In ancient times, people used improvised materials for art - stone, wood, bone. Much later, namely in the era of agriculture, he discovered the first artificial material - refractory clay - and began to actively use it to make dishes and sculptures.
The first works of primitive visual art belong to the Aurignacian culture (Late Paleolithic), named after the Aurignac cave in France. Since that time, female figurines made of stone and bone have become widespread. If the heyday of cave painting came about 10-15 thousand years ago, then the art of miniature sculpture reached a high level much earlier - about 25 thousand years ago. This era includes the so-called "Venuses" - figurines of women 10-15 cm high, usually emphasized massive forms. Similar "Venuses" have been found in France, Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Russia and other parts of the world. Perhaps they symbolized fertility or were associated with the cult of a woman-mother. The Cro-Magnons lived according to the laws of matriarchy, and it was through the female line that the belonging to the clan that revered its ancestor was determined. Scientists consider female sculptures to be the first anthropomorphic, i.e. humanoid images.
Both in painting and in sculpture, primitive man often depicted animals. The tendency to depict animals is called the zoological or animal style in art. Animal style is a conventional name for images of animals common in the art of antiquity. It originated in the Bronze Age, was developed in the Iron Age and in the art of the early classical states. Its traditions are preserved in medieval art, in folk art. Initially associated with totemism, images of the sacred beast eventually turned into an ornamental motif.
Primitive painting was a two-dimensional representation of an object, while sculpture was a three-dimensional or three-dimensional one. Thus, the primitive creators mastered all the dimensions that exist in contemporary art, but did not master his main achievement - the technique of transferring volume on a plane. By the way, the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, medieval Europeans, Chinese, Arabs and many other peoples did not own it, since the opening of the reverse perspective occurred only in the Renaissance.
In some caves, bas-reliefs carved into the rock, as well as free-standing sculptures of animals, were found. Small figurines are known that were carved from soft stone, bone, mammoth tusks. The main character of Paleolithic art is the bison. Also, many images of wild tours, mammoths and rhinos were found. Rock drawings and paintings are diverse in the manner of execution. The mutual proportions of the depicted animals (mountain goat, lion, mammoths and bison) were usually not respected - a huge tour could be depicted next to a tiny horse. Non-compliance with proportions did not allow the primitive artist to subordinate the composition to the laws of perspective. Movement in cave painting is transmitted through the position of the legs, the tilt of the body or the turn of the head. Crossing legs, it turns out, depicted an animal on the run. There are almost no moving figures.
Archaeologists have never found landscape drawings in the Old Stone Age. Perhaps this once again proves the primacy of religious and secondary aesthetic function culture. Animals were feared and worshiped, trees and plants were only admired. Both zoological and anthropomorphic images suggested their ritual use. In other words, they performed a cult function. Thus, religion (the veneration of those depicted by primitive people) and art (the aesthetic form of what was depicted) arose almost simultaneously. Although, for some reasons, it can be assumed that the first form of reflection of reality originated earlier than the second.
The cult of the mother - the successor of the family - is one of the oldest cults. The cult of the animal - the animic ancestor of the genus - no less than ancient cult. The first symbolized the material beginning of the clan, the second - the spiritual (many tribes today are descended from one or another animal - an eagle, a bear, a snake).
Since the images of animals had a magical purpose, the process of their creation was a kind of ritual, therefore, such drawings for the most part hidden deep in the depths of the cave, in underground passages several hundred meters long, and the height of the vault often does not exceed half a meter. In such places, the Cro-Magnon artist had to work lying on his back in the light of bowls with burning animal fat. However, more often rock paintings are located in accessible places, at a height of 1.5-2 meters. They are found both on the ceilings of caves and on vertical walls. The first finds were made in the 19th century in the caves of the Pyrenees. There are more than 7,000 houses in this area. karst caves. Hundreds of them contain rock carvings created with paint or carved with stone. Some caves are unique underground galleries. Altamira Cave in Spain is called the "Sistine Chapel" of primitive art. The Art Gallery of Altamira stretches over 280 meters in length and consists of many spacious halls. The stone tools and antlers found there, as well as figurative images on bone fragments, were created in the period from 13,000 to 10,000 years. BC. According to archaeologists, the arch of the cave collapsed at the beginning of the new stone age. In the most unique part of the cave - the "hall of animals" - images of bison, bulls, deer, wild horses and wild boars were found. Some reach a height of 2.2 meters, to see them in more detail, you have to lie down on the floor. Most of the figures are drawn in brown. Artists skillfully used natural relief ledges on the rocky surface, which enhanced the plastic effect of the images. Along with the figures of animals drawn and engraved in the rock, there are also drawings here that vaguely resemble the human body in shape.
Drawings were found in 1895 primitive man in La Mute cave in France. In 1901, here, in the Le Combatelle cave in the Weser Valley, about 300 images of a mammoth, bison, deer, horse, and bear were discovered. Not far from Le Combatelle, in the Font de Gome cave, archaeologists discovered a whole " art gallery"- 40 wild horses, 23 mammoths, 17 deer.
When creating rock art, primitive man used natural dyes and metal oxides, which he either used in pure form or mixed with water or animal fat. He applied these paints to the stone with his hand or with brushes made of tubular bones with tufts of hairs of wild animals at the end, and sometimes he blown colored powder through the tubular bone onto the damp wall of the cave. Paint not only outlined the contour, but painted over the entire image. To make rock carvings using the deep cut method, the artist had to use coarse cutting tools. Massive stone chisels were found at the site of Le Roque de Ser. For medium and Late Paleolithic a more subtle elaboration of the contour, which is conveyed by several shallow lines, is characteristic. Painted drawings, engravings on bones, tusks, horns or stone tiles were made using the same technique. In the Camonica Valley in the Alps, covering 81 kilometers, a collection of rock art prehistoric times, the most representative and most important of all that have so far been discovered in Europe. The first "engravings" appeared here, according to experts, 8000 years ago. Artists carved them with sharp and hard stones. So far, about 170,000 rock paintings have been registered, but many of them are still only awaiting scientific examination.
