The concept of society from the side of cultural studies. Culture in public life

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 public creation and the use of values, which 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 in interaction with other societies, to carry out production activities and the 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 on 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 the broad and narrow meanings. 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. 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 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 greatly advanced understanding of the essence 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 important role in the life of society, being a means of accumulation, storage, transfer of experience accumulated by mankind;

2) culture is a special human form of being, which has its own spatial and temporal boundaries;

3) culture is one of the most important characteristics life as individual, and 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 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 techniques for manipulating natural and social facilities 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- culture developed with the development of means mass media, created for the mass and consumed by the mass. 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.

Society and culture actively interact with each other. Society makes certain demands on culture, culture, in turn, affects the life of society and the direction of its development.

Society is a system of relations and ways of objectively influencing a person. Human society- this is a real and concrete environment for the functioning and development of culture. Barysheva, A.D. Crib on social science. Tutorial/ A.D. Barysheva. - M.: TK Velby, 2005. - P.9.

Forms of social regulation are accepted as certain rules necessary for existence in society. But in order to meet social requirements, it is necessary cultural background, which depend on the degree of development of the cultural world of man.

Society creates conditions for social development person as a person. A person bears the stamp of a particular culture and a particular society. In addition, society creates conditions for the mass use of cultural values, and therefore, creates the need for replication and reproduction of artifacts, which, in turn, turns into processes of culture reproduction. It is clear that outside the social forms of life these features in the development of culture would be impossible.

At the earliest stages of the existence of mankind, the collective, which ensured the existence of the individual, made up several neighboring focal groups and formed a tribe, which was a primitive form of society. The number of primitive tribes within which the entire life cycle rarely exceeded several dozen people. As the population of the Earth grew, the complexity and development of technologies, the development of needs, the number of maximum groups increased, and their structure became more complicated.

Culture and society are with each other in relation not to an abstract, but to a specific identity (Fig. 5), which implies not only a coincidence, but also a difference, which, however, cannot be regarded as a rigid separation of cultural and social. The relationship between society and culture can be interpreted in different ways. For example (according to M. Kagan), culture is a product of the activity of society, and society is the subject of this activity. Or take the idea of culture as a function of society (according to E. Markaryan) as a starting point. But how is “society” understood in its self-sufficiency as a specific fragment of being, an original reality?

Figure 5 - Culture and Society

In different socio-philosophical concepts (from Plato to S.L. Frank, from K. Marx to P. Sorokin), society is interpreted ambiguously. However, almost all of them have one general idea. Society is not a simple set of people (arithmetic counting), not a "heap" of individuals, but some integral system in which they are united by a set of connections (relations).

The interaction of people forms social life, it creates society as a kind of living organism (an organic whole). Therefore, it is hardly worth discarding the formula of classical Marxism that society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of those connections and relations in which they are with each other. Thus, society is an association of people that has certain geographical boundaries, a common legislative system, and a certain national (socio-cultural) identity. Sorvin, K.V. Textbook for the course "Social Science" / K.V. Sorvin, A.A. Susokolov. - M.: GU-HSE, 2002. -S.104.

The loss by society of the qualities listed in this definition is accompanied by the disintegration of culture as a whole. Conversely, the collapse of culture leads to the collapse of society. Why is society the bearer of an integral complex of culture? Why, in the strict sense of the word, it is impossible to speak of an integral autonomous cultural complex of such social groups as a class, stratum, Political Party, population of a territorial-administrative unit (region, city)? First of all, because none of the listed groups provides full cycle meeting the basic needs of individuals and groups that make up them. The population of the city, many social classes, and even more so the totality of political like-minded people who make up the party, cannot provide themselves with food without the participation of other social groups. The population of the region cannot be guaranteed against an armed invasion without the participation of the entire state.

