways of communication. solving the problems of socio-cultural dynamics, i.e. development study of the mental content of culture

5. consideration of the typology of culture and cultural units.
Research methods:

historical comparative-historical civilizational-typological morphological (morpho - form) semiotic, i.e. sign-linguistic (different groups of languages ​​are distinguished -
natural, artificial (computer, Morse code), secondary (dance language,
music), system statistical, etc.

2. Culture as a social phenomenon: concept, essence.

First time word culture appears in ancient Rome and translated from lat. means cultivation, processing, but already the Roman thinker Cicero used this term in a figurative sense in relation to a person - “cultivation of the human soul” (education, education). This

period of antiquity (2 thousand to AD - 4 century AD) Middle Ages(late 5th century - 14th century)

In this era, the concept of culture was considered as a derivative of the word "cult" (deification, veneration). The culture was religious in nature. The creative abilities of man were realized through love for God. The era of the Renaissance (Renaissance) 15th - 1st half of the 17th century in culture
secular tendencies appear (the system of secular education, secular genres in
painting, etiquette (1st book on etiquette in Italy in 1557). - beginning of the Modern Age (mid-17th - early 20th centuries)- the beginning of the bourgeois
revolutions in Europe) There are various interpretations of the concept of culture. For the first time as an independent concept, the term culture was used by the German jurist of the 17th century. - Pufendorf(as a synonym for public civil status). The conceptual foundations of culture were developed by German philosophers of the late 18th century. -1 third of the 19th century. - Herder, Kant, Hegel. By culture, they understood, first of all, the spiritual side of human life, that sphere that goes beyond the limits of human nature and the traditions of his social existence. They put the creative act of insight above all else. Herder viewed culture as "the second genesis of man", that is, the second birth of man. Kant associated culture, primarily with the moral side. “Only 2 things are worthy wonder and reverence - the starry sky above us and the moral law in us. Morality makes a person a person. Hegel was the author of the theory "absolute spirit". In parallel with a positive assessment of culture, a negative view of culture is also being formed, where it is seen as a means of enslaving a person. (J.J. Rousseau, F. Nietzsche, Z. Freud). They considered man as a natural being in its essence, man is anti-cultural. Rousseau saw in man an ideal, beautiful creation from the very beginning. In society, thanks to culture, negative qualities (cruelty, envy) are formed in it. The basis of the views of Nietzsche and Freud is the contradiction between the natural inclinations in man himself and the existing norms of collective morality. Obeying them, a person comes into conflict with himself and becomes weak, notorious. Nietzsche is the author of the theory of the superman, where he opposes collective morality in favor of individual morality. The superman is the one who has been able to rise above the collective morality by following his individual morality. Freud went down in history as the author of a theory of personality based on the concept of "libido". Meaning: in the process of life, a person accumulates excessive sexual energy (libido), which he can sublimate (transfer, transform at a higher level) into various areas (politics, science, art ...). Freud turned to the life and work of outstanding people, in particular, the titans of the Renaissance (L. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael).

3. Structure and functions of culture.

Structurally divided by P about the subject - the carrier (individual, collective, nation, people, ethnos,
humanity (at different stages). Subculture is an autonomous culture of a certain social group with its own norms and values ​​( youth subculture). acculturation - it is the process of entry of an individual into society, familiarization with culture (emigration). By type - are based on the types of human activity: material,
spiritual, social. material culture - this is the sphere of materially transforming human activity and its results:

culture of production (machinery, tools, technologies) culture of everyday life culture of housing culture of the human body (physical culture) culture of labor (economist's pipes)

spiritual culture - sphere of spiritual activity and its results:

culture legal culture moral (ethical) scientific pedagogical artistic aesthetic

spiritual culture - this is the correspondence of the level of development of the individual to the level of development of society (Giordano Bruno) Spiritual culture forms the intellectual qualities of the individual social culture - reflects the relations that arise between people in society (at the level of the state, dictatorship, democracy). P about levels

mass - elite official - underground ordinary - specialized

The nature .

professional culture is the sum total of knowledge, skills and
skills required to perform their job duties. common culture - compliance with the level of development of the individual, society
the needs of the times

P about the content - there are three blocks:

COGNITIVE - includes the values ​​of culture as material,
as well as objectified spiritual ones (on the basis of some find, we make
conclusions about the whole era) praxeological - includes social institutions,
engaged in the creation, preservation and dissemination of cultural
values regulatory - includes social institutions that regulate
human relations (relationships between people in the West and East
different)

You can take time parameters - past, present, future. Culture Functions:

adaptive - helps a person to adapt to the environment
(parents are more accommodating to children or vice versa) human-creative - contributes to the formation of a particular type of personality
oriental type - naturalness, religiosity, humility

antique type - striving for beauty, harmony medieval type – chivalry, valor, courage, bravery

clergy - man is trying to be useful

burgher type - diligence, diligence renaissance type - modern type - strives for innovation 3. social memory function (informative) meaning - each generation, entering into life, masters the achievements of previous generations (Euclid, Pythagoras, Geradot, Plato, Aristotle) ​​4. epistemological (cognitive) - implemented through scientific research. The 20th century brought the world 8527 scientific discoveries(spacewalk, information Technology, cloning). 5. compensatory (protective) - contributes to the survival of a person, the realization of his
creative possibilities (religion, science, art). Diana Gurtskaya - blind singer 6. axiological (value) - helps a person to choose for himself one or another
values ​​in life 7. function of catharsis (purification) - religion - confession, confessing a person is cleansed art - music - listening to music relieves stress painting - a person is cleansed and heals

game function - a person in the process of life combines various roles semistic (sign-linguistic)

Language is a means of fixing, storing, processing, broadcasting cultural information. The language of science, youth, colloquial, slang, the language of painting, art. 10. integrating and disintegrating functions (unifying and separating) -
religion, politics. 11. ethical Culture forms ethical norms (10 commandments) - religion, art 12. aesthetic - forms an idea of ​​beauty (mythology, art)

4. Levels of culture: classical and modern, elite and mass, official and underground.

Mass culture It is a consumer culture with its own norms and values. Elite culture - this is the best, choice, favorite, translated from French. - the culture of the creative, creative minority of the population (scientific, legal, property elite). The concepts of elite and mass culture are considered as the main features of the historical and cultural development humanity, with the help of which the "elite" and "masses", power and subordination are characterized. They contradict each other:

Elite culture contains basic values, information about the structure of the universe and human society, divine norms Mass culture-recommendations on submission to God, worship and social ritual Elite culture-social renewal, creativity and storage and transmission of knowledge Mass culture- reproduction, repetition of learned technologies, habitual stereotypes.

They must come into contact and the elitist impulse must enter mass culture, modify and enrich it, and the creative impulses of mass culture must be enriched and act as fundamental programs of cultural renewal. official culture - these are strict norms and rules, protocols, charters, etc. Norms and rules that ensure the moral and aesthetic nature of relations in military collectives:

Military subordination Conscious discipline Mutual respect Respect for elders in rank, age Self-control, calmness

underground - these are not very strict rules components of a culture of human behavior

The internal content (essence) of a person The external expression of behavior The nature of the relationship and the degree of their correspondence to each other

everyday culture - for example, someone is self-healing Specialized culture - for example, someone heals people.

5. Typology of culture: main approaches to the systematization of culture.

Typology - the doctrine of specific differences in culture, cultural and historical types. There is no single generally accepted typology of culture, since there is no single criterion by which it is customary to compare cultures, therefore there are various concepts of the typology of culture. The main approaches to the systematization of culture:

Formational(Marx-Engels) Civilizational(typology is established depending on the interpretation of the concept
"civilization" Religious- based on the dominant type religious consciousness(Arabic-Islamic,
Russian-Orthodox, Indo-Buddhist types) Specific historical- the typology is built in accordance with the historical stages: primitive, culture ancient civilization, medieval type of culture, renaissance type, modern type of culture Conceptual, or ideological - based on the dominant ideology Ethno-national Geographical Demographic - gender and age composition of the population, property and social
base status. Technological - focuses on the level of development of technology and technology Natural- at the heart of the relationship of man to nature - three types:
- natural-organic - man - part of nature
- cultural - a person is separated from nature
- technical-machine - nature - object of study

There are various concepts of constructing a typology of culture. Sorokin's concept in the work "Man, Culture, Society" - identifies three main types of culture:

sensitive (sensual) - for example, the Renaissance (the ancient
understanding of beauty) - 2nd half of the 16th century ideational - worship of the absolute idea, God, reason, little attention
given to personality - for example, the period of the Middle Ages Western Europe- behind
the slightest doubt in the fanatical devotion to the idea was burned at the stake idealistic - harmony between feeling and reason, this is the heyday
culture - the era of the highest renaissance - Michelangelo - artist, sculptor.