Thus, primitive art is presented in the following main forms: graphics (drawings and silhouettes); painting (images in color, made with mineral paints); sculptures (figures carved from stone or molded from clay); decorative arts(stone and bone carving); reliefs and bas-reliefs.
The most important moment of the emerging agricultural civilization was the birth of a completely new kind of art, impossible and unknown to hunters and gatherers. It's about architecture. Farmers began to organize, rebuild and develop the environment according to their own standards in two directions at once - from the creation of the architecture of small and large forms. Small forms were used for private purposes, primarily residential and outbuildings, while large forms were used for the construction of public institutions, mainly religious temples and royal palaces. This should also include such large engineering projects as, for example, large irrigation systems. ancient egypt. The earliest form of human habitation was camping - temporary unfortified camps of primitive hunters and gatherers. The settlements of Stone Age hunters were replaced by settlements of farmers, which could take the form of a fortress (structures made of huge roughly hewn stones) or settlements (a group of residential buildings and outbuildings surrounded by an earthen rampart or a wooden fence). Later, a fortress and a hill fort, as two different types settlements, unite and turn into fortified city-fortresses. Somewhat later - during the period of ancient Eastern civilizations - the architectural organization of space settlements, the creation of cities and towns, the regulation of settlement systems stood out in a special area - urban planning.
Burials should be considered an art that arose at the intersection of sculpture, architecture and religion. Archaeologists claim that Neanderthals were the first to begin burying their ancestors 80-100 thousand years ago. A similar thing happened in the era of the Mousterian culture. So in archeology, the latest culture of the early Paleolithic in Europe, South Asia, and Africa is called. It got its name from the Le Moustier cave in France. The burial rites reflected a dual desire - to remove, neutralize the deceased and take care of him: tying up the corpse, covering it with stones, cremation were combined with the supply of the deceased with inventory, as well as sacrifices, mummification. From this we can conclude that Neanderthals assume the presence of abstract thinking, the Neanderthal must also have had the ability to express their thoughts using primitive language.
The culture of burials rose to a higher level among the Cro-Magnons. They gave the dead last way not only clothes, weapons and food, but also skillfully made jewelry (probably serving as talismans). Cro-Magnon graves contain shell necklaces and animal teeth beads, hair nets and bracelets. The dead were covered with blood-red ocher, and the bodies were given a bent position, so that the knees almost touched the chin. Burial rites depended on the social status of the deceased, religious beliefs. The burial was sometimes accompanied or ended with a commemoration, a feast. In architectural terms, burials are divided into two main types: with grave structures (barrows, megaliths, tombs) and ground, i.e. without any grave structures.
Mounds are burial mounds of earth or stone, usually hemispherical or conical in shape. The oldest burial mounds date back to the 4th-3rd millennium BC, the latest ones - to the 14th-15th centuries AD. Distributed in almost all countries of the world, they are single or located in groups, sometimes up to several thousand barrows.
Megaliths - places of worship III-II millennium BC from huge raw or semi-finished stone blocks. The most famous are the megaliths. Western Europe(Stonehenge, Karnak), North Africa and the Caucasus. Megaliths include dolmens, menhirs, cromlechs. In archeology, the burial mounds of the Yamnaya culture, discovered in the steppes, became famous. of Eastern Europe, in particular in the Dnieper region. It is named after the arrangement of grave pits under the barrows. The dimensions of the pit mounds are very impressive. The diameter of their cromlechs reaches 20 m, and the height of other heavily swollen mounds even now exceeds 7 m. In addition to everything, stone women rise above the mounds - stone statues of a person (warriors, women) that have stood for more than four thousand years.
The primary religious beliefs of the ancient people were diverse, often intertwined and coexisted, and later found their reflection in developed cultures. religious systems the first human civilizations. These include totemism (belief in the existence of a connection between a generic group and a totem), animism (belief in souls enclosed in any bodies, or in spirits acting independently), animatism (representations of the animation of all objects and natural phenomena, their revival ), fetishism (belief in the supernatural properties of individual objects), magic (belief in a person’s ability to influence objects and natural phenomena in a supernatural way). Like everything else that happened in the life of primitive man, religious ideas had to serve the task of the survival of the family. They explained the phenomena of the surrounding world, indicated ways of responding to certain events occurring in it, ways of existence in harmony with the surrounding nature. These views were very stable and, in the absence of external influences, could exist without changing for thousands of years. Thus, the way of life of the primitive tribes of central Africa is probably no different from how their ancestors lived thousands of years ago. It can be confidently asserted that this way of building existence is the most optimal for a given region with its characteristics, and there is no doubt that, provided that the external civilized world and natural disasters do not interfere in the lives of these people, their way of existence will not change indefinitely for a long time. And religion plays important role in shaping the relationship between man and nature. Ritual was the outward manifestation of religion. Ancient peoples developed many rituals that regulated human behavior in various life situations. All of them in one way or another were connected with religious beliefs. Since the Neolithic era, complex religious cults have arisen. Religious beliefs during this period usually consisted of the worship of the Heavenly Mother, the Heavenly Father, the Sun and the Moon as deities. Characteristic of the Neolithic was the tendency to worship anthropomorphic deities. At the same time, magic was developing in primitive society as a way to "influence" the environment in its own interests, for example, to ensure good luck for hunters. Primitive tribes did not have special clergymen. Religious and magical rites were performed mainly by the heads of tribal groups on behalf of the whole clan, or by people who, by personal qualities, gained a reputation for knowing the methods of influencing the world of spirits and gods (healers, shamans). With the development of social differentiation, professional priests stand out, arrogating to themselves the exclusive right to communicate with spirits and gods.
culture primitive society
1. Culture of primitive society
1.1Character traits primitive culture
1.2Evolution of art in the Stone Age
1.3Culture and art in the Bronze and Iron Ages
List of sources used
1. CULTURE OF THE PRIMARY SOCIETY
1.1 Characteristic features of primitive culture
Historians divide the early stages of the development of human society into the Stone Age (2.5 million - 4 thousand years BC), Bronze Age (III-II millennium BC) and Iron Age (I millennium BC). ).
