How often in life we hear and use the word “culture” in relation to a variety of phenomena. Have you ever thought about where it came from and what it means? Of course, concepts such as art, good manners, politeness, education, etc. immediately come to mind. Further in the article we will try to reveal the meaning of this word, as well as describe what types of culture exist.

Etymology and definition

Since this concept is multifaceted, it also has many definitions. Well, first of all, let's find out in what language it originated and what it originally meant. And it arose back in Ancient Rome, where the word “culture” (cultura) was used to describe several concepts at once:

1) cultivation;

2) education;

3) reverence;

4) education and development.

As you can see, almost all of them today fit the general definition of this term. IN Ancient Greece it also meant education, upbringing and love of agriculture.

As for modern definitions, then in a broad sense, culture is understood as a set of spiritual and material values that express one or another level, that is, an era, of the historical development of mankind. According to another definition, culture is the area of spiritual life of human society, which includes a system of upbringing, education and spiritual creativity. In a narrow sense, culture is the degree of mastery of a certain area of knowledge or skills of a particular activity, thanks to which a person gains the opportunity to express himself. His character, style of behavior, etc. are formed. Well, the most commonly used definition is the consideration of culture as a form of social behavior of an individual in accordance with the level of his education and upbringing.

Concept and types of culture

There are various classifications of this concept. For example, cultural scientists distinguish several types of culture. Here are some of them:

mass and individual;
western and eastern;
industrial and post-industrial;
urban and rural;
high (elite) and mass, etc.

As you can see, they are presented in pairs, each of which is an opposition. According to another classification, there are the following main types of culture:

material;
spiritual;
informational;
physical.

Each of them can have its own varieties. Some culturologists believe that the above are forms rather than types of culture. Let's look at each of them separately.

Material culture

The subordination of natural energy and materials to human purposes and the creation of new habitats by artificial means is called material culture. This also includes various technologies that are necessary for conservation and further development of this environment. Thanks to material culture the standard of living of society is set, the material needs of people are formed, and ways to satisfy them are proposed.

Spiritual culture

Beliefs, concepts, feelings, experiences, emotions and ideas that help establish a spiritual connection between individuals are considered spiritual culture. It also includes all products of non-material human activity that exist in an ideal form. This culture contributes to the creation of a special world of values, as well as the formation and satisfaction of intellectual and emotional needs. It is also a product of social development, and its main purpose is the production of consciousness.

Part of this type of culture is artistic. It, in turn, includes the entire set of artistic values, as well as the system of their functioning, creation and reproduction that has developed over the course of history. For the entire civilization as a whole, as well as for an individual individual, the role artistic culture, which is otherwise called art, is simply huge. It affects the inner spiritual world of a person, his mind, emotional state and feelings. Types of artistic culture are nothing more than different types of art. Let us list them: painting, sculpture, theater, literature, music, etc.

Artistic culture can be both mass (folk) and high (elite). The first includes all works (most often single ones) by unknown authors. Folk culture includes folklore creations: myths, epics, legends, songs and dances - which are accessible to the general public. But elite, high culture consists of a collection of individual works by professional creators, which are known only to a privileged part of society. The varieties listed above are also types of culture. They simply relate not to the material, but to the spiritual side.

Information culture

The basis of this type is knowledge about the information environment: the laws of functioning and methods of effective and fruitful activity in society, as well as the ability to correctly navigate in endless flows of information. Since speech is one of the forms of information transmission, we would like to dwell on it in more detail.

A culture of speech

In order for people to communicate with each other, they need to have a culture of speech. Without this, there will never be mutual understanding between them, and therefore no interaction. From the first grade of school, children begin to study the subject “Native Speech”. Of course, before they come to first grade, they already know how to speak and use words to express their childhood thoughts, ask and demand from adults to satisfy their needs, etc. However, the culture of speech is completely different.

At school, children are taught to correctly formulate their thoughts through words. This promotes their mental development and self-expression as individuals. Every year the child acquires a new vocabulary, and he begins to think differently: wider and deeper. Of course, in addition to school, a child’s speech culture can also be influenced by factors such as family, yard, and group. From his peers, for example, he can learn words called profanity. Some people, until the end of their lives, have a very meager vocabulary, and, naturally, have a low speech culture. With such baggage, a person is unlikely to achieve anything big in life.

