The social functions of culture include a normative function. Social functions of culture

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The task assigned to culture - to link people into a single humanity - finds expression in a whole series of its specific social functions.

List of cultural functions with some explanations:
a) function of adaptation to the environment,
b) cognitive,
c) informative,
d) communicative,
e) regulatory,
f) estimated,
g) delimitation and integration of human groups,
h) socialization (or human-creative).
Let's consider them in more detail.

The function of adaptation to the environment can be considered the most ancient and perhaps the only one common for humans and animals, although, unlike animals, a person is forced to adapt to two types of circumstances - natural and social. If for fossil people, for example, the first manifestations of culture that directly indicated an adaptation were items of clothing made of animal skins and fire, then for our contemporary it is either a space suit, or a deep-sea bathyscaphe, or the most complex structures and devices. Everything that helps the primitive and later civilized human individual to survive and thrive in the natural environment surrounding it, being a product of culture, performs the function of adaptation. However, as already mentioned, man is "inscribed" not only in the natural world, but also in society, where, unfortunately, quite often, despite the successes of civilization, and sometimes directly through their fault, every now and then the animal makes itself felt law: "man is a wolf to man." And here, too, within the framework of culture (or anti-culture!), Means of adaptability have been developed over the course of millennia: from state structures and laws that keep people from mutual extermination, to weapons manufactured for defense or attack. It is on the absolutization of the function of adaptability in society that the well-known doctrine of "social Darwinism" is built.

Cognitive function

The cognitive (or epistemological) function finds its expression primarily in science, in scientific research. This is most clearly manifested in the modern scientific and technological revolution. The cognitive function of culture has a double orientation: on the one hand, at the systematization of knowledge and disclosure of the laws of development of nature and society; on the other - on the person's knowledge of himself. Paradoxical as it may seem, at the current stage of the development of civilization the first direction immeasurably prevails over the second. Man has comprehended the world around him much better than the depths of his own soul, his own intellect. Evidence of our ignorance of ourselves surrounds us every day.

Informative function

The informative function ensures historical continuity and the transfer of social experience. Humanity has no other way of preserving, increasing and spreading accumulated spiritual wealth in time and space, as through culture. The culture is not inherited or almost not inherited genetically and biologically. In other words, a person comes into this world as, to one degree or another, a blank sheet of paper on which the older generations - the carriers of the previous culture - write their letters. It is believed that biology is not involved in this process, although temperament, abilities and talents can be inherited. This happens in time. And in space?
Imagine that some sophisticated cultural bearer, say, a modern French intellectual, moves to live from Paris to Africa and finds a spouse from the Zulu tribe. Naturally, their physical closeness and their child by themselves will not become a factor in the spread of culture, but the mutual exchange of information in the family about life in France and about the life of blacks in South Africa will directly lead them to general spiritual enrichment. Bernard Shaw once said this very well: “If you have an apple and I have an apple, and we exchange them, then everyone has an apple. But if each of us has one idea, and we pass them on to each other, then the situation changes. Everyone immediately becomes richer, namely, the owner of two ideas. " And even three or more, for each juxtaposition of ideas activates human thought.
The channel for transmitting information in time and space is not only spiritual, but also material culture. Any instrument of production or commodity, as E.B. Tylor, representing only the next link in an unbreakable chain of related products or phenomena, according to the laws of semiotics, carries on himself certain information about a person, about the social relations of his era and his country. An experienced archaeologist can recreate a living picture of the past from individual shards and debris, just as an ethnographer can recreate the life and beliefs of some distant tribe.

Communicative function

The communicative function of culture is inextricably linked with the informative, like semiotics, inseparable from informatics. The carriers of the communicative function are mainly the verbal language, specific "languages" of art (music, theater, painting, cinema, etc.), as well as the language of science with its mathematical, physical, chemical and other symbols and formulas. If the original sign systems existed for a long time and were transmitted from generation to generation, from person to person, only verbally and graphically, over relatively short distances in time and space, then with the development of technology, the latest vehicles and media (printing, radio, television, cinema, audio and video recordings) the communicative capabilities of culture, i.e. its ability to preserve, transmit and replicate cultural values \u200b\u200bhas increased immeasurably. People who are no longer alive continue to exist among us spiritually, as the fate of many outstanding personalities shows. Since the second half of the twentieth century, after physical death, many of them have actually managed to ensure their audiovisual immortality. Strengthening the communicative capabilities of culture leads to a certain erasure of its national characteristics and contributes to the formation of a single common human civilization.

Regulatory function

The regulatory (or normative) function manifests itself primarily as a system of norms and requirements of society for all its members in all areas of their life and activities - work, everyday life, intergroup, interclass, interethnic, interpersonal relations. T. Parsons, along with symbolism and voluntarism, considered normativity as one of the most important features of culture. The main task of the regulatory function is to maintain social balance in a particular society, as well as between individual groups of people in the interests of the survival of the human race or any part of it.
The regulatory function of culture is carried out by it at a number of levels: the highest of them are moral norms. Of course, they change in the course of history and from people to people. However, with the growth of spiritual culture, the development of mass communication, the reduction of distances and the immeasurable strengthening of contacts and interchanges between peoples, the awareness of each inhabitant of the Earth of his individuality and, at the same time, of his belonging to all of humanity grows. Moral norms are mutually enriched and become more and more common to all mankind. People are more and more aware that they are all passengers of one ship filled with atomic death, and only unity, fueled by a common morality, is capable of saving them from destruction. The oldest social institution that formulated and supported the norms of morality was the church, its various religions and confessions. It is significant that, despite certain discrepancies, the basic commandments of all the largest religions in the world coincide in many respects, i.e. are universal in nature. In this they differ sharply from the norms of the so-called "class morality", according to which the commandments "Thou shalt not kill!" opposed to the call "If the enemy does not surrender, they destroy him!", and the commandment "Do not steal!" - a call for the "expropriation of the expropriators" or even more expressive - "Rob the loot!"
The next level at which the regulatory function of culture is carried out is the rule of law. If the norms of morality are contained mainly in religious texts and documents, as well as in secular moralizing literature, then the norms of law, invariably based on the norms of morality and concretizing them, are set out in detail in constitutions and laws. At the same time, they acquire not only moral, but already legal force. Differences in the norms of law among different peoples are much more noticeable than in the norms of morality. This is due to the specific history of each nation, its temperament, the achieved level of culture and other factors. For example, the attitude to the death penalty in different states seems to be very indicative: the higher the culture of a society and its well-being, the more humane it is towards its criminals and advocates its abolition. And vice versa, the less cultured, and, consequently, the poorer the nation, the more embittered and ruthless its citizens are towards offenders.
Customs and rituals are an integral part of culture, another level where its normative side is manifested along with morality and law. A custom is a stable system of human behavior in different spheres of life and in different situations, which has become the norm and is passed down from generation to generation. Having taken the form of a certain model, the customs are very stable and conservative, accompanying the peoples for centuries, despite any social upheavals. In comparison with the norms of law, it is much more difficult to change customs, almost impossible, because the “common” people, in spite of everything, do not live as one or another regime tells them, but as bequeathed by their ancestors. Customs, to a much greater extent than moral or legal norms, are nationally colored, retain a unique originality and, moreover, as if express the soul of the people. Their originality is largely due to the specifics of the natural environment and agricultural activities - the reason why they are more characteristic of the countryside than the city. As for rituals, in contrast to customs, they are purely religious in nature and are closely related to certain confessions or types of faith.
In addition to the norms of morality, law, customs and rituals, the regulatory function of culture is also manifested in the norms of behavior at work, in everyday life, in communication with other people, in relation to nature. This level of normativity includes a wide range of requirements, starting with elementary neatness and adherence to the rules of "good taste" accepted in a given society or in a given social group, and ending with general requirements for the spiritual world of a person and the quality of his work. This, so to speak, is the everyday, “civilizational” level of culture. The rules of upbringing, etiquette, personal hygiene, the culture of communication with people, etc. belong to the same level.

Estimated function

The evaluative (axiological) function of culture is expressed in the fact that people who represent it in theory and in practice seek to answer the question posed by Socrates: "What is good?" Throughout the history of mankind, his brightest minds sort of classify all objects and phenomena of the surrounding world in terms of their “usefulness” or “harmfulness” for the survival of future generations. In the course of practical activity, there is a natural selection of values \u200b\u200bproduced by the human intellect as the main driving force of culture. With the accumulation of experience, many values \u200b\u200bare revised and "disappear", new ones appear, enriching the already established tradition. For different peoples at different stages of development, the concepts of "good" and "evil" and the developed systems of values \u200b\u200bare different, however, they all have a kind of common human "core" that is gradually expanding.
The more primitive an individual or society is taken, the more limited and simpler the range of its values. In this sense, there is a huge difference between primitive man and modern thinker, between the tribes of "savages" and the rule of law.

The function of delimiting and integrating human groups boils down to the following: just as it is impossible to imagine a language "in general", because it exists only in the form of a multitude of specific languages, so culture always appears before us in a certain national-historical form. Moreover, it is in this diversity that the wealth of world civilization consists. That is why, as N.A. Berdyaev, "it is impossible and senseless to oppose nationalities and humanity, national plurality and all-human unity." And further: “Feeling like a citizen of the universe does not at all mean the loss of national feeling and national citizenship. Man joins the cosmic, universal life through national life. " And culture is most often the expression of the national spirit.
In real life, ethnic groups, nations and countries are separated not so much by geography and political boundaries, which are easily surmountable and changeable, but by their cultural and psychological characteristics, which have a long history and enormous resistance to assimilation and alien influences. This is the sought-after, chaste "soul" of the people, along which the last frontiers of their individuality and sovereignty pass. The entire course of world history teaches: despite the loss of both economic and political independence, despite attempts to create huge "empires", small ethnic groups and peoples were preserved and revived as such precisely thanks to their loyalty to their culture, psychological makeup, way of life, customs and customs, faith, etc. Is this not what the irrepressible rise of national sentiment among the large and small peoples of the collapsed Soviet Union or the cultural revival of the numerous nation states of Asia, Africa and Latin America, which at different times threw off the imperial yoke of colonialism, speaks of? Thus, culture acts as a powerful factor of differentiation and demarcation between relatively small and sometimes very significant human groups, which does not exclude, however, the processes of their mutual enrichment. Moreover, it is they, these processes of interethnic exchange, according to the dialectical law of denial of negation, that provide interconnection between cultures of different eras and peoples, contributing to their "symphonic" fusion into a polyphonic world civilization. Evidence of this is the emergence of an omnipotent scientific and technical layer of modern culture, which has no national specifics, gradually embraced all countries and neutralizing the tendency to delimit humanity on the basis of races and nationalities.

Socialization function

The function of socialization (or human-making), in essence, is associated with the implementation of one single and most important task: to make a rational social person out of a primitive biological individual. In other words, all of the above cultural functions - from the function of adaptation to the function of delimiting and integrating human groups - are combined in this one synthetic function and obey it. The process of socialization consists in the assimilation by the human individual of a certain system of knowledge, norms and values \u200b\u200bthat allow him to act as a full member of society. At the same time, we are talking not only about what each of us is shaped and nurtured by the surrounding social environment, but also about the need for active inner work of the person himself, striving to preserve and improve his uniqueness in any conditions. If socialization, for one reason or another, is not accompanied by the formation of full-fledged personalities, then a society of “cogs” arises, mute inhabitants, incapable of further development, as, for example, took place during the period of the “dictatorship of the proletariat”. Conversely, the domination of individualism weakens social ties, generally accepted norms and values \u200b\u200bare no longer taken into account, the people lose their organic unity, and a period of instability sets in. Ideal for social development is the balance between the collective and the personal. In post-revolutionary Russia the first was proclaimed as the main thing; today, the needle of the national barometer has swung in the opposite direction, foreshadowing new problems. They can be overcome only by enhancing political culture in every possible way, achieving true harmony between society and an individual, between the process of socialization and the process of the formation of the personality of each citizen.
The above separate consideration of the main functions of culture in society is, of course, rather arbitrary. In real life, it is impossible to distinguish between them the way we did it. They are closely intertwined, merge into one another and practically represent a single process, in general, ensuring the movement of humanity along the winding and often unpredictable paths of progress.