The Stone Age is subdivided into the Paleolithic (2.5 million - 10 thousand years BC), Mesolithic (10-6 thousand years BC), Neolithic (6-4 thousand years BC) .) and the Eneolithic (III - early II millennium BC). In the Paleolithic, two main periods are distinguished - the Lower Paleolithic (2.5 million - 40 thousand years BC), ending, according to experts, the Mousterian era (about 90-40 thousand years BC), and the Upper Paleolithic (40-10 thousand years BC). Per early stage Upper Paleolithic followed by periods: Aurignac (30-19 thousand years BC), Solutre (19-15 thousand years BC), Madeleine (15-10 thousand years BC).
Already in the Lower Paleolithic era, the tool and signal activity of higher mammals (hominids) arose. In the period 300-40 thousand years BC. there was a transition from the reflex-tool activity (“instinctive labor” in the terminology of K. Marx) of hominids to the conscious labor of a person. Man continued to use fire, built the first dwellings. Collective (communal) ownership of the produced consumer products and means of labor and a kind of “collectivity yoke” associated with the complete subordination of the individual to the clan and strict regulation of all aspects of his life were formed. As the historian B.F. Porshnev ("About the beginning human history""), the original forms of articulate speech and the second signaling system were formed in the process of regulating social relations on the principles of primitive communism. The first components of the primitive language that stood out from the language complex were verbs that prompted to fulfill the requirements of the morality of survival in critical conditions (“do not consume it yourself - give it to the mother, the cub”).
During the Upper Paleolithic period, articulate speech appeared as a specifically human form of communication. Articulate speech evolved and differentiated in unity with the forms of thought and art. Rows of words, symbolic designations of artistic symbols were distinguished for isolating and typifying natural phenomena, key moments of social life. A man arose modern type- Homo sapiens ("reasonable person"). There was an intensive formation of fine arts - sculpture, relief, graphics, painting.
In the Mesolithic era, man tamed a dog, invented a bow and arrow, a boat, mastered the manufacture of baskets, fishing nets.
In the Neolithic era, primitive society moved from an appropriating type of economy (gathering, hunting) to a producing type economy (cattle breeding, agriculture). At the same time, spinning, weaving, pottery were developed, household and ritual ceramics appeared, and trade was born.
Surveying the primitive culture as a whole, we can distinguish the following features of it. Primitive culture is a pre-class, pre-state, pre-literate culture. For a long time it had a syncretic (undifferentiated) character, which was a consequence of the primitiveness of the system of needs of primitive man and his activities. The needs themselves were not differentiated. labor operations, artistic activity, magical rites in primitive society were intertwined.
Primitive culture focused primarily on material, utilitarian values and specific sensual forms of their representation. At the same time, magically significant components, fetishized and marked with totemic symbols, were brought to the forefront, since it was believed that the survival of the clan and tribe depended on them in the first place. Development material culture went along the line of dominance of the hunting-nomadic way of life (Paleolithic, Mesolithic) with the transition to the agricultural-sedentary (Neolithic). AT primitive painting the world was dominated by moments of movement (kineticism) and mythological, sign-symbolic and spiritual mediation important species collective life activity (magism). We can judge many features of primitive culture by the lifestyle, forms of sign-symbolic activity of the so-called archaic tribes scattered in the reserved corners of the earth. They still cultivate ancient beliefs, magic, forms of prelogical thinking and myths in the sphere of spiritual activity (which is not completely disconnected from material existence). Fetishism, totemism, animism are among the most widespread early forms of beliefs of primitive and archaic tribes. Funeral, agrarian, trade, erotic, astral-solar cults should be singled out among the most ancient sacred worships. Along with them, personalized cults of leaders, tribal gods, totem animals, etc. appeared. The center of the sign world has always been occupied by the cult of ancestors, who were presented as the most important participants in the great struggle for survival and were perceived as "primary deities".
Cult systems developed on the basis of magic in the Neolithic era. M. Hollingsworth writes: “Numerous communities arose with their very complex religious rites. Excavations in the south of Turkey, in Catal-Guyuk, indisputably prove that already around 6000 BC. rituals associated with the cult of the sacred bull (tour) were performed, and the places of temples were decorated with its horns. AT different parts In Europe, people worshiped various deities, in honor of which various rituals were held. The value of heat and sunlight for agriculture determined the emergence a large number sun-worshipping communities.
Let us define the fundamental formations of pralogical thinking and ritualized behavior that characterize primitive culture.
Fetishism (from port, feitico - talisman) - belief in the supernatural, miraculous properties of selected natural objects or artificially created objects (less often - plants, animals and even humans), the transformation of both into proto-symbols, secretly and miraculously beneficially affecting key points life of the family and tribe.