Physical Culture

Another form of culture is physical. It includes everything that is connected with the human body, with the work of its muscles. This includes the development of a person's physical abilities from birth to the end of life. This is a set of exercises and skills that promote physical development body leading to its beauty.

Culture and society

Man is a social being. He constantly interacts with people. You can understand a person better if you consider him from the point of view of relationships with others. In view of this, there are the following types of culture:

personality culture;
team culture;
culture of society.

The first type relates to the person himself. It includes his subjective qualities, character traits, habits, actions, etc. The culture of a team develops as a result of the formation of traditions and the accumulation of experience by people united general activities. But the culture of society is the objective integrity of cultural creativity. Its structure does not depend on individuals or groups. Culture and society, being very close systems, nevertheless do not coincide in meaning and exist, although next to each other, but on their own, developing according to separate laws inherent only to them.

The word “culture” has Latin roots and means “to cultivate the soil.” What is the connection between agriculture and human behavior, because the phrases widely used in the Russian language refer to it: speeches, cultured person, spiritual culture of the individual, Physical Culture. Let's try to understand this issue.

What is culture as a social phenomenon?

Indeed, the “man-nature” connection underlies both a complex and diverse phenomenon. Man in nature has found an opportunity for the creative realization of his abilities. Human activity to transform the natural world, the reflection of nature in the products of activity, the influence of nature and the surrounding world on the inside of a person is interpreted as culture.

Culture has some distinctive properties - continuity, tradition, innovation.

Each generation brings with it experience cultural development the world of previous generations, builds its transformative activities on established principles, styles, directions, and, as a result of assimilation of previous achievements, rushes forward, developing, updating and improving the world around us.

Components of culture- material and spiritual.

Includes everything related to objects and phenomena of the material world, their production and development.

Spiritual culture is a set of spiritual values and human activities for their production, development and application.

In addition, they talk about the types of crops. These include:

Created by professionals, a privileged part of society; is not always clear to the general public.

Folk culture - folklore - is created by unknown authors, amateurs; collective creativity.

Mass culture - refers to concert and pop art, influencing through the media.

Subculture is a system of values of a certain group or community.

What is culture behavior?

This concept defines a set of formed personality qualities that are socially significant, allowing one to base everyday actions on the norms of morality and morality. Assimilation universal human values allows you to regulate your own activities in accordance with the requirements of society.

However, we can state the fact that the concept of “culture of behavior” and its norms change depending on the state of morality in a particular historical period development of society.

For example, just twenty years ago, civil marriage and extramarital sexual relations were strictly condemned in Russian society, and today in some circles it is already considered the norm.

What is culture speeches?

Speech culture is the compliance of speech with the norms of the literary language. How necessary is it? to modern man, one can judge the growing popularity of training courses. A high professional level presupposes high level mastery of speech norms.

In addition, the individual level of a person’s spiritual culture corresponds to his speech culture. Beautiful, fashionable, arouses the admiring glances of others. However, as soon as she opens her mouth, a stream of obscene expressions falls on the listeners. The spiritual culture of man is evident.

What is culture communication?

Communication is a phenomenon of social society. They distinguish between the ability to communicate productively, interact through communication with people around them, partners, colleagues - socially significant quality modern successful person.

Communication culture involves the connection of three components.

Firstly, communication is associated with the skills of perceiving another person, perceiving verbal and nonverbal information (perception).

Secondly, great importance has the ability to convey information and feelings to a communication partner (communication).

Thirdly, interaction in the communication process (interaction) is decisive in assessing the effectiveness of communication.

Culture is a multifaceted, complex concept that characterizes a certain level of development of both society as a whole and each individual.

What is culture

There are several interpretations of the origin and meaning of the word culture.

