Human civilization has reached a high stage of development. And one of the defining signs of this is the diversity of culture.
Definition of the term
Culture, forms of culture and its types - this is a complex and multifaceted concept, covering all spheres of human activity. Perhaps there is no longer a word for which so many definitions exist. But actually, what do we mean by the concept of "culture"? Forms of culture - what are they and how many of them exist?
First of all, this is the development of human society as a whole and its understanding of the beautiful. These are all material and spiritual achievements of civilization. And from this point of view, all that has been and will be done by man is culture. This is why cultural forms are so difficult to clearly differentiate and define. The first instruments of labor are the achievement of mankind, but simple female needlework in this case too.
In addition, culture is a certain level of development of civilization. Therefore, this term is used in history to refer to historical periods: ancient, medieval, modern culture.
In the concept of an ordinary person, this is art, theaters and museums, literature. People, things and even society as a whole are accustomed to evaluate from the point of view of their ideal state: a cultured person, a high culture of performance. Therefore, there are so many definitions of the word "culture".
Three approaches to defining a term
Anthropological is a recognition of the value of the culture of each country and people. This is a broad approach, within the framework of which the largest number of definitions of the concept under consideration is given.
Philosophical - his task is not only to describe cultural phenomena, but also to penetrate their essence, to give them an explanation.
Sociological is the study of culture as one of the main factors in the formation and development of society.
History of the term
Culture arose long before the term denoting it appeared. For the first time this word is found in Ancient Rome, in written sources of the I – II centuries BC. It was a work on agriculture. He belonged to Mark Portia, Cato the Elder, who in his treatise wrote not only about methods of cultivating the land, but also about how to carefully select a plot for farming so that it evokes pleasant emotions and likes his master, otherwise there will be no good culture. Here the word sounded in Latin with the meaning "cultivate something."
In the future, the term received several more meanings from the Romans: upbringing, development, worship.
In Europe, the period of the XVII-XVIII centuries, the word "culture" was first used in the works of the historian Pufendorf. Interestingly, he called a cultured person the one who was brought up, as opposed to uneducated personalities.
The term is commonly used by the German philologist Johann Christoph Adelung. He wrote an essay in which he gave his explanation. By culture, he understood the activity of self-education of an individual person and peoples.
It should be noted that each century added its own contribution to the definition of the word, and this process, most likely, has not yet been completed.
Two concepts of culture
As mentioned above, human civilization has reached a high stage of development. Throughout the existence of society, there was a continuous formation of culture. It exists in history and cannot be considered outside the historical framework. There are two concepts of culture:
1. This is a single development process that equally affects all countries.
2. Each region inhabited by humans has its own unique path of development.
The first concept assumes a single path for the development of culture among all peoples. Those who do not fall within a certain framework are "wild" and "backward." This approach to understanding culture existed until the 20th century.
The second concept dismisses the concept of backwardness of the culture of some peoples and speaks of their uniqueness and a peculiar way of development.
The history of culture: periodization and stages of formation
Traditionally, there are six periods of its formation and development:
1. Primeval. The forms and varieties of the culture of this time were still in their infancy. Rules and norms are just beginning to emerge, mythology and art appear (cave paintings, sculptures).
2. The culture of the Ancient world, which includes the culture of Antiquity and the Ancient East.
3. Culture of the Middle Ages.
4. The culture of the Renaissance, or Renaissance. According to the time frame, it refers to the period of the Middle Ages, but in its scale and influence on the next generations it stands out in a separate period.
5. The culture of the New Age.
6. Modern culture. It begins at the end of the 19th century and exists today.
Science and study methods
The forms and varieties of culture are so diverse that several sciences are engaged in their study. The main ones are cultural studies, cultural anthropology, philosophy and sociology of culture, as well as cultural studies.
Culturology is a modern science that studies the laws of cultural development. The main methods used in the study: historical and logical. The first is aimed at understanding how this or that culture arose, what stages it went through in its development and what it turned into as a result. The second, logical method, allows you to compare, contrast this or that culture with others.
The main forms of culture: general characteristic
The question of typology is one of the most difficult in culturology. It is still the subject of controversy among scientists. The types and forms of culture are too diverse to be able to clearly distinguish them from each other and distinguish them into certain types. Therefore, there are a large number of different types of typology of culture. The typology makes it possible to systematize the objects under consideration according to some of their common features.
The simplest and most understandable is the division into three forms of culture: material, spiritual and physical.
Material culture is all that is done by human hands to satisfy their needs. It includes objects of production and crafts, various structures, tools. Material objects of material culture are called artifacts.
This view has a complex structure consisting of several directions:
1. Agriculture. It ensures the survival of man.
2. Facilities and buildings.
3. Tools that provide physical and mental labor.
4. Transport and communications (mail, radio, telephone, computer networks).
5. Technology.
In the XX century - as a continuation of the material - began to allocate more economic.
Spiritual culture. Its objects are morality, ideology, religion, art, philosophy, literature, folklore, education. That is, everything that is a product of the sphere of consciousness. It is connected not with material objects, but with intelligence, feelings and emotions.
It should be noted that these two types are not always possible to clearly distinguish. For example, the art of design or the great monuments of architecture equally apply to both material and spiritual culture.
The forms of spiritual culture are very diverse and include religion, mythology, art, philosophy.
Religion is a special kind of a person’s relationship to himself and to the world, faith in the existence of higher powers, worship of them. The most important concepts in religion are good and evil, faith, morality.
Mythology is folk tales in the form of epics, tales and myths. They existed at different stages of development in any society and people.