An example of such an esoteric proto-symbol is the churinga Australian aborigines. Churinga is a sacred object among the Australian tribes, endowed, according to their ideas, with supernatural properties and allegedly ensuring the well-being of a group or individual person. In the book " Early forms art" we read: "Churingi were deeply revered by the Australians, the souls of ancestors and living members of the tribe were associated with them, the churingi were, as it were, doubles, a second body, they were depicted by means of spirals, concentric circles and other abstract symbols of the deeds of mythical heroes and totemic ancestors, they were kept in hiding places and were shown only to young men who had reached maturity and passed the rites of initiation, and their loss was considered as the greatest misfortune for the tribe. Churinga is essentially a sacred image specific person, the image is not of his appearance, but of his totemic essence. Australian society, with its magical thinking, did not yet know otherwise. If you rub a churinga with fat or ocher, it will turn into a totemic animal - another hypostasis of a person.
In the ancient and medieval periods in Belarus, sacred stones were considered cult, symbolizing the power of leaders and princes within the boundaries of certain territorial communities.
Totemism (from "ot-otem", a word from the Ojibwe language meaning "his kind") is based on a person's belief in the existence of totems, i.e. any animals, less often - plants, in exceptional cases - inorganic objects, natural phenomena, considered to be his blood relatives (and later - ancestors). Among Belarusians, one of the main totems was a bear. The totem is sacred, it is forbidden to kill and eat it (with the exception of cases of ritual killing and eating that entail “resurrection”), destroy it and generally cause any damage to it. The sanctity of the totem is symbolically reinforced in the magical rites of sacrifice, supposedly mystically affecting it and arousing directed good actions in it.
Mysterious reincarnations of totems and their supernatural effects on the living, purposeful wanderings in the earthly and sacred worlds, as a rule, are accompanied by various mythological stories.
Let us illustrate this with the mystical experience of the Australian tribes included in the book "Early Forms of Art". “The totemic myths of Aranda and Loritia are built almost all according to the same scheme: totemic ancestors alone or in a group return to their homeland - to the north (less often - to the west). The places passed, the search for food, the organization of camps, meetings on the way are listed in detail. Not far from the homeland, in the north, there is often a meeting with local "eternal people" of the same totem. Having reached the goal, the wandering heroes go into a hole, a cave, a spring, underground, turning into rocks, trees, churingas. This is often attributed to fatigue. In places of encampment, and especially in the place of death (more precisely, the disappearance into the earth), totemic centers are formed.
Sometimes we are talking about leaders leading a group of young men who have just passed the rite of initiation - initiation into full members of the tribe. The group along the way performs cult ceremonies for the purpose of propagating their totem. It also happens that the journey has the character of flight and pursuit. For example, a large gray kangaroo runs from a person of the same totem; a man kills an animal with knives, but it is resurrected, then both turn into churinga ... ". Behind the "war of totems" are apparently bloody clashes between tribes for fishing grounds.
The era of primitiveness, or primitive society, is the longest phase in the history of mankind. According to modern science, it began about 1.5 - 2 million years ago (and possibly even earlier) with the appearance of the first humanoid creatures and ended around the turn of our era. However, in certain regions of our planet - mainly in the northern subpolar, equatorial and southern latitudes - the primitive, in fact, the primitive level of culture of the indigenous population has been preserved to this day, or was such until relatively recently. These are the so-called traditional societies, the way of life of which has changed very little over the past millennia.
The material culture of the primitive society was formed during the process of "humanization" of man in parallel with his biological and social evolution. The material needs of primitive man were very limited and were reduced mainly to the creation and maintenance of the most important conditions for life. The basic needs were: the need for food, the need for housing, the need for clothing, and the need to make the simplest tools and implements needed to provide food, shelter and clothing. The historical evolution of man as a biological species and social being was also reflected in the dynamics of his material culture, which, although slowly, but still changed and improved over time. In the material culture of the primitive society, its adaptive (adaptive) function is clearly expressed - the most ancient people were extremely dependent on the natural environment around them and, not being able to change it yet, sought to optimally fit into it, get used to the outside world, being an integral part of it.
The foundations of the material culture of mankind were laid in the era of the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age), which lasted from 1.5 - 2 million years to 13 - 10 thousand years ago. It was during this era that the processes of separating a person from the animal world, the addition of the biological species Homo sapiens (House Homo sapiens), the formation of human races, the appearance of speech as a means of communication and information transmission, the addition of the first social structures, the settlement of man over the vast expanses of the Earth took place. The Paleolithic era is conditionally divided into the early Paleolithic and late Paleolithic, the chronological boundary between which is considered the time of appearance Homo sapiens about 40 thousand years ago.
Mankind at the dawn of its history in the Paleolithic era experienced serious transformations in the natural and climatic environment, which could not but affect the way of life, occupations, and material culture in general. The first anthropoid creatures appeared and lived for a long time in a very warm, humid climate. However, about 200 thousand years ago, a sharp cooling began on Earth, which led to the formation of powerful ice sheets, drying up the climate, a significant decrease in average annual temperatures, and changes in the composition of flora and fauna. The Ice Age lasted a very long time and consisted of several periods of cooling lasting many thousands of years, followed by short phases of warming. Only about 13 - 10 thousand years ago, an irreversible and sustainable climate warming began - this time coincides with the end of the Paleolithic era. Some researchers believe that the need to adapt to the harsh conditions of the Ice Age played a certain role positive role in the evolution of mankind, having mobilized all vital resources, the intellectual potential of the first people. Be that as it may, but the formation of Homo sapiens falls precisely on the difficult time of the struggle for survival.
The provision of food in the Paleolithic era was based on the appropriating branches of the economy - hunting, gathering and partly fishing. The objects of hunting were rather large animals, typical for the glacial fauna. The mammoth was the most impressive representative of the animal world - hunting for it required collective efforts and provided a large amount of food for a long time. In the places where mammoths lived permanently, hunters' settlements arose. The remains of such settlements, which existed about 20 - 30 thousand years ago, are known in Eastern Europe.