In the textbook on philosophy Radugin A.A. The term “culture” is considered to be of Latin origin – cultura. According to Radugin, initially this term meant cultivating the soil, cultivating it in order to make the soil suitable for meeting human needs, so that it could serve man. In this context, the author writes, culture was understood as all changes in a natural object that occur under the influence of humans, in contrast to those changes that are caused by natural causes.

According to other sources, culture in a figurative sense is the care, improvement, and ennoblement of a person’s bodily, mental, and spiritual inclinations and abilities; accordingly, there is a culture of the body, a culture of the soul, and a spiritual culture. The German word Kultur also meant a high level of civilization. In modern scientific literature there are more than 250 definitions of culture.

In a broad sense, culture is the totality of manifestations of the life, achievements and creativity of a people or group of peoples (the culture of a nation, states, civilizations - hence the many religions, beliefs, values). Culture, considered from the point of view of content, breaks down into various areas, spheres: mores and customs, language and writing, the nature of clothing, settlements, work, perception, economics, the nature of the army, socio-political structure, legal proceedings, science, technology, art , religion, all forms of manifestation of the objective spirit of a given people. A cultured person owes everything to education and upbringing, and this constitutes the content of the culture of all peoples who preserve cultural continuity and traditions as a form of collective experience in relationships with nature.

The modern scientific definition of culture has discarded the aristocratic connotations of this concept. It symbolizes beliefs, values and means of expression(used in literature and art) that are common to a group; they serve to organize the experience and regulate the behavior of members of this group. The beliefs and attitudes of a subgroup are often called a subculture.

Cultural theorists A. Kroeber and K. Kluckhohn analyzed over a hundred basic definitions and grouped them as follows.

1 Descriptive definitions that are based on the concept of the founder of cultural anthropology E. Taylor. The essence of these definitions: culture is the sum of all types of activities, customs, beliefs; it, as a treasury of everything created by people, includes books, paintings, etc., knowledge of ways to adapt to the social and natural environment, language, customs, a system of etiquette, ethics, religion, which have developed over centuries.

2 Historical definitions emphasizing the role of social heritage and traditions inherited modern era from previous stages of human development. They are also accompanied by genetic definitions that assert that culture is the result of historical development. It includes everything that is artificial, that people have produced and that is passed on from generation to generation - tools, symbols, organizations, general activities, views, beliefs.

3. Normative definitions emphasizing the significance of accepted norms. Culture is the way of life of an individual, determined by the social environment.

4. Value definitions: culture is the material and social values of a group of people, their institutions, customs, and behavioral reactions.

5. Psychological definitions based on a person’s solution to certain problems at the psychological level. Here, culture is a special adaptation of people to the natural environment and economic needs, and consists of all the results of such adaptation.

6. Definitions based on learning theories: culture is behavior that a person has learned and not received as a biological inheritance.

7. Structural definitions highlighting the significance of moments of organization or modeling. Here culture is a system of certain characteristics interconnected in various ways. Material and intangible cultural characteristics, organized around basic needs, form social institutions that are the core (model) of culture.

8. Ideological definitions: culture is the flow of ideas passing from individual to individual through special actions, i.e. using words or imitations.

9. Symbolic definitions: culture is the organization of various phenomena (material objects, actions, ideas, feelings), consisting in the use of symbols or depending on it.

It is easy to notice that each of the listed groups of definitions captures some important features of culture. However, in general, as a complex social phenomenon, it eludes definition. Indeed, culture is the result of human behavior and the activities of society, it is historical, includes ideas, models and values, selective, studied, based on symbols, “super-organic”, i.e. does not include human biological components and is transmitted by mechanisms other than biological heredity; it is emotionally perceived or rejected by individuals. And yet this list of properties does not give us a sufficiently complete understanding of the complex phenomena that are meant when it comes to the cultures of the Mayans or Aztecs. Ancient Egypt or Ancient Greece, Kievan Rus or Novgorod.

