The most important elements of human culture are norms, the totality of which is called the normative system of culture.
Norms - These are the rules that govern humanconducting. cultural norms– orders, requirements,wishes and expectations of appropriate (socially approved) behavior. With the help of sign systems, they are passed on from generation to generation and turn into "habits" of society, customs, traditions.
Functions of cultural norms: to be duties and indicate the measure of necessity in human actions; to serve as expectations regarding the future act; control deviant behavior; serve as models, standards of behavior.
Norms are classified on various grounds: by scope - in a small or large social group. Accordingly, there are 2 types: 1) group habits- norms that arise and exist only in small groups (youth get-togethers, companies of friends, families, work teams, sports teams); 2) general rules- norms that arise and exist in large groups or in society as a whole. American sociologist William Graham Sumner identified the following types of cultural norms: customs (folkways); mores (mores); laws. Today, the typology of cultural norms takes into account traditions, customs, habits, mores, taboos, laws, fashion, taste and hobbies, beliefs and knowledge, etc.
Habit - the initial cell of the social and cultural life of people at the same time. They distinguish one nation from another, one social stratum from all others. Manners- external forms of human behavior (based on habits), receiving a positive or negative assessment of others. Separately, manners are elements, or features of culture, and together they form a special cultural complex - etiquette. A custom is a traditionally established order of conduct. Customs - mass patterns of actions approved by society that are recommended to be performed, they are inherent in the broad masses of people (as opposed to manners and etiquette). Habits and customs passed down from one generation to the next traditions(everything that is inherited from predecessors) A kind of tradition is rite- a set of actions established by custom or ritual. rite characterizes not selective, but mass actions in which certain religious ideas or everyday traditions are expressed; it covers all segments of the population. Ceremony- a sequence of actions that have a symbolic meaning and dedicated to the celebration of any events or dates. Ritual - a stylized and carefully planned set of gestures and words (with symbolic meaning) performed by persons specially chosen and prepared for this action. manners- especially protected and highly honored by society mass models of actions. Mores reflect the moral values of society; their violation is punished more severely than the violation of traditions. Taboo - an absolute ban imposed on any action, word, object.
Variety of manners - the laws, i.e. norms, or rules of conduct issued by a parliamentary or governmental document. supported by the political authority of the state and requiring strict implementation. Right - a system of mandatory rules of conduct, sanctioned by the state and expressed in certain norms. Law, law, custom and values of society are closely interconnected and form the foundation of the normative system of culture. A person learns traditions and customs regardless of his will and desires. There is no freedom of choice here. Such elements of culture as tastes, hobbies and fashion testify to the free choice of a person. Taste- an inclination or predilection for something, an understanding of the elegant. Fashion - the fleeting popularity of something or someone.
Culture rests on a system of values. Value is a characteristic fixed in the mind of a person relationship to the object. Values justify norms and give them meaning (human life is a value, and its protection is a norm). But value is not identical to the economic understanding of it as value (monetary expression of value). Values cannot always be expressed in monetary form, just as it is impossible to express inspiration, remembrance, the joy of creativity and other manifestations of the human soul in commodity-money form. In other words, value acts as a criterion by which a person evaluates the significance of actions, ideas and opinions.
Value must be distinguished from utility. A valuable thing may be useless, and a useful thing may have no value. The French philosopher I. Gobry singled out as the main values: usefulness, beauty, truth and goodness.
Knowledge- reliable information about something, scientific information, the result of knowledge of a specialized activity carried out by trained people. Unlike knowledge, ering- conviction, emotional commitment to any idea, real or illusory.
The whole set of considered types of cultural norms is normative system of culture, in which all elements must be consistent. The pattern of building a society: the totality of values must correspond to the totality of norms. The key element of the normative system of culture is the public morality - prescriptions of what is right and wrong behavior in accordance with the proclaimed norms. Cultural differences may take the form of contradiction or clash (cultural or normative conflict). The imbalance in the normative system of culture takes different forms. Anomie- such a state of society in which a significant part of the inhabitants, knowing about the existence of norms obliging them, treats them negatively or indifferently. Anomie- this is a violation of the cultural unity of society, which arose as a result of the absence of clearly established cultural norms. moral standards- these are unwritten requirements that function in society in the form of principles, concepts, ideas, assessments. Moral norms are not the product of some specialized institutional activity. Their implementation is ensured not by coercion, but by moral persuasion (conscience) or by means of public opinion through the approval or condemnation of certain actions.
There are three functions of morality:
Motivational- moral principles act as the causes of behavior, inducing to action.
constructive- morality is the central form of social culture, and its principles are higher in relation to other forms of culture.
Coordinating- morality ensures the unity and consistency of the interaction of people in different circumstances.
The Golden Rule of Morality says: Treat others the way you want to be treated.
The concept of value. value system. Human values. Formation of values.
The concept of cultural norms and types of norms. Customs and traditions
The value-normative system is the most important component of culture. Cultural life without values and norms is impossible, right. how they give society the necessary degree of order and predictability. The system of values and norms form the inner core of culture, the spiritual quintessence of the needs and interests of individuals and social communities. What are values and norms?
