What does culture give society? The role of culture in human life and society

One of the most important factors in the development of man and society is culture. Man lives and acts both as an individual and as social community(family, professional, territorial, ethnic, etc.), and like the entire human community (the human race) not in a purely natural environment given by nature, but in an environment transformed by human labor and culture. Yes, and he stood out from the animal world, separated from him and rose above him thanks to labor and culture. Therefore, culture as a specifically human activity and as a combination of spiritual and material assets, norms, ideals, patterns of behavior is involved in the multifaceted process of structuring and developing society.

Culture is specific human way activities aimed at creating spiritual and materialifen- the result of which is a dynamically developing system of ideals, values, norms of behavior embodied in social development man, in his spiritual world.

Culture, primarily through language, a system of values, norms, ideals, meanings and symbols, sets a person a certain way of seeing and recognizing the world, creating certain forms of life activity in it. Therefore, numerous, often conspicuous differences between countries, peoples, social

groups are reduced mainly to a significant discrepancy in the system cultural values which are embodied in the language, customs, rituals, traditions, features of the way of life and life of people, organization of their leisure, functioning in a given country or social community (ethnic, territorial, etc.). In sociology, culture is considered primarily in its social aspect, i.e. from the point of view of its place and role in the social world, in the development of the processes of social structuring of society, in the quantitative and qualitative determination of the results of the latter. In this sense, the study of culture means its inclusion in certain conditions of social stratification and territorial distribution.

originality sociological research culture lies in the fact that it brings to the fore the human-creative essence of culture, understood in two interrelated senses: firstly, a person is considered as the creator of culture, its values, i.e. as its subject, and secondly, a person acts as a creation of culture, as its object, as a result of its formative impact on each individual and on society as a whole. This means that in sociological consideration the main emphasis is placed on the study of culture as a specifically human system of actions and, at the same time, on its analysis as a specific system of symbols, meanings and values.

In sociological consideration, it is important to establish not only the organic relationship of culture with the social structure of society, but also its own internal structure.

In the process of its functioning, culture acts as a complex and highly branched dynamic system in which three main structural components interact: 1) the activity of a social person, carried out in a certain set of concrete historical relations and aimed at creating material and spiritual values; 2) the totality of the achievements of society that arises and enriches in the process of this activity, objectified in material and spiritual values; 3) the process of reproduction and self-development of society and man in the course of creation and development of previously created material and spiritual values ​​(Fig. 29).

In this dialectical triunity, the main pole of the concentration of creative forces of the creating and consuming culture is

human values ​​and at the same time the highest meaning and purpose of the movement of culture, the real expression of its procedural nature is precisely the development and self-development of a person, his essential forces, his abilities and talents, his spiritual world, his social statuses, roles and positions.

spiritual and social development and self-development

System of spiritual and material values

Sociocultural activities

Figure 29 Dynamic system of culture functioning

The outstanding American sociologist T. Parsons rightly asserted that "the amazing complexity of the systems of human activity is impossible without relatively stable symbolic systems", i.e. without cultural systems. The system of culture itself, in this approach, is considered as a value-normative system of symbols, meanings, patterns of behavior that is generally shared by a given society or community, regulating the behavior of individuals and social groups. Moreover, the differentiation of such groups, i.e. The stratification of society is largely determined precisely by a specific set of symbols, meanings and values ​​shared by a certain social group and distinguishing it from all other social groups. Each more or less differentiated and isolated from others social group, for example, ethno-national (Belarusian, Polish, Russian, Georgian or Azerbaijani), carries out its life activity in a specific world of its customs, norms, rituals, traditions, language, religious beliefs, etc. .P. It is this feature that we have in mind when we speak of the peculiarity of urban or rural; Belarusian, Armenian or French culture. Just specific for a given social group (ethno-national, ter-

rhetorical, professional, etc.) features of interrelated customs, traditions, beliefs, values, patterns of behavior form the framework that cements the members of this group into a single social community. It is they who constitute the social marker (distinguisher) that distinguishes a city dweller from a villager, a Belarusian from a German, an entrepreneur from a worker, an Orthodox from a Catholic or from a Muslim. And this means that the system of symbols, meanings and values ​​of culture has its own, unique ways of social integration, uniting people into social and structural communities that differ from each other. That is why T. Parsons argued that "the structure of social systems in general consists of institutionalized standards of normative culture" (6; 481).

In the chapter on the ethno-national structure of society, the integrating role of culture in the consolidation of nations and the identification of separate individuals in them was shown. In the opposite direction, the differentiating function of culture is carried out, creating conditions for delimiting ethnic groups and nations according to the principle of “friend or foe”. But in fact, similar functions of integration and differentiation are performed by culture in relation to other social groups, which in the social structure of society differ from each other no less than nations differ in the ethno-national one.

Culture has a differentiating class, ethnic, civilizational, religious content, i.e. certain, moreover, its important components are aimed at maintaining, ensuring the stability and dynamism of the development of certain social, national, territorial and other communities that differ from each other. This is confirmed not only by numerous historical evidence or modern scientific data, but even by ordinary observations. The well-known American sociologist N. Smelser, for example, claims that Americans prefer to work in their offices with the doors wide open, while the Germans, on the contrary, prefer to work with them tightly closed. Everyday observations of the behavior of residents of Minsk and other cities of Belarus show that rich people most often prefer to hide their wealth, while the poor, no less actively, prefer not to talk about their poverty. Therefore,

belonging to various national communities or social strata dictates the difference in value judgments and in the standards of behavior that make up important components culture.

The important role of culture in structuring society was revealed by the outstanding American sociologist Robert Merton. In the interaction of culture with social and stratification changes, he identified two main factors. The first of these consists of certain cultural goals, intentions and interests that act as legitimate goals for the whole society or for its individual sections. These goals are more or less interconnected, and the values ​​corresponding to them are in strict subordination. Varying in their significance and forming various relationships between individuals and social groups, the dominant goals arouse the desire to achieve them and represent things that should be strived for, i.e. become " life goals" for many people.

The second factor in the influence of culture on the dynamics of the social structure of society is its regulatory and controlling impact on the methods of achieving goals acceptable to society or its majority. “Each social group,” emphasizes R. Merton, “always associates its cultural goals and ways of achieving them with existing moral and behavioral norms” (3; 119). Those norms and patterns of behavior that are fixed in society as capable of satisfying the basic needs, expectations and prescriptions of society are called institutionalized. The choice of means to achieve goals, sanctioned by the dominant culture in society, or (as it is also called) normative culture, is limited by institutionalized norms. It is necessary to distinguish between explicitly prescribed and simply preferred, permitted and prohibited by society patterns of behavior.

A mobile, unchanging balance between the emphasis on cultural goals and institutionalized norms, patterns of behavior as between two important factors in the social structure of society is maintained as long as the majority of individuals and social groups are satisfied with both the goals achieved and the institutionalized ways to achieve them. These two elements, which have a powerful impact on the socio-stratification

changes appear in their functioning as an activity and a result. But if some individuals and social groups, competing with each other for the achievement of the intended goals and applying in this competition the patterns of behavior allowed and prescribed by society, achieve the intended goals, and their competitors are constantly defeated, then the latter most often seek to change the "rules of the game", that is, .e. to change the norms and patterns of behavior that operate in society and are recognized by it as institutionalized. It is then that such groups and communities appear in the social structure of society that reject the prevailing norms and create their own, different from them, and sometimes directly opposite to them. This is how social communities of outcasts, rebels, revolutionaries arise, as opposed to conformists who unquestioningly follow the norms and standards of behavior that dominate in society. All these and other social groups similar to them, for example, hippies, racketeers, characterized by behavior that deviates from the dominant norms, from a sociological point of view, should be considered, according to R. Merton, “as symptoms of a mismatch between culturally prescribed aspirations and socially structured means of their implementation. "(3; 120).

