The level of complexity of folk culture. Culture and spiritual life of society

Lecture:

The concept of culture

You know that man is a biological, social and cultural being. What kind of people do we call cultured? A polite, tactful person who respects etiquette. Cultural people are not born, they are made in society. Having mastered the knowledge, values, norms, beliefs of society, having mastered the skills of using surrounding objects, performing social roles a person from a biological being turns into a sociocultural one. What is culture? You need to start with the fact that this is one of the main social institutions of the spiritual sphere of society. The very first understanding of the word "culture" was the cultivation of the land, but over time, the meaning of this concept has changed and many meanings have appeared. Let's settle on this:

culture- the results of creative, creative activity man, accumulated over the centuries and passed down from generation to generation.

Culture was created as a result of human transformational activity. It is defined as the second nature - the artificial habitat of human society. The study of culture is engaged in social - humanities cultural studies.

Culture is divided into two parts:

• Material, including artifacts - the results of material production: the entire object world created by human hands.

Spiritual, including the results of the production of human consciousness: knowledge, ideas, values.

In other words, material culture is a product of the economy, while spiritual culture is a product of art, science, religion, and morality. They are closely related. For example, without knowledge and ideas, an architect will not build a building, or vice versa, the ideas of an artist or writer are reflected on matter (canvas or paper).

Forms of culture: mass, elite, folk

Researchers distinguish several forms of culture: mass, elite, folk.

Signs of mass culture:

1. It is gaining more and more popularity in the context of globalization.

2. Mass culture products are created in large numbers and distributed with the help of modern communication technologies.

3. It has many consumers, because it is generally accessible, easy to perceive and understand for people who do not have education and special training.

4. It is entertaining and does not contribute to spiritual growth.

5. It is of a commercial nature.

Examples of mass culture are movies, television series, talk shows, humor, television news, fashion, sports, pop music, popular literature(e.g. novels) art etc.

In the modern world, scientists distinguish such a variety of mass culture as screen culture. It's a culture created and transmitted by computer. Its examples are computer games, social networks.

Signs of an elite culture:

1. A narrow circle of connoisseurs and consumers. Available, as a rule, to the intelligentsia - people of intellectual labor: scientists, teachers, museum and library workers, artists, composers, writers, critics, etc.

2. Products of elite culture are created by a privileged part of society, or by its order by professional creators.

3. This is a high culture, which is difficult for an unprepared person to perceive, for example, Picasso's painting is not understandable to everyone.

4. It is non-commercial in nature, but sometimes it turns out to be financially successful.

Examples of elite culture are classical music Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky, classic literature Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, the fine arts of Michelangelo, Rodin, Leonard da Vinci, Van Gogh, etc.

signs folk culture:

1. Created by anonymous creators with no professional training.

2. It has a local character, because each nation has its own special folk culture (folklore) associated with the traditions of the area.

3. Passed down from generation to generation.

4. Reproduction of folk culture can be individual (story, legend), group (dance or song performance), mass (carnival, carnival).

Examples of folk culture are fairy tales, epics, epics, dances, songs, myths, legends.

Functions culture

As mentioned in the previous lesson, each social institution performs functions aimed at meeting the needs of people. What are the functions of culture? Let's get to know them:

cognitive function allows a person to acquire rich knowledge and experience accumulated by many generations of people with the help of scientific and artistic books, musical compositions, paintings, sculptures, etc.

Information function (continuity function) is that culture includes the world of artifacts (objects and phenomena created by people), as well as the world of language (meanings and signs that form texts), which contain information that is passed down from generation to generation with the help of traditions. For example, the adoption and further spread of Christianity in Rus' is a prime example continuity.

Communicative function promotes communication between people, through which a person learns cultural norms and values. Communication is also necessary for the creation, preservation and development of culture. As a result of communication, there is an exchange of ideas and spiritual enrichment. As Bernard Shaw said: "When apples are exchanged, each side has only an apple, but when ideas are exchanged, each side has two ideas."

Regulatory or normative function provides order in society with the help of moral and legal norms, traditions and customs, etiquette, etc., which give a person guidelines in behavior and regulate his actions.

Socialization function - as a result of assimilation cultural norms and mastering patterns of behavior, a person is included in a certain cultural context the society in which he lives. Culture also regulates the gender roles of men and women.

Compensatory function allows a person to relax, relax from life problems get an emotional release. A person can receive spiritual compensation from the performance of religious rites, classes artistic culture(eg, reading books, going to the theatre, listening to music), walking in nature, being creative, collecting, raising children.

Exercise: Give your examples of mass, elite and folk cultures. Write them in the comments 📝

The essence of culture can be studied from different positions, which will, accordingly, affect its definition. If we consider it as a social phenomenon, then there are several basic approaches.

Value focuses on the implementation of common values ​​in different ways, on the creation or emergence of opportunities for this implementation.

Technological considers culture as a certain set of achievements from the spiritual and material life of society. And, finally, they also distinguish activity. From this point of view, culture is seen as a kind of creative process relating to the material and spiritual spheres.

But if you search for material on the topic “the concept of culture of form and variety of culture”, you can see that everything is not limited to this. For example, the term itself is understood in a broader and narrower sense. The first option considers culture as a dynamically developing complex of ways, forms, approaches, principles of the creative activity of society. And it is inextricably linked with historical processes. In a narrower sense, culture is understood as a creative process aimed at the creation, redistribution and consumption of values ​​of spiritual significance.

And if we talk about what types of culture social science considers, then there is also a division into material and spiritual. Note that in itself such a distinction is very arbitrary, and it is difficult to find exactly where it has a frame. The same phenomenon can apply to both. So, the concept of the first variety is closely connected with the objects of the material world, the second has more to do, respectively, with the non-material.

The typology of cultures suggests a division according to a variety of options. For example, eastern is opposed to western. Or national - world. However, integration processes blur the boundaries here as well. They also consider urban and rural forms of culture, general and specialized, traditional, as well as industrial and, accordingly, post-industrial.

Discussing what forms and varieties of culture are distinguished by experts, one cannot fail to note such a popular division as mass, elite and popular. However, explanations are needed here, since these definitions are so often heard by everyone, for example, in the media, that not everyone understands what exactly scientists put into them. So, mass, it is also called pop culture (pop is short for the word “popular”) or kitsch. Here there are standards, advertising, show business has become a striking phenomenon. Performed by professional performers. inseparable from the media. The difficulty level is generally not very high.