Value - the property of an object, phenomenon to satisfy the needs, desires, interests of a social subject (individual, group of people, society). With the help of the concept of value, the personal meaning for the individual and the socio-historical significance for society of certain objects and phenomena of reality are characterized. Values are big and small, material and spiritual, etc. In this or that community, a certain system of values is formed, in which values are distributed according to the degree of their social significance and importance in a certain hierarchical structure, subdivided into more or less high order, more or less less preferred. As a result of this ranking, each person has a certain hierarchy of values. The top of this hierarchy, as a rule, is the value of life - the main value of human existence, on the basis of which any human activity that has meaning for him is deployed. Therefore, the value of life is often associated with the meaning of activity in spiritual values are also arranged in a hierarchical order (material values. Spiritual values are values that ensure the development of the individual, his freedom and the ability to set goals according to his will and individuality. Material values are values that ensure the existence of a person.
Values can also be divided into absolute and relative, etc. There are many classifications of values, and they depend on what exactly is laid in the foundation: if the structure is taken as such a foundation, then values can be classified as internal, constituting the core of culture and peripheral. If modality, then both positive and negative, if content, then we can divide the following hierarchy of values:
meaningful life (ideas of good and evil, happiness, goals and the meaning of life);
vital (life, health, personal safety, families, etc.);
public recognition (industriousness, social status, etc.;
interpersonal communication (honesty, disinterestedness, goodwill);
democratic (freedom of speech, conscience, parties, national sovereignty, etc.);
utilitarian (the desire for material wealth, personal success, enterprise, the search for a sphere of application of one's strengths and abilities, etc.).
In the value system of any culture there are always universal and particular values (related only to this culture).
Human values (on the social side) are values that are not significant for some narrow, limited circle of people (social group, class, party, state), but that are important for all of humanity. They are in one form or another shared by all social communities, social groups, peoples, although not all are expressed in the same way. The features of their expression depend on the features of the cultural and historical development of a particular country, its religious traditions, and the type of civilization. From the content side, universal human values are marginal, historically and socially non-localized values. In philosophical terms, . com, these are transcendent (transcendental) values, i.e., values that are absolute, eternal values. Believers, comprehending universal human values from the standpoint of religion, believe that these values are of a divine nature. They are based on the idea of God as the absolute embodiment of Good, Truth, Justice, Beauty, etc. For unbelievers, universal human values are based on the centuries-old experience of mankind, its potentialities and aspirations. They are the fruit of the "social contract", "general consent", etc.
Human values are permanent, enduring. And that is why they act as regulators of behavior for all people. Expressing the experience of all mankind, these values are formulated in various religious and moral systems in the form of commandments: “do not kill”, “do not steal”, “do not commit adultery”, “do not make an idol for yourself”, etc.
Values are formed as a result of the subject's awareness of his needs in relation to the possibilities of their satisfaction, that is, as a result of a value attitude. A value attitude does not arise until the subject discovers for himself the problematic nature of satisfying the need that has arisen. The more problematic the possibility of satisfying one or another need, the greater the value of this or that object (phenomenon) for the subject. The evaluation relation is realized in the act of evaluation, which includes the subject of evaluation, the object (phenomenon) being evaluated, the standard of evaluation, the process of comparing the standard with this object (phenomenon). The subject of the assessment is an individual, a group of people, a society that performs the assessment. The benchmark acts as the basis for the evaluation. This is a sample, the highest and perfect form of an object (phenomenon), with which all other phenomena of reality that exist within a particular situation are compared.
Ideals serve as the highest standards of evaluative attitude. The value attitude is a necessary component of the value orientation, activities and relationships that are expressed in the value setting. Value setting is the predisposition of the subject of a value attitude to a particular object of evaluation (subject, phenomenon, event, person, etc.). Value attitudes are developed by society in the process of socio-historical activity and communication and are passed on to individuals and subsequent generations in the process of socialization: education, upbringing, etc. Value attitudes orient a person in social activity, direct it and stimulate it. Awareness by individuals of the content of value attitudes forms the motive of activity and communication. The motive allows a person to correlate the specific situations in which he acts with the value system that guides his behavior.
The value attitude can be fixed in the form of a cultural norm. Cultural norms, in a certain sense, should be seen as the result of sustained, repetitive evaluation. Norms are the means, to a certain extent, which brings together the value-significant, necessary, proper with life, with human practice.
The norm in culturology is the standard of cultural activity, a stable regulatory formation, which in this capacity is approved, recognized and justified by members of the community, and more often even codified, that is, clothed in oral or written form, which is part of the moral code (E. A. Orlova ).
Norms, as noted above, are genetically linked to values. However, in norms, to a greater extent than in values, there is a command moment, a requirement to act in a certain way. In the norms, certain rules of behavior are fixed, indicating and prescribing to the individual how he should act in one or another normative situation. One of the important features of the impact of norms is that their implementation and prescription are provided by various forms of coercion, from public opinion to state institutions.
Norms, ordering the behavior of people, regulate the entire spectrum of human relations. They can be divided into two groups: 1) norms that regulate relations between people as separate individuals (personalities) - humanistic norms that express the value of a single individual, a vivid example of a norm of morality; 2) the norms governing relations between groups of people, including here relations between communities - ideological norms that reflect and evaluate reality from the point of view of the interests of certain social groups (political norms and legal norms).
The norms also differ from each other in terms of their obligatory fulfillment, in terms of the degree of freedom of their choice in a certain situation: there are norms, the obligation of which is unequivocally recognized, and control over their implementation includes a system of strict sanctions (rules of law, norms of technology, safety, etc.). d.). In other cases, variability of behavior is allowed, and in this case, its relative free regulation occurs (street environment, home environment).
Historically, the first cultural norms were the norms of customs. Norms of custom are rules of conduct that, as a result of repeated, more or less long-term application, become a habit of people and thus regulate their behavior. At their core, customs represent a mass pattern of human behavior approved by society, which is recommended to be followed. “Do as others do” is the basic rule of custom.