Thus, if two very important components of the social structure - the norms prescribed by culture, patterns of behavior oriented towards certain goals, and the means used by social groups to achieve these goals turn out to be inconsistent, contradictory to each other, then social groups arise in society, in its social structure. capable of violating the prescribed norms in their actions. R. Merton reveals the sociodynamics of the deployment of this multifaceted process on the example of the implementation of the so-called "American dream", the essence of which is to achieve financial success. This goal is extolled in the family, and at school, and in the company of peers, and at work, and in the media. However, the means of success sanctioned by society and its culture - diligence, decency, initiative, etc. - very often do not lead to the desired goal, which turns out to be more accessible to dodgers who disregard the norms of culture. As a consequence, in American society, where there is a strong emphasis on wealth as the main symbol of success without a corresponding emphasis on legitimate means of achieving it,

groups of people occupying "different positions in the social structure of culture" turn out to belong to different strata of the social structure of society - rich, poor or beggars, successful businessmen or criminals.

R. Merton set five various types social structuring depending on the integrated or disintegrated norms prescribed by culture and the institutionalized means of achieving them. The first one is thental conformism - presupposes agreement with the goals of society and the legal means of achieving them. The second type, - in the terminology of R. Merton, innovation, - implies agreement with the goals approved by a given culture, but rejects socially approved ways of achieving them, and is manifested in the actions of groups of re-keters, blackmailers or embezzlers of other people's money. The third type - ritualism- focused on the denial of this culture, but the consent (sometimes brought to the point of absurdity) to use socially approved means. An example of such behavior is the actions of bureaucrats who unquestioningly demand the fulfillment of those prescriptions that not only do not contribute to the success of the case, but can also lead to its failure. The fourth type - repeatism, those. escape from reality; is manifested in the behavior of outcasts, exiles, vagabonds, chronic alcoholics, drug addicts who have left real world into his inner, painful, socially mutilated world. They refuse culturally prescribed goals and norms, and their behavior does not correspond to institutionalized norms.

The most interesting from the point of view of sociocultural changes is the social group of the fifth type, which R. Merton calls "rebels" ("rebels"). This type of behavior "brings people out of the surrounding social structure and encourages them to create a new, that is, highly modified social structure" (4, no. 4; 93). As an example of behavior of this type, N. Smelser cites the actions of revolutionaries who are fighting for socialist property, which is crowding out private property, considering the first of them more legitimate than the second (8; 218).

Socio cultural norms and patterns of behavior not only have a serious impact on social and stratification changes, but also serve to maintain or increase the public prestige of certain social

groups. social mechanism This process is quite clearly revealed in the implementation of prestigious, or conspicuous, consumption. The cultural standard of conspicuous consumption of relatively expensive goods that exists in certain social groups, most often high in their status and property, symbolizes the possession of sufficient wealth in order to afford such large financial expenses that are inaccessible to the lower social strata. Individuals and social groups engaged in such conspicuous consumption derive satisfaction from this, but also (and to an even greater extent) from an elevated social status reflected by the envy of those who observe their consumption from the outside, but are not able to afford it. It is the confirmation or increase in the eyes of others of one's high social status that is the main motive for conspicuous consumption, which became quite widespread in the United States back in the 30s of the XX century, and in the last 6-7 years it has begun to make its way more and more widely in Belarus, Russia, other CIS countries, manifesting itself most often in the behavior of the so-called “new Russians”, “new Belarusians”, etc. There is another channel for the influence of sociocultural norms and standards of behavior on the social structure of society. This channel is revealed and interpreted by the same R. Merton in his concept of explicit and latent functions performed by any social system or its socio-cultural components. Just as the socially sanctioned goals and means of achieving them by the dominant culture are realized by any unit of the social structure, be it an ethnic, political or other social group, through the implementation of explicit functions recognized by society as legitimate, so various groups illegal, criminal business, racketeering, etc. achieve their goals, using for this hidden from society, latent functions. As there are kings of the forest and kings of oil, says R. Merton, so there are kings of vice and kings of racketeering. If the growing institutionalized enterprise organizes administrative and financial syndicates in order to rationalize and unify various areas of production and business activity, then the growing racketeering and crime organize syndicates in order to bring order to the production of illegal goods and services (5; 457-458 ). In the context of the formation of market

In the context of social relations in post-socialist countries, the demands of the market form the corresponding social groups that act both legally and illegally, by criminal means. When there was a need to carry out contract killings, groups of hired killers arose, when the need for organizing terrorist acts increased, the number and activities of terrorist groups sharply expanded

From the foregoing, the following conclusion follows: when a particular need appears in a society, it is transformed into a clearly perceived goal, and the achievement of this goal and the means necessary for this are embodied in preferred, permitted, prescribed, or, on the contrary, prohibited by society and its culture, norms and patterns of behavior Harmonization, integration of these norms and means of achieving them leads to the formation of such units of the social structure that correspond to the value orientations and expectations of the majority of members of society (entrepreneurial, banking, commercial, intermediary and other social structures that perform their functions openly and legally). But at the same time, such units of the social structure also arise (racketeering, killerism, drug addiction, prostitution, etc.) that perform their functions (for which there are also consumers) latently and illegally, bypassing the sociocultural norms and patterns of behavior that dominate in society.

Having revealed the social mechanisms of the influence of culture, its norms and values ​​on the dynamics of social and structural transformations, it is necessary to emphasize that in culture itself there is an inherent orderliness, structuredness. Usually, the entire socio-cultural space of a society is divided into two main types of culture - material and spiritual. Material culture is understood as a set of material, physical objects created by human creativity, such as, for example, a book, a temple, a tool, a house, an airplane, etc. Each of these material objects perform certain useful functions and at the same time carries a peculiar symbolic meaning. All this taken together represents a certain value for an individual, group or society. In contrast, spiritual culture is a set of intangible elements created by the creativity of people: values, norms, ideas, rules, standards of behavior, rituals, customs, traditions, symbols. Spiritual culture is main part

understand the true value of beauty. The second argued that only a "superman" endowed with a "will to power" simultaneously possesses a heightened susceptibility to high cultural forms. These ideas, further developed by the neo-Kantians G. Rickert, W. Windelband, E. Cassirer, as well as E. Husserl, X. Ortega y Gasset, were embodied in avant-garde, modernist and postmodernist art, oriented towards a select part of the public. Their various directions, embodied in the so-called "new novel", "concrete poetry", expressionism, Dadaism, surrealism, etc., appeal to the universal understanding of experts and true connoisseurs as the highest stage of understanding and evaluating cultural values ​​that are aesthetically characteristic of a narrow circle. developed social elite.