In the process of accumulating historical experience, knowledge, skills, diverse values, culture began to perform (and performs) the following functions.

1. Socialization function (or human creation, humanistic)... The process of socialization consists in a person's assimilation of a certain system of knowledge, norms and values \u200b\u200bthat allow him to act, create as a full member of society. Thanks to the means of culture, as noted, there is both socialization and individualization of the individual.
2. Cognitive (or epistemological) function... This function finds its expression, first of all, in science, scientific research. The cognitive function of culture has a dual orientation. On the one hand, it is aimed at the systematization of knowledge and the disclosure of nature and society, on the other, at the person's knowledge of himself.
3. Social function... This function ensures historical continuity and the transfer of social experience to new generations. Humanity has no other way of preserving, increasing and spreading in time and space the accumulated spiritual wealth (language, books, technology, aesthetic values \u200b\u200b...), but through culture.
4. Environment adaptation function... This function can be considered the most ancient and almost the only one common for man and animals, although, unlike the latter, which have no culture, man has gone immeasurably further in the matter of protection from elemental forces. He has learned and is forced to adapt to two types of circumstances - natural and social.
5. Sign (semiotic) function... Culture is a certain sign system. Mastering culture is impossible without studying its sign systems. The sign function is inseparable from the normative function. The carriers of this function are mainly the verbal language, specific "languages" of art (music, theater, painting, cinema, etc.), as well as the languages \u200b\u200bof science with its mathematical, physical, chemical and other symbols and formulas. The sign function of culture is also called significative (signifying, attributing meaning). The most important conventional signs of human culture are words. Objects and phenomena by no means always obey the will of man, manipulate them. And words - the signs with which we designate them - obey our will, uniting into semantic chains - phrases. It is much easier to manipulate signs, with the meanings given to them, than with the phenomena themselves.
6. Regulatory (or normative) function... It manifests itself in the existence of systems of norms and requirements of society for all its members in all areas of their public and personal life and activities - work, everyday life, intergroup, interethnic, interpersonal relations. The regulatory function of culture is carried out at a number of levels: moral, legal, everyday, etc. The highest norms for regulating human behavior are the norms of morality. The next level at which the regulatory function of culture is carried out is the rule of law. The level where the normative side of culture is manifested mainly at the everyday level is customs and rituals. The regulatory function of culture is also manifested in the norms of behavior at work, in everyday life, in communication with other people. in relation to nature.
7. Socio-integrative function... This function consists in uniting people into social communities, social groups, strata, estates, castes, ethnic groups, etc.
8. Estimated (axiological) function... It is expressed in the fact that the people representing it in theory and in practice seek to answer the question posed by Socrates: "What is good?" Throughout the history of mankind, its brightest minds sort of classify all objects and phenomena of the surrounding world in terms of their "usefulness" or "harmfulness" for the survival of future generations.
9. Function of differentiation and integration of human groups... In real life, ethnic groups, nations and countries are separated not so much by geography and political boundaries as by their cultural and psychological characteristics. Therefore, culture acts as a factor of differentiation between relatively small, and sometimes very significant human groups.
10. Communicative function... Thanks to culture, people enter into communication with each other, find common interests and mutual understanding.
11. Criterion function... It consists in comparing the development, the degree of perfection of social institutions, individual individuals and society as a whole.
12. Ethnic (ethno-integrating) function... If an ethnos is deprived of its internal cultural ties, it will inevitably collapse.

Thus, culture as a multifactorial, multifunctional social phenomenon is an indicator of a person's spirituality, his inner freedom, the independence of his views, assessments, and judgments.

A very short paragraph. I will not even break it down into separate posts. So:

Functions of culture:
1. Human-creative (humanistic)
2. Translational (function of transferring social experience)
3. Cognitive (epistemological)
4. Regulatory (normative)
5. Semiotic (sign)
6. Value (axiological)

1. Human-creative (humanistic) function of culture - the main function. All others are somehow connected with it and even follow from it.
- Why didn't they write it like this: "The main function of culture is human-making. It will be subdivided into ..."
- We don't know. But it turns out, in other words, we can say: "The main function of culture is to make a man out of a monkey"))
- But no, you can't make a man out of a monkey, no culture will help!
- ... But if a newborn man is slipped to monkeys, then he will be a monkey. And in order for him to become a person, people must educate him.
- It turns out that the main function of culture is educational? O_o Why not say so right away?
- ... Educational - somehow too narrow. Educational and educational ... and that "will not be enough." That is why they said "human-creative"))) True, this is some kind of monster word. But everything fit.

2. Function of broadcasting (transfer) of social experience (function of historical continuity, information function) - "social memory of mankind", which is objectified in sign systems:
- oral legends,
- monuments of literature and art,
- "languages" of science, philosophy, religion, etc.
It is not just a storehouse of stocks of social experience, but a means of strict selection and active transmission of its best examples.
Therefore, any violation of this function is fraught with serious, sometimes disastrous consequences for society.
Disruption of cultural continuity leads to anomie (-???) , dooms the new generation to the loss of social memory (the phenomenon of mankurtism).
- Stop, anomie - what's this? O_o
- Some kind of "namelessness")) Let's google it! ... We are wrong: "nomos" is not a "name", but a "law" :) So this "negation of the law" turns out, but in general, see the comments, I will write there.

3. Cognitive (epistemological) function of culture - the ability of culture to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world, creating opportunities for its knowledge and development. This is due to the ability of culture to concentrate the social experience of many generations of people:

"She (culture) realizes only truth in knowledge, in philosophical and scientific books; good - in morals, life and social institutions; beauty - in books, poems and paintings, in statues and architectural monuments, in concerts and theatrical performances ... "(Berdyaev N.A. The meaning of history. - M, 1990, - S. 164)

It can be argued that society is intellectual to the extent that it uses the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of mankind. All types of society differ significantly, primarily on this basis.

- What is this heresy: "cultural gene pool"?
- In biological genes, the program for the development of the organism is recorded, in the "cultural gene pool" - the program (potential) for the development of human society, as I understood it. They are so figuratively expressed.

4. The regulatory (normative) function of cultureassociated with the definition (regulation) of various aspects, types of social and personal activities of people. It relies on regulatory systems such as moralityand right.
- And what is the Jewish Talmud based on - morality or law?
- He relies on his religion ... Like the Koran and the Bible ...
- And why then religion was not included in the list of systems on which the regulatory function of culture is based?
- In the USA and in Russia, the church is separated from the state ..
- So what? Church statutes do not apply to culture?
- Well, kagbe are, but they shouldn't)))
- ... She herself realized that she said nonsense)))
- Or maybe the religious precepts themselves are based on "morality" and "law."
- Well, "religious morality" - I can quite imagine that, but "religious law" ... Law is something of a state))
- Yes? But as agacan wrote about the trial in Iran over Muslim women who decided to change their religion to Christian? This means that the law is RELIGIOUS there.
- Well, then Iran ... I don't understand what to discuss here. Religion is a part of culture, it also has a regulatory function, and what a bigger one than others ... But the normative function of religion is also based on "morality" and "law." Something like this.
- ... Thank you, God, for enlightenment in the brain))) Let's continue:

In the sphere of work, everyday life, interpersonal relations, culture in one way or another affects the behavior of people and regulates their actions, actions, and even the choice of certain material and spiritual values.
- Is advertising a part of culture?
- This is part of "mass culture", we went through this last time))
- And when there were no advertisements, what regulated the choice of material and spiritual values?
- ...Traditions. Oral legends)) Royal decrees (for example, commoners were forbidden to wear clothes made of materials used for clothes of rich Buratins, I remember this from school)) .. That is, everything is the same - "morality and law."
- Is ethics moral?
- ... Wikipedia said that ethics is "a philosophical study of the essence, goals and causes of morality and ethics."
- And etiquette? This is not morality and not a right, but it regulates behavior ...
- Etiquette is a "set of rules of conduct", but not "law", of course. And each culture / subculture has its own. But for some reason they don't remember him in this section. I do not know why. Maybe they considered it insignificant ...

5. Semiotic (sign) function of culture- a symbolic system of culture, which must be mastered. It is impossible to master the achievements of culture without studying the corresponding sign systems.
Language (spoken or written) is a means of communication between people.
The literary language is the most important means of mastering the national culture.
Specific languages \u200b\u200bare needed for understanding the world of music, painting, theater.
Natural sciences (physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology) also have their own sign systems.
- Just a set of common phrases of some kind. .. Sign language, by the way, forgot to mention)) ... Something in this piece I do not like, and what - I can not understand. The picture does not add up ...
- What they called the "language of science" - just a list of terms that each science has its own?
- Both terms and symbols ... Don't bother me. I can't figure out what I don't like here!
- I do not like that there is no normal definition: "a semiotic function is ..." .. I do not like that their "definition" includes an action that someone must perform: "a sign system that must be mastered." A function cannot be a "sign system". The function DOES something itself, otherwise it is not a function.
.. No, it doesn't. I will think about this later))
- You're lying, you'll forget! .. :))

6. The value (axiological) function of culture - a function that reflects the most important qualitative state of culture.
Culture as a system of values \u200b\u200bforms a person's quite definite value orientations. By their level and quality, people most often judge the degree of culture of a person.
Moral and intellectual content, as a rule, serves as a criterion for the appropriate assessment.
- God, what the hell.
- Oh, we have demonstrated our level of culture)))
- Yes, we have demonstrated it here long ago, why be ashamed now ... I do not want to say about this. The function is not formulated. Some incomprehensible nonsense is written.
- As recently as last week we ourselvestold one girl that if something is incomprehensible to her, then this does not mean that nonsense is written)))
- ... No, in principle everything is clear here, only vaguely formulated. I would say this: the value function of culture is its ability to form a person's certain value preferences (or orientations).
And "which reflects" could be said later. In general, the matter is difficult with definitions, here we lack knowledge of logic.
... And then, I would not say: "they judge the degree of culture" ... They judge about belonging to a certain culture / subculture, and not about the "degree of culture". This is some kind of philistine and snobbish opposition - "cultural / uncultured". It is not appropriate for a cultural scientist to express himself like that))
- So he said: PEOPLE judge. That is, not culturologists, but the most ordinary people.
- Well then, I don't understand at all: the townsfolk have something to do with it ...

And by the way: she herself said that "function" answers the question "what does it do", that is, its definition should be expressed by a verbal noun. "Ability" is a quality, not a function! It should be formulated as follows:
The value function of culture is the formation of certain value preferences (orientations) in a person.

- Since we have given birth to such a valuable thought, maybe we will return to the previous function? What does the "sign function of culture" do?
- It expresses culture in signs :)) ... which must be mastered. It "encodes" culture, preserving it for transmission from generation to generation. ... No, my brains don't work anymore today, I'm sorry)) I said - I'll think about it tomorrow ... And that's all for today.

The social functions that culture performs allow people to carry out collective activities in the best way to satisfy their needs. The main functions of culture include:

social integration - ensuring the unity of mankind, a community of worldview (with the help of myth, religion, philosophy);

organization and regulation of the joint life of people through law, politics, morality, customs, ideology, etc .;

providing the means of life for people (such as cognition, communication, accumulation and transfer of knowledge, upbringing, education, stimulating innovation, selection of values, etc.); regulation of certain spheres of human activity (culture of everyday life, culture of recreation, culture of work, food culture, etc.).

In the 20th century in Russia, the word civilization came to be understood as the general state of society or even the level of education or specific persons, opposed to savagery or barbarism. Let's summarize the linguistic development of the word culture in modern languages:

• 1) an abstract designation of the general process of intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic development;
• 2) designation of the state of society based on law and order, softness of morals, etc. in this sense, the word culture coincides with one of the meanings of the word civilization;
• 3) an abstract indication of the features of the mode of existence or way of life inherent in some society, some group of people, some historical period;
• 4) abstract designation of forms and products of intellectual and, above all, artistic activity: music, literature, painting, theater, cinema.

The concept of "culture" means a historically defined level of development of society, creative forces and abilities of a person, expressed in the types and forms of organization of life and activities of people, as well as in the material and spiritual values \u200b\u200bthey create.