Strictly speaking, a behavioral pattern as such is not a rule of conduct, since the subject always retains the ability to choose one or more options for patterns in accordance with his interests and goals. A behavioral pattern becomes a custom only when, due to long-term adherence, it becomes a behavioral stereotype, a habit. A habit in this context is a firmly learned pattern of behavior that results from repeated repetition and is carried out automatically. Thus, a custom is a habitual norm of behavior, the reproduction of behavior in its established form. The existence of a custom in the form of a habit means the absence of special mechanisms for its provision, the absence of the need for certain coercion, since following the habit is ensured by the very fact of its existence. A person in his daily life is constantly guided by habit. Unlike everyday habits, customs are mass patterns of behavior relating to socially significant phenomena. For example, the custom of hospitality. Traditions are closely related to custom. Traditions are historically formed elements of social and cultural heritage, passed down from generation to generation, preserved in a particular community for a long time. Without a doubt, traditions are based on customs. Customs are traditionally established patterns of behavior, reinforced by collective habits. However, tradition must be distinguished from custom. Custom indicates an approved and accepted way of behaving. This concept expresses a horizontal, one-time cut of culture. Tradition, compared with custom, is a broader education. Certain ideas, values, social institutions are transmitted as traditions. However, the main difference between tradition and customs is that through the concept of "tradition" a vertical slice of culture is reflected - the vertical axis of time, what existed in the past, exists in the present and, most likely, will continue in the future.
Thus, tradition should primarily be understood as the mechanism of reproduction, the process of transmission (transmission) from generation to generation of cultural norms and forms (language, customs, values, etc.). Traditions are like an elevator that transfers intellectual and spiritual achievements of culture from the past through the present to the future. Along with customs, traditions provide continuity in social development, respect for social experience and cultural heritage.
Values are the main element of culture, the basis of the value-normative mechanism that regulates the behavior of groups and communities. The public nature of values is manifested in the fact that the culture of each society has its own hierarchy of values, the most important and significant goals recognized in this society, which have a deep meaning for people.
Each sphere of human cultural activity has a value dimension immanent to it: the values of material life, economics, social order, politics, morality, art, science, and religion are quite autonomous. However, each type of culture is associated with hierarchization, subordination of value spheres.
The process of cultural development is associated with a reassessment of values, starting with the promotion of a new standard, from the standpoint of which objects that have previously established value characteristics are considered. Depending on the chosen basis for classification, values are divided into subjective and subjective, lives and cultures, values-means and values-goals, relative and absolute. Allocate cultural values (vital, material, memorial, artistic, ideological, moral, religious, social benefits, existential orientations, etc.), which determine the proper behavior and lifestyle of people in the culture system of a given society. Such proper behavior is designed to unite society, ensure its survival, as well as its normal functioning. ethnic values are designated by the ethnos itself as the most specific qualities that mark its historical and cultural originality. The basis for the formation of a system of ethnic values is the historical social experience of the collective life of the members of the ethnic group. At the same time, the most functionally effective and socially acceptable forms of satisfying the interests and needs of people, contributing to an increase in the level of their social integration, are accumulated in the system of value orientations of a given community and are included in its cultural tradition. Such ethnic values most often include some features of the national character, traditional forms of life support, everyday customs and features of national etiquette, features of religiosity, elements of everyday worldview, national mythology, features of folk art culture. Ethnic values are replenished with cultural forms that have developed in the sphere of specialized segments of culture: political, economic, legal, military, religious, artistic, etc. These are traditions and symbols of national statehood, systems of suits and social structure, confessional, artistic and stylistic and other ethno-identifying markers.
Cultural norms - a standard of cultural activity that regulates people's behavior, testifies to their belonging to specific social and cultural groups and expresses their idea of \u200b\u200bthe proper, desirable. The purpose of the norm is to minimize random circumstances, subjective motives, and psychological states. Normative regulation of relations presupposes the voluntary and conscious acceptance by each person of the norms of activity common in a given culture. Norms regulate the activities of people in all spheres of culture - from elementary acts of a material and practical nature to morality, art, science and religion. On the basis of norms, various social technologies and ways of rationalizing the life world are formed. In their historical existence, norms are inseparable from the values existing in a given culture, since they translate ideas about them into an instrumental plane. Along with the change in the value scale, the promotion of new ideals of the socio-cultural plan, the norms also change.
There are different ways to classify norms. The American sociologist Talcott Parsons, in particular, calls:
o norms that establish order in society as a whole and in its constituent groups;
o economic norms;
o political norms;
o actually cultural norms related to the field of communication and socialization.
It is possible to single out a variety of cultural norms (samples, patterns, rules, standards, canons, traditions, morality, ethics, aesthetics, style, fashion, normativity of functional manifestations: the culture of work and consumption, everyday life and leisure, communication and interaction, etc.) . There are norms universal, national, class, group, interindividual. At the same time, the requirements for the same norms, common in different social communities and in different historical periods, diverge from each other. The norms differ from each other in terms of the level of obligatory implementation, in terms of the degree of freedom of their choice in situations of uncertainty. There are norms, the obligation of which is unambiguous up to the application of strict sanctions (implementation of legal norms, norms of technical activity in industrial production, etc.). In other cases, variability in the norms of behavior is allowed: for example, traditions often contain a set of standard patterns from which a person can choose. Situations are possible when a sufficiently free human response is provided: outdoor environment, home environment.