The objects of gathering were various edible plants, although in general the glacial flora did not differ in particular diversity and richness. Fishing played a relatively small role in obtaining food during the Paleolithic era. The methods of cooking in the Paleolithic era were based on the use of open heat treatment - roasting and smoking over a fire, drying and drying in the air. Boiling water brewing, requiring heat-resistant containers, was not yet known.
The problem of housing was solved by ancient people primarily through the use of natural shelters - caves. It is in the caves that the remains of human activity of the Paleolithic era are most often found. Cave sites are known in South Africa, Western and Eastern Europe, East Asia. Artificially created housing appears in the late Paleolithic period, when Homo sapiens had already formed. The dwellings of that time were a leveled rounded area, surrounded around the perimeter by stones or large mammoth bones dug into the ground. The tent-type ground frame was constructed from tree trunks and branches covered with skins on top. The dwellings were quite large - their internal space reached 100 square meters. For heating and cooking, hearths were arranged on the floor of the dwelling, the largest of which was located in the center. Two or three such dwellings usually accommodated all the inhabitants of the settlement of Paleolithic mammoth hunters. The remains of such settlements, which existed about 20-30 thousand years ago, have been excavated by archaeologists in Ukraine, on the territory of Czechoslovakia, and in Japan.
The task of providing people with clothing became acute with the onset of the Ice Age to protect them from the cold in those parts of the world where the climate was especially severe. According to archaeological research, it is known that during the Late Paleolithic period, people were able to sew clothes such as fur overalls or parkas and soft leather shoes. The fur and skin of slaughtered animals were the main materials for making clothes. It is also known that already in this distant time, clothes were often decorated with various decorative details. For example, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, burial places of Paleolithic hunters, burial suit which was embroidered with small stone beads - beads. The age of these burials is about 14 thousand years.
The set of tools and tools of the Paleolithic people was quite primitive. The main material for the manufacture of inventory was suitable for processing stone breeds. The evolution of primitive tools reflected the development of man and his culture. The tools of the early Paleolithic period, before the formation of Homo sapiens, were extremely simple and versatile. Their main types are an axe, sharpened at one end, suitable for many labor operations, and a pointed one, which could also serve for various practical purposes. During the Late Paleolithic period, the tool set noticeably expanded and improved. First of all, the technique of making stone tools is progressing. The technique of lamellar stone processing appears and is widely spread. A piece of rock suitable in shape and size was processed in such a way that it was possible to obtain elongated rectangular plates - blanks for future tools. With the help of retouching (removal of small scales), the plate was given the necessary shape and it turned into a knife, scraper, tip. Late Paleolithic man used stone knives for cutting meat, scrapers for processing skins, and hunted animals with spears and darts. There are also such types of tools as drills, piercers, cutters - for processing stone, wood, leather. In addition to stone, the necessary tools were made of wood, bone and horn.
During the late Paleolithic period, a person gets acquainted with a new, previously unknown material - clay. Archaeological finds at settlements aged 24-26 thousand years on the territory of Moravia in Eastern Europe indicate that at that time in this region of the world people mastered the skills of plastic transformation of clay and its firing. In fact, the first step was taken towards the manufacture of ceramics - an artificial material with properties different from clay. However, they applied their discovery not in the practical sphere, but for the manufacture of figurines of people and animals - possibly used in ritual practice.
The next era in the history of mankind and its material culture is the Neolithic (new stone Age). Its beginning dates back to the time of global climatic transformations that occurred about 13 - 10 thousand years ago on a scale of the entire Earth. The irreversible warming of the climate has entailed - as once the onset of the ice age - significant changes in the composition of flora and fauna. Vegetation has become more diverse, cold-loving species have been replaced by heat-loving ones, and numerous shrubs and herbaceous plants, including edible ones, have spread widely. Large animals disappeared - mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and others, unable to adapt to new conditions. They were replaced by other species, in particular, a variety of ungulates, rodents, and small predators. Warming and rising levels of the world's oceans, lakes and rivers have had a positive impact on the development of the ichthyofauna.
The changing world forced a person to adapt to it, look for new solutions and ways to provide the most necessary. In different parts of the world, however, the features and rates of change in human culture associated with changes natural conditions, were different. New features in the economy, everyday life, technologies had their own specifics in certain geographical zones - in the subtropics, temperate latitudes, in the northern polar territories, among the inhabitants of the continental land and sea coasts. The most significant achievements of human material culture, which marked the advent of a new era, include the development of a new stone processing technology - grinding, the invention of ceramic dishes, the spread of fishing as an important, and in some areas - the leading branch of the economy, the use of new types of hunting weapons, primarily bows. and arrows.
In most territories developed by man in the Neolithic era, activities aimed at obtaining food were appropriating. Bow and arrows for hunting birds and small animals, javelins and spears for killing larger game, snares and traps - primitive hunters had all this equipment. For fishing, spears and nets woven from vegetable raw materials were used. In the areas of the sea coast - for example, on the Japanese islands, on the shores of the Baltic Sea - the gathering of seafood - shellfish, crabs, seaweed, etc. - also developed. Everywhere the diet of ancient people was supplemented by gathering products - nuts, root crops, berries, mushrooms, edible herbs, etc.
The sphere of manufacturing tools and tools is becoming more diverse and complex. The methods of lamellar processing of stone and retouching, which appeared during the late Paleolithic period, are also used. But the technique of grinding is becoming more and more important. The grinding technology was focused on certain types of stone and made it possible to obtain tools with a high efficiency, diverse in function. The essence of grinding was the mechanical action on the surface layer of the processed stone blank with the help of a special tool - an abrasive. Grinding has found the widest application in the manufacture of chopping and throwing tools. A polished ax was much more efficient than a Paleolithic axe, more convenient in practical use. As modern experimental studies show, in order to make a polished ax or adze, it takes about 6-8 hours of work, i.e. one day. With such an ax, you can quickly cut down a tree of medium thickness and clear it of branches. Polished axes and adzes were intended primarily for woodworking.