Many large social groups in modern society cannot ensure demographic and cultural reproduction, much less guarantee the observance of a certain normative order in their environment. It is society as a whole that guarantees the complete satisfaction of these needs. It is social relations (connections) that act as a prerequisite and condition for human activity itself. Coming into the world, a person (newborn) with the entire set of inherited individual qualities enters a social environment that does not depend on him. He, passing his life path(biography), must “fit” into the network of existing social relations, socialization (acquire social roles), soak in. cultural traditions, and only then can he act as a subject of culture.

Culture is a way of people's activity, and social relations are springboard, basis, field for this activity. Such an understanding helps to understand exactly how society (social relations) and culture (mode of activity) are connected. Social relations are foundations, and culture is justified. Society creates a field for human action, its present appearance determines their boundaries and to a certain extent determines the nature and methods of action.

Culture and society do not correlate as part and whole, segment and totality. They interpenetrate. In fact, we are talking about two planes of consideration of people's lives. First-- « society”- this is a vision of human life from the side of ways of uniting individuals into integrity, creating a model of their unity. Another-- « culture” is a vision of human life, based on how people act, what they create and pass on from generation to generation. Culture, acting as an aspect of action (the ability to do), reveals itself as an indispensable side of any activity, being an expression of its quality, posited certainty.

Clarifying the question of the relationship between culture and society, we can answer two more questions. The first one: what exactly determines, substantiates the mode of human activity? And we answer: grown in the course own history concrete image of the present society (personality, "environment", character social structure, region, country, continent, all mankind). Inherited activity, coupled with individual and group genetic determination, characterizes the appearance and forms of human culture.

Second question: In what areas and to what extent is culture specifically found? And here we see the presence cultural phenomena. There is a culture of production and economic culture, organizational, political, legal, moral, scientific, religious, environmental, pedagogical and other forms, depending on the specifics of that segment public life in which it operates. For some, culture appears as the mastery of a wealth of artistic values, for others it appears as morality, still others believe that one who does not have religious experience is uncivilized, for the fourth, a person who is not familiar with culture is outside culture. top achievements Sciences.

In a different perspective, the entry of culture into the social horizontal, into the actual social structure, is revealed. The question arises about the subject of activity. The concept of the object of activity is interpreted in definitions of various levels. The fact is that in the integral organism of society there are separate (horizontal) subsystems, socio-historical communities different type. Their presence and interaction characterize the emergence and development of the actual social structure. From these positions, a social object appears as a group (community) of people united by objective properties and connections into a qualitatively defined social entity.

Culture is a property of society as a whole, those. any group that enters a society possesses only a part of the culture. Therefore, strictly speaking, the culture of a particular social group should be called a subculture. However, for brevity, they often talk about the culture of individual social groups.

Culture has a human, social (not natural, not biological) origin. It is also important to understand that a person (society) is the only creator and custodian of culture. Outside of man - the main subject of all social processes - culture does not exist, and only man is able to transmit culture from generation to generation. Therefore, a person, his creative abilities are usually called main value culture. However, there is also inverse relationship: culture is the main expression of the essence of the person himself. Mastering cultural values and creating new ones, a person actually creates himself, his own human world, i.e. only through culture does a person become a person. This connection - culture - man - is reflected in a brief philosophical aphorism: culture is the measure of the human in man. Thought about cultural beginning human, about the cultural essence of man is another leading idea of this topic. That is, biologically a person is given only an organism, of course, with certain inclinations, potentialities. These inclinations (potencies) may remain undeveloped if certain efforts are not made. By assimilating - through education, upbringing, self-development - the language, customs, norms, morality, methods of activity existing in society, a person masters culture, joins it, and then he himself is included in the process of its creation, i.e. the process of assimilation of culture is endless, like culture itself, and, therefore, there is no limit to the extent of human development in man.

Through culture, man constantly creates himself. By joining culture, expanding his cultural horizon, a person himself changes significantly, improves his own human qualities: becomes kinder, fairer, more merciful, he feels his responsibility for what is happening, becomes more restrained, tolerant (tolerant), less selfish and aggressive towards others, tries to resolve any conflict that arises by seeking consent. Culture makes a person more humane, moral, i.e. forms his generic human essence.