Culture is a multifunctional system. The main function of the phenomenon of culture is human-creative, or humanistic. All others are somehow connected with it and even follow from it.

The function of broadcasting social experience is often called the function of historical continuity, or informational. Culture is rightfully considered the social memory of humanity. It is defined in sign systems: oral legends, monuments of literature and art, "languages" of science, philosophy, religion and others. However, this is not just a "storehouse" of stocks of social experience, but a means of strict selection and active transmission of its best samples. Hence, any violation of this function is fraught with serious, sometimes disastrous consequences for society. The rupture of cultural continuity leads to anemia and dooms new generations to the loss of social memory.

The cognitive function is associated with the ability of culture to concentrate the social experience of many generations of people. Thus, she immanently acquires the ability to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world, thereby creating favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development.

It can be argued that society is intelligent to the extent that it uses the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of mankind. All types of society differ significantly, primarily on this basis.

The regulatory function of culture is associated, first of all, with the definition 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 people's behavior and regulates their actions, actions and even the choice of certain material and spiritual values. The regulatory function of culture is based on such normative systems as morality and law.

Semiotic or sign function, representing a certain sign system of culture, presupposes knowledge, possession of it. It is impossible to master the achievements of culture without studying the corresponding sign systems.

Language is a means of communication between people. The literary language is the most important means of mastering the national culture. Specific languages \u200b\u200bare needed for understanding the world of music, painting, theater. Natural sciences also have their own sign systems.

The value, or axiological function reflects the most important qualitative state of culture. Culture as a system of values \u200b\u200bforms in a person quite definite value needs and orientations. By their level and quality, people most often judge the degree of culture of a particular person. Moral and intellectual content, as a rule, serves as a criterion for the appropriate assessment.

Functions of culture - a set of roles that a culture performs in relation to the community of people who generate and use (practice) it in their own interests; a set of methods (technologies) for the implementation of the collective life of people, selected by historical experience, the most acceptable in terms of their social significance and consequences. At the same time, all the functions of culture are social, that is, they provide precisely the collective nature of people's life, and also determine or correct almost all forms of the individual, the activity of a person due to his connection with the social environment. The number of such functions is very large. They can be arranged in a hierarchical structure from the most general to relatively specific, providing functions of a higher level.

The most general and universal function of culture should be recognized to ensure the social integration of people: the formation of the foundations of their sustainable collective existence and activities to jointly satisfy interests and needs, stimulating an increase in the level of their group consolidation and the effectiveness of interaction, the accumulation of social experience in guaranteed social reproduction of their collectives as sustainable communities ...

The second level of the considered hierarchy includes functions that provide the main forms of integrated existence of communities of people:

• 1) the organization of people in their joint life activity through their structural differentiation into various kinds of relatively self-sufficient groups: socio-territorial neighboring communities (tribes, ethnic groups, nations), social and functional (industries, military, educational and other collectives, specialties, professions, professional . constellations, classes), social (families, clans, social strata, estates), communicative (by dialects, languages, linguistic families), religious-confessional (religious communities, sects, denominations, confessions), etc .;
• 2) regulation of the processes of interaction between people through historical selection, rationing and standardization of the most successful elements of social experience in this area and their implementation in the work of regulatory mechanisms of conventional (value orientations, morality, morality, customs, etiquette, etc.) or institutional (law, politics, ideology, ceremonial, etc.) properties;
• 3) consolidation and self-identification of people in a team through the development of common goals and ideals of their coexistence, group interests and needs, a sense of solidarity of the individual with the team and their protection, satisfaction with the current norms and rules of joint community and interaction, the formation of a system of images of group identity (ethnic, social, confessional, state and other markers) and the foundations of a person's personal self-identification in a team and self-identification with him, the interest of team members in his social reproduction as a process that meets their individual, and group interests.

The third level is the functions of culture, which provide the main means of joint life of people. These include:

• 1.the culture of demographic and social reproduction of community members, functioning through the development of norms of sexual relations, marriage and family and kinship obligations, norms of a neighbor's community, standards for the physical development of an individual and the protection of his reproductive capabilities, as well as a system of forms and means of purposeful intergenerational transmission of social experience ( upbringing, enlightenment, education, traditions, ceremonies and rituals, etc.), the development of norms and standards of socialization and in-culture of the individual, his social and cultural adequacy to the society of residence, stimulating his interest in forms of social self-realization acceptable to society, including ... in creative and innovative activities, in the transformation of an individual from a “product and consumer” of culture into its “producer”;
• 2.the culture of adaptation of the community to the natural and historical conditions of its habitat, realized through the accumulation of experience and its implementation in the norms, rules and forms of direct life support (primarily in the provision of food, heat, housing, in the methods and traditions of health protection and interpersonal mutual assistance of people) , ensuring the collective security of the community (defense) and the individual, the security of community members, their property and legitimate rights, interests (law enforcement system);
• 3.the culture of the development of an artificial material-spatial environment of the community and the provision of its members with social benefits, expressed in the formation of principles, norms, rules and standards for building the territorial infrastructure of the residence zone (settlements and their internal structure, transport communications, the location of the most important industries and other functional zones, etc.), the development of a system of energy supply and production of means of production (tools), ensuring the production and distribution of consumer goods and services, etc.;
• 4.the culture of property, power and social prestige associated with the development of technologies and forms of power-proprietary claims and relations acceptable to the community, ways of acquiring wealth, the formation of a hierarchy of social statuses, the order of status growth and its symbolic marking (titles, regalia, prestigious clothing , decorations, household environment, style of behavior, etiquette, etc.);
• 5.the culture of social patronage, manifested in the traditions of providing material and other support to people who find themselves in a situation of non-competitiveness (by age, injury, congenital disabilities, victims of war or natural disasters, etc.), charity, mercy, assistance to those in distress , the ideology of humanism and the absolutization of the value of human life, the mythology of social justice, "leveling", the patronage of the collective over the individual, etc .;
• 6.the culture of knowledge and worldview, accumulation and cumulation of socially significant knowledge, ideas and experience: rational (science and everyday observations), irrational (religion, mysticism, esotericism, superstition), logical-metaphysical (philosophy, common sense, folk wisdom), figurative (art, metaphorical thinking and judgments, game forms of behavior, etc.);
• 7. culture of communication and exchange of information and social experience between people, implemented in the form of processes: symbolization of objects and phenomena (formation of designating concepts, words, signs, symbols, etc.), addition of languages \u200b\u200bof information exchange ("natural" oral and written verbal, non-verbal sign languages \u200b\u200band body plastics, symbolic and ceremonial actions, arts, specialized languages \u200b\u200bof service and technical symbols - mathematical, computer, topographic, drawing, musical, etc., various systems of signs, sound signals, insignia, functional attributes, digital languages, graphic and sound coding of objects and products, etc.),
• 8 addition of systems for recording information (in graphic, sound, specific and other forms), its replication and broadcasting, as well as institutions involved in the accumulation, preservation and access to socially significant information (archives, libraries, museums, depositories, data banks, card indexes etc.);
• 9.the culture of physical and mental rehabilitation and relaxation of a person, including the norms and forms of health protection and personal hygiene adopted in the community, the traditions of cooking, social norms of rest (systems of weekends, vacations, exemption from active activity due to age and state of health), traditions of physical culture and sports, health tourism and other forms of active recreation, traditions of national and folk holidays, carnivals, mass festivities, various forms of entertainment, play and intelligence, leisure, a system of institutions of organized leisure, etc.

It should be emphasized that in all the cases under consideration we are talking not about practical technologies for achieving a utilitarian result (creating a consumer product), but about social norms that regulate the admissibility and preference of certain methods of carrying out this activity.

The fourth and subsequent levels of cultural functions are already associated with the differentiation of culture into specialized functional segments ("economic culture", "military culture", "trade culture", "religious culture", "pedagogical culture", etc.) and systems of quality criteria implementation of certain social functions ("culture of labor and consumption", "culture of everyday life", "culture of language", "culture of scientific thinking", "culture of artistic creativity", etc.). In both cases, here we mean, first of all, the level of compliance of the applied technologies (and hence the qualitative parameters of the results) in a particular sphere of life with the generally accepted technological norms in the relevant field, which have developed in the process of historical selection of such technologies based on their acceptability and admissibility with the point of view of social cost and long-term social consequences (the criterion of utilitarian efficiency in this case is less significant) and were fixed in value complexes of a specific nature, usually called "professional culture" and "culture of lifestyle".

Thus, in all the variety of functions of culture, one can single out such "profile" directions as social-integrative, organizational-regulatory-normative, cognitive-communicative, recreational and evaluative.

PAGE 22

Lecture number 2

The main functions of culture

Function - the purpose, role of any element in the system, or, in other words, a certain kind of work that is required from this element in the interests of the system as a whole.

We can talk about the functions of individual elements of culture in relation to the entire system of culture (for example, about the functions of language or science in culture). But the question of the functions of culture as a whole in relation to society is also legitimate. This is the question of its social functions.

List of social functions of culture:

1. protective;
2. creative (lat. creatio - creation);
3. significative (eng.sign - sign) (designation function);
4. communicative;
5. integrative and disintegrative;
6. regulatory;
7. adaptive;
8. regulatory;
9. semiotic;
10. relaxation (lat.relaxatio - weakening, relaxation)

1. Protective function

It consists in the fact that with the help of artificially created tools and adaptations, man has tremendously increased the possibilities of his adaptation to the world around him, subordinating himself to the forces of nature and controlling them. At the same time, humanity is constantly concerned about its safety and is constantly improving the methods and means of its protection.

However, the question of their effectiveness remains a sensitive issue. Some unfavorable factors eliminated by technical progress are being replaced by others generated by it. Today, the consequences of technological progress have led to a host of global problems: the development of natural resources and the constant accumulation and improvement of the so-called. “The benefits of civilization” led to an ecological crisis on the planet; the development of modern biological means of defense and medicines is side by side with the creation of biological weapons of mass destruction, which cannot always be controlled, etc.

Thus, technological progress, on the one hand, reduces the threat to human life and health, and on the other, increases it. Function is accompanied by dysfunction.

2. Creative function

The essence of the creative function is transforming and mastering the world. Man is constantly striving to expand his habitat. It is important to note that this expresses not only the desire for more favorable conditions of life, but alsohuman curiosity is manifested.Mastering the forces of external nature goes hand in hand with mastering the internal forces of the human psyche. This finds its expression in human creativity: in science, art, etc.

3. Significative function

Signification is the attribution of meanings and values. What is not involved in the cultural turnover of mankind does not seem to matter or value. The starry sky over the head of primitive man did not matter until he involved him in his circle of mythological ideas, made heavenly maps to help in navigation, created astronomical theories and sent satellites into space. Since then, the sky has become part of the culture.

Expanding the sphere of cultural development of the world, a person simultaneously expands the area of \u200b\u200bdesignated objects. As a result, the volume of culture and the volume of objects that have acquired value and significance always coincide.

Thanks to the significative function, culture appears as a meaningful representation of the world. The form of expression of this idea is not important (in this narrow sense, myth, religion, science, and art are equivalent).

4. Communicative function

Communication is the transfer of information, in the narrow sense of the word - communication. Only communication makes society viable. Only through communication with the world of people, that is, the world of culture, does a person become a person. Informational isolation from culture causes irreparable damage to a human being, especially at the early stage of socialization. An example is the so-called feral people ("Mowgli" people).

5. Integrative and disintegrative functions

Any social community that develops its own culture is held together by this culture. Among the members of the community, a single set of views, beliefs, values, ideals that are characteristic of a given culture and determine the consciousness and behavior of people are spreading. They develop a sense of belonging to the same cultural group.

Preservation of cultural heritage, national traditions, historical memory creates a link between generations. This builds the historical unity of the nation and the self-awareness of the people as a community of people that has existed for centuries.

The broad frameworks of cultural community are created by world religions. A single faith binds the various nations that make up the "Christian world" or "the world of Islam." The unifying role of science is manifested on an even larger scale. As it develops, science increasingly becomes a collective affair of all mankind. A single worldwide community of scientists is being formed. Schoolchildren and students of all countries master the same foundations of scientific knowledge. The same scientific symbolism (the language of mathematics, physics, chemical formulas, geographical maps, etc.) is spread throughout the Earth.