The operation of any norm is not absolute; the norm is going through a period of inception, approval, then loses stability, begins to collapse. The destruction of some cultural norms is always accompanied by the creation of new ones. Rule-making is the same essential feature of cultural dynamics as anomie, i.e. breaking the rules.
Cultural universals - These are the norms and values inherent in all cultures.
A huge role in the formation of cultural norms is played by approval and condemnation. Expressed by others, as well as visual patterns of behavior. Already a small child, by the reaction of adults, determines the boundaries of what is possible and what is not. This is how the norms of morality and morality are formed. Normativity of culture is also maintained as a result of the functioning of various social institutions. The education system plays a huge role in the transfer of spiritual experience from generation to generation. Cultural norms are as changeable as culture itself. They reflect the changes that society is undergoing. A vivid example is the fundamental shifts that took place in the 20th century in relation to the individual to the family.
2) cultural values.
Values - material or spiritual objects significant for a person. Values largely determine the aspirations of a person and his actions. Each sphere of human cultural activity has its own value dimension. All the variety of values can be conditionally classified into the following:
Vital - life, health, safety, quality of life.
· Economic - the presence of equal favorable conditions for the development of production, economic activity, guarantees of private property, etc.
Social - position in society, respect, personal independence, gender equality, etc.
· Political values – civil liberties, civil peace, etc.
Moral values - good, good, love, friendship, duty, honor.
Religious - faith, salvation, god.
Aesthetic - beauty, harmony, etc.
In each type of culture, this hierarchy of values may change. For example: Antiquity - the highest value - beauty. Middle Ages - religion. New time - science. The process of cultural development is always accompanied by a reassessment of values.
4) The cultural picture of the world is the result of a specific vision of the world in which a person lives. The system of images, ideas, knowledge about the structure of the world and the place of man in it. The cultural picture of the world includes rational knowledge reflected in the language, as well as the emotions and feelings that people experience in relation to objects and phenomena of the surrounding world. The cultural picture is formed in the course of a person's diverse life experiences and reflects the characteristics of the life of various cultures. The development of links between cultures leads to blurring the unique features of each of them. In the 20th century, peoples and countries begin to unify in everyday life and thinking. This is clearly evidenced by the processes of computerization, subordinating the logic of thinking of those who work with a computer to a single algorithm. Meanwhile, the absence in culture preserves what took shape under the influence of the nature of the country, its climate, language, memory of its history and culture. Thus, the cultural picture of the world retains its uniqueness, despite the processes of globalization.
Topic 6: Intercultural communication
1) The concept and types of intercultural communication.
On our planet there are many representatives of diverse cultures that are not similar to each other. The process of dialogue between them is commonly referred to as intercultural communication. A common feature of intercultural communication is the unawareness of cultural differences by its participants. Most people believe that their style and way of life is the only possible and correct, understandable and accessible to everyone. When representatives of different cultures enter into communication, each side does not question its views on the world, but rather thinks about the ignorance of its partner. Only by realizing these features a person can come to an understanding of the reasons for the inadequacy of the situation of intercultural communications.
2) Levels and types of intercultural communication.
Intercultural communication can take place both at the macro level and at the micro level. The macro level includes communications between large-scale cultural formations that exist in large areas. For example: between European and American cultures. At the same time, macro cultures include social groups with their own cultural characteristics, that is, micro cultures. At the level of micro cultures, several types of intercultural communication can be distinguished:
· Interethnic communication - communication between representatives of different peoples.
· Communication among different social classes and groups. For example: between rich and poor. Between the intelligentsia and the working class.
· Communication between representatives of different demographic groups (age, sex, etc.).
· Communication between urban and rural residents. Based on the difference in style and pace of life, the type of interpersonal relationships, etc.
· Regional communication occurs between residents of different regions. The behavior of which in the same situation can differ significantly.
· Communication in business culture arises from the fact that each organization has a number of specific customs and rules of conduct associated with corporate culture.
· Interreligious. It arises between representatives of different religions or branches in cancers of one religion.
3) Cultural distance
In order to determine how difficult it will be for one culture to contact another, the concept of cultural distance- the degree of proximity or compatibility of cultures with each other. The concept of cultural distance captures the differences between the same elements in different cultures. For example, for macro cultures: climate, language, religion, clothing, food, etc. For representatives of cultures, the distance between them is less in this respect, it is easier to adapt to a new culture. Many factors influence the subjective perception of cultural distance:
· The presence or absence of wars or conflicts in the present and the past.
The degree of competence of a person in a foreign language and culture.
· Equal status of partners and their common goals in intercultural communication.
· Subjectively, cultural distance can be perceived as more distant than it actually is. For example: Jews from the USSR feel more comfortable in Germany than in Israel, since the climate and nature of Germany are more similar to their usual conditions of life.
Also, culture is often perceived closer than it actually is. For example: Americans in the UK often fall into this trap. Representatives of collectivist cultures are more difficult to accept strangers than representatives of individualistic ones. For example: Americans have less difficulty communicating with foreigners than Japanese or Russians.
4) Uncertainty in intercultural communication.
In intercultural communication, there is often a lack of understanding between partners, since they belong to different cultures. This causes negative emotions in relation to the partner and the entire culture that he represents. The scientific solution to this problem was taken with the help of Bergen's uncertainty reduction theory. He identifies three strategies for reducing uncertainty.
Passive - observation of representatives of other cultures without interfering in the communication process.
Active - a person asks questions to other people about the object of his interest, thus obtaining the necessary information for communication.