Along with this, in recent decades 20th century, widespread Mass culture, focused by its works on the average level of development of mass consumers of material and spiritual values. The mass distribution of works here does not coincide with the essence of the folk principle in culture, it is based not on content, but on formal, quantitative features - mass, conveyor methods of production, distribution and consumption. Typical embodiments of such a culture are widespread in Lately television series, video and sound recordings. The entertainment function is brought to the fore, the emphasis is on the sensitivity, sometimes primitive, of the reading and viewing public. Musical hits and variety shows(spectacles), combining elements of pop melodies, carnival, game performances, lighting and color effects.

Quite widespread kitsch, manifested in the bright, but often tasteless design of magazines, in the literary boulevard, in a significant part of film and television production, in various forms ah conveyor household decorations and in comics - narratives in pictures, provided with short texts or replicas of characters. Even the classic novel by L. Tolstoy "Anna Karenina" by the hands of artisans from the comics turns into a depicted multi-colored

pictures of a sad story of love and suicide of the main character.

If the elite culture is focused on especially artistically developed people capable of understanding cultural values, then kitsch is the opposite pole - an orientation towards a limited understanding of an artistically undeveloped, limited consumer.

Of course, both elite and Mass culture, and kitsch, with all their varieties, promote various norms and patterns of behavior, and therefore have a multidirectional influence on the sociodynamics of the social structure. For some, the preferred norm and equally preferred means of achieving the exalted goal (the same monetary success, wealth) are the works of the same mass culture widely replicated by the media. Others prefer (often for the purposes of the prestigious, conspicuous consumption described above) the norms and values ​​of an elitist culture, the tastes and behaviors promoted by it. And all these preferences, aspirations, and expectations lead to various variants of horizontal and vertical social mobility, to the transition of people from one social group to another.

Here, special attention should be paid to the phenomenon subcultures. Unlike dominant culture accepted and shared by all members of society, or at least by the majority of it, the subculture includes the norms, values ​​and standards of behavior preferred by people and their groups that follow the norms and patterns of behavior that are not shared as such by the majority of the country's population. For example, in criminal groups such qualities as readiness for risk, endurance, ruthlessness, desire for thrills, and luck are highly valued. Peculiar subcultures include values, norms, patterns of behavior of an ethnic group that is foreign to the nation, for example, Tatars in Belarus, and also non-traditional religious groups for our republic (Krishnaites, Zen Buddhists, Satanists, etc.).

Under certain conditions and situations, a subculture may cultivate values ​​and behaviors that are opposed to the dominant culture. In this case, we are dealing with a counterculture. Counterculture is a system of values, norms,

standards of behavior inherent in a particular social group, which not only differs from the patterns dominant in society, but is also directly opposite to them, hostile, challenging and may come into open conflict with them. Let's say a ro-j native criminal gang is guided by certain norms! ■ rules of conduct, but they are completely opposite to those shared by the majority of society, and therefore come into conflict with the values ​​and norms of the dominant culture.

Of course, the structural components we have identified, concentrating around a certain set of values ​​and orientations (folk, national, elite, etc.), form more or less defined spheres of influence in the integral socio-cultural space of society. This space itself is not only structured, but in its functioning appears as a tense field of interaction between these spheres, which do not remain absolutely closed, but in their development not only influence each other, but are able to intersect, drawing elements of another sphere into their orbit. For example, mass culture may include elements of folk (folklore, etc.) and national (originality of linguistic expressions, etc.) culture in a somewhat transformed, mostly simplified and massified form. The counterculture, in turn, is able to include in its orbit the stylistic and content elements of not only the subculture, but also the elite culture. This complex structural-dynamic hierarchy of various components of culture can be depicted in the form shown in Fig. 31.

In the process of its actual functioning in society, culture appears as a multifaceted value-normative system of symbols, knowledge, ideas, values, norms, patterns of behavior that regulates the behavior of individuals and social groups. But behind this system lies a creatively transforming human activity aimed at creating, distributing, consuming (assimilating) spiritual and material values. Only the titanic and inspired work of such world famous cultural figures as W. Shakespeare, Michelangelo, A.S. Pushkin, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, P.I. Tchaikovsky and many others, creates the greatest cultural values. The very process of creating and assimilating such values ​​is a well-defined cycle. First, in a certain social environment, a certain idea arises, it is through the creative efforts of a cultist

T. Parsons in his general theory actions and social systems determined the decisive importance of the cultural system in creating and maintaining a model of values ​​and norms operating in society and implemented in the behavior of its members. It was culture, he believed, that plays the main regulatory role in the development of social systems, as discussed in Chapter 7 of this book.

An important role in the sociological interpretation of the essence of culture and its role in the development of man and society was played by the works of the famous American anthropologist and culturologist Leslie White. He believed that “culture is a class of objects and phenomena, depending on the ability of a person to symbolize, which is considered in an extrasomatic context, as a result of which “human behavior is a function of culture ... If culture changes, behavior also changes” (K); 146). In its essence, he argued, culture is a socio-political-economic system within which the human race lives, breathes and reproduces, and therefore it is many times more important for the future of mankind than the measurement of galaxies produced by science, the splitting of the atom, or the discovery of a new miraculous drug. .

Supplementing the evolutionist approach to culture that gained him fame with the functionalist one, L. White analyzes its development from the point of view of its inherent structure and functions. With this approach, culture appears as an organized integrated system, within which three subsystems are singled out: technological, social and ideological. The technological system consists of material, mechanical, physical and chemical tools, coupled with the technology of their use, which allows a person to come into contact with the environment. The social system is made up of interpersonal relationships expressed in collective or individual patterns (patterns) of behavior. Within this system one can, in turn, single out social, economic, ethical, political, military, religious systems; family systems, organization of work, recreation, etc. The ideological system consists of ideas, beliefs, knowledge expressed through articulate speech or in other symbolic form. In this

noah, i.e. original, is adaptive function. Thanks to culture, the application of its norms, values, patterns of behavior, each individual and any community of individuals (family, ethnic group, professional group, socio-territorial structure - city, village, etc.) adapt, adapt to the changing conditions of the natural and social environment . The adaptive function of culture allows people guided by its values ​​and norms, customs and traditions, firstly, to adapt to the environment, and secondly, to adjust it to their needs and interests. Culture is capable of performing this function because, as E. Durkheim proved, it offers either imposes ideals, norms, standards of behavior that motivate them to certain actions and modes of action, but encourage them to refrain from others. As a result of this, in society, according to T. Parsons, a complex network of positions of individuals and groups is created, including a system of "role statuses" - each individual has certain expectations (expectations) of certain ways of behavior of other individuals in certain situations and at the same time correlates his actions with the expectations of other individuals. As a result, the adaptation of individuals is formed not only to the environment, but also to the actions of other individuals.

The adaptive function of culture is closely related to its cognitive function. Its essence lies in arming a person with the knowledge necessary to master the forces of nature, to understand social phenomena and the tendencies of their development, to determine, in accordance with this, a certain line of behavior, one's civic position. In the implementation of this function, the decisive role belongs to such a specific component of culture as science, which is designed to generate new knowledge and find ways and means of implementing the acquired knowledge in technical means, in methods of practical activity. A very important role in the implementation of the cognitive function of culture is played by art, capable of penetrating into the deep layers of the spiritual world of man, into his aspirations, hopes, joys, anxieties, and expectations.

Of great importance socializing function culture, which allows each individual involved in the process of perception and assimilation of values ​​existing in society and

norms, to form as a person. It is in the process of socialization that the emerging personality, through the assimilation and creative reproduction of values, norms, ideals, acquires social qualities, self-realizes in certain types of activity, becomes a self-developing subject of social processes.