But in the history of mankind, different cultures arise and in each era exist. Cultural differences make it difficult for people to communicate, hinder their mutual understanding. These differences act as barriers separating social groups and communities. People belonging to the same cultural circle are perceived as “We”, and representatives of other cultural circles as “They”. Solidarity between “ours” can be accompanied by wariness and even hostility towards “strangers”. Cultural differences between communities often become the reason for their confrontation and enmity.

Today, the integrative function of culture is not intended to eliminate cultural differences, but to combine the global diversity of cultures into a single harmonious planetary mosaic. The integrative function of culture is aimed at the awareness of all humanity of its unity.

6. Normative function

The creation, observance and change of norms, standards, rules and recipes for human behavior are in the cultural space.

Norms - the rules governing human behavior. They indicate where, how, when and what exactly we should do. The norms prescribe patterns of behavior and are transmitted to the individual in the process of inculturation.

Cultural norms - mandatory prescriptions, requirements, wishes and expectations of the appropriate (publicly approved) behavior. They indicate the extent to which human actions are necessary; control deviant behavior; serve as models, standards of behavior.

Cultural norms are permissive and prohibitive. Practice has not revealed which type of norms - permitting or prohibiting - more effectively affects people's behavior. The main thing is the motivation of behavior.

The totality of interrelated cultural norms constitutes the normative system of culture.

Normative culture system:

The most famous classification of cultural norms belongs to the American sociologist William Graham Sumner (1840-1910). He identified the following types of norms:

1. customs (folkways);
2. morals (mores);
3. laws.

Today this list has been significantly expanded. The main, most socially significant cultural norms today include the following:

Individual cultural norms:

Alignment - established patterns (stereotypes) of behavior in certain situations. They arise from skills and are reinforced through repeated repetition.

Manners - external forms of human behavior that receive a positive or negative assessment of others. Manners are based on habits.

Etiquette - a set of rules of conduct concerning the external manifestation of attitudes towards people; the system of rules of conduct adopted in special circles of communication, constituting a single whole.

Social cultural norms:

Taboo - an absolute prohibition, the most ancient of collective cultural norms. This is the most powerful type of social prohibition, the violation of which is punishable especially severely. Taboo became the basis of many later cultural norms.

Custom - traditionally established order of behavior. It is habit-based, but unlike manners, it deals with collective forms of action. Customs are always publicly approved mass action patterns that are recommended to be followed.

If habits and customs are passed from one generation to the next, they turn into traditions.

Tradition - values, patterns of behavior, ideas, attitudes, tastes, etc., inherited from predecessors. Traditions refer to cultural heritage, as a rule, they are surrounded by honor and respect, serve as a unifying principle in society.

Rite - one of the varieties of observance of traditions. The rite is based on a set of actions established by custom or ritual.

Most often we can find rituals in cult religious practice. But the ceremonies are not only religious in nature. Varieties of rituals areceremony and ritual.

In all rites, all actions are deeply symbolic.

Morals - especially protected, especially revered by society, mass models of action. Morals reflect the moral values \u200b\u200bof society. A crime against morals is punished more severely than forgetting traditions.

Law - a variety of morals, containing norms and rules of behavior, formalized and sanctioned by the political authority of society or the state, recorded in a document and requiring strict implementation (see Fig. 1)

Figure: 1

The cultures and countries of the world can be divided intocultures of intensive saturation with norms and non-intensive culture... Of the European countries, most of the norms, rules, standards, laws, according to the unanimous opinion of experts, exist in modern Germany. At the end are the countries of Eastern Europe, including Russia.

There is a high saturation with the norms, customs and traditions of oriental cultures. Conventionally speaking, the number of traditions and customs per square kilometer of territory is highest in China, India, and Japan. It is here that the most subtle and developed rules of etiquette are found.

Let us recall once again about “normative redundancy” and “normative insufficiency”. Experts believe that excessive regulation of behavior, that is, an excessive number of norms, is characteristic of societies with a poor culture.

The opposite state of society isanomie - a state of society in which a significant part of the inhabitants, knowing about the existence of the norms that oblige them, treat them negatively or indifferently.

Anomy reflects the conflict between officially declared goals and available legal means of achieving them. Anomy occurs when people cannot legally achieve the goals declared by society as a moral law.

7. Adaptive function

Culture ensures the adaptation (adaptation) of a person to the environment:both natural and cultural (!).

Adaptation to the environment, according to the scientific worldview, occurs in the process of biological evolution due to variability, heredity and natural selection, through which the features of body organs and mechanisms of behavior are formed and genetically transmitted from generation to generation, ensuring the survival and development of the species in the given environmental conditions ( its “ecological niche”).

But human adaptation is different from the adaptability nature of all other living things:all these creaturesthey adapt to the environment, that is, they change in accordance with the given conditions of their existence; man adapts the environment to himself, that is, changes it in accordance with his needs.

Man as a biological speciesHomo sapiens does not have its own natural ecological niche. According to A. Gehlen, one of the founders of cultural anthropology, man is an "incomplete", "undecided", "biologically insufficient" animal. He lacks instincts, his biological organization is not adapted to any stable form of animal existence. Therefore, he is not able to lead, like other animals, a natural way of life and is forced, in order to survive, to create an artificial, cultural environment around him. Thus, a person adapts to the natural environment, changing it for himself.

But it is not the fact of his birth that makes a person a person, but an introduction to the world of culture. It is known that a person who is fed by a wolf pack and has lived with wolves for a long time will never be able to adapt to social life. That is, it will not become a person proper. But a person who was born in Russia and raised in Afghanistan in a strange family, for example, becomes a full-fledged member of society. Moreover, he can once again (or several times) change the country of residence (and, accordingly, the socio-cultural space) and remain a full-fledged person.

What are the mechanisms and forms of introduction to culture?

The basis for familiarizing a person with culture is his socialization.

Socialization is a processassimilation of cultural norms and assimilation of social roles. It means the transformation of a person into a social individual, the mature variety of which is called personality.

It is necessary to distinguish from socialization itselfadaptation in the narrow sense of the word - as a time-limited process of getting used to new conditions.

The process of socialization begins in early childhood and usually ends when a person reaches adulthood, but often continues until old age. The process of socialization includes sub-processes:

Upbringing - purposeful transfer of ethical norms and rules of decent behavior by the older generation to the younger. This transfer is carried out in the system of various pedagogical practices. But in upbringing, there is also a spontaneous assimilation of cultural norms (for example, through imitation of parents, movie heroes, etc.).

Training - the transfer of practical knowledge, skills and abilities with the aim of the subsequent inclusion of a trained person in the system of social relations, the production of material and spiritual values \u200b\u200bthat have qualities and properties corresponding to the level of development of a given society.

However, education at school, university and at work is only a technical measure. To teach life is the main task of socialization. Therefore, the more capacious word will not be teaching, butmastering content of culture.

In socialization, it is customary to distinguish two types: primary and secondary.

Primary socializationflows in the immediate environment of a person: parents and other relatives, babysitters, family friends, peers, teachers, coaches, doctors, friends. This primary environment is not only the closest to a person, but also the most important for his formation.Primary socialization- the sphere of interpersonal relations.

Secondary socializationtakes place with the participation of social institutions and their representatives: school, university, enterprise, army, police, church, state, media, political parties, courts, etc.Secondary socialization is the sphere of social relations.

Other forms of cultural initiation:

1) Adaptation - a special process of interaction of a person or a group with the social environment, when an individual learns social norms and traditions of values \u200b\u200bof a particular social group (for example, professional). Those. adaptation is a narrower and more specific concept than socialization.Adaptation is an element, an integral part of socialization.

Adaptation assumes that there are some new or unexpected conditions to which the individual must eventually get used to, adapt. At the same time, he does not necessarily have to deeply assimilate them, for example, the values \u200b\u200band norms of group behavior, which a person does not accept for moral reasons.

The ability to adapt with age fades.

2) Inculturation (enculturation) - teaching a person to traditions and norms of behavior in a particular culture.

Adaptation to the social order of life in a foreign country is faster than inculturation - adaptation to other people's values, traditions and customs.

Adaptation occurs during socialization and inculturation. In the first case, the individual adapts to social conditions of life, in the second - to cultural ones. With socialization, adaptation is easy and fast, with inculturation, difficult and slow.

Inculturation or culture education occurs in several ways: through direct teaching (for example, a child is taught to say "thank you" for a gift) and through observation of how other people behave in similar situations. The difficulty of the second option is that people often say one thing and do another. In these situations, the individual loses orientation, and the process of inculturation becomes difficult.

Socialization - growing into society, becoming a social person. Final processsocialization - personality.

Inculturation - fusion with the native culture, the formation of a well-mannered person. The end result of inculturation is intellectual.

Socialization is associated with the assimilation of a certain mandatory cultural minimum. We are talking about the assimilation of the main social roles, norms, language, traits of national character. On the contrary, the term "inculturation" implies a broader phenomenon, namely the introduction of a person to the entire cultural heritage of mankind. This means, not only to their national culture, but also to the culture of other peoples. We are talking about mastering foreign languages, forming a broad outlook, knowledge of world history. This concept also includes vocational training, because the acquisition of professional knowledge is not a necessary requirement of socialization.

Inculturation and socialization develop according to different laws.At the same age, there is a maximum of socialization and a minimum of inculturation. And vice versa.

Socialization reaches its maximum in youth and early adulthood, and then most often the level of socialization decreases, less often it remains unchanged.

Inculturation, on the other hand, reaches its maximum in old age, and in youth its indicators are low.

3) Acculturation - the process of re-socialization of an adult(re-socialization)or assimilation of the necessary for life and positively perceived norms and values \u200b\u200bof a foreign culture, which are superimposed on the traditions and customs of the native culture.

Usually, acculturation is the result of contacts between representatives of different cultures, in which cultural norms and values \u200b\u200bare perceived. Usually they are taken over by a single person or a group of people who have ended up in a foreign country and stayed there for permanent residence. The reverse process, when the entire population of the country adopts the cultural norms of a visiting group of foreigners, practically does not happen.

Acculturation is a necessary element of intercultural interaction. When representatives of two different cultures meet, they, intending to find a common language, try to understand each other.

4) Assimilation - the process of assimilating cultural traits by a minority group that has entered the culture of the majority group. Assimilation can continue until it is completely dissolved in a new culture and the loss of its cultural identity, or it can remain partial.

5) Cultural renewal(complete resocialization).

If acculturation requires from a person only a partial rejection of old norms and traditions, then the process of cultural renewal leads to a complete liberation from them. The result is the final replacement of old customs and values \u200b\u200bwith new ones.

Examples of cultural renewal of personality - long prison sentences; emigration for permanent residence in another country at an early age.

8. Regulatory function

(see Lecture 1, "Information-semiotic interpretation of culture")

9. Semiotic function

Talking about the semiotics of culture means talking about culture as a sign system, and considering any cultural phenomena as texts that carry information and meaning.

The language of any culture is peculiar and unique. But all cultures use the same types of signs and sign systems. All the variety of symbolic means used in culture makes itsemiotic field. This field contains5 main types of signs and sign systems:

1. natural signs;
2. functional signs;
3. conventional signs;
4. verbal sign systems (natural languages);
5. sign systems of recording.

NATURAL SIGNS

By "natural signs" we mean things and natural phenomena.

An object cannot be a sign of itself, it becomes a sign when it points to some other objects and is considered as a carrier of information about them. Most often, a natural sign is an belonging, a property, a part of a whole and therefore gives information about the latter.Natural signs are signs-signs.

Example : smoke as a sign of fire.

To understand natural signs, you need to know what they are signs of, and be able to extract the information they contain.

Signs of the weather, traces of animals, the location of heavenly bodies - all these are signs that can tell a lot to those who are able to "decipher" them.

The ability to understand and use natural signs for orientation in the natural environment was an essential component of primitive culture. Gradually, with the development of civilization, this skill is lost.

There are a great many natural signs, but in everyday experience they are usually not systematized. The construction of systems of natural signs is, as a rule, the result of a long development of practice and science:

Examples of : 1) a symbolic system of medical diagnostics (symptoms of diseases); 2) spectral analysis, which allows to determine the chemical composition of a substance by the colors of the spectrum; 3) astronavigation, which is based on the establishment of a systematic relationship between the observed arrangement of stars and the coordinates of the observer.