Interactive - Direct interaction with a partner in intercultural communication. The most optimal strategy of behavior. The more a person gives another information about himself, reveals himself, the more uncertainty is reduced.
As a result of the use of these strategies, the necessary adaptation occurs, and intercultural communication becomes effective.
TOPIC 7: Psychological and anthropological approaches of cultural studies .
1) Culture in the context of Freud's psychoanalysis.
The founder of psychoanalysis was the Viennese psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. (1856-1939). The starting point of his doctrine is the hypothesis of the existence of the unconscious, as a special level of the human psyche, different from consciousness and exerting a powerful influence on it. According to Freud, the human psyche consists of 3 layers: It, I, Super - I. Unconscious (IT) - a set of instincts, drives and desires of a person. The key ones are sexual desires, as well as a person's desire for creation and destruction. Unsatisfied desires manifest themselves through dreams, and are also found in mistakes, reservations, etc. Human consciousness (I) - tries to subjugate the unconscious (It). (I) represses unacceptable desires and ideas: sexual, aggressive, antisocial; resists their attempts to penetrate consciousnesses. However, it continues to persist in the human psyche. Above - I are the prohibitions and norms of a socio-cultural nature, which also seek to subjugate the I. Acting as a conscience or a sense of vein. Super - I controls the consciousness, preventing it from realizing secret desires. Freud came to the conclusion that the I of a person is under constant blows from It and from above - I. If the pressure from It and Super - I turns out to be too strong, then I (human consciousness) may not withstand. This leads to severe clinical cases of a violation of the human psyche:
| Super - Me | ||
| I AM | ||
| It |
As a result of the interaction of I, It and Super-I, unsatisfied desires, especially sexual (libido), are transformed under the means of sublimation into the creative activity of the individual. As a result, the instinctive impulse of the libido is shifted to socially approved and acceptable targets. Freud saw the reverse side of this process as the fact that the development of culture leads to a decrease in human happiness and an increase in guilt and dissatisfaction due to the suppression of desires.
2) Jung's doctrine of cultural archetypes.
One of Freud's followers, Carl Jung, focused his attention on the study of the collective unconscious. That is, the objective reality in which a person is immersed. The collective unconscious, according to Jung, is associations and images that have a historical nature. It is enshrined in the Archetypes, which are out of time schemes that store the collective, historical experience, expressed in myths and symbolic images, and thanks to which the thoughts and feelings of people are formed. The collective unconscious is able to direct people's behavior, determine the history of society, thanks to it, creativity is also possible, which is made up of the spiritualization of the Archetypes. The archaic prototype is always translated into the language of modernity.
3) Nietzsche's philosophy of culture.
The philosophy of culture of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) has had a powerful influence on modern cultural theory. His philosophy was considered a harbinger of the upheavals of the 20th century. Man, according to Nietzsche, is a biological, unconscious and irrational creature obeying instinct. The main value of a person is life. The desire to preserve and develop life leads to the development of the will to power. That is, an instinctive, unconscious and irrational force that subjugates the feelings and thoughts of people. The main goal of the development of mankind is the creation of a superman. A superman is a person capable of leading masses of ordinary people. To achieve this goal, the superman must become the bearer of a new morality to replace the existing morality of slaves, as is customary in Christianity. According to Nietzsche, the new morality will be established by the generation of a new race, a race of masters, a new aristocracy, superhumans, who will treat the mob with disdain and the concept of goodness and justice is inherent in the morality of slaves. The superman, as a new caste of masters, will not know pity and justice. Nietzsche speaks not only from the position of immoralism, but also of anti-humanism. He considers man a predatory beast, because the latter feels best looking at tragedies, at bullfights, at a crucifixion. So morality is nothing but hypocrisy and deceit. To create a superman and a master race, it can be sacrificed. The essence and main content of Nietzsche's philosophy are not harmless. At the beginning of the 20th century in Germany, a group of fanatics used the ideas of Nietzsche to create the ideology of German National Socialism. This led to the death of over 50 million people during WWII (1939-1945). Modern neo-fascists are trying to rely on the philosophy of Nietzsche.
The very history of the 20th century, with all its tragedies, showed the perniciousness of Nietzsche's views. Confirmed the importance of universal human values and moral principles.
Topic 8: structural semiotic approach to cultural studies.
1) Culture as a sign system.
Semiotics is the youngest and most influential modern school in cultural studies. It brings together linguists and computer scientists. All processes occurring in culture are considered by them as communication. Culture is understood as a kind of sign system created by man. One of the founders of this trend is Ernet Cassirer, in his concept he considers the ability of mankind to mass systematic symbolization. In his opinion, signs are a necessary instrument of thought. Linguistic and other signs not only transmit information, but preserve it for centuries, forming a culture. Compared to other living beings, man is in a different dimension of reality. It does not exist in the real world, but in the world of symbols. Progress makes this world more and more impenetrable. Therefore, there is a huge difference in the perception of the world between a European and, for example, a savage in South America. Since a civilized person does not deal with real things, but with their symbols, Cassirer calls a person not a thinking Homo sapiense, but a symbolic Homo Simbolicum. Thus, according to Cassirer, a person from a natural being living by instincts and feelings gradually turns into an artificial structure, bound by restrictions and rules, subordinate to abstract thinking divorced from reality.