In the interaction of society and culture, it is also possible next situation: Society may be less dynamic and open than culture. Society can then reject the values offered by culture. The opposite situation is also possible, when social changes can outpace cultural development. But the most optimally balanced change in society and culture.

Thus, culture embraces the totality of human transformative activity, as well as all its results, therefore it is customary in culture to distinguish between material and spiritual sides, which will be discussed in the next chapter.

The word "culture" is used as often as the words "society" and "nature". At the same time, culture is most often understood as any achievements of mankind in the spiritual field: artistic creations, scientific discoveries, as well as the level of spiritual needs of an individual, his decent behavior. cultured man is an educated person good taste who speaks a literary language, is interested in highly artistic works of art, etc.

This interpretation of culture is quite appropriate. However, as in the case of society, this concept has many meanings. Speaking about the interaction of society and nature, we have already mentioned culture, defining it as a "second nature" created by man. Thus, in the most broad sense The word culture covers all types of transformative human activity, aimed not only at external environment but also on himself. This is more in line with the original meaning given word, which comes from the Latin cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education.

What do we attribute to the created, "cultivated" by man? These are built buildings, and written books, and sown fields, and means of communication and communication, and established traditions, and generally accepted moral standards, and personal beliefs, and much, much more. Thus, the world of culture is both material and spiritual results of human activity.

From what has been said, it is obvious that without culture we would not be people, but would remain only a community of individuals of a certain biological species. People act on the basis cultural norms(morals, rights, customs and traditions), change under the influence of cultural values (remember the “educational” meaning of the word “culture”), accumulate and pass on to other generations the achievements of culture, create its new forms and meanings.

Even the natural manifestations of our lives are transformed under the influence of culture. For example, we satisfy the need for food precisely in the ways that are enshrined in modern society by certain norms: in most cases, we buy products in a store (someone uses the possibilities of personal farming), process them (if this is not a finished product) on a stove, in oven, serve the cooked dish on a plate and eat it using at least spoons.

The culture is characterized by historicity and great diversity. For a deeper study of the world of culture, researchers identify its types, forms, components and create various classifications. It is generally accepted that culture is divided into material (buildings, vehicles, household items, appliances and equipment, etc.) and spiritual (knowledge, language, symbols, values, rules and norms, and much more).

This division is rather conditional. It is clear that behind every completely material thing there are certain forms of labor organization, the intention of the creators, often complex calculations and mathematical calculations, that is, phenomena related to spiritual culture. At the same time, the fruits of spiritual activity are most often materialized: artistic images come to life on the pages of a book, a religious idea is embodied in the construction of a temple.

Many peoples who inhabited our planet in the past and live today differed and differ from each other primarily in their original culture. And this applies not only to language differences, religious views or artistic creation. The originality is manifested in traditions and rituals, in family life and attitude towards children, in the manner of communication and preferences in food, and in many other ways. At the same time, it is possible to understand the individual elements of the culture of a particular society only within the framework of its entire culture. One American sociologist gives the following example: people Western countries they are particularly sensitive to oral hygiene. From the point of view of a representative of another culture, the ritual of regular brushing of the teeth with “a bundle of bristles coated with magic powder” looks no less strange than the custom of some tribes to knock out their front teeth for beauty or protrude their lips with the help of special plates for the same purpose.

However, researchers who have studied cultures various peoples, came to the conclusion that all cultures have some common features or forms. They have been called cultural universals. These include, in particular, the presence of a language with a certain grammatical structure, the institution of marriage and family, and religious rituals. All cultures have norms related to caring for children. Almost all nations have a ban on incest - sexual relations between close relatives.

But even these few universals are refracted in their own way in the culture of different societies. So, most of them today reject polygamy, while in a number of Muslim countries this is a legal norm.

You will learn about many cultures "within" the national culture from the subsequent chapters of the textbook.