FUNCTIONAL SIGNS

Functional signs are also signs-signs. Butunlike natural signs, the connection between functional signs and what they indicate is not due to their objective properties and not the laws of nature, but to the functions that they perform in the activities of people. These signs are objects that have some kind of pragmatic purpose.An object becomes a functional sign if the connection between it and what it points to arises in the process of human activity and is based on the way a person uses it.

Examples: the weapon discovered by the archaeologist in the mound is a functional sign indicating that a warrior is buried in it; the furnishings of the apartment - a complex of functional signs (text), carrying information about the degree of wealth of the owners; a shovel on the shoulder indicates that the person has been or is about to do earthwork.

Not only objects, but also the actions of people can act as functional signs: when a teacher begins to slide his finger over a class magazine, this is a sign that he will now call someone to answer.

Functional signs are a product of human activity, therefore they are systematized by it.

Examples of functional sign systems:

• production equipment (any mechanism or detail is a sign that carries information about the entire technical system, of which it is an element);
• furnishings for urban or rural life;
• clothes;
• "Body language" - facial expressions, gestures, postures, etc.

CONVENTIONAL SIGNS

This is a fundamentally different class of signs compared to natural and functional ones.Conventional signs are signs in the full sense of the word.If for objects that act as natural and functional signs, the sign function is secondary and is performed by them, as it were, "in combination" with their main functions, then for conventional signs this function is the main and main one. They are created specifically to fulfill it.

Distinguish 4 types of conventional signs:

1. Signals - notice or warning signs. Giving them a certain meaning is the result of an agreement, a contract. People are familiar with this meaning of signals from childhood.

Example: color signaling of traffic lights; school (university) call.

The meaning of many special signals becomes known only as a result of training.

Examples: flag signaling in the fleet, navigation signals.

2. Indices - Symbols of some objects or situations that have a compact, easily visible form and are used in order to distinguish these objects and situations from a number of others. Sometimes (but not necessarily)them try to choose so that the appearanceprompted them what they should denote.

Examples: instrument readings; cartographic signs; conventional icons in diagrams; emblems and insignia in military uniform.

3. Images - their main feature is the similarity with what they mean.

Examples: picture signs (designation of pedestrian crossings, toilet rooms, etc.)

4. Symbols - signs that do not simply indicate the depicted object, butexpress its meaning, that is, in a visual-figurative form, they convey abstract ideas and concepts associated with this object.

Examples: emblems, coats of arms, orders, banners; wheel in Buddhism, cross in Christianity, crescent in Islam.

The meaning of a symbol is often multilevel, and at different levels of its understanding, it can include various historical and cultural semantic layers. The deep historical and cultural meaning of a symbol can sometimes be understandable only to those who know its origin.

• Consider, for example, the coat of arms of Russia. The two-headed eagle depicted in it is a symbol of the Russian state. At a deeper level, it is a symbol of the strength, power of the state, its eagle "flight height". But for those who know history and remember that this proud two-headed bird flew to us on the wings of Christianity from Byzantium, the coat of arms of which it was, another meaning is revealed in the Russian coat of arms: the connection of cultures, the historical continuity of Christian culture. If we take into account that Byzantium was an empire that inherited the state sign of the once mighty Roman Empire, which by force of arms conquered a huge territory, then a new semantic register is included in the content of this symbol: the idea of \u200b\u200bimperial power and power, world domination, victorious wars and conquests, Caesarian glory. You can go even further: the double-headed eagle was at first the sign of one of the best Roman legions (and even earlier, probably, the totem sign of the tribe from which it was formed); this legion was famous not only for military prowess, but also for ferocity towards enemies. This gives the content of the symbol new semantic shades.

Of particular importance are figurative and symbolic systems in art - "artistic languages". Each art form introduces its own figurative and symbolic language. In this sense, one can speak of the languages \u200b\u200bof painting and architecture, music and dance, theater and cinema, etc.

VERBAL SIGNING SYSTEMS - NATURAL LANGUAGES

These are the most important sign systems created by people. They are called "natural" to distinguish them from artificial - for example, formalized - languages. There are several thousand natural languages \u200b\u200bin the world - from 2500 to 5000 (their exact number is impossible to establish, since there are no unambiguous criteria for distinguishing different languages \u200b\u200bfrom different dialects of the same language).

Any natural language is a historically developed sign system that forms the basis of the entire culture of the people speaking it. No other sign system can compare with it in its cultural meaning.

You can point to a number of advantages of the language over other sign systems:

the language is economical and easy to use - after all, pronouncing the sounds of articulate speech does not require any noticeable expenditure of energy from a person, does not need any preliminary preparation of any material resources, leaves his hands free and, at the same time, allows transferring sufficiently large amounts of information in a relatively short time;

language is reliable as a means of storing and transmitting information. This is achieved due to the fact that, despite its efficiency, it is "redundant", that is, it encodes information in more characters than is necessary for its perception. This allows us to correctly determine the content of language messages even when the message contains gaps and distortions.

• The redundancy of modern languages \u200b\u200breaches 70-80%. This means that we can understand the message even if only 1 / 5-1 / 6 of it reaches us. In business, socio-political, and scientific texts, there is usually more redundancy than in fictional ones (typists know that poetry is the most difficult to retype, even though rhyme helps to avoid mistakes in line endings). There is especially great redundancy - up to 95% - in negotiations between pilots and dispatchers ("Seagull", "Seagull", I "Falcon", "Falcon", I call "Seagull", answer, answer ... "): here it is very important to ensure reliable communication.

The three most important communicative functions of the language:

Reference function aimed at the subject of the message. It consists in transmitting information about him.The speaker's task is to formulate the meaning of his message with the help of language as much as possible.

Expressive function associated with the reflection in the message of the identity of the author. Speech acts as a means of personal self-expression. The author conveys his feelings, experiences and emotions, his attitude to what is being discussed. The author's feelings about the subject of speech can be expressed both directly - through their verbal designation ("I like it"), and indirectly - for example, through the use of epithets ("nightmare incident").

Impressive function is focused on the person to whom the message is addressed. Thanks to her, the addressee receives not only information about the subject of the message, but also emotional impressions - both about this subject and about the author. This function allows you to evoke certain moods, feelings, desires in the addressee and encourage him to take some action.

ICON RECORDING SYSTEMS

Writing is the most important of the systems for writing signs.

This type of sign systems includes, for example, the alphabet, musical notation.

A feature of this type of sign systems is that they arise on the basis of other sign systems - spoken language, music - and are secondary to them.

The invention of sign recording systems is one of the greatest achievements of human thought. The emergence and development of writing played a particularly important role in the history of culture. It can be said without any exaggeration that only its creation allowed human culture to get out of its initial, primitive state. Without writing, the development of science, technology, art, law, etc., etc., would be impossible.

The basic sign of writing is not a word, as in spoken language, but a smaller and more abstract unit - a letter. At the same time, the number of basic signs of the system decreases and becomes visible. This leads to fundamental changes in the logic of using the sign system. Qualitatively new methods of processing, perception and transmission of information are becoming possible.

Writing creates an opportunity to significantly increase the vocabulary of the language. In tribal unwritten languages, words that were rarely used simply disappeared from social memory, new ones came to replace forgotten words. The dictionary of such languages \u200b\u200bcontains no more than 10-15 thousand words. In modern languages, over the course of their long history of using writing, words are accumulated and their number reaches half a million.

With the advent of writing, language norms and rules begin to take shape. This makes it possible to create a standardized literary language. In it, persistent grammatical forms are developed, speech turns and structures are complicated. There are also methods of text processing that are fundamentally unrealizable in oral speech: the selection of paragraphs and sections, the separation of the main content and comments, footnotes, pointers to it, the introduction of graphic design that makes it easier to understand the meaning, tables, text headings, etc. As a result, they are enriched and improved ways of expressing thoughts in language, the accuracy and depth of transmission of its subtlest nuances increase.

Written language allows society to broadcast information that far exceeds the memory of an individual. Libraries are emerging that serve as repositories of knowledge and make it available to future generations. The temporal and spatial boundaries of communication are removed: communication becomes possible between people living at great distances from each other and at different historical times.

One of the important directions in the development of recording systems was the creationformalized languages, playing an important role in modern logic and mathematics, and, consequently, in all sciences using the logical and mathematical apparatus. The development of electronic computing technology is associated with the development of formalized languages, which now largely determines the fate of the further cultural progress of mankind.

10. Relaxation function

Relaxation - the art of physical and mental relaxation, relaxation. Natural means of discharge - laughter, crying, fits of anger, physical violence, screaming, declaration of love, confession. All of them belong to the category of individual.

To relieve collective tension, stylized forms are used: amusements, holidays, festivals, rituals.

A powerful means of relaxation isa game ... Its essence lies in the satisfaction of instincts by symbolic means. While playing, the participants in the game both believe and do not believe in the reality of what is happening. The game not only relaxes, it trains skill, the ability to find a way out of critical situations, enhances the motivation for achievement. The good thing about the game is that it releases unconscious impulses hidden inside, secret drives and addictions forbidden by culture. Thus, it is possible to bypass the norms during the game. Latent sexual motives and addictions ("bottle"), motives of death (playing "war", bullfighting) are realized through the game.

Outcome:

Despite the listed set of functions, in events and phenomena of culture we are always faced with the unity of functions. Their dismemberment and classification is always arbitrary. In the world of culture, all functions are intricately intertwined and mutually complement each other.

Lecture number 3

Typology of culture

Plan:

1. Foundations of the typology of culture
2. Types of culture
3. Forms of culture
4. Complex types of culture

1. Foundations of the typology of culture

There can be many criteria, or grounds, for the typology of cultures, for example: connection with religion; regional cultural affiliation; regional and ethnic peculiarity; belonging to the historical type of society; economic structure; sphere of society or type of activity; connection with the territory; specialization; skill level and type of audience, etc.

When they talk about artistic, economic or political cultures, experts call them either varieties of the culture of society, or spheres of the culture of society. Let's briefly consider the main varieties (spheres) of culture.

In cultural studies, there is no consensus on what to consider as species, forms, types, branches of culture, as one of the options, the following conceptual scheme can be proposed.

Branches of culture should be called such a set of norms, rules and models of human behavior that constitute a relatively closed area in the whole.

Types of culture it is necessary to name such sets of norms, rules and models of human behavior that constitute relatively closed areas, but are not parts of a single whole.

We must classify any national or ethnic culture as a cultural type. The types of culture should include not only regional and ethnic formations, but also historical and economic ones.

Forms of culture refer to such sets of rules, norms and models of human behavior that cannot be considered completely autonomous entities; they are also not part of any whole. High or elite culture, folk culture and popular culture are called forms of culture because they represent a special way of expressing artistic content.

By types of culture we will call such sets of rules, norms and behaviors that are varieties of a more general culture. We will refer to the main types of culture:

a) the dominant (national) culture, subculture and counterculture;

b) rural and urban culture;

c) everyday and specialized culture.

Require special conversationspiritual and material culture... They cannot be classified as branches, forms, types or types of culture, since these phenomena combine, to varying degrees, all four classification features. It is more correct to consider spiritual and material culture as combined, or complex, formations that stand aside from the general conceptual scheme.

Variety spiritual culture artistic , and a varietymaterial - physical Culture... We will talk about them separately.

The proposed typology of cultures should not be considered the ultimate truth. She is very approximate and loose. Nevertheless, it has undoubted advantages: logical soundness and consistency.

2. Types of culture

2.1. Dominant culture

The set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs by which most members of a given society are guided is calledthe dominant, or dominant, culture.

The dominant culture may benational or ethnic depending on how complex the society is and how populous the country is.

Ethnic culture - a set of cultural features related mainly to everyday life, everyday culture. It has a core and a periphery. Ethnic culture includes tools, customs, customs, customary law, values, buildings, clothing, food, means of transportation, housing, knowledge, beliefs, and types of folk art.

Experts distinguish two layers in ethnic culture:

historically early (lower), formed by cultural elements inherited from the past;

historically late (upper), consisting of new formations, modern cultural phenomena.