2) Levi-Strauss structural anthropology
Claude Levi-Strauss, the founder of structural anthropology, dedicated his work to understanding the problem of man's isolation from reality. Analyzing the cultures of primitive tribes, he tried to reveal the originality of the thinking of primitive man, who laid the foundations of technological progress back in the Neolithic era. He proves the need to restore the unity of the sensual and rational principles in man. Lost as a result of the development of civilization. Modern man lives by conventions and myths, increasingly alienating him from real life. The person must return to reality. Culture in Levi-Strauss is becoming an ever greater barrier separating some people from others. For example, it is used to justify his pocentrism, which is not justified because of his selfishness.
3) Structural semiotic approach in Russian cultural studies
In Russia, the ideas of the structural semiotic school were developed in the works of Lotman (1822-1903). He considers culture as an open sign system, including, in addition to natural language, many other sign systems, in particular, all kinds of art. For Lotman, culture is both a symbolic text that always exists in a certain context and a long-term collective memory that selectively transmits intellectual and emotional information in time and space.
In the work "Culture and Explosion" (1992), Lotman tried to study the features of explosive socio-cultural processes in Russia from the position of semiotics and noted its contradictory dichotolinear culture. One of its manifestations, that is, the ideological fragmentation of Russian culture, has been the confrontation between Slavophilism and Westernism, Europeanism and Eurasianism, which has lasted for about 2 centuries. Lotman also noted the difference between Russia and Western civilization with a smoother and less destructive development.
TOPIC 9: Man as a subject of culture.
1) Characteristics of a person as a subject of culture.
A person becomes a person at the moment when the subject of culture appears in him.
Subject of culture - its active creator, transformer of cultural reality. There are a number of qualities of a person as a subject of culture:
1. Consciousness- the ability and need to be guided in their actions and actions by a conscious choice. A person is a person because he is not just immersed in culture, but has a conscious need for cultural activity.
2. upbringing- the ability to be guided in their actions by spiritual urges, and not by the call of nature. The dependence of people on nature is weakening with each century. Moreover, in the modern world, the natural qualities of a person become in demand only in conditions of cultural necessity. This is the progress of mankind.
3. Creativity- the ability to creatively transform reality. Create unparalleled cultural patterns. This quality distinguishes man from animals. However, in real life, it may not be achievable due to the desire of people to simplify their own lives, to imitate the masses.
2) Types of personality as a subject of culture.
Every person contributes to culture. There are different types of man as a creator of culture:
1. Material man - his goal is the possession of things. His attitude to culture can be called dismissively indifferent. He realizes his role as a subject of culture in increasing material values (a person who strives only for wealth).
2. A political person is an important personality type necessary for the regulation of social relations. He is the creator of wise laws, seeks to create conditions for social development, and so on. However, its extreme manifestation is the Nietzsche superman, who sees in people only a mass and seeks to manipulate it.
3. Communicative person - he is dominated by the need to communicate with people. The essence of this type is different, since communication can be both a manifestation of the inner wealth of the individual, and the desire to fill its emptiness.
4. A spiritual person - he does not strive for material wealth, power and communication. For him, a position outside of good and evil is not possible. Don Quixotes, great scientists, monks and revolutionaries are born from such people. Their spiritual wealth and creative potential, put at the service of mankind, are essential for the development of culture (they do not care who thinks about them, they think differently).
3) The intelligentsia and its role in the development of culture.
The intelligentsia is an educated part of society, which includes those who in one way or another embody and ensure the spiritual and mental life of the country. Not every person engaged in mental work is an intellectual. Intelligence implies belief in some higher ideals of spirituality, morality and responsibility, for the fate of all mankind. The intelligentsia does not depend on class or professional affiliation. She acts as a spokesman for the nationwide creative genius. Without it, the development of culture and civilization is not possible at all. It is the character and level of the intelligentsia that determines the cultural face of society, its sympathies, tastes and moods, which form stable norms of national life. Being a very important social stratum, the intelligentsia is steadily increasing its share in modern society. If in the 70s of the 20th century the number of intelligentsia in developed countries was up to 20% of the population, then in the 21st century, during the era of the information boom, this figure has increased significantly and is growing every year.
TOPIC 10: Problems of cultural development in Russia.
1) Features of Russian culture
Considering the features of Russian culture, two circumstances must be taken into account:
1. Russian culture is historically connected with the Russian culture of Kievan Rus and the later proper Russian period in the history of the Russian people. It is the Russian people that make up the majority of the population of Russia and are the founder of the Russian state.
2. The culture of Russia historically combines the totality of many different national cultures of the peoples inhabiting it. The identity of the Russian nation is determined by all the peoples inhabiting our country.
The key issue when considering Russian culture is its place in world history. Russia is considered either belonging to the West or East, or having its own specifics. In the latter case, she is credited with the role of a unifier of East and West, or the role of a special world, quite comparable to the first two. The future of Russia depends on which of these options becomes generally accepted. The most significant features of Russian culture are:
1. The richness of its inner content.
2. Despotic form of state power. Subordination of society to the state.
3. Collectivist mentality.
4. A small amount of economic freedom. Low standard of living of the population.
2) The specifics of modern, cultural transformation in Russia.
Modern Russia is going through a period of cultural crisis. At the same time, it coincides with the global crisis of culture, which is most acutely felt in Russia. The main negative trends in the development of Russian culture include:
1. The widespread introduction of the achievements of science and technology has led to fundamental changes in the forms of consumption of spiritual values. A special type of "home culture" is being created, the constituent elements of which are radio, TV, computer. The negative side of this process is the ever-increasing spiritual isolation of the individual (Movie "SURAGATY").