The concept of K. Jaspers in the work "The Meaning and Purpose of History" - distinguishes two eras:

pre-axial time - the time of formation of the foundations of human existence axial time - the period of formation of global cultures, traditions

At that time they lived in India - Gautama - the founder of the 1st world religion - Buddhism, Hippocrates - the founder of medicine, Euclid - geometry. Nietzsche's concept in the work "The Birth of Tragedy in the Spirit of Music" - highlights in culture 2 start, based on the images of the gods of ancient mythology

Apollonian - rationality, sense of proportion, order, optimistic outlook Dionysian - on the contrary, irrationality. Lack of measure, chaotic, tragic attitude.

6. Culture in time and space.

The theory of Hegel, Marx and Engels, Weber. This concept is based on the following provisions:

The history of mankind is a single process of progressive development from lower
steps to higher. the history of mankind develops according to certain laws, and these laws
knowable, for the first time an attempt was made to show the mechanisms of social
development.

For the first time this concept was provided in the works of Hegel in the work"Phenomenology of the spirit" - Man is considered as a spiritual being, the essence of the "spirit" is the human desire for freedom. Hegel identifies 3 types of culture (depending on the degree of knowledge of freedom) 1 type - Oriental - there is only awareness of freedom, naturalness, naturalness are inherent in it. The form of government is despotism. Despotism is the first step towards freedom for all through freedom for one. type 2 - antique - the boundaries of freedom are expanding, man is separated from nature, there is an elevation of the human personality. The principles of democracy are being formed (for example, Athens - 10% of born free men had rights, women were not considered equal). 3 type - Germano-Christian - the shortcomings of previous periods are overcome, the idea of ​​equality is expressed in Christianity. The concept of Marx and Engels (formation concept) The basis of culture is labor, the nature of labor and the method of distribution of material wealth determine the type of formation, from the lowest levels to the highest: - primitive, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist, socialist Weber's concept in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Weber attempts to create ideal model development of mankind, distinguishes three types of culture:

traditional - based on the observance of traditions and customs (East, Russia) charismatic - society obeys the will of one leader - period
reformation - Protestant ethics rational - society is based on rational principles and legal
basis (West, America)

7. Civilizational theories of the development of culture (N. Danilevsky, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee)

This concept is based on the following provisions:

the idea of ​​a single world-historical process (linear concept) is denied; separate independent local civilizations were taken as the basis for the study; each civilization is considered as a living organism, which in its development
goes through all stages from the moment of its inception, including periods of rise, decline and
death

4. the history of mankind - the cumulative history of individual civilizations
The founder of this concept is Nikolai Danilevsky, the work "Russia and Europe" 1869 This work appeared in connection with the dispute between Westerners and Slavophiles about the ways of Russia's development. He contrasts Russia with the West. Danilevsky identifies 11 cultural and historical types (10 + 1 separately)

Old Semitic (Assyria, Babylon) Egyptian Greek Roman Indian Chinese Arabic Western European
……. etc. + 1 - Slavic

Danilevsky is the founder Pan-Slavism - proclaims the unity of the Slavic peoples and the common culture of the Slavs. 3 stages of cultural development of the type in the concept of Danilevsky:

ethnographic - the foundations of the type are laid (traditions, etc.) state- formed type of government (dictatorship) civilizational - all the inclinations of the type are fully manifested
Foundations of one type cannot be forcibly transferred to another.
Danilevsky's concept was continued by Spengler.

The concept of Oswald Spengler in the work "The Decline of Europe" 1914-1915 Europe is going through the stage of the death of spiritual culture (decline, decline). Spengler identifies 8 established civilizations: 1. Egyptian, Sumerian-Babylonian, Greco-Roman, Indian Chinese, Arabic, Western European, the culture of the Mayan peoples, which did not pass the stage of civilization Spengler believed that each cultural and historical type in its development goes through 2 stages:

ascent - a culture where spiritual interests prevail; descent - material interests prevail over spiritual ones, there is a desire for world domination. Guidelines

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