Pop culture is focused on the mass consumer. It often exists outside the context, for example, which distinguishes it from folk, which is simply impossible to imagine without references to the traditions and customs of a single ethnic group. To understand most products, just a basic school education is enough, and its quality often does not matter. The consumer does not need to be prepared to understand the work, which is necessary for opera or classical literature.

The positive side of mass culture was its ability to influence immediately a large number of of people. It illustrates in an accessible way Eternal values often plays an inspiring role. It can perform the function of education. Kitsch brings people together different countries, because almost all of humanity watched The Matrix and Titanic at one time, therefore, a huge number of people from different continents recognize certain symbols associated with these films, scenes from films and even a parody of them. This is how understandable jokes are born, their own context appears.

At the same time, it's undeniable that pop culture is primarily about entertaining. It satisfies the spiritual needs of a person on a very surface, creating the illusion of food. In this connection, the development of many stops or goes extremely slowly. Kitsch is aimed at entertainment, but at the same time it rarely reveals really deep topics. Or it feeds through a far from always well-chosen prism.

Folk culture is also aimed at a wide audience, but the context is important here. The level can be very different, a lot depends on the manner of presentation, on the specific performer. Mostly uncontrolled, because it does not depend on the media. The spread of creativity occurs spontaneously, in connection with which something can be lost forever.

And finally, elite. To understand it, a certain level of training is required, which immediately narrows the audience. Often, in order to fully understand the meaning of the work, you need to read it several times. The difficulty level is high. The authors here are professionals to a greater extent, who work on the creation of the canons of culture.

It is worth noting that all three of these varieties are interpenetrating. Performers folk songs become pop musicians. And vice versa - kitsch shows interest in the creativity of individual ethnic groups, draws inspiration from there. Singers who are bright in every sense of pop culture can create works of an elite level.

There are other types of culture as well. For example, screen. It includes everything that is somehow shown on the screens, from movies and clips to video games, shows and so on. It is distinguished by accentuated entertainment, special effects, the predominance of the visual over everything else. It led to the emergence of the so-called clip thinking. Criticized for its negative impact on the intelligence of the younger generation.

The concept of culture originally in Ancient Rome meant agriculture. Mark Porcius Cato the Elder back in the 2nd century BC. wrote a treatise on agriculture "De Agri Cultura". As an independent term, culture began to be used in the 17th century and meant “education” and “education”. IN Everyday life culture has retained this meaning.

Culture - it is a set of various manifestations of human activity, including self-expression, self-knowledge, accumulation of skills and abilities. Simply put, culture is everything that is created by man, that is, it is not nature. Culture as a kind of activity always has a result. Depending on what character this result has (refers to material values ​​or to spiritual ones), culture is distinguished into material and spiritual.

material culture.

material culture - this is everything that is related to the material world and serves to satisfy the material needs of a person or society. Essential elements:

• items(or things) - what is primarily meant by material culture (shovels and Cell phones, roads and buildings, food and clothing);
• technologies- methods and means of using objects in order to create something else with their help;
• technical culture- a set of practical skills, abilities and abilities of a person, as well as experience gained over generations (an example is a borscht recipe passed down from generation to generation from mother to daughter).

Spiritual culture.

spiritual culture- this is a type of activity associated with feelings, emotions, as well as with intellect. Essential elements:

• spiritual values(the main element in spiritual culture, as it serves as a standard, ideal, role model);
• spiritual activity(art, science, religion);
• spiritual needs;
• spiritual consumption(consumption of spiritual goods).

Types of culture.

Types of culture numerous and varied. For example, according to the nature of the attitude towards religion, culture is secular or religious, according to its distribution in the world - national or world, according to its geographical nature - Eastern, Western, Russian, British, Mediterranean, American, etc., according to the degree of urbanization - urban, rural , rustic, as well as - traditional, industrial, postmodern, specialized, medieval, antique, primitive, etc.

All these types can be summarized in three main forms of culture.

Forms of culture.

1. high culture(elite). Fine art of a high level, creating cultural canons. It is non-commercial in nature and requires intellectual decryption. Example: classical music and literature.
2. Mass culture (pop culture). Culture consumed by the masses, with a low level of complexity. It is commercial in nature and aimed at entertaining a wide audience. Some consider it a means to control the masses, while others believe that the masses themselves created it.
3. Folk culture. Culture of a non-commercial nature, the authors of which, as a rule, are not known: folklore, fairy tales, myths, songs, etc.

It should be borne in mind that the components of all these three forms constantly penetrate into each other, interact and complement each other. The Golden Ring Ensemble is an example of mass and folk culture at the same time.

1.10 The concept of culture.. Bogbas10, §8; Bogprof10, §18; Bogprof11, §28. Bogst10, 151-153.
TO ulura from Latin colo meaning " handle», « cultivate the soil».

IN broad meaning culture

IN narrow meaning concept culture !!!

cultural lag in particular technology. The value world of a person does not have time to adapt to too rapid changes in the material sphere, especially young people suffer.

Social functions of culture :

Forms and varieties of culture .
in connection with religion: religious and secular;
by region: culture of East and West;
by nationality

in connection with the territory


1) folk culture
Folk culture can be divided into two types - popular and folklore. The popular one describes today's life, songs, dances of the people, and the folklore describes its past.
2) Elite culture(from Frenchliterature: Joyce, Proust, Kafka; painting: Chagall, Picasso; cinema music: Schnittke, Gubaidullina).
Signs of an elite culture
3) Mass culture
The basis of mass culture is m ass society
4) " Screen culture » is formed on the basis of the synthesis of a computer with video equipment. Personal contacts and reading books fade into the background

DETAILS

12.1. Meanings of the concept "culture".
12.2. Basic approaches to understanding culture.
12.3. Social functions of culture.
12.4. Forms and varieties of culture.
12.5. Spiritual life of society. Spiritual production and spiritual consumption.
12.6. Diversity of cultures.
12.6.1. Subculture and counterculture.
12.6.2. Comparative contribution of individual cultures to the world cultural wealth (hierarchy of world culture).
12.6.3. Interaction of cultures.
12.6.4. Nikolay Danilevsky about the interaction of cultures.
12.6.5. Culture shock.
12.6.6. Westernization and modernization.
12.6.7. Death of the West (Patrick Buchanan).
12.6.8. Is a synthesis of cultures possible, is it possible to create a universal culture?

12.1 . The meanings of the concept of "culture".
12.1.1. Word culture comes from the Latin verb colo, which means " handle», « cultivate the soil". Later, another meaning appeared - to improve, to honor. Cicero became the author of the metaphor cultura animi, i.e. “culture (improvement) of the soul”, “spiritual culture”.
In modern language, the concept of culture is used in 1) wide(a set of types and results of the transformative activity of a person and society, transmitted from generation to generation with the help of linguistic and non-linguistic sign systems, as well as through learning and imitation) and 2) narrow(the sphere of society's life, where the spiritual efforts of mankind, the achievements of the mind, the manifestation of feelings and creative activity) are concentrated) meanings.