2. There is a commercialization of culture. In which many masterpieces remain unnoticed. The possibility of mastering the classical heritage suffers. With the huge cultural potential of Russia, accumulated by previous generations, there is a spiritual impoverishment of the Russian people.
3. The growth of mass lack of culture. On soil without spirituality, crime and violence are growing in Russia. There is a decline in morality. This poses a direct danger to Russia's development.
4. The material base of Russian culture is currently in a deplorable state and the state is not trying to change this. The lack of financial injections aimed at supporting the value of folk and classical culture is in deep contrast with the explosion of interest in cultural values that is characteristic of many countries in the 21st century.
5. The system of basic values of society in modern Russia is in an extremely amorphous state. There are practically no universally recognized social and national ideals. In the national culture, incompatible values and orientations are trying to unite. Such as collectivism and individualism, statehood and anarchy, etc. This leads to serious deviations in the development of the country.
Russian culture may well respond to the challenges of the modern world, but for this it is necessary to find those centrist principles that are capable of neutralizing the destructive tendencies in it.
TOPIC 11: Primitive culture. Culture of the Ancient East.
1) The culture of primitive society.
Primitive culture became the first historical type of culture. As part of it, humanity, having gone through a number of complex stages of evolution, for the first time created forms of organization of living beings other than the animal world. Ancient Egypt, Sumer, Babylon, India and China became the cradle of human civilization. Already in the 4th millennium BC, they gave a powerful impetus to the development of a new human culture. It was here that the first states were formed, writing, literature, art, and technology arose. Elements of various sciences were laid, including the beginnings of philosophy. A special contribution to the development of mankind was made by the culture of Mesopotamia (the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers). It developed from the 4th millennium to the 6th century. BC. The Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations reached the greatest prosperity and influence among the civilizations of Mesopotamia. Many cities were built in the states of Mesopotamia. Trade with India, Egypt, Asia Minor and the Caucasus was widely developed. It was in Mesopotamia that the legend of the Flood was born. The first schools and teachers arose in ancient Babylon.
2) The culture of ancient Egypt.
Ancient Egypt was the first empire to claim world domination. This great civilization made a huge contribution to the history of mankind and left behind many unsurpassed masterpieces of culture (cultural monuments, the seizure of vast territories). The most famous result of the existence of ancient Egypt was the creation of the pyramids. Their appearance was associated with the peculiarities of the religious cult of the Egyptians. The basis of the spiritual life of Egypt was the belief in the possibility of an eternal afterlife. However, for this it was necessary to observe a strict funeral ritual. Its task is to protect the fragile soul that has lost the protection of the body after the death of a person and until such time as it passes into the world of the dead. If this is not done, the soul will perish. Within the framework of this religious idea, there was an opinion about the need to protect the soul of the deceased pharaoh. At the same time, the deification of the pharaohs occupied a central place in the religious cult of Egypt. To protect the soul of the pharaoh already in 4 thousand BC. the first tombs of the pharaoh appeared, in 3 thousand BC. By order of Pharaoh Djoser, the first pyramid was built. The most famous and most significant of all Egyptian pyramids is the Cheops pyramid. Its height is 147 meters. It is made of giant limestone stones. Each stone block weighs 2-3 tons. In ancient Egypt, many works of writing were also created. Classical sculptural forms were worked out, astronomy developed. The role of the brain in the human body was established, papyrus for writing was invented, mathematics developed, the first water and sundials were invented.
3) Unity in diversity as a principle of Indian culture.
India has become one of the oldest centers of human civilization with a high level of culture. Excavations in the Indus Valley made it possible to conclude that more than 5 thousand years ago, the most ancient world civilization, which began to be called Harappan or Proto-Indian, existed. The inhabitants of Harappa were the first in the world to learn how to spin and weave cotton. Ancient Indian potters and jewelers reached a rather high level of skill development. There was a perfect system of sewerage and water supply, 2 and 3-storey buildings were built. The Harappan civilization declined in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. during this period, it was driven south by the Aryan tribes, who brought with them their language, mythological ideas and way of life. For example, the Var and Cast system. Many regional, religious, caste and ethnic differences form the impression of fragmentation of the ancient Indian civilization. However, its structure is based on the interaction between different groups, which formed an unbroken bond between them. This connection was created by the religions of India, which successively replaced each other. Ancient Indian religions relied on the law of samsara, which stated that the human soul is immortal. After the end of life, she moves into the body of another living being (not necessarily a person) and life begins anew. There was also the law of karma. According to him, a person's life depended on how he lived his past life. The Indians also sought to take into account the basic provisions of the Vedas. Collections of religious hymns. In the Vedas, for example, it was said that a person is doomed to suffering. It is impossible to live without sin, and every sin a person will have to suffer in the next life. All ancient Indian religious concepts sought to get rid of suffering. The main religions of India are:
· Brahminism (1st millennium BC) its representatives honored diligence, lack of envy. There was a developed cult of ancestors. For them, sin is just an illusion, suffering is not essential (a brahmin is an ancient Indian priest).
· Hinduism (1st millennium BC) - it is based on the doctrine of the reincarnation of souls (reincarnation), as well as the law of retribution of karma, for good or evil behavior.
· Buddhism (6th century BC) – For them, life is suffering, and its source is the desire for material and spiritual wealth. Salvation from suffering is possible by giving up temptations. Buddhism is still one of the world's religions (more practiced in China than in India).