1.2 Idea of values

Culture is material and spiritual values. By value we mean the definition of a particular object of material or spiritual reality, highlighting its positive or negative significance for man and humanity. Only for man and society do things and phenomena have a special meaning, consecrated by customs, religion, art and, in general, the “rays of culture.” In other words, real facts, events, properties are not only perceived and cognized by us, but also evaluated, causing in us a feeling of participation, admiration, love or, on the contrary, a feeling of hatred or contempt. These various pleasures and pains constitute what is called taste. We, for example, experience pleasure when “seeing an object that is useful to us, we call it good; when it gives us pleasure to contemplate an object that is devoid of immediate usefulness, we call it beautiful.”

This or that thing has a certain value in our eyes due not only to its objective properties, but also to our attitude towards it, which integrates both the perception of these properties and the characteristics of our tastes. Thus, we can say that value is a subjective-objective reality. “Everyone calls pleasant what gives him pleasure, beautiful - what he only likes, good - what he values, approves, that is, what he sees as objective value.” There is nothing to say about how significant value judgments are for a person’s reasonable orientation in life.

Every thing involved in the circulation of public and personal life or created by man, in addition to its physical nature, also has a social existence: it performs a function historically assigned to it and therefore has social value. Values are not only material, but also spiritual: works of art, achievements of science, philosophy, moral standards, etc. The concept of value expresses the social essence of the existence of material and spiritual culture. If something material or spiritual acts as a value, this means that it is somehow included in the conditions of a person’s social life and performs a certain function in his relationship with nature and social reality. People constantly evaluate everything they deal with in terms of their needs and interests. Our attitude towards the world is always evaluative. And this assessment can be objective, correct, progressive or false, subjective, reactionary. In our worldview, scientific knowledge of the world and the value attitude towards it are in inextricable unity. Thus, the concept of value is closely related to the concept of culture.

Culture, being transformed, is passed on from one generation to another. In cultural heritage it is necessary to thoughtfully separate what belongs to the future from what has passed into the past.

1.3 Types, forms, content and functions of culture

The diversity of the subject type of culture is determined by the diversity of human activity itself. It is very difficult to classify different types of activities, as well as the type of culture represented. But let us accept conditionally that this can be applied to nature, society And to an individual person.

Types of culture in relation to nature

In this context, the culture of agriculture is distinguished, as well as the plant itself, landscape reclamation, i.e. complete or partial restoration of a certain natural environment disturbed by previous economic activities.

This also includes the general culture of material production as an impact on the natural environment. Basically, such an impact is detrimental to nature, and this is an environmental problem that threatens the existence of civilization itself.

Types of cultural activities in society

Material production, as a mediator between society and nature, also includes specifically social types of cultural activity. This includes, first of all, labor. Even K. Marx distinguished between living and materialized labor. The culture of living labor is the culture of direct productive activity and the culture of managing anything. Obviously, in the end we will come to the totality of knowledge, skills and abilities of an individual, which determines his culture and attitude to work.

The concept of “culture” is used when characterizing historical eras or monuments, when characterizing societies and regions, when characterizing nationalities.

This concept is applied in relation to certain spheres of activity and life (artistic, physical culture, everyday culture), as well as in relation to types of art (theater culture, architectural culture). The level or degree of development of society, represented in any achievements, is also characterized by the concept of “culture”.

The concept of “culture” in relation to an individual

The culture of an individual does not exist in isolation from the listed cultural species. The concept of “culture” is applied to literally every human ability - physical or spiritual (mental). General culture of a person still presupposes the unity and harmony of his body and soul (psyche). The ancient sages attached great importance to the culture of the human psyche.

Subject and personal types of culture.

Among the shortcomings in understanding culture, we note its reduction to an external, objective form. But the world of culture that we see is one of its parts. Seeing objects - all more or less developed living beings have this ability. A person is distinguished by intelligent vision, or mental vision. English writer O. Wilde believed that only a superficial person does not judge by appearance. For an intelligent person, the appearance of anything speaks volumes. Russian philosopher V.S. Soloviev once wrote:

Dear friend, don’t you know

That everything we see

Only a reflection, only shadows

From the invisible with our eyes...