IN broad meaning culture- 1) the totality of all types of transformative activity of a person and society, as well as 2) the result of this activity, including the transformation of a person himself.

IN narrow meaning concept culture very close to the definition of the spiritual sphere of society. !!! Culture = spiritual life of society.
12.1.2. What is culture made of? Cultural universals.
Cultural universals- typical and recurring aspects of life that appear in all known societies.
Designed by J.P. Murdoch om classification of cultural universals, contains 88 general behavioral categories.
List of cultural universals: 1) sports, 2) body decorations, 3) joint work, 4) dancing, 5) education, 6) funeral rituals, 7) the custom of giving gifts, 8) hospitality, 9) the prohibition of incest, 10) language, 11) religious rites, 12) the manufacture of tools, etc.
Components of human culture- environmental, economic, legal, aesthetic, moral, general education, political, physical culture, culture of life, culture of speech and communication.
12.1.3. cultural lag.
lag(from English. lag - delay) (time lag) - an indicator that reflects the delay or advance in time of one phenomenon compared to others (for example, in the economy, the time from the moment of investment to the return).
cultural lag- relatively slow progress or change in one aspect of culture, for example, delay in the development of non-material culture compared to material in particular technology. The value world of a person does not have time to adapt to too rapid changes in the material sphere, especially young people suffer. The cultural lag describes a situation where technological inventions have already appeared in a society, and cultural and social adaptation there was no population for them.
Law of cultural lag (English. law of cultural lag) - the law according to which changes in the field of material culture occur at a faster pace than in the field of intangible culture (W. ogborn). The imbalance in the development of culture leads to social disorganization, conflicts, destruction ecological environment etc.
12.2 . Basic approaches to understanding culture.
12.2.1. All known definitions of culture (there are about 300 of them) are divided into several main types.
1) Descriptive definitions.
E. Taylor: « culture, or civilization, is knowledge, arts, morality, laws, customs, and some other abilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
2) Historical definitions.
culture is a product of history, which is the inheritance of social experience and its transmission from generation to generation.
3) Regulatory definitions.
culture- values ​​and norms human existence.

Values- characterization of ideas, phenomena, objects and their properties in terms of their significance for a person or society.

Types of values: 1) real (pleasant, useful, suitable); 2) logical (true); 3) ethical (good); 4) aesthetic (beauty)
signs cultural property :

1) the sustainability of this cultural value (it must exist for several generations);

2) recognition at different levels of human society (the level of a particular individual; the level of a social group; the national level; the civilizational level; the universal human level);

3) cultural value can only be expressed through signs and symbols.
Problems with this approach:
1) Are there human values??
There are endless discussions about the existence of universal human cultural values. Currently, they are most often understood as values European civilization. However, due to confessional and national differences, it is hardly possible to talk about common cultural universal values.
2) Culture: good or bad?
Some philosophers considered culture a means of enslaving people. Nietzsche and Leo Tolstoy proclaimed the thesis that man by nature is an anti-cultural being, and culture itself is an evil that was created to suppress and enslave man. Other scientists (Herder and others), on the contrary, called culture a means of ennobling man.

4) Activity (anthropological) definitions.
culture- these are all types of transformative activity of a person and society, as well as all its results (second nature).
Secondary (second) nature- a set of material conditions created by man in the process of his adaptation to natural conditions.
Artifact of culture(from lat. arte - artificial + factus - made) - an artificially created object that has a symbolic or symbolic content.

Artifacts of culture are: 1) objects created by people, things, tools, clothing, household utensils, housing, roads; 2) phenomena of the spiritual life of society: scientific theories, superstitions, works of art and folklore.
However, this approach suffers significant disadvantage: it turns out that !!! any human activity falls under the definition.

5) Semiotic definitions.
culture- a system of signs and symbols used in a given society.
Semiotics(from Greek semeion - sign, sign) - a science that studies the ways of transmitting information, the properties of signs and sign systems in human society (mainly natural and artificial languages, as well as some cultural phenomena - systems of myth, ritual), nature (communication in the animal world) or in the person himself (visual and auditory perception, etc.).
6) Sociological definitions.
culture there is an organizing factor public life.
!!! Conclusion: The situation here is similar to attempts to determine, for example, a person. There are dozens of definitions of the concept of "man", but there is no single correct and applicable in all circumstances definition of this concept.
12.3 . Social functions of culture:
1) the function of adaptation to the environment (clothes, fire); 2) the function of accumulation, storage and transfer of cultural values; 3) the function of setting goals and regulating the life of society and human activity; 4) the function of socialization (enables a person to assimilate a certain system of norms, values ​​and knowledge); 5) communicative function (provides interaction between people and communities).
12.4 . Forms and varieties of culture.
12.4.1. in connection with religion: religious and secular;
12.4.2. by region: culture of East and West;
12.4.3. by nationality: Russian, French, etc.;
12.4.4. by belonging to the historical type of society Keywords: culture of traditional, industrial, post-industrial society;
12.4.5. in connection with the territory: rural and urban culture;
12.4.6. by area of ​​society or type of activity: production culture, political, economic, pedagogical, ecological, artistic, etc.;
12.4.7. by skill level and type of audience: elite (high), folk, mass.
1) In the era of the formation of a universal international culture, the issue of preserving national cultures is especially acute.