The lower layer includes the most stable elements, enshrined in a centuries-old tradition. Therefore, it is believed that they constitute the framework of ethnic culture. With this approach, ethnic culture appears as a unity of continuity and renewal. The renewal of culture can be exogenous (borrowed) and endogenous (arising within the culture without outside influence). The continuity, stability of ethnic culture rests on the action of two types of mechanisms for the transmission of tradition: intragenerational traditions that have been in effect for several years or decades and cover only a part of the ethnic group (adjacent age groups); intergenerational traditions that have existed for a historically long time and act as a mechanism for the transmission of values \u200b\u200bfrom generation to generation.

Ethnic culture - this is the culture of people connected with each other by a common origin (blood relationship) and jointly carried out economic activities, unity, so to speak, "blood and soil", which is why it changes from one locality to another. Local limitations, rigid localization, isolation in a relatively narrow social space (tribe, community, ethnic group) are one of the main features of this culture. It is dominated by the power of tradition, habit, once and for all accepted customs, passed down from generation to generation at the family or neighborhood level.

If ethnos indicates the socio-cultural, territorial, economic and linguistic community of people, then the nation denotes an association of people with a social structure and political organization.

Structure national culture harder ethnic. National culture includes, along with the traditional, everyday, professional and everyday, also specialized areas of culture. And since the nation encompasses society, and society has a stratification and social structure, the concept of national culture encompasses the subcultures of all large groups that the ethnic group may not have. Moreover, ethnic cultures are part of the national one. Take such young nations as the United States or Brazil, nicknamed ethnic cauldrons. American national culture is extremely heterogeneous, it includes Irish, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, Russian, Jewish and other ethnic cultures. Most modern national cultures are multi-ethnic.

National culture is not reduced to the mechanical sum of ethnic cultures. It has something beyond that. It has proper national cultural features that emerged when representatives of all ethnic groups realized their belonging to a new nation. For example, both Africans and whites are equally enthusiastic about singing the US anthem and honoring the American flag, respecting its laws and national holidays. The awareness of large social groups of their adherence to the territory of their settlement, the national literary language, national traditions and symbols constitutes the content of the national culture. "

Unlike ethnic culture, national culture unites people who live in large areas and are not necessarily related by blood and kinship relations.

Experts believe that a prerequisite for the emergence of national culture is a new type of social communication associated with the invention of writing, with the moment of the birth of the literary language and national literature. It is thanks to writing that the ideas necessary for national unification are gaining popularity among the literate part of the population.

Thus, a national culture is built on the foundation of a written culture, while an ethnic culture can be completely non-written, for example, the culture of backward tribes that have survived to this day. But that and the other culture, in relation to all other types of culture in a given territory, should be called dominant.

That is why national culture is studied primarily by philology, which deals with written monuments, and ethnic culture is studied by ethnography and anthropology, dealing primarily with preliterary literature.

2.2. Subculture and counterculture

Since society splits into many groups - national, demographic, social, professional - each of them gradually forms its own culture, that is, a system of values \u200b\u200band rules of behavior. Small cultural worlds are called subcultures.

One language has several dialects. Groups speaking different dialects are subcultures, groups speaking different languages \u200b\u200bare different cultures. When people from two groups, despite the dissimilarity of lifestyle details, share common basic values \u200b\u200band therefore can communicate freely, their cultures are just variants of one, dominant culture.

Subculture - it is a part of the general culture of the nation, in some aspects celebrated or opposed to the whole, but in the main outlines consistent and continuing the culture of the nation, which was called the dominant culture. The subculture differs from the dominant culture in language, outlook on life, demeanor, hairstyle, clothing, customs. The differences can be very strong, but the subculture is not opposed to the dominant culture. It includes a number of values \u200b\u200bof the dominant culture and adds to them new values \u200b\u200bthat are unique to it.

Contraculi denotes a subculture that not only differs from the dominant culture, but opposes, is in conflict with the dominant values.

An example of counterculture, according to the famous American sociologist N. Smelzer, is the culture of bohemia.“Among other bohemian values, stand out is the desire for self-expression, the desire to live in the present, the demand for complete freedom, the promotion of equality between men and women and the love of exoticism. This implies the denial of such values \u200b\u200bof the dominant culture as self-discipline, self-restraint in the present for the sake of a reward in the future, materialism, success in accordance with generally accepted rules. "

The emergence of counterculture is actually quite common and widespread. The dominant culture, which is opposed by the counterculture, orders only part of the symbolic space of a given society. She is not able to cover all the variety of phenomena. The rest is divided between sub- and countercultures. Both are extremely important to the dominant culture, although it looks at some with distrust, and at others with hostility. The countercultures were early Christianity at the beginning of the new era, then religious sects, later medieval utopian communes, and then the ideology of the Bolsheviks.

Sometimes it is difficult or impossible to make a clear distinction between subculture and counterculture. In such cases, both names are applied on equal terms to one phenomenon.

The criminal subculture that grows in collective prisons, which are called "factories of violence", is characterized by specific behavior, rules and even language. It has its own system of hierarchy and privileges. "Especially privileged" (boss, hillock, horn of the zone) - informal leaders, have the best sleeping place, the best food, exploit others. "Just privileged" (greyhound, denied) - handy and advisers to the boss. They are executors of his will and interpreters of norms. Below the stairs are the "neutral" (boys) - the bulk of the convicts. They are forbidden to contact and provide assistance to the "unprivileged" (sixes, ingots, schnyri) who are used for dirty work and serve as an instrument of bullying the "deprived".

3. Forms of culture

Depending on who creates culture and what is its level, sociologists distinguish three forms of it:elite, popular, mass.

3.1. High culture

Elite (high) culture created by a privileged part of society, or by its order by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature. High culture (for example, Picasso painting or Schoenberg's music) is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an average educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary critics, regulars of museums and exhibitions, theater-goers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population grows, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its variety includes secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is “art for art”.

We will talk more about high culture in the paragraphs on artistic culture and art, as well as in a special section on the history of world artistic culture.

3.2. Folk culture

Folk culture consists of two types - popular and folk culture. When a company of drunken friends sings songs of Alla Pugacheva or "Rush of the reed", then we are talking about popular culture, and when an ethnographic expedition from the depths of Russia brings material about carols or Russian laments, they talk about folk culture. As a result, popular culture describes today's life, manners, customs, songs, dances of the people, and folk culture describes its past. Legends, fairy tales and other genres of folklore were created in the past, and today they exist as a historical heritage. Some of this heritage is still being performed today, which means that part of the folk culture has entered popular culture, which, in addition to historical legends, is constantly replenished with new formations, for example, modern urban folklore.

Thus, in folk culture, in turn, two levels can be distinguished - high, associated with folklore and including folk legends, fairy tales, epics, ancient dances, etc., and reduced, limited to the so-called pop culture.

The authors of folk creations (tales, lamentations, epics) are often unknown, but these are highly artistic compositions. Myths, legends, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs and dances belong to the highest creations of folk culture. They cannot be classified as elite culture only because they were created by anonymous folk creators: “Folk culture arose in ancient times. Its subject is the entire people, not individual professionals. Therefore, the functioning of folk culture is inseparable from the work and life of people. Its authors are often anonymous, works usually exist in many variants, passed orally from generation to generation. In this regard, one can talk about folk art (folk songs, tales, legends), folk medicine (medicinal herbs, conspiracies), folk pedagogy, the essence of which is often expressed in proverbs and sayings. "

In terms of performance, elements of folk culture can be individual (presentation of a legend), group (performance of a dance or song), mass (carnival processions).

The audience of folk culture is always the majority of society. This was the case in traditional and industrial society. The situation is changing only in a post-industrial society.

3.3. Mass culture

Mass culture does not express the refined tastes or spiritual quest of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when the mass media (radio, print, television) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. Popular culture can be international and national. Pop music is a vivid example of this: it is understandable and accessible to all ages, to all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.

Popular culture, as a rule, has less artistic value than elite or folk culture. But she has the widest audience and she is the author's. She satisfies the immediate needs of people, reacts to any new event and reflects it. Therefore, its samples, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete, go out of fashion. This does not happen with the works of elite and folk culture. High culture denotes the passions and habits of the townspeople, aristocrats, the rich, the ruling elite, and popular culture is the culture of the lower classes. The same kinds of art can belong to high and popular culture; classic; music - high, and popular music - massive, Fellini's films - high, and action films - massive, Picasso's paintings - high, and popular prints - massive. However, there are genres of literature (fiction, detective stories and comics) that are always classified as popular or popular culture, but never high. The same thing happens with specific works of art.

Bach's Organ Mass refers to high culture, but if it is used as musical accompaniment in figure skating competitions, it is automatically enrolled in the category of mass culture, without losing its belonging to high culture. Numerous orchestrations of Bach's works in the style of light music, jazz or rock do not compromise high culture at all.

The difference between high and popular culture is about the same as between national and ethnic. High culture, like national culture, can only be written, while ethnic and folk culture can be anything. High (elite) culture is created by the educated stratum of society, and folk and ethnic culture is created mainly by the uneducated. Small in size and historically more ancient, ethnic culture, as soon as many peoples merge and form a single national culture, turns into a folk culture: “The creators and consumers of written culture are those who can read and write, that is, the educated strata of society , who at the initial stage of its formation represent a clear minority in comparison with the illiterate population. This educated minority becomes the bearer of the national culture ”.

High and national culture is created not by an ethnic group or people, but by the educated part of society - writers, artists, philosophers, scientists. As a rule, high culture is at first experimental, or avant-garde, in nature. For the first time, those artistic techniques are used that will be perceived and correctly understood by wide layers of non-professionals many years later. Experts sometimes call the term 50 years. With such a delay, the samples of the highest artistic culture are ahead of their time.

When the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917, the first thing they did was to reduce the cultural lag, urging all artists not to get carried away with form creation, but to speak in a language understandable to the common people. They put forward the slogan "Art must be understandable to the people," attributing it to the outstanding German Marxist Rosa Luxemburg. But, as it turned out later, R. Luxemburg was actually saying something else: “Art must be understood by the people”. The first formula assumes that the artist, the creator of high culture, must descend to the level of primitive consciousness, the second requires the illiterate, semi-educated peasantry to rise to the level of perception of world masterpieces, constantly learn and improve.

For a while, high culture not only can, but must remain alien to the people. Like good wine, it must be endured, and the viewer must mature creatively during this time. For 50 years, any avant-garde and unusual work has managed to turn almost into a retrograde, conservative. With each decade, the distance between high and popular culture is decreasing. Today, avant-garde, especially in popular culture, becomes fashion almost the next day.

4. Complex types of culture

4.1. Art culture

Its essence lies in the fact that a person called an artist (and he can be not only a professional, but also a folk craftsman), thanks to his developed feelings, figuratively cognizes and figuratively models some fragment of reality, and then transmits it to the viewer or listener in an aesthetically expressive form, be it a poem, romance or dance.

Everything created by professionals and amateurs is included in the concept of artistic culture. And what is created by masters of their craft, professionals, and worthy of being preserved for centuries as having the highest value for society, is art. Art is part of artistic culture. It is the tip of the iceberg.

Figure: 3. The ratio of artistic culture and art

The nature of the material determines the type of art. Sound gives us music. The word gives two types of art at once:

oral speech - oratory, written - literature. Etc.

Whatever area of \u200b\u200bartistic culture we take - theoretical or practical, fundamental or applied - any activity, brought to the highest skill, turns into art.

We will continue our conversation about artistic culture and art in the next chapters.

4.2. Physical Culture

In a broad sense, it means the cultivation or cultivation of the human body. Hence the second name - bodily culture. It is understood as maintaining health, vitality, physical fitness.