The object form of culture is its visibility. Culture has a personal aspect that is imprinted in things. But to see a personal expression of culture, you need to be a person. Each of us sees the personal world of culture exactly as much as we ourselves are a person. To the same extent, we bring something of ourselves into culture, i.e. We serve as its source.

this is the entire aggregate way of life characteristic of a certain group, which accumulates everything that people, as members of a given society, do, think, and everything they possess (patterns of action, thoughts, material support)

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Culture

a specific way of organizing and developing human life, presented in the products of material and spiritual production, in the system social norms and institutions, in spiritual values, in the totality of people’s relationships to nature, among themselves and to themselves. K. embodies, first of all, the general difference between human life activity and biological forms of life. Human behavior is determined not so much by nature as by upbringing, K. Man differs from animals in his ability to collectively create and transmit symbolic meanings- signs, language. Beyond the symbolic cultural meanings(notations) not a single object can be included in the human world, just as not a single object can be created without a preliminary “project” in a person’s head. The human world is a culturally constructed world; all boundaries in it are of a sociocultural nature. Outside the system of cultural meanings, there is no difference between king and courtier, saint and sinner, beauty and ugliness. The main function of society is the introduction and maintenance of a certain social order. There are material and spiritual K. Material K. includes all spheres of material activity and its results. It includes equipment, housing, clothing, consumer goods, a way of eating and living, etc., which together constitute a certain way of life. Spiritual K. includes all spheres of spiritual activity and its products: knowledge, education, enlightenment, law, philosophy, science, art, religion, etc. Spiritual K. is also embodied in material media(books, paintings, floppy disks, etc.). Therefore, the division of K. into spiritual and material is very conditional. K. reflects the qualitative originality of historically specific forms of human life at various stages of historical development, within different eras, socio-economic formations, ethnic, national and other communities. K. characterizes the features of people’s activities in specific social spheres (political culture, economic culture, work and life culture, entrepreneurship culture, etc.), as well as the characteristics of the life activities of social groups (class, youth, etc.). ). At the same time, there are cultural universals - some common to everything cultural heritage elements of humanity (age gradation, division of labor, education, family, calendar, decorative arts, interpretation of dreams, etiquette, etc.). The modern meaning of the term "K." acquired only in the 20th century. Initially (in Ancient Rome, where this word came from), this term meant cultivation, “cultivation” of the soil. In the 18th century the term acquired an elitist character and meant civilization opposed to barbarism. However, in Germany in the 18th century. Culture and civilization were opposed to each other: as the focus of spiritual, moral and aesthetic values, the sphere of individual perfection (C.) - and as something utilitarian, “technical,” material, standardizing human culture and consciousness, threatening spiritual world human (civilization). This opposition formed the basis of the concept of cultural pessimism, or criticism of culture, in fact, criticism of modernity, allegedly leading to the collapse and death of culture (F. Tönnies, F. Nietzsche, O. Spengler, G. Marcuse, etc.). In modern science, the term “civilization” remains ambiguous. The term "K." has lost its former elitist (and generally any evaluative) connotation. From the point of view of modern sociologists, any society develops a specific culture, because it can only exist as a sociocultural community. That is why historical development of a particular society (country) is a unique sociocultural process that cannot be understood and described using any general schemes. Therefore any social changes can only be carried out as sociocultural changes, which seriously limits the possibilities of direct borrowing of foreign cultural forms - economic, political, educational, etc. In a different sociocultural environment they can acquire (and inevitably acquire) a completely different content and meaning. For analysis cultural dynamics Two main theoretical models have been developed - evolutionary (linear) and cyclic. Evolutionism, whose origins were G. Spencer, E. Taylor, J. Fraser, L. Morgan, was based on the idea of the unity of the human race and the uniformity of development K. Process cultural development seemed linear, general in content, going through general stages. Therefore, it seemed possible to compare different cultures as more or less developed, and to identify “standard” cultures (Eurocentrism and later Americanocentrism). Cyclic theories represent cultural dynamics as a sequence of certain phases (stages) of change and development of culture, which naturally follow one after another (by analogy with human life - birth, childhood, etc.), each culture is considered as unique. Some of them have already completed their cycle, others exist, being at different phases of development. Therefore, one cannot talk about a general, universal history of mankind; one cannot compare and evaluate K. as primitive or highly developed - they are simply different. In modern science, the founder of cyclic theories that arose in antiquity was N. Danilevsky (“Russia and Europe”, 1871). He was followed by O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, P. Sorokin, L. Gumilyov and others. Both evolutionary and cyclic theories emphasize and absolutize only one of the aspects of the real process of cultural dynamics and cannot give its exhaustive description. Modern science proposes fundamentally new approaches (for example, the wave theory of quantum waves put forward by O. Toffler). Now humanity is experiencing perhaps the most profound technological, social and cultural transformation in terms of content and global in scope. And it was K. who found herself at the center of this process. Emerges in principle new type K. - K. post-industrial, information society (see Postmodernism).