folk culture- the most stable part of the national culture, a source of development and a repository of traditions. This is a culture created by the people and existing among the masses. Folk culture is generally anonymous.
Folk culture can be divided into two types - popular and folklore. Popular culture describes today's life, customs, songs, dances of the people, and folklore describes its past.
2) Elite culture(from French. elite - the best, favorite) - a phenomenon opposed to mass culture. It is created based on a narrow circle of consumers, prepared for the perception of works that are complex in form and content ( literature: Joyce, Proust, Kafka; painting: Chagall, Picasso; cinema: Kurosawa, Bergman, Tarkovsky; music: Schnittke, Gubaidullina).
For a long time, elite culture was understood as the culture of the spiritual elite of society (people with a high level of intelligence and cultural needs). It was believed that these cultural values ​​were inaccessible to the majority of the population. Since the middle of the XX century. elite culture is defined as creative, i.e. that part of the culture in which new cultural values ​​are created. Of these created cultural values, only 1/3 achieve public recognition. From this point of view, elite culture is the highest and main part of culture, which determines its development.
Signs of an elite culture: 1) high level(complexity of content); 2) obtaining commercial benefits is not an indispensable goal; 3) preparedness of the audience for perception; 4) a narrow circle of creators and audience; 5) determines the development of the whole culture.
3) Mass culture(pop culture): 1) general availability; 2) entertaining (appeal to such aspects of life and emotions that cause constant interest and are understandable to most people); 3) serialization, replicability; 4) passivity of perception; 5) commercial nature.
The basis of mass culture is mass society.
What is a mass society?
Mass society- a society characterized by: 1) standardization of production and mass consumption; 2) an increase in the size and role of the middle class; 3) bureaucratization of public life; 4) dissemination of mass media and mass culture; 5) conformism; 6) a decrease in the role of primary groups; 7) atomization; 8) depersonalization of relations.
4) " Screen culture» is formed on the basis of the synthesis of a computer with video equipment. Personal contacts and reading books fade into the background.
12.4.8. Polyakov, 59 - 60.
1) material culture- the real environment of a person, consisting of objects that serve to satisfy vital needs.
2) spiritual culture- the whole set of products and phenomena of creativity, knowledge and understanding of the world, in general, images of the world that exist in a particular culture.
3) social culture - forms of organization characteristic of a particular culture life together.
12.4.9. by the nature of the needs met: material and spiritual.
Distinguish material(everything that is created in the process of material production: technology, material values, production) and spiritual(religion, art, morality, science, worldview) culture. The main basis for the distinction between material and spiritual cultures is the nature of the needs (material or spiritual) of society and man, satisfied by the produced values.
12.5 . Spiritual life of society(spiritual sphere of society) is a sphere of activity of a person and society, which covers the wealth of human feelings and achievements of the mind, combines both the assimilation of accumulated spiritual values ​​and the creative creation of new ones.
12.5.1. The structure of the spiritual life of society.
The spiritual life of society embraces science, morality, religion, philosophy, art, scientific institutions, cultural institutions, religious organizations, relevant activities of people.
spiritual activity= spiritual-theoretical (its product is thoughts, ideas, theories, ideals, artistic images) + spiritual and practical (preservation, reproduction, distribution, distribution, consumption of created spiritual values).
Spiritual and theoretical activity is the spiritual production (creation) of spiritual values.
12.5.2. Features of spiritual consumption:

1) the relationship of spiritual needs and spiritual values ​​(spiritual needs for knowledge, beauty, communication bring to life the corresponding types of activity);

2) spiritual values ​​do not disappear in the process of consumption;

3) spiritual consumption is at the same time spiritual production.
12.5.3. Tradition and innovation.
Cultural development- a two-pronged process = 1) summation, accumulation of experience and cultural values previous generations, i.e. creating traditions + 2) overcoming these same traditions by increasing cultural wealth, i.e. innovation.
Tradition(from latin o traditio - transmission) - elements of social and cultural heritage that are transmitted from generation to generation and preserved in certain societies and social groups for a long time.

Certain social institutions, norms of behavior, values, ideas, customs, rituals, etc. act as traditions. Certain traditions operate in any society and in all areas of public life.
Accumulation (ways of increment) of cultural values:
1) vertically(continuity, transfer from one generation to another of elements, parts of previous theories);
2) horizontally(not individual elements, actual ideas, parts of the theory are inherited, but an integral work of art).
cultural accumulation(from Latin accumulatio - gathering together, accumulation) - the accumulation of cultural potential, heritage.

Cultural accumulation takes place where cultural heritage more new elements are added than old ones are discarded. On the contrary, when during a particular period more cultural features disappear than are added, one speaks of cultural exhaustion.
12.6 . Diversity of cultures.
12.6.1. Subculture and counterculture.
Subculture- Part common culture, a system of values ​​inherent in a large social group.
Counterculture- 1) a subculture that not only differs from the dominant culture, but opposes, is in conflict with it, seeks to oust it; 2) the system of values ​​of asocial groups ("new left", hippies, beatniks, yippies, etc.).
Within the framework of the elite culture, there is a "counterculture" - avant-garde.
12.6.2. Comparative contribution of individual cultures to the world's cultural wealth(hierarchy of world culture).
Some researchers give up trying to compare the weight of individual crops. Others believe that the importance and degree of development of individual cultures are not the same.
eurocentrism– various concepts trying to present Europe as a spiritual center planet and a role model in solving economic, environmental, political, social, national, ethical, creative, religious, demographic and other universal problems.
americacentrism- the concept that America is the spiritual center of mankind.
Eastcentrism(Negritude, pan-Islamism, pan-Mongolism) - a worldview setting (view), according to which it is the East, and not Europe, that is the center of world culture and civilization.
Afrocentrism- the concept that Africa is the spiritual center of mankind.
negritude (French. negritude - belonging to a Negro, black race) - a concept that affirms the idea of ​​​​a special independent spiritual, cultural and political development African peoples.
Leopold Senghor:
“…Let us answer: “Here!” – when the Revival of the world calls us.
Let us become yeast - without them, white dough cannot rise,
For who will bring an enlivening rhythm into this dead world of machines and tools?..”
12.6.3. Interaction of cultures.
1) Dialogue of cultures- 1) continuity, interpenetration and interaction of different cultures of all times and all peoples, enrichment and development on this basis of national cultures and universal culture; 2) the same as acculturation.
acculturation (English. acculturation, from lat. ad - to, and cultura - education, development) - 1) in the narrow sense: processes of mutual influence of cultures, as a result of which the culture of one people fully or partially perceives the culture of another people, usually more developed; 2) in a broad sense: the process of interaction of cultures, cultural synthesis.
Cultural contact- a precondition for intercultural interaction, which implies stable contact in the social space of two or more cultures. Cultural contact is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the interaction of cultures. The interaction process involves a high degree tightness and intensity of cultural contact.
cultural diffusion(from Latin diffusio - distribution, spreading, dispersion) - mutual penetration (borrowing) of cultural features and complexes from one society to another when they come into contact (cultural contact).

Channels of cultural diffusion: migration, tourism, missionary activity, trade, war, scientific conferences, trade exhibitions and fairs, exchange of students and specialists, etc.