The importance of the invention of ceramic dishes cannot be overestimated. If people of the late Paleolithic period only approached the comprehension of the properties of clay and the production of ceramics, then at the time under consideration a new production was already born - the manufacture of ceramic dishes. According to scientific data, the first clay vessels were made in East Asia (the Japanese archipelago, East China, the south of the Far East) about 13 - 12 thousand years ago. For the first time, man switched from using natural raw materials (stone, wood, bone) to creating an artificial material with new properties. The technological cycle for the manufacture of ceramics included the extraction of clay, mixing it with water, molding the necessary shapes, drying and firing. It was the firing stage that was the most important in the chemical and physical transformations of clay and ensured the production of ceramics proper. The oldest pottery was fired in ordinary fires at a temperature of about 600 ° C. Thus, the foundations of a fundamentally new technology aimed at changing the properties of natural raw materials were laid. In later eras, man, using the principle of thermal transformation of the initial substance, learned to create such artificial materials as metal and glass.
Mastering the skill of making ceramic dishes had a positive effect on some important aspects of the life of ancient people. Scientists believe that the first clay vessels were used primarily for cooking in boiling water. In this regard, ceramics had undeniable advantages over wicker, leather, and wooden containers. It is almost impossible to boil water and cook food in a vessel made of organic material, but a sealed, heat-resistant ceramic vessel made it possible. The cooking method was most suitable for cooking plant foods, some species of ichthyofauna. Liquid hot food was better absorbed by the body - this was especially important for children and the elderly. As a result - an increase in overall life expectancy, physiological comfort, population growth.
Ceramic containers turned out to be useful not only for cooking food, but also for other household purposes - for example, storing certain types of food, water. The skills of producing pottery quickly became known to the ancient population of the planet - most likely, people in different regions independently came to the development of clay as a raw material for producing ceramics. In any case, 8 - 7 thousand years ago, in the Neolithic era, ceramic dishes became an integral and perhaps the most important part of household utensils among the inhabitants of Asia, Africa and Europe. At the same time, local styles were formed in the manufacture of ceramics, reflecting the characteristics of specific cultures. This local specificity was most clearly reflected in the decor of dishes, i.e. in the ways and motives of its ornamentation.
Noticeable progress in the Neolithic era was associated with the design of the dwelling. A new type of housing appears - a building with a pit deepened into the ground and a system of supporting pillars to support the walls and roof. Such a dwelling was designed for a fairly long habitation, it reliably protected from the cold in the winter season. Inside the house, a certain layout was observed - residential and economic halves were allocated. The latter was intended for storing household utensils, food supplies, and for various labor operations.
Technological innovations also affected the manufacture of clothing. In the Neolithic era, a method for obtaining threads and coarse fabrics from vegetable raw materials - nettle, hemp, etc. - appeared and spread. For these purposes, a spindle was used with a ceramic or stone weighting disc mounted on one end, the simplest devices for knitting and weaving fabric. Clothes were sewn with the help of bone needles - they are often found during excavations of ancient settlements. In the burials of the Neolithic period, items of clothing that were on the deceased at the time of burial are sometimes found. The cut of the dress was very simple and resembled a shirt - in those days there was no division of clothing into upper and lower.
In the Neolithic era, a new sphere of material culture appears - vehicles. Population growth, the need to develop new territories in search of the best hunting and fishing grounds, the development of fishing as a branch of the economy stimulated the development of waterways. The presence of tools that were quite perfect for those times - polished axes and adzes - made it possible to build the first boats for traveling along rivers and lakes. The boats were hollowed out from tree trunks and vaguely resembled a modern canoe. The remains of such wooden boats and oars have been found by archaeologists in the Neolithic settlements of East China and the Japanese islands.
In general, the population of most parts of the world in the Neolithic era existed within the framework of an appropriating economy, led a mobile (nomadic) or semi-sedentary - in places of developed fishing - lifestyle. The material culture of these ancient tribes corresponded to their needs and environmental conditions.
A special layer of the material culture of the Neolithic era is associated with the population of some areas of the subtropical zone. These are separate zones of the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia. Here, a combination of favorable climatic conditions and the presence of wild edible cereals in the vegetation, as well as some other factors, made it possible for the cultivation of plants to obtain a permanent source of food. In fact, these areas have become the birthplace of the world's oldest agriculture. The development of a new type of economic activity, which was destined to subsequently provide the economic basis and progress of all the early civilizations of the world, could not but affect the culture and lifestyle of the first farmers.
The production cycle for cultivating the land, growing and harvesting tied people to a specific area, suitable in terms of its conditions for conducting such a farm. For example, in North Africa it was a fertile valley of the great river Nile, where already 9 - 8 thousand years ago settlements of early farmers arose. In Eastern China, tribes cultivating wild rice settled in the Yangtze River basin about 7 thousand years ago, and 6-5 thousand years ago in the Yellow River basin people learned to cultivate millet. The early farmers sedentary life, unlike their contemporaries, who obtained their food by hunting and gathering. The settlements consisted of long-term houses. For their construction in the Middle East and in North Africa used clay, often mixed with reeds. The oldest rice growers in East China built large elongated rectangular houses on stilts from wood, which protected the villages from flooding during the rainy season.