By creating the norms, rules, standards of behavior necessary for human orientation, culture performs another important function - normative. Its essence lies in the fact that culture, acting as a set of ideals, norms, patterns of behavior, prescribes to a person certain standards and rules, in accordance with which the way of life of people, their attitudes and attitudes are formed. value orientations, role expectations and methods of activity.

Bringing to us the voices of the past, creating opportunities for dialogue between generations and eras, linking the past with the present and preparing the future, culture fulfills translational function. plays an important role in its implementation tradition as a way of preserving and reproducing certain patterns and values, organically associated with innovation as a way of updating culture.

This function is organically interconnected with the function production of new previously non-existent meanings, knowledge, values ​​and norms. Within the framework of the existing culture, in the process of its reproduction and development, new symbols, images, styles, pictures of the world, ways of spiritual and practical development of the world arise. It is enough to recall such stages of the process of cultural development as classics, modernity, postmodernism, so that the innovative and creative essence of culture, inseparable from the production of more and more new symbols, meanings, forms, styles, etc., becomes clearly visible.

Reproducing in its development long-standing values ​​and enriching the spiritual arsenal of man and mankind with new values ​​and meanings, culture also performs the function goal setting. It helps a person to formulate socially significant goals, concentrate his abilities, opportunities, actions on them, and guided by the values ​​and norms existing in society, and, if necessary, supplementing and overlapping them with new values ​​and norms, opens up new horizons of spiritual and social creativity for society. .

An essential role at all times, and especially in our era, when the transition of mankind to a new type of civilization - informational or, as it is also called, noospheric, is played by information function culture. It allows you to give the individual, social groups, society as a whole a reliable, objective correct information, without which the organization itself is impossible public life people, their orientation to certain types of activity and social relations.

Culture not only forms the ways of orientation and human activity in the world, but is also a powerful factor in the reproduction and development of its energy, and culture plays an important role in this. game function. It is through the game that the child enters the world of adults as an emerging personality, learns certain social roles and values, through the game in the theater and cinema, the creators of culture convey ideals, values ​​and norms of behavior to the audience and listeners. IN sports game and in carnival festivities, people get relief from the complexities of everyday life, create space for the creative play of their spiritual and physical strength without which there is no culture itself.

Of significant importance significative(from the English sign - a sign) a function of culture, which is the attribution of meanings and values ​​to certain phenomena, processes, events, people. For example, the starry sky had no meaning for primitive man until he involved the celestial space in the circle of his mythological ideas, and then astrological predictions. In the future, this function is manifested in the understanding of the world by identifying its meanings through religion, philosophy, poetry, science.

The significative function of culture is closely related to its communicative function. It is realized through the transmission, reception, comprehension of information, communication of people, their groups, communities, organizations.

It is important motivational the function of culture, which consists in the fact that it forms the motives of people's actions, prompting them to certain actions, deeds, etc.

The function just described is organically related to mobylicking function of culture, which encourages people to certain actions and mobilizes their will, intellect, feelings, actions to achieve certain goals.

Culture performs and recaxation function, i.e. helps a person to relax, organize his rest, restore physical and spiritual strength.

In addition, culture performs another important function: accumulation and transmission from generation to generation of social experience.

The interaction of these functions allows culture to perform another, perhaps the most important, function - brought upbody. Creating opportunities for the assimilation of values ​​and norms, orienting a person to certain actions and warning against others, moving him towards certain goals, culture, with all the richness of its content, forms, styles and images, educates a person as a spiritually developed and socially active person.

An integrated result of the interaction of all the described functions is another extremely important and decisive function of culture - human-creative Being a creation of man, culture in its functioning and development forms a man, creates him according to a certain model, determined by its values, norms and ideals.

The human-creative function has always existed, but it acquires especially great significance in the 21st century, when not only the role of the creator of culture, but also its consumer, more precisely, co-creator-reader, listener, viewer, is growing sharply. This co-creator must - each in his own way - together with the artist, writer, composer, etc. to complete, complete the text, picture, melody, rhythm to complete completion. Only in this case does the creative interaction of the artist and the reading, viewing, listening public take place not through the anonymous and designed for the average, not very developed taste of the consumer, not along the side of the spiritual life of a person - whether he is the creator of culture or its exacting consumer - but through the epicenter of his spiritual self-determination and self-development.

So, in culture there is an inherent orderliness, structuredness inherent in it. Moreover, this structure has a specific historical configuration and is differentiated not only in social space, changing from country to country, from people to people, but also in social time, changing from one historical era to another. As a result of this multifaceted sociodynamics, the system of culture becomes a powerful factor in structuring the social world, co-determining the dynamics of its social structure.

Questions for repetition and self-control

Why does culture act as a means of structuring society?

What are the two main factors in the interaction of culture with social and stratification changes in society?

What are institutionalized norms and patterns of behavior?

How do groups arise in the social structure of society that are capable of violating or rejecting dominant cultural norms and values?

What are the main types of social structuring depending on the integration or disintegrativity of the norms and goals prescribed by culture, the means to achieve them?

What is the difference between the sociostructural influence of elite, folk, mass culture, kitsch, subculture and counterculture on the structural transformations of society?

Literature

Babosov E.M. Applied sociology. Ch. 12. Minsk, 2000.

Kravchenko A.I. Culturology. Sec. P. M., 2000

Merton R. social theory and social structure // Sociological research. 1992, no. 2.

Merton R. Social structure and anomie // Sociological research. 1992, No. 3, No. 4.

Merton R.K. Explicit and latent functions // American sociological thought. Texts. M., 1996.

Parsons T. Functional theory of change // American sociological thought. Texts. M., 1996.

Parsons T. System modern societies. M., 1998.

Smelzer N. Sociology. Ch. 2 M, 1994.

Frolov S.S. Sociology. Ch. 3. M., 1996.

Section four SOCIAL PROCESSES

The development of culture is a determined process of social production, economics, social relations, political life. In turn, it affects all these areas, expressed, in particular, in such manifestations as the culture of production, political culture, culture of interethnic relations and the like. Actually, all types of social activities are included in the system of culture.

It is clear that the state and level of material culture primarily depends on production and economic factors. As for the influence of the economy on spiritual culture, it has an indirect character and is not unambiguous: the periods of development of spiritual culture did not always coincide with periods of economic growth.

A necessary condition for the beginning of cultural progress was public division labor, especially departments mental labor from the physical. A significant influence on the state and dynamics of culture is produced by social class relations, as well as processes and events. political life. The development of culture was also affected by the interaction between qualitatively different spheres and phenomena of culture itself.

Historically, the understanding of culture and its relationship with nature has changed. This understanding of everything was determined by the cultural-historical factor, conditioned by socio-cultural circumstances and, in turn, influenced them.

For mythological thinking, there was still no division into natural and cultural (although culture was already in its infancy).

In the ancient world outlook (Greco-Roman culture), the natural principle was comprehended as primary in relation to the human; space - as perfection, harmony, with which a person must coordinate his actions and deeds.

The Middle Ages, on the contrary, opposed the spiritual and cultural beginning (in its religious understanding) to the natural-physical, sensual, which was considered the source of sinful desires and temptations. The dominant, official culture of that time had an emphatically spiritualistic character. As a reaction to this, in the popular, so-called "laughing" culture, interest was directed to the "sinful" flesh and even to the human "bottom".