Globalization of culture– acceleration of the integration of nations into the world system in connection with the development of modern Vehicle and economic relations, the formation of transnational corporations and the world market, due to the impact on people of means mass media.
The globalization of culture has 1) positive(communication, expansion of cultural contacts in the modern world) and 2) negative sides.
Excessively active borrowing is dangerous for the loss of cultural identity. The younger generation adopts each other's fashion, habits, preferences, customs, as a result of which they become similar, and often simply faceless. The possibility of losing cultural identity lies in the growing threat assimilation- absorption of a small culture from a larger one, dissolution cultural characteristics national minority in culture big nation, oblivion of paternal culture during mass emigration to another country and obtaining citizenship there.
12.6.4. Nicholas Danilevsky on the interaction of cultures:
1) colonization(the Phoenicians brought their culture to Carthage); 2) " grafting a cutting on someone else's tree» (the Hellenistic culture of Alexandria within the Egyptian culture); 3) mutual equal dialogue(value exchange).
12.6.5. Culture shock- the initial reaction of an individual, group or mass consciousness to a meeting with a different cultural reality.
Levels (subjects) of culture shock: 1) individual (situation of individual emigration or tourism); 2) social group (situation of mass emigration, refugees, forced expulsion on ethnic or religious grounds); 3) society as a whole (the situation of cultural diffusion is an attempt to radically transform social system modeled on a "foreign" culture as a result of an internal cultural crisis or external cultural expansion).
Ways to overcome culture shock.
1) Colonization: aggressive demonstration and propaganda of their own cultural guidelines and behaviors, a radical rejection of the traditional values ​​of the "local" culture and their displacement to the periphery of the cultural space.
2) Ghetto(t)ization: the creation of compact places of residence for “strangers” (emigrants, refugees, guest workers) or “local” (US Indians) carriers of a different culture, where they get the opportunity to preserve and maintain their cultural microenvironment within the rigid framework of local enclosed spaces (ghettos).
Ghetto (Italian ghetto) - 1) the district of the city in which national minorities settle.
In this case culture shock is mitigated by allocating both the “strong” and the “weak” participant in the conflict their own sphere of influence.
Examples: Chinatowns - Chinatowns in the USA, areas of residence of religious orthodox people in Israel, etc.
3) Assimilation: an extreme form of cultural conformism, a conscious rejection of one's own cultural identity in favor of complete adaptation to a "foreign" culture. The last "bastion" in the fight against foreign culture is the language, with the loss of which the assimilated culture also perishes.
4) Diffusion: the combination of elements of "one's own" and "alien" cultures.
Tolerance(from lat. tolerantia - patience) - tolerance for other people's opinions, beliefs, behavior.
Forms of tolerance: 1) personal (social interactions of individual individuals); 2) social (social psychology, consciousness, moral standards and manners); 3) state (legislation, political practice).

12.6.6. Westernization and modernization.
Modernization (French. moderisatio, from moderne newest, modern) - 1) updating, changing in relation to new, modern requirements; 2) the transition from a traditional, agrarian society to a modern, industrial one.

Westernization – (English. western, from west - west) - a kind of modernization, borrowing the Anglo-American or Western European way of life, behavior patterns, spiritual values.
Possible responses to Western influence (Huntington):
1) rejection(refusal of modernization and westernization).
Japan followed this course until mid-nineteenth century. Unlike Japan, in China, the rejection policy was due to the fact that this country perceived itself as the Middle Kingdom and was firmly convinced of the superiority Chinese culture over the cultures of all other peoples. Chinese isolation, like Japan's, was ended by Western weapons supplied to China by the British during the Opium Wars of 1839-1842.
2) Japan (1868 - ???) Modernization without Westernization.
In China in last years During the reign of the Qin Dynasty, the motto became Ti-Yong - " Chinese wisdom for fundamental principles, Western wisdom for practical use". In Japan, this motto has become Wakon Yosei - "Japanese spirit" and Western technology.
3) Kemalism= westernization + modernization.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk(1881-1938), the first president of the Turkish Republic, renouncing the Islamic past, made Turkey a "torn country" - a society that was Muslim in its religion, heritage, customs and institutions, but ruled by an elite who wanted to make it modern, Western and unite it with the West.
4) Modern Russia: westernization without modernization !!!

12.6.7. Death of the West(Patrick Buchanan).
For a long time The United States - a country that itself was created by emigrants - encouraged and welcomed immigration. In the XX century. theory prevailed there. melting pot”, according to which, as a result of living in America, all immigrants lose their original national identity and are “melted” into “Americans”; the result is a relatively homogeneous American nation.
But already at the end of the XX century. adopted the theory of multiculturalism.
Multiculturalism has become a recognition of the fact that America can no longer unite “whites”, “blacks” (they are politically correct called African Americans), “Latinos” (Latin Americans), etc., into one nation. This process of disintegration of the American nation into separate ethno-cultural groups and associations different groups non-whites against "whites" has been called a "culture war". Some politicians and sociologists believe that this process will lead to the weakening and disintegration of the United States, and this will mean the "death of the West."
multiculturalism– Recognition and promotion of cultural pluralism.
Patrick Buchanan(1938-). "Death of the West" (2002):
“There is a growing feeling among our fellow citizens that the country is falling apart into ethnic groups. In addition, we have just recently experienced a cultural revolution, which brought a new elite to the dominant heights. Through mastering the means of instilling ideas, images, opinions and values ​​- television, art, the entertainment industry, education - this elite gradually creates a new nation ...
Millions of people feel like strangers in their own country... They observe the disappearance of ancient holidays and the withering of former heroes... books that they remember from early childhood, leave school curriculum, yielding to new authors, whom the majority have never heard of; ... moral values, inherited from generations of ancestors, are overthrown; ... the culture that raised these people dies along with the country in which they grew up.
Throughout the life of one generation, many Americans have seen how their God is debunked, their heroes are overthrown, their culture is defiled, moral values ​​are perverted, they are actually forced out of the country, and they themselves are called extremists and liars for their adherence to the ideals of their ancestors ...
There are many such people who no longer feel America is theirs. We are not leaving America, they say, it is she who is leaving us. Involuntarily, the words of Euripides are recalled: "There is no greater sorrow in the world than to lose one's homeland."
12.6.8. Is it possible to synthesize cultures, create a universal culture?

1) Schweitzer Albert (1875-1965) - German-French thinker, Protestant theologian and missionary, physician, musicologist and organist. In 1913 he organized a hospital in Lambarene (Gabon), which became the main business of his life. The initial principle of the worldview is reverence for life, its preservation and improvement as the basis for the moral renewal of mankind, the development of a universal cosmic ethics.

2) Mahatma Gandhi(1869-1948) - the spiritual founder of independent India. In an attempt to resist discrimination against Indians, in 1906 he led the first campaign of non-violent resistance, or civil disobedience. He developed this tactic under the influence of the works of Henry Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, the Gospel and Hindu sacred books.