Introduction

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 societies of various kinds. 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, which, outside the social forms of 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 the concept of "culture"

In modern language, the concept of "culture" is used mainly in a broad and narrow sense. In a narrow sense, speaking of culture, they usually mean those areas of creative activity that are associated with 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 the 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 through the difference between the results of human activity and purely natural phenomena, that is, they gave a “definition through denial”. 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 a special human form of being, which has its own spatial and temporal boundaries;

3) culture is one of the most important characteristics of the 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 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 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

The main elements of culture (Fig. 2) are:

Figure 2 - Structural elements of culture

Values are beliefs shared in a society (group) about the goals that people should strive for and the main means of achieving them (terminal and instrumental).

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

Behavior patterns are 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, the knowledge contained in it, the achieved technological methods that serve as symbols of this culture.

The mechanism of transmission of culture, the transmission of its norms and values from generation to generation, is the 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 arts, classical music and literature created 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.

Although culture is always national and holistic, in every society there are many subgroups with different cultural property and traditions. The system of norms and values that distinguishes a group from a large community, the norms of which differ markedly from the dominant culture, although not necessarily contradict it, is called a subculture, and the subculture of a group whose norms contradict the basic norms of the dominant culture is called a counterculture. Subcultures and countercultures are a necessary element of society. The “solidity” of culture, the absence of subcultures and countercultures in it, is a sign of development stagnation and a prerequisite for the dying of culture and society. Recall that according to the concept of R. Merton, supported by the majority of sociologists, deviant behavior inevitably arises in modern society. Separate deviations can form counter-cults. This does not mean that any subculture or counterculture is good for society. But this means that a sub- and even counter-culture cannot be persecuted just because its norms differ from the norms of the dominant culture, or even contradict it.

One of the main properties of culture is its consistency. The systemic nature of culture lies in the fact that each element of culture is connected with each other; a change in any essential element of culture inevitably entails a change in all other elements of culture.

The concept of "systematic culture" refers only to an integral cultural complex, that is, to the culture of society (Fig. 4). A subculture does not have the property of being systematic because many of its elements represent broader social communities and do not necessarily change along with the change in the individual elements of this group. For example, if in a group of applicants the methods of controlling the assimilation of knowledge are changed (homework or essays are introduced), this does not, in principle, change the norms of communication between the teacher and applicants, or the form of the contract and payment.

Figure 4 - Culture levels

Culture in its essential being cannot be understood without its correlation with society, taken as a whole.

For a long time the relationship between society and culture was built in such a way that society was the dominant side. The nature of culture directly depended on social order who ruled it (imperatively, repressively, or liberally, but no less decisively).

Many researchers believe that culture arose primarily under the influence of social needs. It is society that creates opportunities for the use of cultural values, contributes to the processes of reproduction of culture. Outside of social forms of life, these features in the development of culture would be impossible.

Understanding society and its relation to culture is best achieved from system analysis being. The relationship between culture and society will be discussed in the next chapter.

A way of life based on agriculture, they are moving to a higher stage of development - to plow farming. At this time, there are social shifts among the tribes. IN late period primitive society art crafts developed: products were made from bronze, gold and silver. Types of settlements and burials. By the end primitive era appeared the new kind architectural structures- fortresses. ...

Next, it becomes common philosophy natural religion. The teachings of primitive societies give us every right to recognize their spiritual beings as similar in nature to human souls. The similarity of the nature of the soul and other spirits is one of common properties animism from its primitive state to the highest stages of development. The theory of possession serves many important purposes in the philosophy of savages and...

At the most general look at society, it is clear that it is a collection, an association of people. This means, firstly, that just as a person with his consciousness and corresponding behavior is fundamentally different from an animal (including highly organized anthropoids - anthropoids) and his behavior, so a herd of the latter cannot scientifically, in including the sociological point of view to be identified with society, despite some external similarities.

Society is the human community that people form and in which they live. biological relationship animals are, in essence, their relations to nature, while the specifics of human society are the relations of people to each other.

The place and role of culture in society are great. It interacts with economics, politics, law, ethics, morality, determines their content.