The culture of the Renaissance (XIV - XVI centuries) restores (at a new level) ancient cosmism and elevates a person as a being that combines the spiritual and bodily principles, capable of not only knowing, but also creating beauty - a being that has the right to fullness happiness.

The focus on man, the affirmation of the inherent value of his being, humanism, which were clearly expressed already in the first period of the Renaissance (XIV - XV centuries), are later supplemented, and partly pushed into the background, by the growing interest in nature, its study and mastery. The man himself is considered primarily as a natural being, which can be investigated by the methods of the natural sciences. Naturalism, to a certain extent, began to oppose Virodzhensky aestheticism, the installation of admiring the beauty of nature and man; a "technical" attitude to nature was born, in which they saw the requirement upward development human civilization. In the XVIII century. there are differences and a certain opposition between the views of the "enlighteners", unconditional supporters of the idea of ​​progress, who, in terms of worldview, stood on the positions of metaphysical materialism, and J. J. Rousseau and his followers, who believed that civilization spoiled man.

In the era of developed industrial civilization(in its capitalist form, when the contradictions of progress began to appear) the opposition of positions acquired new character. On the one hand, the passion for the achievements of scientific and technical culture, faith in its unlimited possibilities, in the fact that a person is able to rule over nature, and on the other hand, disappointment in technical progress, fear of it, nostalgia for the lost closeness to nature, the desire to restore the previous one.

In our time, this is expressed as the opposition of technological optimism to the ideas of technocracy and technological pessimism and fears for the fate of human culture. According to some modern philosophers (Heidegger and others), Western civilization has come to the point of losing rational being, to losing a sense of the mystery of being - that mystery that cannot be revealed without destroying it. And this "loss of being" began as soon as "metaphysics" appeared, which tries to comprehend the essence of things by rational methods. These philosophers make an attempt to return to "pre-Socratic thinking", that is, to the image of the worldview that existed at the beginning of cultural history, to Socrates, Plato, Aristotle - the creators of the rational-philosophical way of thinking.

Such searches and turns philosophical thought is a symptom of the contradiction between unrestrained scientific and technological progress and the state of spiritual culture.

In the development of culture there is always continuity, tradition (lat. - Literally "transmission"), although each generation or social group was selectively related (related) to what was created by its predecessors. However, it is dangerous to neglect traditions, reject, and even more so destroy the cultural values ​​of the past. In history (ancient and recent), examples of such destruction were the consequences of the invasion of "barbarians" into the cultural ancient world (it's not for nothing that the word "vandalism" comes from the name of one of the "barbarian" tribes - vandals), the "proletcult" movement in the first years after the revolution of 1917 . ., the destruction of temples, the burning of icons in the course of anti-religious campaigns, "great cultural revolution"in China (60s of the XX century) and so on. "Negation" of the past should be dialectical, that is, combined with the preservation and assimilation of everything valuable. One should not rush to "reassess all values."

The cultural process is certainly also creativity - the creation of a new, departure from the routine. A living culture is contraindicated in marking time, conservatism, and stereotyping. The ratio of traditions and innovation in different societies was not the same: "traditional" - in ancient world and the Middle Ages, dynamic - in the societies of the New Age and the present. When entering all social transformations, real cultural ones. running around is NOT a transitory value, and in this sense is "eternal" is the test of time and reveals the true value. Each new generation assimilates and comprehends them in its own way, includes them in a "living", functioning culture and at the same time creates new cultural values. This is how a chain of cultural continuity arises, this is how cultural progress occurs.

Culture is a very complex entity: there are different types, levels, different ethnic, national forms and others. Each nation creates its own, in what a peculiar, even unique culture. This is the originality of culture, traditions, features of the language, and even the way of thinking and worldview (what is called "mentality"), a kind of clot of historical experience, an imprint of the fate of the people - at least a less significant sign of an ethnos, a nation than a community of economic life, which it was customary to always put in the foreground.

Since culture expresses, first of all, the generic essence of man, what distinguishes man from nature, raises him above animals, then in it (culture) there has always been and remains a universal human principle and corresponding values. However, each society (people, nation) has its own internal structure, consists of various social groups, classes, layers. It manifests diversity, even divergence and opposition of interests, life positions, forms of life organization. And this cannot but affect the structure of culture. If society is divided into classes, then there is a culture of a "higher" (ruling class) and a culture of a "lower" (subordinate) class.

So, in each national culture there are not two, as it was believed, but more cultures (more precisely, subcultures), because each social group, which is different from others in its class, professional, religious and other characteristics, creates in what way "its own" special culture. Specific features are inherent, in particular, in the youth subculture, since young people are different from others. age groups according to their socio-demographic and psychological characteristics. With a pronounced "generational conflict", which, of course, is based on social contradictions, the speed of the flow of historical time, the dynamism of social life, various qualitative changes, this youth subculture can acquire the features of a "counterculture", that is, turn out to be the opposite of official culture, be distinguished by negativism in the prevailing, and sometimes in civilizational values.

Distinguish culture "elite" and mass. This contrast, of course, reflects significant social differences between population groups that differ in lifestyle and level of education. However, the existence of different levels of culture is inherent in any society, and it would be unlawful to understand the relationship between them only as antagonistic. Science, philosophy, high art of varying degrees are available to everyone and everyone. their perception and understanding require special training and their own purposeful efforts. However, ordinary knowledge ("simple" common sense, folk customs And folk art, fairy tales, songs, ditties, "Lubny" painting, etc.) are also needed and constitute a cultural value. The gap between the levels of culture has a negative effect on each of them: the elite culture withdraws into itself, becomes, as it were, a "delicacy" for the initiated, breaks away from folk roots, while mass culture will suffer damage in its quality, focuses on primitive taste, can become simply vulgar.

Cultural education should be directed so that each person has the need and opportunity to join high culture but didn't forget folk origins throughout culture, assimilated those universal and national values ​​that form its basis.

Since culture is affected by the inconsistency of social life, it usually manifests both progressive and regressive tendencies. Manifesting them and defining our attitude towards them, we are certainly guided by certain ideological, ideological, moral and political criteria. At the same time, one-sidedness, a narrow-party approach, which breeds intolerance and brings discord, is not needed at all. Meanwhile, the highest, unconditional cultural values ​​are the totality of human dimensions - life, human freedom (freedom of thought, belief, conscience, speech, activity) with the only restriction: the freedom of some should not interfere with the freedom of others, so that free expression and development of each in individual and humanity as a whole.

High culture is expressed in mutual respect and mutual assistance of people, in the ability to be tolerant (tolerant) to treat "foreign" views, positions, opinions. Intolerance should be against anti-cultural phenomena, that is, everything that threatens the life and well-being of people, restricts their freedom, contradicts it. Not everything created by humans is cultural value. Weapons, means of destruction of people, prisons, instruments for torture, etc. - This is also a product of civilization, but if we consider them from the point of view of their functional purpose, then it would be rather difficult to recognize them as the value of culture. Similarly, rude words and expressions are an element of the language, but they do not perform a cultural function. The values ​​of culture are that and only that which, in its essence and purpose, expresses humanity, nebula. The inhumane is not a cultural value. Although there is another point of view, according to which everything that is done by man (even if it does not serve progress), is a manifestation of culture, since it characterizes the level of culture of a certain era, society.