Culture is an extremely diverse concept. This scientific term appeared in ancient Rome, where the word "cultura" meant the cultivation of the land, upbringing, education.

In sociology, there are two types of culture: material(products of handicrafts and production; tools, tools; structures, buildings; equipment, etc.) and intangible(representations, values, knowledge, ideology, language, the process of spiritual production, etc.).

1. The main function is human-creative, or humanistic function. Cicero spoke of her - "cultura animi" - cultivation, cultivation of the spirit. Today, this function of "cultivating" the human spirit has acquired not only the most important, but also in many respects symbolic meaning. All other functions are somehow connected with this one and even follow from it.

2. The function of translation (transfer) of social experience. It is called the function of historical continuity or information. Culture is a complex sign system. It acts as the only mechanism for the transfer of social experience from generation to generation, from era to era, from one country to another. Indeed, besides culture, society does not have any other mechanism for transmitting the entire wealth of experience that people have accumulated. Therefore, it is no coincidence that culture is considered the social memory of mankind.

However, culture is not a kind of "warehouse", "repository" of stocks of social experience, but a means of objective assessment, rigorous selection and active transmission of the best "examples" that have truly enduring significance. Hence, any violation of this function is fraught with serious, sometimes catastrophic consequences for society. The gap in cultural continuity dooms new generations to the loss of social memory (the phenomenon of "mankurtism") with all the ensuing consequences.

3. Regulatory (normative) function is associated primarily with the definition (regulation) of various aspects, types of social and personal activities of people. In the sphere of work, everyday life, interpersonal relations, culture in 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 supported by such normative systems as morality and law.

4. Semiotic or semiotic (Greek semenion - sign) function is the most important in the system of culture. Representing a certain sign system, culture implies knowledge, possession of it. Without studying the corresponding sign systems, it is not possible to master the achievements of culture. Thus, language (oral or written) is a means of communication between people. Literary language acts as the most important means of mastering national culture. Specific languages ​​are needed for understanding the special world of music, painting, theater (Schnittke's music, Malevich's Suprematism, Dali's surrealism, Vityk's theater). The natural sciences (physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology) also have their own sign systems.

5. Value, or axiological (Greek axia - value) function reflects the most important qualitative state of culture. Culture as a certain system of values ​​forms a person's well-defined value needs and orientations. By their level and quality, people most often judge the degree of culture of a person. Moral and intellectual content, as a rule, acts as a criterion for appropriate evaluation

Cognitive, epistemological function.

Closely related to the first (human-creative) and, in in a certain sense, follows from it. Culture concentrates the best social experience of many generations of people. It (immanently) acquires the ability to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world and thereby create favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development. It can be argued that a society is as intellectual as the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of mankind is used.

Culture is determined by a certain criterion of knowledge, mastery of the human forces of nature and society, as well as the degree of development of the "human" in man himself. Encompassing all forms of social consciousness, taken in their unity, culture gives a complete picture of the knowledge and development of the world. Of course, culture is not reduced to the totality of knowledge about the world, but systematized scientific knowledge is one of its most important elements.

However, culture not only characterizes the degree of human knowledge of the surrounding world. At the same time, culture reveals not only the degree of development of forms of social consciousness in their unity, but also the level of skills and abilities of people manifested in their practical activities. Life is extraordinarily complicated and all the time it poses more and more new problems for people. This causes the need for knowledge of the processes taking place in society, their awareness from both scientific and artistic and aesthetic positions.

So the efforts of the great thinkers, who called to see in culture only a condition for the development of human qualities, were not in vain. But real life culture is still not limited to human-creative function. The variety of human needs served as the basis for the emergence of a variety of functions. Culture is a kind of self-knowledge of a person, since it shows him not only the world around him, but also himself. This is a kind of mirror where a person sees himself both as he should become and as he was and is. The results of knowledge and self-knowledge are transmitted in the form of experience, worldly wisdom, through signs, symbols from generation to generation, from one people to another.

activity function

Let's start with the fact that the very term "culture" originally meant the cultivation of the soil, its cultivation, i.e. a change in a natural object under the influence of a person, in contrast to those changes that are caused by natural causes. A stone polished by the surf remains a component of nature, and the same stone, processed by a savage, is an artificial object that performs a certain function accepted in a given community - tool or magic. Thus, in this original content of the term, an important feature of culture is expressed - the human principle inherent in it - and attention is focused on the unity of culture, man and his activity.

According to the most common understanding of this term today, culture is a meaning-bearing and meaning-transmitting aspect of human practice and its results, a symbolic dimension of social events that allows individuals to live in a special life world, which they more or less understand, and to perform actions, the nature of which is understood by everyone else. .

Any great spiritual tradition is a cleverly built machine for fighting against time, but no matter what tricks, time eventually breaks it. Such disturbing considerations must have crossed the minds of teachers of traditional cultures more than once, and they tried to find a way out of the impasse. One of the possible solutions suggested by common sense is to strengthen by all means the reliability of the transmission of culture - to carefully protect it from all conceivable distortions, reinterpretations, and especially innovations. Unfortunately for some and fortunately for others, it actually turns out that “the use of such means, no matter how locally successful it may be, is not able to save culture from internal necrosis.

Information function.

This is the transfer of social experience. In society, there is no other mechanism for the transfer of social experience other than culture. The social qualities of a person are not transmitted by the genetic program. Thanks to culture, the transmission, transmission of social experience is carried out both from one generation to another, and between countries and peoples.

This important social function culture performs through a complex sign system that preserves the social experience of generations in concepts and words, mathematical symbols and formulas of science, peculiar languages ​​of art, in the products of human labor - tools of production, consumer goods, i.e. contains all those signs that tell about a person, his creative powers and capabilities. In this sense, culture can be called the "memory" of mankind. However, it must be emphasized that culture is not just a "pantry" of social experience accumulated by mankind, but a means of its active processing, selection of exactly the information that society needs, which is of national and universal value.

The informative function of culture is highly appreciated by representatives of the semiotic approach to culture. In this function, culture links generations, enriching each subsequent generation with the experience of the previous ones. But this does not mean that it is enough to live in today's world and read modern books in order to join the experience of world culture. It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of "cultural" and "modernity". To become cultured, a person needs to go through, as I.V. Goethe, "through all epochs of world culture".

Here, culture is seen not as something external to a person that determines the forms of his life, but as a way to realize his creative potential.

Culture cannot live by tradition alone; it is constantly supported by the pressure of new generations entering society in somewhat changed historical conditions. This feature of the socio-historical process forces the representatives of the new generation to engage in creative processing of the cultural achievements of the past. Continuity and innovation permeate cultural life society.