The tool kit of the ancient farmer included tools for cultivating the land and harvesting - hoes made of stone, bone and wood, stone sickles and reaping knives. The inventors of the first sickles were the inhabitants of the Middle East, who owned original idea to make a combined tool consisting of a crescent-shaped bone or wooden base with a groove along the inner curve, into which a dense row of thin sharp stone plates was inserted to form a cutting edge. Farmers of subsequent cultural and historical eras, up to the 19th century, used the sickle as their main tool - and although it was already made of metal (first from bronze, and then from iron), its form and function remained unchanged for thousands of years.
In all these areas, early agriculture was accompanied by the initial forms of animal domestication. In North Africa and the Middle East, various ungulates were tamed and bred, in Eastern China - a pig and a dog. Animal husbandry thus becomes an important source of meat food. For a long time, agricultural and livestock farming was not yet able to provide people constantly and in full with the necessary food. With the then level of technical means and knowledge about the surrounding world, it was too difficult for a person to find right strategy interaction with nature. Therefore, hunting, gathering and fishing continued to play a significant role in life support.
The needs of agriculture and a sedentary lifestyle contributed to the development of various technologies and industries. So, among the early farmers of Africa, the Middle East, East Asia special flourishing reach pottery (ceramic dishes), spinning and weaving, woodworking, weaving, jewelry making. Judging by the findings of archaeologists, the latter were widely used as costume details. In the Neolithic, the main types of jewelry that have survived to this day are formed - bracelets, beads, rings, pendants, earrings. Jewelry was made from the most different materials- stone, wood, bone, shells, clay. For example, the inhabitants of Eastern China, who grew rice and millet in the Neolithic era, widely used semi-precious stone jade for making jewelry, which remained a favorite material for decorative crafts over the next millennia.
In general, the development of farming and animal husbandry skills was the greatest achievement of mankind in the Neolithic era, laying the foundations for subsequent cultural and historical progress. It is no coincidence that researchers have proposed a special term for this phenomenon - "Neolithic revolution", emphasizing the truly revolutionary significance of economic innovations. Gradually, the population of many parts of Europe and Asia, with the exception of the northernmost latitudes, became acquainted with the skills of cultivating plants and breeding domestic animals. On the American continent, agriculture becomes known starting from the 1st millennium BC, where maize and corn were the main crops.
The pace of technological and cultural progress varied across regions. the globe- the zones of early agriculture developed most dynamically. It was there, on these territories generously endowed with natural resources, that the next major qualitative leap in the history of material culture took place - the development of metal. According to scientists based on the latest data, in the Middle East the first metal - copper - became known as early as 7-6 millennium BC, and in North Africa - at the end of the 5 millennium BC. For a long time, copper was used to make jewelry and small tools (fish hooks, awls), and stone tools still played the leading role in the arsenal of technical means. At first, native copper was processed in a cold way - forging. Only later is the hot processing of metal ore in special smelting furnaces mastered. In the 3rd millennium BC, the technology for manufacturing alloys that increase the hardness of copper by adding various minerals to it becomes known. This is how bronze appears - first an alloy of copper with arsenic, then with tin. Bronze, in contrast to soft copper, was suitable for the manufacture of a wide range of tools - in particular, cutting and throwing.
In the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC, knowledge about the extraction and processing of metal ore, about the manufacture of various tools from metal, spread over the vast expanses of Eurasia. It is with this time that it is customary to associate the main chronological framework bronze age. The process of development of the metal proceeded unevenly, and success in this area depended primarily on the availability of natural ore reserves in a particular region. So, in areas rich in polymetallic ores, large centers of bronze metallurgy are formed - in the Caucasus at the end of the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC, in Southern Siberia in the 2nd millennium BC.
Bronze tools and weapons had undoubted advantages over stone tools - they were much more efficient in work and more durable. Gradually, bronze replaced stone from the main areas of labor activity. Bronze axes, knives and arrowheads gained particular popularity. In addition, bronze was made decorative items- buttons, badges, bracelets, earrings, etc. Metal products were obtained by casting in special molds.
Following copper and bronze, iron was mastered. The birthplace of the first iron products was South Transcaucasia (modern Armenia) - it is believed that they learned to melt this metal there already in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. Iron is rapidly spreading across the Eurasian continent. The 1st millennium BC and the first centuries of our era are commonly referred to as the Iron Age. Magnetite and red iron ore were the main sources of obtaining new metal - these ores are especially rich in iron. The population of those territories where there were not enough favorable conditions for the emergence of their own iron metallurgy, this metal and products from it become known from more progressive neighbors. For example, bronze and iron came to the Japanese islands almost simultaneously in the 1st millennium BC due to cultural contacts with the inhabitants of the mainland regions of East Asia.
Iron as a material for making tools gradually replaced bronze, just as it once replaced copper. The extraordinary strength of this metal was the main prerequisite for its economic use - for the manufacture of weapons, tools for working the land, various tools, horse harness, parts of wheeled vehicles, etc. The use of iron tools ensured rapid progress in all branches of economic and industrial activity.
The process of distribution of metals - copper, bronze and iron - in a significant part of the globe took place within the framework of the primitive era. The tribes that mastered the skills of mining and metal processing inevitably overtook those groups in their development. ancient population who were not yet familiar with this technology. In societies familiar with metal, the producing sectors of the economy, various crafts and industries became more active. For example, the use of heat engineering means for smelting metal ore influenced the progress in the field of pottery, namely, in the technique of firing ceramic dishes. Iron tools, in whatever industry they were used, made it possible to carry out more complex technological operations and obtain high-quality products.
The primitive history of mankind lasted hundreds of thousands of years and it is divided into:
- Stone Age ($2 million - $4 thousand years BC): Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic.
- Bronze Age (end of $2$ - beginning of the $1th millennium BC) Handicraft is separated from agriculture, the first class states appear.