The vital activity of society is multi-sphere (labor, politics, economics, ethics, aesthetics, law, family, religion, etc.). Each of the spheres of society's life corresponds to a certain level of culture achieved by it as a qualitative characteristic of its life activity. Culture plays an important role in the life of a person and society, which consists, first of all, in the fact that culture acts as a means of accumulation, storage and transmission of human experience. It is culture that makes a person a person. An individual becomes a member of society, a person as socialization progresses, i.e. mastering the knowledge, language, symbols, values, norms, customs, traditions of their people, their social group and all of humanity. The level of culture of an individual is determined by its socialization - familiarization with cultural heritage, as well as the degree of development of individual abilities. Personality culture is usually associated with developed creativity, erudition, understanding of works of art, fluency in native and foreign languages, accuracy, politeness, self-control, high morality, etc. All this is achieved in the process of upbringing and education.

Culture unites people, integrates them, ensures the integrity of the community. But by rallying some on the basis of some subculture, it opposes them to others, separating wider communities and communities. Within these broader communities and communities, cultural conflicts can arise. Thus, culture can and often performs a disintegrating function. During the socialization of values,

ideals, norms and patterns of behavior become part of the self-consciousness of the individual. They shape and regulate her behavior. We can say that culture as a whole determines the framework within which a person can and should act. Culture regulates human behavior in the family, at school, at work, at home, etc., putting forward a system of prescriptions and prohibitions. Violation of these prescriptions and prohibitions triggers certain sanctions that are established by the community and supported by the power of public opinion and various forms of institutional coercion. Culture, which is a complex sign system, transmits social experience from generation to generation, from era to era. In addition to culture, society has no other mechanisms for concentrating the entire wealth of experience that has been accumulated by people. Therefore, it is no coincidence that culture is considered the social memory of mankind.

Culture, concentrating the best social experience of many generations of people, acquires the ability to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world and thereby create favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development. It can be argued that a society is as intellectual as it fully uses the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of mankind. All types of society that live today on Earth differ significantly, primarily on this basis. In the sphere of work, life, interpersonal relations, one way or another, culture influences the behavior of people and regulates their actions, and even the choice of certain material and spiritual values. The regulatory function of culture is supported by such normative systems as morality and law.

Representing a certain sign system, culture implies knowledge, possession of it. It is impossible to master the achievements of culture without studying the corresponding sign systems. Thus, language (oral or written) is a means of communication between people. Literary language acts as essential tool mastery of national culture. Specific languages ​​are needed for understanding the world of music, painting, theater. Natural Sciences also have their own sign systems. Culture as a certain system of values ​​forms a person's well-defined value needs and orientations. By their level and quality, people most often judge the degree of culture of a person. Moral and intellectual content, as a rule, acts as a criterion for an appropriate assessment.

Thus, the system of culture is not only complex and diverse, but also very mobile. It is a living process, the living destiny of peoples, constantly moving, developing, changing. Culture is an indispensable component of the life of both society as a whole and its closely interconnected subjects: individuals, social communities, social institutions.

Bibliography

1. Andreev A.N. Culturology. Personality and culture. - M., 1998.
2. Arnoldov A.I. Introduction to cultural studies. - M., 1993.
3. Markova A.N. Culturology.-M., 1995.
4. Revskaya N.E. Culturology. Lecture notes. - M., 2001.
5. Sokolov E.V. Culturology. - M.: Interpraks, 1994.

One of the most important factors in the development of man and society is culture Man does not act in a pure natural environment but in an environment transformed by human labor and culture. Yes, and he stood out from the animal world and rose above him thanks to labor and culture.

Culture is a specifically human mode of activity aimed at creating spiritual and material values, the result of which is a dynamically developing system of ideals, values, norms of behavior embodied in the social development of a person, in his spiritual world.

In culture, there is an inherent orderliness, structuredness inherent in it. It is usually divided into two main types: material And spiritual. Under material culture refers to the totality of material objects created by human creativity - a book, a temple, a tool, an airplane, a house, etc. In contrast, spiritual culture is a set of non-material elements created by human creativity: values, norms, ideas, rules, rituals, customs, traditions, symbols, etc.

It is the spiritual culture that represents the main part of the integral system of culture. It includes: artistic culture (art), philosophy, morality, religion, mythology, science.

Culture through language, a system of values, norms, ideals, meanings and symbols gives a person a certain way of seeing and recognizing the world, creating certain forms of life in it. Therefore, numerous differences between countries, peoples, social groups come down mainly to a significant discrepancy in the system of cultural meanings, which are embodied in the language functioning in a given country or social community (ethnic, territorial, etc.), customs, rituals, traditions, and lifestyle features. and originality sociological study of culture lies in the fact that it brings to the fore human-creative essence of culture. It is understood in two interrelated senses: 1) a person is considered as a creator of culture, its values, i.e. How its subject; 2) a person acts as a creation of culture, its an object as a result of its formative impact on each individual and on society as a whole.

In the process of its functioning, culture acts as a complex dynamic system in which three main factors interact: 1) human activity aimed at the creation of material and spiritual values; 2) arising and enriched in the process of this activity a set of material and spiritual values; 3)Process reproduction and self-development of society and man in the course of creation and development of previously created material and spiritual values. The core of this triune process is human development and self-development.

The important role of culture in structuring society was revealed by an American sociologist R. Merton. He singled out two main factors of the influence of culture on social and stratification changes: 1) cultural goals, intentions and interests, acting as legitimate goals for society or its individual strata; 2) the regulating and controlling influence of culture on ways of achieving goals acceptable to society or its majority.

American anthropologist and cultural scientist L. White I thought that human behavior is a function of culture. Culture in his concept appears as an organized integrated system, within which three subsystems are singled out: technological, social, ideological.

Outstanding Russian-American sociologist P. Sorokin, as already noted in Chapter 7 of this tutorial, structured a complex and dynamically developing system of culture, depending on the primary value, primary meaning that dominates at one stage or another of its development, into three main types: 1) sensual; 2) ideational; 3) ideal (idealistic) culture.

American sociologist T. Parsons carried out the structuring of the culture system depending on the level of regulatory influence of the components social system. In the four-component structure of the functioning of a functional social system, from his point of view, the highest regulatory level is occupied by culture, which has a corrective effect on the following three subsystems: society, personality, organism (meaning the human body).

In contrast to the American concepts of the structural dynamics of culture within the framework of the European philosophical and sociological tradition, originating from the works of A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche and comprehensively developed by the works of V. Windelband, E. Cassirer, A. Weber, H. Ortega y Gasset and others, a somewhat different theoretical picture of the intracultural hierarchy has been formed. At the base of this hierarchy is folk culture . From it grows into embodies national identity given people national culture . Along with folk culture, developing, especially in the second half of the twentieth century, Mass culture, focused by its content and forms of expression on the average level of development of consumers of spiritual (often pseudo-spiritual) and material values. Television series, thrillers, hit parades, musical hits, various shows (spectacles) become its embodiment. In contrast to popular culture, it stands out elite culture, focused on selected people with an increased and well-developed artistic susceptibility. It is embodied in expressionism, surrealism, etc., which are addressed to a narrow circle of a select audience, an aesthetically developed social elite. In contrast to the dominant culture in society, there is subculture, which is a system of meanings, values, group norms, lifestyles, stereotypes of behavior of a certain social group, for example, youth subculture, subculture of the underworld. In some cases, subcultures develop counterculture- a set of ideas, values, behavior stereotypes, which is accepted by a certain social group as a counterculture in relation to the systems of ideals, values ​​and norms of behavior generally accepted in society (for example, the counterculture of a criminal gang).