The unique possibility of culture is manifested in its dialogue. Culture is impossible without internal “roll call”. The “characters” of past cultures do not leave the stage, do not disappear and do not dissolve in the new, but carry on a dialogue both with their brothers in the past and with the heroes who have come to replace them. And to this day, people are worried about the tragic images of Aeschylus and Sophocles; Pushkin's and Shakespeare's heroes make us continue to think about good and evil, and Kant's ideas about the universal world are in tune with our era. Appeal to the culture of the past, rethinking its values ​​in the light of modern experience is one of the ways to realize the creative potential of a person. Comprehending and rethinking the past, a thinker and an artist, a scientist and an inventor create new values, enrich the objective world of culture.

Working with this subject field, a person involuntarily objectifies himself, expanding the range of his needs and abilities. This circle includes ends and means. Innovative goals, as a rule, are based on the results obtained, which, in turn, involve the transformation of existing material and spiritual values.

Man himself is a cultural value, and the most important part of this value is his creative possibilities, the whole mechanism for the implementation of ideas and plans: from the natural inclinations involved in the creative process, the neurodynamic systems of the brain to the most refined and sublime aesthetic ideals and “wild” scientific abstractions, from emotional experiences, eager to express themselves outside, to the most complex sign systems. And it is natural that an adequate way to realize the creative potential of a person is culture, the meaning-bearing and meaning-transmitting aspect of human practice and its results.

Thus, both the subjective world of a creative personality and the objective world of cultural values ​​are connected in culture. It closes so that a person can break this unity with all the tension of his difficult life and once again, on a new basis, recreate it with his creative efforts. Without such unity, human existence is impossible.

The role of culture as a way of realizing the creative potential of a person is diverse. Culture not only invites the individual to create. She also imposes restrictions on her.

These restrictions apply not only to society, but also to nature. But the absence of cultural restrictions in attempts to control the forces of nature is also dangerous. Culture as a way to realize the creative potential of a person cannot but include an understanding of the value of nature as a habitat for people, as an unshakable foundation for the cultural development of society.

communicative function.

This function is inextricably linked with information. Perceiving the information contained in the monuments of material and spiritual culture, a person thereby enters into the indirect. Indirect communication with the people who created these monuments.

The means of communication between people is, first of all, verbal language. The word accompanies all processes cultural activities of people. Language, primarily literary, is the "key" to mastering a particular national culture. In the process of communication, people also use specific languages ​​of art (music, theater, cinema, etc.), as well as the languages ​​of science (mathematical, physical, chemical and other symbols and formulas). Thanks to culture and, above all, art, a person can be transported to other eras and countries, communicate with other generations, people in whose images the artist reflected not only his own ideas, but also contemporary feelings, moods, views.

The cultures of different peoples, as well as people - representatives of different cultures, are mutually enriched due to the informative function. B. Shaw compares the results of the exchange of ideas with the exchange of apples. When apples are exchanged, each side has only an apple; when ideas are exchanged, each side has two ideas. The exchange of ideas, unlike the exchange of objects, cultivates in a person his personal culture. The point is not only in obtaining knowledge, but also in that response, in that reciprocal ideological or emotional movement that they give rise to in a person. If there is no such movement, then there is no cultural growth. A person grows towards humanity, and not towards the number of years lived. Culture is a cult of growth, as they sometimes say. And growth occurs because a person joins, without losing himself, to the wisdom of the human race.

The concept of "mass culture" reflects significant shifts in the mechanism of modern culture: the development of mass media (radio, cinema, television, newspaper, magazine, gramophone record, tape recorder); the formation of an industrial-commercial type of production and the distribution of standardized spiritual goods; relative democratization of culture and an increase in the level of education of the masses; increase in leisure time and spending on leisure in the family budget. All of the above transforms culture into a branch of the economy, turning it into mass culture.

Through the system of mass communication, printed and electronic products reach the majority of members of society. Through a single mechanism of fashion, mass culture orients, subjugates all aspects of human existence: from the style of housing and clothing to the type of hobby, from the choice of ideology to the forms of rituals of intimate relationships. At present, mass culture has swung at the cultural "colonization" of the whole world.

The birth of mass culture can be considered the year 1870, when the law on compulsory universal literacy was passed in Great Britain. The main type of artistic creativity of the 19th century became available to everyone. - novel. The second milestone is 1895. In this year, cinematography was invented, which does not require even elementary literacy to perceive information in pictures. Third milestone - light music. The tape recorder and television strengthened the position of mass culture.

Despite the seeming democratic nature, mass culture is fraught with a real threat of reducing the human creator to the level of a programmed mannequin, a human cog. The serial nature of its products has a number of specific features:

a) primitivization of relations between people;

b) entertaining, amusing, sentimental;

c) naturalistic savoring of violence and sex;

d) the cult of success, strong personality and the desire to possess things;

e) the cult of mediocrity, conventionality of primitive symbolism.

The catastrophic consequence of mass culture is the reduction of human creative activity to an elementary act of thoughtless consumption. High culture requires high intellectual effort. And meeting the “Monna Lisa” in the showroom is not at all like meeting her on a matchbox label or on a T-shirt.

Elite culture acts as a cultural opposition to mass culture, the main task of which is to preserve in culture creativity and pathos.

A person cannot communicate. Even when he is alone, he continues to conduct an inaudible dialogue with people close or distant to him, with the heroes of books, with God or with himself, as he sees himself. In such communication, it can be completely different than in live communication. The culture of live communication involves not only politeness and tact. It implies the ability and ability of each of us to bring the communicativeness of culture into the circle of such communication, i.e. our connection to humanity that we felt when we were alone. Being oneself and recognizing the right of another person to do so means recognizing the equality of everyone in relation to humanity and its culture. This is about feature or about the norm of humanism. Of course, in culture there are many norms and rules of behavior. They all serve the same common purpose: organization of the joint life of people. There are norms of law and morality, norms in art, norms of religious consciousness and behavior. All these norms regulate human behavior, oblige him to adhere to some boundaries that are considered acceptable in a particular culture.

From time immemorial, society has been divided into social groups. Social groups- relatively stable populations of people who have common interests, values ​​and norms of behavior that develop within the framework of a historically defined society. Each group embodies some specific relationships of individuals among themselves and with society as a whole.

Group interests can be expressed through caste, estate, class and professional interests.

Caste is most fully revealed in the culture of India. To this day, India has stubbornly held on to this divisive phenomenon. Even modern education cannot defeat in the Hindu his adherence to caste.