Widely understood physical culture includes:

1) physical education itself, i.e. amateur physical exercise;

2) sport as a professional exercise in order to achieve the highest achievements and receive wages and fees for their activities;

3) cultivation of a healthy lifestyle, refusal from alcohol and smoking, regular physical education;

4) specialized types of adornment or body improvement, for example, bodybuilding (bodybuilding), plastic surgery of the face and cosmetics, tattoos and art painting, weight loss (including such exalted forms of weight loss as yoga exercises and religious asceticism) and medical fasting;

5) sports, amateur and professional dances, including competitions and competitions for dancers, folk dances and round dances, dance halls and discos, break dance, etc .;

6) modern and traditional medicine, aimed at ridding the body of physical ailments, injuries, ailments,

According to some culturologists, the professional culture of physicality has two main forms: medicine and sports. Medicine is an institution for mass maintenance of human health. It includestraditional and alternative medicine. The first is based on a solid and experimentally proven system of scientific knowledge. The second has two varieties:ethnoscience - proven by long practice methods of treatment used by people who do not have a formal certificate from a medical university, but have proven their effectiveness;pseudo-folk medicine - false forms of traditional medicine, deception and quackery, which have proven ineffective. Witchcraft is a type of the first form of traditional medicine. It is wrong to compare traditional and alternative medicine to professional and amateur sports, since there are many professionals among traditional healers, and among doctors there are many inept specialists.

This is, in general terms, the typology of types and forms of physical culture. As in artistic culture, here you can distinguish the main and summit parts of the iceberg. We will refer to sports any highest achievements or manifestations of the highest skill in every kind of physical culture. They constitute art, that is, the results of professional physical education. For example, sports dancing is a sport, and a round dance or discot dance is an amateur activity. Body tattooing in one case is a profanation, and in the other it turns into an independent art.

So, in physical culture, some activities are completelyprofessional, while in others, which remain primarily amateur, some achievements or varieties appear professional. In general, their ratio is approximately 50:50. The relationship between amateur and professional activities can be depicted schematically.

Figure: 4. The relationship of amateur and professional activities in physical culture

When discussing types of culture, we will use the terms “simple” and “preliterate”, as well as “complex” and “written” society. Preliterate means no written language and accordingly describes most pre-agricultural societies; The agricultural society belongs to the historical, since the written language already existed.

According to the economic structure the following main types of culture are distinguished: the culture of hunters and gatherers, the culture of gardeners and farmers; the culture of pastoralists; the culture of farmers; industrial (industrial) culture

This classification is based on the way of obtaining means of subsistence. Such types of culture, which are based on the economic structure, are called the economic and cultural type in the literature.

Economic and cultural type - a historically formed complex of economic and cultural features characteristic of peoples living in certain (similar) natural-geographical conditions, at a certain (similar) level of their socio-economic development.

One economic and cultural type, for example, primitive hunters and gatherers, is subdivided into a number of subtypes: the culture of hunters of the periglacial zone, tropical hunters and gatherers, gatherers of the coastal coasts. In addition to subtypes, the directions of the economic and cultural structure are distinguished: hoe farmers and forest hunters, irrigated farmers and semi-nomadic pastoralists, irrigated farmers of tropical valleys and dry slash-and-burn farmers of neighboring highlands, etc.

Due to the fact that technical progress was constantly moving forward, and the means of production developed accordingly, the classification of types of economic culture is of an evolutionary nature.

The evolution of HCT can be presented in the table.

Socio-economic era	Economic development stages	Economic and cultural type	Mode of production
Precivilizational (primary)	Appropriating	Wandering hunting, gathering of the tropics, specialized hunting and gathering. Hiking taiga hunting, coastal fishing and gathering. Arctic sea animal hunting and deer hunting. Hunting, fishing and gathering with the beginnings of farming and cattle breeding.	Archaic. Primitive appropriator.
		Producing early	The complexity of the households of the early businessmen of the subtropics. Warehouse and livestock raising in the temperate zone. Reindeer husbandry of taiga and tundra. Hand-held businessmen in the tropics.	Primitive-producing.
		Manufacturing extensive	Shepherd cattle breeding. Nomadic and semi-nomadic. Traditional s / business w / vodstvo pregos-x society-in Africa. Z / business and w / management of forest and forest-steppe zones of Eurasia.	Patriarchal-shepherd. Nomadism. African. Barbaric. Prefeudal
Civilizational (secondary)	Producing intensive	Plow and manual wares ancient. tsiv-tsiy subtropics and tropics North. Africa, Asia, Center. and Yuzh. America. Plow s / work dr. Greece and Rome. Plow s / work average Strips, s / secular manual and plow products, craft and trade.	"Asiatic". State-despotic. Slave-owning. Feudal.

Lecture number 4

Culture and civilization.

Plan:

1. Culture and civilization.
2. Values \u200b\u200bof a modern person.

1. Culture and civilization.

As evidenced by research experience, an analysis of the etymology of a concept gives little to clarify its meaning. The category is the essence of a permanently changing convention of the scientific community, and therefore the boundaries of the main definitions used in cultural studies should be outlined, referring not to linguistic analysis, but to the historical tradition and to the essential interpretation of the concepts of "culture" and "civilization" by various schools and authors.

Today there are several hundred definitions of the category "culture". The task is not only to articulate the content that we put into this concept, but in its relation to the concept of "civilization".

In relation to these categories, the following basic paradigms of understanding are possible:

1. culture is identical to civilization;
2. culture is wider than civilization if the latter is only the final stage of its development and, therefore, it is something opposite to it;
3. culture already, if civilization implies both spiritual and material activities, and culture acts as a civilizational core, exclusively in the form of spiritual creativity;
4. it is possible to dilute the selected concepts, when culture is understood only as spiritual activity, and civilization is material.

The concept of "culture" arises in antiquity and is associated with the cultivation of land, its cultivation, which is natural, since agriculture is the first type of artificial human activity aimed at transforming the natural environment around him.

During the existence of high ancient cultures, the semantics of the concept became more complex, incorporating a spiritual element - good breeding, the level of education of a person, and later an urban lifestyle.

The Middle Ages put forward belief in God and religiosity as a defining parameter of culture.

The Enlightenment saw in culture primarily the rationality of man. It was in this era that progressive views on the socio-cultural development of mankind begin to dominate. French enlightenersXVIII centuries (Voltaire, Turgot, Condorcet) reduced the content of cultural and historical progress to the development of the human mind. Culture and civilization were opposed to the savagery and barbarism of primitive peoples. The cultural level was measured by the totality of achievements in the field of sciences and arts.

However, already within the framework of the Enlightenment, criticism is heard against those who extol the value of enlightenment, and, consequently, culture. Rousseau asserts the need to revive the simplicity and purity of morals that are at the patriarchal stage of existence. The development of sciences and arts, in his opinion, contributed only to the moral depravity of society. "Not only do our souls corrupt as the sciences and arts develop," but vice versa, "the sciences and arts owe their birth to our vices." "The politicians of antiquity constantly talked about morality and virtue, while our contemporaries constantly talk only about trade and money." (J.-J. Rousseau "Discourse on the Arts and Sciences".)

This criticism was positively received by representatives of German classical philosophy, which gave it the character of a general theoretical understanding of the contradictions of the beginning of the civilizational path of development of the countries of Western Europe. In the works of Kant, Schelling, Hegel, culture appears as an area of \u200b\u200bhuman spiritual freedom, which lies outside the boundaries of his natural and social existence. The German philosophical tradition, while recognizing the many different cultures, nevertheless builds them into one historical sequence, representing the single spiritual evolution of mankind.

A special place in the formation of ideas about culture isXIX century. In post-classical German philosophy, critical views of Rousseau's culture are reinterpreted in the writings of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Their appearance marked the beginning of a powerful pessimistic trend in cultural studies. So, according to Schopenhauer, the evil Will forms an inhuman environment, where there is no place for a moral person. Nietzsche treats culture as a means of suppressing and enslaving him. We find further development of these ideas in the works of Spengler, Freud and their numerous followers.

At the same time, another concept of cultural development is being developed - a progressive one, based on the ideas of evolutionism. As you know, the last thirdXIX century passed under the banner of evolutionism, which was literally in the air, penetrating into various fields of knowledge, both natural science and humanitarian. It is no coincidence that in 1871 Charles Darwin's epochal book “The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection” and the work of E. B. Taylor “Primitive Culture” were published, the latter introduces the concept of “culture” into scientific circulation within the framework of evolutionary ideas about the development of human society. This lays the foundations for a new humanitarian knowledge - anthropology and cultural studies.

In the social anthropology of B. Malinovsky, Radcliffe-Brown, the concept of social structure becomes the main one, and culture is considered according to its constituent institutions. Social anthropologists regard structure as a necessary element of the stability of society, and define culture as a set of rules that allows such an education to develop.

Within the framework of cultural anthropology, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe communicative properties of culture was developed, the dominant role of culture in the transmission of social heritage from generation to generation was emphasized. Language began to be considered as the basis for the study of the structure of culture, which contributed to the introduction of methods of semiotics, structural linguistics, mathematics and cybernetics (E. Sapir, K. Levi-Strauss) into the teaching of culture. Structural anthropology, however, wrongly viewed culture as an extremely stable construct, disregarding cultural transformations. The emergence of the psychology of culture (R. Benedict, M. Mead, M. Herskovitz) is associated with the search for a solution to the problem of “culture - personality”. Based on the concept of Freud, who interpreted culture as a mechanism of social suppression and sublimation of unconscious mental processes, as well as on the concept of neo-Freudians (G. Roheim, K. Horney, H. Sullivan) about culture as a sign fixation of direct mental experiences, representatives of this trend interpreted culture as expression of the basic mental states inherent in a person. “Cultural samples” began to be considered as mechanisms of adaptation that contribute to the social and cultural adaptation of the individual (M. Mead, J. Murdoch).

The concept of the symbolic properties of culture was based on the teachings of Cassirer and Jung. A number of representatives of cultural psychology, relying on the concept of “local civilizations”, sought to find a set of “cultural invariants” that are not reducible to each other and do not have a real substrate (Sapir, B. Wharf, Benedict, Herskovitz). On the contrary, supporters of the phenomenological approach to culture, as well as some representatives of existentialism, put forward an assumption about the universality of the content of any particular culture, proceeding either from the statement about the universality of the structures of consciousness (Husserl), or from the postulate of the psychobiological unity of mankind (Jung), or from the idea of \u200b\u200ba certain " fundamental basis ”,“ axial primordiality ”of culture, in relation to which all its varieties are only“ particulars ”or“ ciphers ”(Heidegger, Jaspers).

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe impossibility of the existence of a single culture is popular today. This finds expression in the theory of polycentrism, the initial opposition of West and East, which denies the general laws of social development.

Such a variety of interpretations can be explained by the fact that culture expresses the depth and immeasurability of human existence. And each researcher focuses his attention only on one or several (separate) aspects of this phenomenon, since it is impossible to cover all factors affecting the object under study. Let us emphasize that the variety of interpretations of fundamental categories is another confirmation of the extreme complexity of the object under study, which occurs due to the multifactorial functioning of culture.

So, culture in a broad sense is all human activity, in a narrow sense - spiritual activity, in a specifically culturological sense - value activity serving the moral self-improvement of a person. The last limitation of this concept is fundamentally important, since it allows one to exclude activities that cannot be combined with general human ideas about morality (for example, racial, nationalistic and other theories and acts based on them) outside the cultural category. In culture, spiritual life is symbolically expressed. According to Berdyaev, the origin of civilization is worldly, it was born as a result of man's struggle with nature, outside of temples and worship. If culture is a deeply individual and unique phenomenon, then civilization is a general phenomenon and is repeated everywhere.

2. Values \u200b\u200bof a modern person.

Culture today is a supernatural environment, but initially it is intranatural. Nature is a necessary condition for human existence. An attributive property of a person is the ability to work, to creative work, as a result of which he creates a “second nature” - cultural space. Culture is not a cloudless acquisition of a person; its birth bears retribution, a payback for the acquisition. Culture is good and evil at the same time.

Man transforms and completes nature. Culture is creativity. There was not and there is no natural man, from the source to the sunset of history there is only a creative man, that is, a cultured one. “The search for a person before culture is in vain; his appearance on the bank of history should be regarded as a cultural phenomenon” (A. de Benois).

Man, society and culture are inseparable, like a plant and the soil on which it grows. Man is the connecting link between nature and culture. Culture is nature that re-creates a person, thereby establishing himself as a person. Man alone is the only creature capable of continuous innovation. Culture is the result of all human activity. Not every activity generates culture, but only that part of it that bears a sacred character and is associated with the search for the meanings of being. Human activity is diverse: in one case, it generates culture, and in the other - civilization. Lack of innovation in activities allows us to differentiate culture from civilization.