4) Culture of ancient China
China is one of the first states on earth. Its inhabitants have created an original, material and spiritual culture. Already in the 15th century BC, China had a developed system of hieroglyphic writing, numbering more than 2 thousand hieroglyphs. The Book of Changes is a great cultural monument in China. The Chinese at the turn of our era invented ink and paper. At this time, a uniform letter was introduced for the whole country. The first dictionaries appeared. Extensive libraries were created at the imperial palaces. During the unification into a single centralized state (221-207 BC), the Great Wall of China was built. The Chinese believed that life is a creation of a divine, supernatural force, that everything in the world is in motion and is constantly changing as a result of the collision of opposing forces of Light and Darkness (Yang and Yin). The Chinese also believed that the soul of a person after death continues to live and interfere in the affairs of the living. At the same time, the soul of the deceased retains all the previous habits, therefore, his servants and slaves were buried together with the deceased, and weapons, jewelry and utensils were placed in the grave. In the middle of the 1st century BC. In China, 3 main philosophical and religious systems are formed:
Taoism
Teachings of Confucius
Buddhism
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The most important components of the picture of the world are cultural norms and values.
Cultural norms there are certain patterns, rules of behavior, actions, knowledge. Norms are only those regulations that are generally recognized and approved by society. These are instructions (“should”), prohibitions (“must not”), permissions and recommendations (“possible”). These are sociocultural mechanisms for managing human behavior. They are formed in the everyday life of society, passed down from generation to generation. In a revised form, cultural norms are embodied in ideology, ethical teachings, and religious concepts.
Growing up in a certain cultural environment, each person learns the regulations adopted in it. He implements in his actions the programs of behavior prescribed for him by culture, often without even realizing it. So, moral norms arise in the very practice of mass mutual communication of people. A huge role in the formation of cultural norms characteristic of a given society is played by the approval and condemnation expressed by others, the power of personal and collective example, and illustrative patterns of behavior (both described in verbal form and in the form of real norms of behavior). The normativity of culture is maintained in the course of interpersonal, mass relationships between people and as a result of the functioning of various social institutions (families, educational and educational institutions, etc.).
Norms are explicitly or implicitly expressed in various cultural "texts": in language (norms and rules of speech); in the forms of morality, law, political life; in customs, rituals, ceremonies, the fulfillment of which is required by tradition; in the patterns of behavior of parents, educators, prominent people, etc.; in public institutions that regulate relations between people; in the conditions and objects of our environment, which require compliance with certain rules for handling them.
The set of sociocultural norms is divided into three main layers:
♦ general cultural rules that apply to all members of society. These are rules of conduct in public places, rules of courtesy, civil rights and obligations, etc.
♦ Group norms, which include standards of behavior that are characteristic of a certain class, social group, community or organization.
♦ role-playing norms determine the nature of human behavior in accordance with the social role performed by him. The roles of a leader, official, buyer, father, husband, daughter, friend.
The norms of culture are changeable, culture itself is open. It reflects the changes that society is undergoing.. For example, in a patriarchal family, children began their working life early. First of all, they were the guarantor of secure old age for parents, earners of livelihood. Now children are, first of all, the greatest value of the family, the family budget is being redistributed in their favor, for young people this means the opportunity to “prolong childhood”.
Different cultures have different degrees of normativity. "Regulatory failure" culture can lead to an increase in crime, a decline in morality, and the disorganization of social relations. "Normative redundancy", on the contrary, it contributes to the stability of society, the firmness and stability of the social order, but limits freedom, initiative and creative activity. Both "normative excess" and "normative insufficiency" become an obstacle to social progress.
Along with normative behavior, non-normative behavior is possible, deviant. Deviations - deviations from normative behavior - are of two kinds. Random deviations arise due to circumstances when a person is forced to violate some norm. He himself repents of his deed. Regular deviations- these are intentionally, consciously implemented forms of deviant behavior of people. Deviations of this kind include a wide variety of violations of generally accepted sociocultural norms - from crossing the street on a red light to robberies and murders. Random deviations can take on a regular character, and regular deviations can become normal. This is how new cultural norms arise and are established in society. For example, in the field of fashion. Deviations are a way of changing sociocultural norms. Therefore, they are inextricable from any developing culture.
The cultural picture of the world includes values. Values arise as a result of a person's understanding of the significance for him of certain objects (material or spiritual). An object has value if a person sees in it a means of satisfying some of his needs.. Value is not an object, but a special kind of meaning that a person sees in it. In this case, cultural ideas about objects and how and by what means people should satisfy their desires and needs are of decisive importance. Value must be distinguished from usefulness and from truth. So, a valuable thing can be completely useless, and a useful thing can have no value. The value of really existing material and spiritual goods. It is the higher, the closer it approaches the ideal.
Each sphere of human cultural activity acquires a value dimension: there are values of material life, economics, social order, politics, morality, art, science, religion. Each type of culture has its own hierarchy of values. Thus, in antiquity, of all value measurements, the aesthetic approach to the world came to the fore, in the Middle Ages - religious and moral, in modern times - scientific and value. The process of cultural development is always accompanied by a reassessment of values.
Values are divided into final, instrumental and derivative.
♦ Final- the highest values and ideals, more important and significant than which there is nothing. These are values in themselves that are valuable in themselves (human life, freedom, justice, beauty, happiness, love).
♦ Instrumental- the means and conditions necessary, ultimately, to achieve and maintain the final values. They are valuable because they are useful for achieving some goal.
♦ Derivatives- consequences or expressions of other values that are significant only as signs and symbols of the latter (a medal, a diploma, a gift from a loved one as a sign of his love).