Another characteristic example of the manifestation of the group principle in culture is chivalry:

Knights are representatives of the ruling class, but their life was subject to strict regulations. The knight's code of honor prescribed complex procedures and etiquette, a departure from which, even in small things, could lower the knight's dignity in the eyes of other members of the privileged class. Sometimes the regulation of this etiquette looked devoid of common sense. For example, having galloped to the king in the midst of a battle with an important report, the knight could not turn to him first and waited for the sovereign to speak to him. But in these moments the fate of the battle and his comrades in arms could be decided.

The knight was instructed to know and carry out a number of court ritual functions: sing, dance, play chess, fencing, perform feats for the glory of a beautiful lady, etc. The knight had to be himself. example of court etiquette.

A manifestation of the group in culture is also class. Classes are perceived as stable socio-economic groups of society, belonging to which dictates to individuals a certain culture of behavior.

The consistent implementation of the class approach is realized through relations of domination and subordination, where some - knowledgeable, enlightened, advanced and conscious - command others, instructing everyone to follow the same method, to clearly implement the principle: "who is not with us is against us."

Of course, the class approach has the right to exist, and as long as classes exist, it is inevitable. It is pointless to stigmatize it and oppose it to universal human values. It only makes sense to understand that the priority of universal human values ​​does not exclude an objective assessment of class interests, but opposes the attitude that considers class values ​​to be the highest and the only ones. Class values ​​are not abolished, but take their place within universal human values, next to non-class ones.

What is universal?

It is believed that the universal is a pure idealization, something unrealizable and not existing in reality. But people have ideas about them, designate them with different terms and want to join them. These are the ideals that people create so that life has a purpose and makes sense.

Another interpretation is more prosaic: universal - these are the conditions for the life of people and the rules of human coexistence common to all historical epochs. Here, “natural interests” are presented as universal human: hoarding and consumerism, the thirst for life and the desire for personal power, the danger of death and the fear of it. But in each religion these "natural interests" are treated differently.

It is naive to think that universal human values ​​can simply be invented. Neither philosophers, nor politicians, nor church fathers will be able to impose them on society. The universal cannot be outside of time and space. The universal is an ideal form of universality, which has actually been achieved by mankind at a given stage of history and which directly reveals itself in the dialogue of cultures.

aesthetic function culture, first of all, is manifested in art, in artistic creativity. As you know, in culture there is a certain sphere of "aesthetic". It is here that the essence of the beautiful and the ugly, the sublime and the base, the tragic and the comic is revealed. This sphere is closely connected with the aesthetic attitude to reality, to nature. V. Solovyov noted that “beauty, spilled in nature in its forms and colors, is concentrated, condensed, emphasized in the picture”, and the aesthetic connection between art and nature “consists not in repetition, but in the continuation of that artistic work that was started by nature ".

The aesthetic sense of beauty accompanies a person constantly, lives in his home, is present at all the most important events of his life. Even in severe moments in the history of mankind - moments of death, destruction, feat - a person again turns to the beautiful. At the time of the death of the English steamer Titanic, which collided with an iceberg, the musicians, who did not have enough boats, played Beethoven's Heroic Symphony. And how many times during the Great Patriotic War the sailors of Russia courageously accepted death with a song about the immortal "Varyag".

The World of Art defended the freedom of individual self-manifestation in art. Everything that the artist loves and worships in the past and present has the right to be embodied in art, regardless of the topic of the day. At the same time, beauty was recognized as the only pure source of creative enthusiasm, and the modern world, in their opinion, is devoid of beauty. Life interests representatives of the "World of Arts" only insofar as it has already expressed itself in art. The leading genre in painting is the historical genre. History appears here not in mass movements, but in particular details of the past life, but life is necessarily beautiful, aesthetically designed.

The heyday of the theatrical and decorative activity of the “World of Arts” is associated with the Russian seasons of Diagelev in Paris, where the largest forces of Russian art were attracted: F. Shalyagosh, A-Pavlova, V. Nezhinsky, Fokin, etc.

Turning to Western European culture, it is not difficult to find the first attempts to comprehend elitism in the works of Heraclitus and Plato. Plato divides human knowledge into knowledge and opinion. Knowledge is accessible to the intellect of philosophers, and opinion is accessible to the crowd. Consequently, here for the first time the intellectual elite stands out as a special professional group - the custodian and bearer of higher knowledge.

It is in relation to them that the humanist community puts itself in the position of the chosen society, intellectual elite. This is how that category of persons appears, which later became known as the “intelligentsia”.

The theory of the elite is the logical conclusion of the processes that took place in the artistic practice of Western European culture in the second half of the 19th - mid-20th centuries: the collapse of realism in the plastic arts, the emergence and victorious march of impressionism to post-impressionism and even cubism, the transformation of the novel narrative into the “stream of life” and the “stream of consciousness” in the work of M. Proust and J. Joyce, an unusually flowery symbolism in poetry, which manifested itself in the work of A. Blok and A. Bely.

The most complete and consistent concept of elite culture is presented in the works of J. Ortega y Gasset. Observing the birth of new forms of art with their countless scandalously loud manifestos, extraordinary artistic techniques, Ortega gave a philosophical assessment of this avant-garde of the 20th century. His assessment boils down to the assertion that the Impressionists, Futurists, Surrealists, Abstractionists split art lovers into two groups: those who understand the new art, and those who are not able to understand it, i.e. to the “artistic elite and the general public”.

According to Ortega, there is an elite in every social class. The elite is the part of society most capable of spiritual activity, endowed with high moral and aesthetic inclinations. It is she who makes progress. Therefore, the artist quite consciously refers to it, and not to the masses. Turning his back on the layman, the artist abstracts from reality and endows the elite with complicated images of reality, in which he combines real and unreal, rational and irrational in a bizarre way.

Associated with aesthetic function hedonistic function. Hedonism in Greek means pleasure. People enjoy reading a book, visiting architectural ensembles, museums, visiting theaters, concert halls, etc. Pleasure contributes to the formation of needs and interests, and influences people's lifestyle.

All the functions mentioned above are somehow connected with the formation of personality, human behavior in society, with the expansion of his cognitive activity, the development of intellectual, professional and other abilities.

The main synthesizing function of culture, reflecting its social meaning, is humanistic function

The humanistic function is manifested in the unity of opposite, but organically interconnected processes: the socialization and individualization of the individual. In the process of socialization, a person masters social relations, spiritual values, turning them into his inner essence. personality, in their social qualities. But a person masters these relations, values ​​in his own way, uniquely, in an individual form. Culture is a special social mechanism that implements socialization and ensures the acquisition of individuality.