Society creates the conditions for the social development of a person, that is, a person as a person. A person bears the stamp of a particular culture and a particular society. In addition, society creates conditions for the mass use of cultural values, and therefore, creates the need for replication and reproduction of artifacts, which, in turn, turns into processes of culture reproduction. It is clear that outside the social forms of life these features in the development of culture would be impossible.

The development of the interests and needs of the individual can stimulate a change in the values of culture, and then they are reformed or even replaced. Society in this situation can play the role of both a stimulating and a suppressing factor. In general, three typical situations are possible here: the first is when society is less dynamic and less open than culture. Culture will offer values that are opposing in meaning, and society will seek to reject them. The progressive development of culture is held back, society dogmatizes the existing values, and in general, unfavorable conditions arise for the development of the individual. The opposite situation is also possible, when society changes due to political or social upheavals, and culture does not keep up with the renewal of norms and values. For personal development Again, there are no optimal conditions. And, finally, a harmonious, balanced change in society and culture is possible. Under these conditions, constructive, consistent and harmonious development personalities

Culture serves to organize the life of society, plays the role of programmed behavior, helps to preserve the unity and integrity of society, its interaction, both at the group level and with other communities. Culture is expressed in social relations aimed at the creation, assimilation, preservation and dissemination of objects, ideas, values that ensure mutual understanding of people in different situations. Each particular society over the centuries has created a superculture that is passed down through generations.

Culture in society is represented by:

1) as a special sphere and form of activity associated with thinking, classes artistic creativity accepted norms of behavior, etc.;

2) as a general level of development of society, its enlightenment and rationality on the way "from savagery to civilization";

3) as the sum of social achievements (including technologies, attitudes and ideas), thanks to which a person stands out from nature and goes beyond biological determination;

4) as a specific system of norms, values and meanings that distinguish one society from another (or different parts of society - social status, professional), contributing to its integration and giving it originality; and finally;

5) as a spiritual dimension of any activity, in which its motives, principles, rules, goals and meanings are formed. In this latter understanding, culture appears as a spiritual component of total production, ensuring the maintenance and change of this production and social relations in general.

Basic social functions of culture

Culture as an integral phenomenon performs certain functions in relation to society.

1. Adaptive function of culture. Culture provides human adaptation to environment, natural and historical conditions his habitat. The word adaptation (from lat. adaptayio) means fitting, adaptation

2. Closely related to the adaptive function integrative function of culture ensuring the social integration of people. At the same time, one can speak of different levels social integration. The most common level of social integration is the formation of foundations, their sustainable collective existence and activities to jointly satisfy interests and needs, stimulating an increase in the level of their group solidarity and the effectiveness of interaction, the accumulation of social experience in guaranteed social reproduction of their teams as sustainable communities.

The second level of social integration should include the provision by culture of the basic forms of the integrated existence of human communities. Culture unites peoples, social groups, states. Any social community in which its own culture develops is held together by this culture, because a single set of views, beliefs, values, ideals, patterns of behavior characteristic of this culture is spread among the members of society.

3. Integration of people is carried out on the basis of communication. Therefore, it is important to highlight communicative function of culture. Culture shapes conditions and means human communication. Only through the assimilation of culture between people are established truly human forms communication, since it is culture that provides the means of communication - sign systems, assessments. The development of forms and methods of communication is the most important aspect cultural history humanity. At the earliest stages of anthropogenesis, our distant ancestors could come into contact with each other only through the direct perception of gestures and sounds. A fundamentally new means of communication was articulate speech. With its development, people received and unusually wide opportunities transferring information to each other. Later, written speech and many specialized languages, official and technical symbols are formed: mathematical, natural science, topographic, drawing, music, computer, etc.; systems for fixing information in graphic, sound, visual and other technical form are being formed.

4. Socialization function. Culture is the most important factor of socialization, which determines its content, means and methods. Socialization is understood as the inclusion of individuals in public life, their assimilation of social experience, knowledge, values, norms of behavior corresponding to this society, social group. In the course of socialization, people master the programs stored in the culture and learn to live, think and act in accordance with them. The process of socialization allows the individual to become a full-fledged member of the community, take a certain position in it and live as required by the customs and traditions of this community. At the same time, this process ensures the preservation of the community, its structure and the forms of life that have developed in it.