- Iron Age (middle of the $1st millennium BC) An uneven development of world culture is being formed.
Remark 1
The first monuments of art began to appear in the late Paleolithic period. These include painting on rocks, caves, engraved drawings on stones depicting animals, sometimes humans. Later, figurines depicting a woman, symbolizing fertility, begin to appear. These are the most important components of material culture.
In the Paleolithic era, the first forms of culture arose. Its first manifestations were stone tools. During the Mesolithic era, they begin to develop plot compositions depicting a person. In the Neolithic era, primitive people learned how to fire clay, which later led to the development of painted pottery.
Culture of primitive society
- Ideological: since creativity in primitive society did not represent personal motives, and the goal of the artist was the goal of the entire team.
- Educational: artistic creativity included the worldview of the whole society.
- Communicative and memorial: art carried out the connection of generations, passing on centuries-old collective knowledge, art objects became relics of the family.
- Magical and religious: the art of primitive society is inseparable from religion, so most of the images were used in rituals and magical rites.
- Aesthetic: art contributed to the development primitive people, filling them with new ideas and ideas about beauty.
Spiritual culture of primitive society
- Primal elements of morality
- Mythological worldview
- The first forms of religion
- Rituals, ceremonies
In primitive culture, mythology and magic are merged together, along with the rudiments of scientific ideas.
At the moment when primitive man begins to fully master the distinctive and key qualities: thinking, will and language, the first forms of religion begin to take shape:
- totemism,
- magic,
- animism,
- fetishism.
Magic stands at the beginning of any religion, it is faith in the supernatural, faith in the extraordinary abilities of a person who can affect nature, animals and others.
totemism characterizes the belief in the kinship of a person, tribe, clan with a totem, which is represented in the form of an animal or plant.
Fetishism characterized by belief in the supernatural properties of objects of the surrounding world, which were called fetishes, amulets, amulets.
Animism characterized by faith and the idea of the presence of a soul, spirits that affect the life of a person, tribe, society.
In the process of complication of religion and religious ideas begins to take shape mythological thinking. The first myths were presented as religious rites, in which scenes of the life of distant ancestors were depicted, over time, through the transfer of information to subsequent generations, myths began to take shape - stories about the life of totemic ancestors.
Later, along with stories about the life of totemic ancestors, life, the exploits of heroes who, by their deeds, created new custom usually a blessing.
Remark 2
The culture of primitive society formed and laid down the cultural base and the prerequisites that allowed the development of the entire subsequent culture of mankind.
The cultural development of the primitive society was of a syncretic nature, which means a direct connection between religion, mythology, science and art, and each person of that period was the bearer of all these components. The emergence of culture is closely connected with the development of man, the age is determined more than two million years ago. Unfortunately, time has swept away almost all evidence of that period. The discovery of artifacts relating to those distant times turns into a huge sensation.
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Periods of primitive culture
The most important rituals of that time were mass initiation rites, which can be considered a manifestation of culture in primitive society. The development of writing began with pictography, then auxiliary materials were involved: notches, knots. Numbers appeared much later, with the advent of civilization. Many artifacts of spiritual life have a touch of astronomy: rock carvings, huge stone cromlechs.
The duration of the period of the initial era in history cultural development has individual time frames. In the remote corners of the planet, you can find tribes that do not use civilization, so some of the scientists do not want to recognize the primitive culture as a thing of the past.
The spiritual culture of primitive society, in short, combines several stages of development:
- Stone Age - 4 thousand years BC;
- Bronze Age - 2 thousand years BC;
- Iron Age - 1000 BC.
Spiritual culture of primitive society
The cultural development of people during the late Paleolithic period led to the emergence of a belief in supernatural powers. Representations of the religion of that period are totemism, fetishism and so on. From numerous rituals, cults of animals, objects, natural phenomena. The central place in cult rites was occupied by magic - belief in supernatural possibilities, the consequences of which can be considered numerous amulets, talismans and amulets.
During the Iron Age, a cult begins to be laid pagan gods who patronized the main forces of nature: thunder, rain, sun, fire, water.
The appearance of copper and bronze products led to the manufacture of musical instruments for rituals.
The visual arts are becoming more developed. Soot and ocher are the main colors. Human images are almost non-existent. Those that have been found are dedicated to a woman. At the end of the Paleolithic, a real flowering of fine arts begins. Animals in the drawings acquire movement, dynamic poses appear. The drawing is completely painted in several colors with different shades.
The main features of primitive culture
On the entry level the ideology and spiritual culture of primitive society changed at a slow pace. There are constant repetitions of the already established way of life with its customs and traditions. The most important feature of primitive culture is syncretism - the inseparability of forms, the unity of man and environment. The next important feature can be considered the lack of writing.
It is precisely the lack of writing that can explain the slowness of the accumulation of the necessary information, the development of culture and social society. Syncretism manifested itself in the activity of primitive man - from the simplest consumption of nature, hunting and gathering of fruits remained, and, having learned to make tools, creation appeared. Subsequently, elements of spiritual culture began to develop:
- the first signs of morality;
- worldview through myths;
- the first forms of the birth of religion;
- rituals of rites;
- the origin of the plastic image of animals and humans.
The process of cultural development began with the emergence of language, which was the first stage of oral communication. A collection appears
active thinking of a group of people, and the individual opinion of one individual. People began to call each other, phenomena, surrounding objects. These names are called "symbols".
Conclusion
The beginning of the birth of morality is the emergence of the concept of "taboo", which included a ban on harming members of one's tribe, on communication in order to avoid incest. This prohibition controls the division of booty, the immunity of some members of the group. The basis of the training of the younger members of the tribe was imitation, transmitted beneficial actions. Gradually, these repetitions turned into rituals.