Culture is not only a social, but, above all, an anthropological phenomenon. It is based on human disorder in nature, human need for the realization of those impulses that are not instinctive. Culture is a phenomenon born of the incompleteness, openness of human nature, the deployment of human creative activity, aimed at searching for the sacred meaning of being and moral self-improvement (Gurevich).

The end of the cycle of socialist culture in the mid-1980s in Russia led to the disintegration of the usual image of the world, to social disorientation and to the search for new cultural models that could restore the world as a whole. The problem has moved on to the anthropological plane, since disorientation is a person's loss of the ability to adequately behave in society.

Rapid changes in politics, economics, and culture shocked the Soviet people, since identification processes are institutionalized, and therefore the destruction of the latter or their radical reorganization leads to de-identification. The most affected by socio-cultural transformations are law-abiding citizens who are oriented towards positive cultural patterns that require stable and long-term motivation; least of all - individuals with a low level of claims, or adventurers, because life for them is a short adventure. According to Ionin, the adventurer is a very characteristic figure for Russia, including modern Russia.

The emerging information society is shaping a new type of person. If in an industrial society a rational person develops, then in a post-industrial society there is a hyper-rational person of the information age, "a person is a computer", whose characteristics are:

Over-awareness,

Lack of systematized knowledge,

Surface representations,

High-speed processing according to the scheme: accepted - processed - issued - received the result. Anything that does not fit into this scheme is rejected.

Deep knowledge is the result of a versatile approach to problems. Recent studies show that a modern young person is not aware of the contradictions of the intellect, loses interest in fundamental knowledge, hard work of the mind, spiritual self-improvement, and the search for higher meanings of being. Man as an appendage of information systems. Information slavery is an unconscious slavery. The illusion of unlimited freedom.

The problem of the isolation of individuals arises, the problem of human alienation in the world develops into a global one. There is a break in vital spheres: nature, society, man. If until modern times these environments exist in relative unity, then with the advent of bourgeois economic relations, religious transformations and, in general, value changes, the process of tearing these spheres away from each other begins.

However, the positive traits of a person living in the information age should also be noted. Thus, access to the Internet broadens one's horizons, increases the requirements for knowledge of European languages, which contributes to acquaintance with other cultures. It seems that many of the problems associated with the globalization of the dissemination of information have yet to be comprehended, but one would like to hope that such intercultural exchanges of information will help to strengthen intercultural ties or improve mutual understanding.

Within the framework of this topic, it is important to see two facets of the anthropological problem in sociology and cultural studies: how a person generates value and how value determines human behavior in society and in the formation of culture. Value is something all-pervading, defining the meaning of the whole world as a whole, and each person, and each event, and each deed. Every slightest change introduced into the world by any actor has a value side and is undertaken only on the basis of some value points and for their sake. Everything that exists or that is capable of being and in general somehow belongs to the composition of the world is such that it not only is, but also contains a justification or condemnation of its being: about everything we can say that it is good or bad, that it should or should not , should or should not, that it was, that it exists by law or against law (not in the legal sense of the word).

All human activity contains a value component. Relationships in society between people take into account the social status of a person. Respect for a smart or stupid, rich or poor person, etc. indicates a personal value system, and on a society-wide scale, a sociocultural system. Any material carrier presupposes the presence of a spiritual element, which, however, is not directly connected with it, but is exclusively in the consciousness of a person. So, for example, an old ribbon is of great value for a particular person, since it reminds him of happy days, for the uninitiated it is rubbish. A value matters in society when it is shared by many. The history of mankind is the history of a change in the value system.

From all of the above, it becomes obvious that culture plays an important role in the life of society, which consists primarily in the fact that culture acts as a means of accumulation, storage and transmission of human experience.

This role of culture is realized through a number of functions:

Educational and educational function... We can say that it is culture that makes a person a person. An individual becomes a member of society, a person as he socializes, that is, mastering knowledge, language, symbols, values, norms, customs, traditions of his people, his social group and all of humanity. The level of a person's culture is determined by its socialization - familiarization with the cultural heritage, as well as the degree of development of individual abilities. The culture of the individual is usually associated with developed creativity, erudition, understanding of works of art, fluency in native and foreign languages, accuracy, politeness, self-control, high morality, etc. All this is achieved in the process of upbringing and education.

Integrative and disintegrative functions of culture... E. Durkheim paid special attention to these functions in his studies. According to E. Durkheim, the development of culture creates in people - members of a particular community a sense of community, belonging to one nation, people, religion, group, etc. Thus, culture unites people, integrates them, ensures the integrity of the community. But by rallying some on the basis of some subculture, it opposes them to others, separates wider communities and communities. Within these broader communities and communities, cultural conflicts can arise. Thus, culture can and often does a disintegrating function.

Regulatory function of culture... As noted earlier, in the course of socialization, values, ideals, norms and patterns of behavior become part of the personality's self-awareness. They shape and regulate her behavior. We can say that culture as a whole determines the framework in which a person can and should act. Culture regulates human behavior in the family, school, at work, in everyday life, etc., putting forward a system of prescriptions and prohibitions. Violation of these regulations and prohibitions triggers certain sanctions that are established by the community and supported by the power of public opinion and various forms of institutional coercion.

The function of broadcasting (transferring) social experience often called the function of historical continuity, or informational. Culture, which is a complex sign system, transfers social experience from generation to generation, from era to era. In addition to culture, society has no other mechanisms for concentrating all the wealth of experience that has been accumulated by people. Therefore, it is no accident that culture is considered the social memory of humanity.

Cognitive function (epistemological) is closely related to the function of transferring social experience and, in a sense, follows from it. Culture, concentrating the best social experience of many generations of people, acquires the ability to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world and thereby create favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development. It can be argued that society is intelligent to the extent that it fully uses the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of mankind. All types of society that live on Earth today differ significantly, primarily on this basis.

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, and interpersonal relations, culture in one way or another influences people's behavior and regulates their actions and even the choice of certain material and spiritual values. The regulatory function of culture is supported by such normative systems as morality and law.

Sign function is the most important in the system of culture. Being a certain sign system, culture presupposes knowledge and possession of it. It is impossible to master the achievements of culture without studying the corresponding sign systems. So, language (oral or written) is a means of communication between people. The literary language acts as the most important means of mastering the national culture. Specific languages \u200b\u200bare needed for understanding the world of music, painting, theater. Natural sciences also have their own sign systems.

Value, or axiological, the function reflects the most important qualitative state of culture. Culture as a definite system of values \u200b\u200bforms in a person quite definite 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, serves as a criterion for the appropriate assessment.

Social functions of culture

Social functionsthat culture fulfills allow people to carry out collective activities in the best way to satisfy their needs. The main functions of culture include:

• social integration - ensuring the unity of mankind, a community of worldview (with the help of myth, religion, philosophy);
• organization and regulation of the joint life of people through law, politics, morality, customs, ideology, etc .;
• providing the means of life for people (such as cognition, communication, accumulation and transfer of knowledge, upbringing, education, stimulating innovation, selection of values, etc.);
• regulation of certain spheres of human activity (culture of everyday life, culture of recreation, culture of work, food culture, etc.).

Thus, the cultural system is not only complex and diverse, but also very mobile. Culture is an immutable component of the life of both society as a whole and its closely interrelated subjects: individuals, social communities, social institutions.

Adaptive function

The complex and multi-level structure of culture determines the variety of its functions in the life of a person and society. But there is no complete unanimity among cultural scientists regarding the number of functions of culture. Nevertheless, all authors agree with the idea of \u200b\u200ba polyfunctional culture, with the fact that each of its components can perform different functions.

Adaptive function is the most important function of culture, ensuring human adaptation to the environment. It is known that the adaptation of living organisms to their environment is a necessary condition for their survival in the process of evolution. Their adaptation occurs due to the work of the mechanisms of natural selection, heredity and variability, which ensure the survival of individuals most adapted to the environment, the preservation and transmission of useful traits to the next generations. But it happens in a completely different way: a person does not adapt to the environment, to changes in the environment, like other living organisms, but changes the environment in accordance with his needs, remaking it for himself.

The transformation of the environment creates a new, artificial world - culture. In other words, a person cannot lead a natural way of life, like animals, and, in order to survive, creates an artificial habitat around himself, protecting himself from adverse environmental conditions. A person gradually becomes independent of natural conditions: if other living organisms can live only in a certain ecological niche, then a person is able to master any natural conditions for the estimate of the formation of an artificial world of culture.

Of course, a person cannot achieve complete independence from the environment, since the form of culture is largely determined by natural conditions. The type of economy, dwelling, traditions and customs, beliefs, ceremonies and rituals of peoples depend on the natural and climatic conditions. So. the culture of mountain peoples differs from the culture of peoples leading a nomadic lifestyle or engaged in marine fishing, etc. The southern peoples use a lot of spices in their cooking to delay spoilage in hot climates.

As culture develops, humanity provides itself with ever greater security and comfort. The quality of life is constantly improving. But having got rid of old fears and dangers, a person stands face to face in front of new problems that he creates for himself. For example, today there is no need to be afraid of the formidable diseases of the past - the plague or smallpox, but new diseases have appeared, such as AIDS, for which no cure has yet been found, and other deadly diseases created by man himself await their time in military laboratories. Therefore, man needs to defend himself not only from the natural environment, but also from the cultural world, artificially created by man himself.

Adaptive function has a dual nature. On the one hand, it manifests itself in the creation of specific means of protecting a person - means of protection necessary for a person from the outside world. These are all the products of culture that help a person to survive and feel confident in the world: using fire, storing food and other necessary things, creating productive agriculture, medicine, etc. At the same time, they include not only objects of material culture, but also those specific means that a person develops to adapt to life in society, which keep him from mutual extermination and death - state structures, laws, customs, traditions, moral norms, etc. etc.

On the other hand, there are non-specific means of protecting a person - culture as a whole, existing as a picture of the world. Understanding culture as a “second nature”, the world created by man, we emphasize the most important property of human activity and culture - the ability to “duplicate the world”, to isolate sensory-objective and ideally-shaped layers in it. By linking culture with an ideal-imaginative world, we get the most important property of culture - to be a picture of the world, a defined grid of images and meanings through which the surrounding world is perceived. Culture as a picture of the world makes it possible to see the world not as a continuous flow of information, but as ordered and structured information. Any object or phenomenon of the external world is perceived through this symbolic grid, it has a place in this system of meanings, and it will receive an assessment as useful, harmful or indifferent for a person.

Sign function

Sign, significative function (naming) is associated with culture as a picture of the world. The formation of names and titles is very important to a person. If some object or phenomenon is not named, has no name, is not designated by a person, they do not exist for him. Having given a name to an object or phenomenon and evaluating it as threatening, a person simultaneously receives the necessary information that allows him to act in order to avoid danger, since when marking a threat, it is not just given a name, but it fits into the hierarchy of being. Let's give an example. Each of us at least once in our life was ill (not with a mild cold, but with some rather serious illness). At the same time, a person experiences not only painful sensations, feelings of weakness and helplessness. Usually in this state, unpleasant thoughts come to mind, including about a possible fatal outcome, the symptoms of all diseases that I have heard about are remembered. The situation is straightforward according to J. Jerome, one of the heroes of whose novel Three Men in a Boat, Excluding a Dog, while studying a medical reference book, found in himself all diseases except maternity fever. In other words, a person experiences fear because of the uncertainty of his future, because he feels a threat, but knows nothing about it. This significantly worsens the general condition of the patient. In such cases, a doctor is called in, who usually diagnoses and prescribes treatment. But relief occurs even before taking medications, since the doctor, having made a diagnosis, gave a name to the threat, thereby entering it into the picture of the world, which automatically gave information about possible means of combating it.

We can say that culture as an image and picture of the world is an ordered and balanced scheme of the cosmos, is the prism through which a person looks at the world. It is expressed through philosophy, literature, mythology, ideology and in human actions. Most members of the ethnos are fragmentarily aware of its content, in full it is available only to a small number of specialists in culturology. The basis of this picture of the world is ethnic constants - values \u200b\u200band norms of ethnic culture.