5. As a special, some culturologists distinguish heuristic function of culture. It is as follows. Creativity: scientific, technical, managerial is impossible without figurative thinking, imagination, a certain emotional mood. Culture, in particular, artistic culture, contributes to the development of these most important factors of creative activity. Art culture It also helps the development of such features of creative thinking as flexibility, associativity, the ability to see the ordinary in a new way. It is no coincidence that A. Einstein said: "Dostoevsky gives me more than any scientific thinker, more than Gaus."

In our press in " Literary newspaper"reported about a kind of experiment conducted in the United States. A group of administrators of one company was exempted from professional activity and for ten months she carried out a humanitarian program in which art occupied a large place (reading books, visiting theaters, museums, exhibitions, concerts). This had a very positive impact on their professional activity, their actions became more creative, non-standard.

6. Compensatory function of culture allows a person to be distracted production activities, rest from life's problems, get emotional relaxation. Another name for this function - recreational - reflects the particular coincidence of this function with a period of leisure and rest, that is, time formally free from production activities. A person can receive spiritual compensation from tourism, communication with nature, creative hobbies. Holidays are an important form of compensation, during which everyday life transforms and creates an atmosphere of high spirits. During the holiday there is a concentration cultural life. Its implementation covers the architectural and decoration, theatrical performances, musical events, spectacles and processions, competitions and competitions. civilians, and especially folk holidays, include not only solemn, but also game elements.

According to other classifications, the functions of culture include:

1) Cognitive or epistemological. A culture that concentrates the best social experience of many generations of people immanently acquires the ability to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world and thereby create favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development. The need for this function stems from the desire of any culture to create its own picture of the world. The process of cognition is characterized by the reflection and reproduction of reality in human thinking. Cognition is a necessary element of both labor and communication activities. There are both theoretical and practical forms of knowledge, as a result of which a person receives new knowledge about the world and himself.

2) Regulatory function of culture connected, first of all, with the definition (regulation) of various aspects, types of social and personal activities of people. In the sphere of work, life, interpersonal relations, culture, one way or another, influences the behavior of people and regulates their actions, actions, and even the choice of certain material and spiritual values. The regulatory function of culture is based on such normative systems as morality and law.

3) Semiotic, or sign (from the Greek semeion - the doctrine of signs) function- occupies an important place in the system of culture. Representing a certain sign system, culture implies knowledge and possession of it. It is impossible to master the achievements of culture without studying the corresponding sign systems. So, language (oral or written) is a means of communication between people, literary language - essential tool mastering national culture. Specific languages are needed for knowing the special world of music, painting, theater. The natural sciences (physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology) also have their own sign systems.

4) Value, or axiological function reflects the most important qualitative state of culture. Culture as a 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.

Conclusion

It should be noted that culture really exists as a historically established system that has its own structure, its own symbols, traditions, ideals, attitudes, value orientations and, finally, the way of thought and life.

The subject of culture is humanity, the nation, social group and man. The objective forms of the existence of culture are the fruits of the creative activity of the people, the masterpieces of geniuses and talents. But in themselves the objective and sign-symbolic forms of culture have only a relatively independent character: they are dead outside of man and his creative activity.

Function in social sciences usually called the purpose, the role of any element in social system. The concept of "functions of culture" means the nature and direction of the impact of culture on individuals and society, the totality of the roles that culture performs in relation to the community of people who generate and use it in their own interests. The values of culture are various material and non-material objects of the surrounding reality: nature, morality (external regulators of behavior, morality (internal regulators of behavior), knowledge (ways to achieve the truth), style of thinking, logic of presentation, area of \u200b\u200bcreativity, nature of activity, etc. What speaks of culture as a multilevel, multifaceted and multifunctional system created by man and not existing outside of human existence.

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