Of paramount importance in the study of the essence of culture, its role in the development of man and society is typology of culture, i.e. its distribution according to certain types. We have just outlined one of the options for the typology of cultures, describing the features of folk, national, mass, elite culture, as well as subcultures and countercultures. Along with this, there are other options for typology of cultures.

Depending on the forms of the economic structure, ways of existence, as well as the means of implementation, fixation and dissemination of values ​​and norms of culture, they are divided into pre-literate And written. In the structure of pre-literate cultures, culture is distinguished collectors and culture hunters. Written cultures appear together with writing and realize their influence over large geographical distances and time durations by transferring values ​​and norms from people to people, from generation to generation and from era to era. Within written culture develop agricultural culture and along with it pastoral, then, based on the integration of the best examples of both of them, industrial culture and, finally, at the turn of the II and III millenniums of our era, a post-industrial culture.

Depending on the characteristics of social communities that are carriers of cultures, the latter are divided into dominant And non-dominant. The dominant culture is the set of values, norms, beliefs, customs and traditions that guide the majority of the members of a given society, and the culture that affects the minority of this society is non-dominant. The dominant culture may be ethnic or national depending on what level of development a community of people - an ethnos or a nation - acts as its creator and carrier.

According to the content and nature of ties with religion, cultures are differentiated into religious And secular. The former, in turn, are divided into Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. Each of them is subdivided into smaller sociocultural formations. In particular, Christian culture includes such types of cultures as Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant.

Depending on the specific features spheres of society and activities culture is divided into economic, political, professional, physical, artistic, urban, rural.

In turn, each of these types of cultures can be subjected to further differentiation. If we consider, for example, the multidimensional world artistic culture, then it has a rather distinct differentiation on fiction, fine arts, music, dance, theater, cinema, architecture, design. To a certain extent, this also includes mythology with its diversity in the form of myths, fairy tales, epics, etc. All these types of artistic culture are organically connected with religion, philosophy, morality, and science. On the other hand, all variety artistic creativity inseparable from external environment, which includes social relations, economics, politics and, of course, the surrounding nature.

The structural architectonics of culture and its sociodynamics are inextricably linked with the functions. The first thing that catches the eye when approaching the problem of the functions of culture is its polyfunctionality. Of the many functions of culture, we single out some of the most significant.

The original function of culture is its adaptive function. It is thanks to culture, the application of its values, norms, patterns of behavior that each individual and social community (family, ethnic group, professional group, etc.) adapt, adapt to the changing conditions of the natural and social environment.

The adaptation of people to the surrounding reality is closely related to cognitive function of culture. Its essence lies in arming a person with the knowledge necessary to master the forces of nature, to understand social phenomena and the tendencies of their development, to develop, in accordance with this, a certain line of behavior, one's civic position.

It is important socializing the function of culture, which allows each individual included in the process of perception and assimilation of values, norms, patterns of behavior existing in society, to form as a person, becomes an active member of society.

Culture is inherent normative function, which consists in the fact that, acting as a set of ideals, norms, patterns of behavior, culture prescribes to a person certain standards and rules, in accordance with which people's lifestyle, their attitudes and value orientations, role expectations and way of activity are formed.

Bringing to us the voices of the past, creating opportunities for the dialogue of generations and eras, culture fulfills translational a function that allows you to save, reproduce, pass on to future generations certain samples and values ​​while updating culture.

The role of the function inherent in culture is great production of new previously non-existent knowledge, values ​​and norms. It is enough to recall such stages in the development of culture as classics, modernity, postmodernism, in order to make the innovative and creative essence of culture, inseparable from the production of more and more new symbols, meanings, forms, styles, etc., become clearly visible.

Cultural function plays an important role goal setting. It helps a person to formulate socially significant goals, to concentrate his abilities, opportunities, actions on them, and thereby opens up new horizons of spiritual and social creativity for society.

Culture is inherent informational a function that allows to give the individual, social communities, society as a whole reliable, objectively correct information, without which the very organization of social life is impossible.

gaming function arose along with the birth of culture. It gives people relaxation from the complexities of everyday life, but at the same time creates space for the creative play of spiritual and physical forces, without which there is no culture itself.

Of significant importance significative(from the English sign - a sign) a function of culture that prescribes certain meanings and values ​​to certain phenomena, processes, events, people. For example, the starry sky had no meaning for primitive man until he drew heavenly space into the circle of his mythological representations and then astrological predictions. In the future, this function manifests itself in understanding the world by identifying its meanings through religion, philosophy, poetry, and science.

Closely connected with the significative function communicative function of culture. It is realized through the transmission, reception, comprehension of information, communication between people, their communities, organizations, etc.

It is important motivational the function of culture, which consists in the fact that it forms the motives of people's actions, prompting them to certain actions, deeds, etc.

culture performs and relaxation function, i.e. helps a person to relax, organize his rest, restore physical and spiritual strength.

In addition, culture performs another essential function - accumulation and transfer from generation to generation social experience.

Culture, influencing its images, plots, values ​​on spiritual world a person, is able to induce him to perform certain actions, i.e. to mobilize his efforts, will, knowledge, experience to achieve certain goals, ideals, etc. Thus, she is able to perform mobilizing function, which is especially evident in critical eras in the development of society, for example, during the Great Patriotic War.

The interaction of these functions allows culture to perform another extremely important function -- educational. Orienting a person to certain actions and warning against others, moving him towards certain goals, culture with all the richness of its content, forms, styles and images educates a person as a spiritually developed and socially active person.

The integrated result of all the functions described is another, the most important and decisive function of culture - human-creative. Being a creation of man, culture in its functioning and development forms a man, creates him according to a certain model, determined by its values, norms and ideals.

With all its functions, its content, forms, images, symbols, culture has a powerful formative influence on the individual, the social community, and society as a whole. T. Parsons rightly argued that "the amazing complexity of systems human activity is impossible without relatively stable systems, i.e. without culture systems. The very same culture system turns out to be a value-normative system of symbols, meanings, patterns of behavior that regulate everyday thoughts, feelings, expectations, actions of individuals and social groups. Moreover, the differentiation of such groups, i.e. the stratification of society, is largely determined precisely by a specific set of symbols, meanings, norms and values ​​shared by a certain social group and distinguishing it from all other social groups. a community, for example, an ethno-national community (Belarusian, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Azerbaijani, etc.) carries out its life activity in a specific world of its customs, norms, rituals, traditions, language, religious beliefs, etc. Belonging to various national communities or social strata (rich, poor), in turn, dictates differences in value judgments and standards of behavior, which are important components of culture.