Art is a way of knowing reality. In general, the concept of art, like culture, is very broad and multifaceted.
Philosophy is one of the ways of knowing the world, studying the laws of its development.
Spiritual culture has its own characteristics. She reacts most sensitively to social influences, and her products are valuable in themselves, even without their embodiment in a material form.
Physical culture is a creative type of activity that is expressed in bodily form and is designed to satisfy the primary human needs. It includes: a culture of physical development (everything related to health promotion, up to professional sport), recreational (restoration and maintenance of health) and sexual.
In addition, according to typology, culture is also divided into traditional, industrial and post-industrial.
Forms of culture
Given the complexity and versatility of the term in question, it is also customary to divide the culture into the following forms:
1. World culture is the totality of all the best achievements of mankind in the entire history of its existence.
2. National - a synthesis of material and spiritual values, norms of behavior and beliefs of a nation. As a rule, it is not created by the whole society, but by its most educated part - writers, poets, scientists, artists. Distinguish between national and ethnic cultures. These are different species, although at first glance they are very similar.
3. Ethnic - always strictly localized within certain geographic boundaries. It is uniform in structure and usually covers the sphere of domestic culture.
4. Dominant - traditions, customs, values that are shared only by part of society, but it is the largest or has the tools to influence the rest.
5. Subculture - traditions, norms, rules of conduct of any particular social group. There are a lot of types: hippies, punks, emo, representatives of Gothic, majors, hackers, bikers and others. Sometimes a species becomes the opposite of a dominant culture.
6. Elite (high) - created by professionals on their own, or by order of the privileged sections of society. Her views, in turn, are fine art, literature, classical music.
7. The mass form of culture - it can be called the opposite of the elite. Created on a large scale for a wide range of people. Its main tasks are entertainment and profit. This is one of the youngest forms of culture, which owes its appearance to the rapid development of mass communication in the 20th century. They are divided into the following types:
• Media - television, newspapers, radio. They disseminate information, have a strong influence on society and are targeted at different groups of people.
• Means of mass influence - advertising, cinema, fashion. Their impact on society is not always regular. Most often they are focused on the average consumer, and not on individual groups.
• Means of communication - these include the Internet, mobile and telephone communications.
Recently, individual researchers have proposed highlighting another type of mass culture - computer. Computers and tablets have almost replaced many users with books, television and newspapers. With their help, you can instantly get any information. In terms of its impact, this type of culture is catching up with the media, and with the further spread of computers it may soon get ahead of them.
8. Screen - one of the types of mass culture. Got its name by the way of demonstration on the screen. It includes movies, computer games, television series, game consoles.
9. The folk form of culture (folklore) - in contrast to the elitist form, it is created by anonymous non-professionals. It can also be called amateur. This is folk art, which is born from working and everyday life. Passed from generation to generation, folk culture was constantly enriched.
Features of the culture of different countries and eras
Each country, ethnic group or nation has its own special culture. Sometimes the differences may not be noticeable, but more often than not they are immediately apparent. A European will hardly see the difference between the culture of such peoples as the Incas and Mayans. In his eyes, the art of Ancient China and Japan is not particularly different. But he can easily distinguish the culture of a European country from an Asian one.
An example is the heritage of ancient China. What features does it have? This is a strict hierarchy of society, observance of rituals, lack of a single religion.
Functions
There is no need to prove that culture plays one of the important roles in the life of an individual and society as a whole. It performs the following functions:
1. Cognitive. Culture, summarizing the experience of previous generations, accumulates valuable information about the world, which helps a person in his cognitive activity. A separate society will be as intelligent as it deeply studies and applies the experience and knowledge contained in the gene pool.
2. Normative (regulatory): taboos, norms, rules, morality are called upon to regulate a person’s personal and public life.
3. Educational (educational) - it is culture that makes a person a person. Being in society, we master knowledge, rules and norms, language, culture of behavior, traditions - both of our social community and global. From how much a person learns from cultural knowledge, it will depend on what he will eventually become. All this is achieved by a long process of upbringing and education.
4. Adaptive - helps a person adapt to the environment.
Domestic culture
The Russian Federation is a multinational country. Its development took place under the influence of national cultures. The uniqueness of Russia lies in that extraordinary variety of traditions, beliefs, moral standards, rules, customs, aesthetic tastes, which is associated with the specificity of the cultural heritage of different peoples.
Russian culture is dominant in the territory of the Russian Federation. Which is understandable, because Russians make up the ethnic majority among other peoples of the country.
In all existing typologies, our culture is always considered separately. Domestic and Western cultural experts unanimously believe that Russian culture is a special phenomenon. It can not be attributed to any of the known types. It does not apply to either western or eastern, being somewhere in the middle. Such a borderline, dual position led to the formation of the internal contradictory nature of Russian culture and national character.
And it was formed quite differently than in the East or the West. Its development was greatly influenced by the struggle against nomadic raids, the adoption of Christianity (while Catholicism gained great power in the West), the Mongol yoke, the unification of ruined and weakened principalities into a single Russian state.
Moreover, Russian culture has never developed as a holistic phenomenon. She has always been characterized by dualism. There are always two opposing principles in it: pagan and Christian, Asian and European. The same duality is inherent in the character of Russian people. On the one hand, this is humility and compassion, and on the other - rigidity.
An important feature of Russian culture was that it arose on a multi-ethnic basis. The core of the future Russian people, the Eastern Slavs, in the process of resettlement encountered the Turkic and Finno-Ugric tribes, partially assimilating them and absorbing elements of the culture of these peoples.