A detailed description of the role of culture in the structuring of society was revealed by R. Merton. He established five different types of social structuring, depending on the integration or disintegration of culturally prescribed norms and the institutionalized means of achieving them: 1) total conformism presupposes agreement with the goals of society and the legal means of achieving them; 2) innovation implies agreement with the goals approved by a given culture, but rejects socially approved ways of achieving them (manifested in the actions of racketeering groups, blackmailers, creators of new styles, fashion, etc.); 3) ritualism is focused on the denial of this culture, but consent (sometimes brought to the point of absurdity) to use socially approved means (for example, the actions of bureaucrats who unquestioningly demand the fulfillment of those prescriptions that in certain situations not only do not contribute to the success of the case, but can also lead to its failure) ; 4) retreatism, i.e. flight from reality is manifested in the behavior of outcasts, exiles, drug addicts who have left the real world for their inner, painful, socially mutilated world. They refuse the goals and norms prescribed by culture, and their behavior does not correspond to the norms generally accepted in society; 5) rebellion- behavior that takes people outside the surrounding social structure and encourages the creation of a new one, i.e. a highly modified social structure, which is realized in the actions of revolutionaries, rebels, etc.

The sociocultural norms and patterns that exist in society not only have a powerful influence on social and stratification changes, but also socialize every emerging personality, develop and enrich its spiritual world and the practice of everyday behavior. Therefore, it is quite possible to agree with R. Merton, who argued that culture provides the members of a given society with the necessary guidance throughout their life path, the effective functioning of individuals and society is impossible without it.

Introduction

1. Definition of the concept of "culture"

2. Interaction of culture and society

3. Culture spiritual and material

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

We humans live in constant communication with our own kind. This is called the scientific term - society. The whole history of mankind is the emergence, development and destruction of the societies of the most different types. However, in all societies one can find permanent properties and signs, without which no association of people is possible. Society as a whole and its individual constituent groups have specific cultures. The relevance of this topic is due to the fact that culture affects the course of human history, where it interacts with society, with society.

Culture is a product of creative and constructive human activity. Many researchers believe that culture arose primarily under the influence of social demands and needs. Society needed to consolidate and transfer spiritual values ​​that are beyond public forms human life could perish along with the author of these values. Society, thus, gave a stable and successive character to the process of creating values. In society, the accumulation of values ​​became possible, culture began to acquire a cumulative character of development. In addition, society has created opportunities for the public creation and use of values, which has led to the possibility of their faster understanding and testing by other members of society.

Thus, culture helps people to live in their natural and social environment, to maintain the unity of society when interacting with other societies, to carry out production activities and reproduction of people.

The purpose of this essay is to analyze culture and society, as well as their interaction.

The work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion and a list of references. The total amount of work is 20 pages.

1. Definition of "culture"

Culture arose as a result of a long historical development and exists in society, being passed down from generation to generation. The term "cultura" comes from the Latin verb colo, which means "cultivate", "cultivate the soil". Initially, the word "culture" denoted the process of humanization of nature as a habitat. However, gradually, like many other words of the language, it changed its meaning.

In modern language, the concept of "culture" is used mainly in a broad and narrow sense. In a narrow sense, speaking of culture, usually means those areas creative activity that are related to art. In a broad sense, the culture of society is usually called the totality of forms and results of human activity, entrenched in social practice and transmitted from generation to generation with the help of certain sign systems (linguistic and non-linguistic), as well as through learning and imitation, i.e. culture is an exclusively human, social mechanism in its origin and purpose. It is legitimate to say that culture is a universal form of human communications, its functioning ensures the continuity of the development of society, the interaction of individual subsystems, institutions, elements of society. The emergence and development of the human personality, the existence of society are impossible outside the cultural context.

In the history of social thought, there have been various, often opposing points of view on culture. Some philosophers called culture a means of enslaving people, so German philosopher F. Nietzsche, proclaimed the thesis that a person by nature is an anti-cultural being, and culture itself is an evil that was created to suppress and enslave a person. A different point of view was held by those scientists who called culture a means of ennobling a person, turning him into a civilized member of society. The stages of cultural development were considered by them as stages of the progressive development of mankind.

In the XIX and the first half of the XX centuries. culture was defined mainly in terms of the difference between the results of human activity and purely natural phenomena, that is, they gave "a definition through negation." With this approach, the concept of "culture" practically merged with the concept of "society". Therefore, it is impossible to derive some complete, universal definition of culture, since behind this concept a truly immense world of human activity, searches, passions, etc. is hidden. Decades of research and discussion have significantly advanced the understanding of the essence of cultural phenomena; modern culturologists already have more than five hundred definitions. In general, most authors attribute to culture all types of transformative human activity, as well as the results of activity - a set of material and spiritual values ​​created by man. This idea can be illustrated with an example. Let's say a tree growing in a forest remains a part of nature. But if it is grown (or transplanted) by a person in a park, garden, forest belt, etc. - this is already an object of culture, a "second nature" created by man for any of his human purposes: to strengthen the soil, create a recreation area, get fruits, decorate the landscape, etc. There is also a countless number of wood products that man has been creating since ancient times - all of them, of course, are man's creations, i.e. cultural items. Thus, the concept of "culture" contains a certain human, social, and not a natural, not a biological principle. Culture is the result of the activity of man, society, the totality of everything that is created by man, society, and not nature. Therefore, culture is considered the most important, essential characteristic of a person and society. However, despite various assessments of the influence of culture on people's lives, almost all thinkers recognized that:

1) spiritual culture plays an important role in the life of society, being a means of accumulation, storage, transfer of experience accumulated by mankind;

2) culture is special human form being, which has its spatio-temporal boundaries;

3) culture is one of the most important characteristics life of both an individual and a particular society as a whole.

If we analyze the most common approaches to the definition of culture adopted in modern science, we can distinguish the following components: culture is:

The experience of society and its constituent social groups, accumulated as a result of activities to meet the needs and adapt to the natural and social environment;

This is not any experience, but only one that becomes the property of the whole group or the whole society. An experience that an individual has not shared with members of his group is not part of the culture;

This is an experience that is transmitted through language, and not through biological mechanisms (the gene pool);

And finally, only that experience is included in the cultural baggage, which does not remain within one generation, but is transmitted from generation to generation.

Thus, culture - it is the group experience of a society or group, which is transmitted from generation to generation through language.

Culture as a concept is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - The concept of culture

Main elements of culture(fig.2) are:

Figure 2 - Structural elements of culture

Values- beliefs shared in a society (group) regarding the goals to which people should strive, and the main means of achieving them (terminal and instrumental).

social norms- standards (rules) that regulate behavior in a social setting.

patterns of behavior- stable complexes of behavioral acts that are customary to demonstrate in any society in response to a standard social stimulus and / or social situation.

Knowledge- ideas about the properties of nature and society and the patterns that govern them, functioning in a given society, or social group.

Skills- practical methods of manipulating natural and social objects, common in a given society (group).

Symbols- Signs in which the relationship between them and the values ​​they display is conditional. The symbols of each particular culture include various signs that make it possible to classify the phenomena of nature and society, as well as the alphabet of writing.

Artifacts- a set of objects produced within the framework of a culture, and reflecting its norms, values, knowledge contained in it, achieved technological methods that serve as symbols of this culture.

The mechanism of culture translation transmission of its norms and values ​​from generation to generation is language. In most modern societies, culture exists in the following main forms (Figure 3):

Figure 3 - Forms of culture

1) high, or elite culture - fine art, classical music and literature produced and consumed by the elite;

2) folk culture - fairy tales, songs, folklore, myths, traditions, customs;

3) mass culture - a culture that has developed with the development of mass media, created for the masses and consumed by the masses. There is a point of view that mass culture is a product of the mass itself. Media owners only study the needs of the masses and give what the masses want. The boundaries between them are very permeable and conditional.