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

Types and types of culture

Taking the dominant values as a basis, both material and spiritual culture, in turn, can be divided into the following kinds.

Artistic culture, its essence lies in the aesthetic exploration of the world, the core is art, the dominant value is beauty .

Economic culture, this includes human activity in the economic sector, production culture, management culture, economic law, etc. The main value is work .

Legal culture is manifested in activities aimed at protecting human rights, relations between the individual and society, and the state. Dominant value - law .

Political culture is associated with the active position of a person in the organization of government, individual social groups, and the functioning of individual political institutions. The main value is power .

Physical culture, i.e. the sphere of culture aimed at improving the physical basis of a person. This includes sports, medicine, relevant traditions, norms, actions that form healthy image life. The main value is human health .

Religious culture is associated with the directed human activity of creating a picture of the world based on irrational dogmas. It is accompanied by the performance of religious services, adherence to the norms set out in sacred texts, certain symbolism, etc. The dominant value is faith in God and on this basis moral improvement .

Ecological culture lies in the reasonable and careful attitude to nature, maintaining harmony between humans and the environment. The main value is nature .

Moral culture is manifested in following special ethical standards, arising from traditions and social attitudes dominant in human society. The main value is morality .

Far from it full list types of culture. In general, the complexity and versatility of the definition of the concept of “culture” also determines the complexity of its classification. There is an economic approach (agriculture, culture of livestock breeders, etc.), a social-class approach (proletarian, bourgeois, territorial-ethnic), (the culture of certain nationalities, the culture of Europe), spiritual and religious (Muslim, Christian), technocratic (pre-industrial, industrial) , civilizational (the culture of Roman civilization, the culture of the East), social (urban, peasant), etc. However, based on these numerous characteristics, several important ones can be identified: directions, which formed the basis typologies of culture .

This is, first of all, ethnoterritorial typology. The culture of socio-ethnic communities includes ethnic , national, folk, regional culture. Their carriers are peoples and ethnic groups. Currently, there are about 200 states uniting over 4,000 ethnic groups. The development of their ethnic and national cultures is influenced by geographical, climatic, historical, religious and other factors. In other words, the development of cultures depends on the terrain, lifestyle, entry into a particular state, and belonging to a particular religion.

Concepts ethnic And folk cultures are similar in content. Their authors, as a rule, are unknown; the subject is the entire people. But these are highly artistic works that remain in the memory of the people for a long time. Myths, legends, epics, fairy tales belong to the best works of art. Their most important feature is traditionalism.

Folk culture consists of two types - popular And folklore. Popular widespread among the people, but its object is mainly modernity, life, way of life, morals, folklore however, it is more focused on the past. Ethnic culture is closer to folklore. But ethnic culture is primarily everyday culture. It includes not only art, but also tools, clothing, and household items. Folk and ethnic cultures can merge with professional, that is, with the culture of specialists, when, for example, a work was created by a professional, but gradually the author is forgotten, and a monument of art becomes essentially folk. There may also be a reverse process when, for example, in the Soviet Union, through cultural and educational institutions, they tried to cultivate ethnic culture by creating ethnographic ensembles and singing folk songs. With a certain convention, folk culture can be considered a connecting link between ethnic and national cultures.

Structure national cultures are more complex. It differs from the ethnic one in more distinct ways national characteristics and a wide range. It may include a number of ethnic groups. For example, the American national culture includes English, German, Mexican and many others. National culture arises when representatives of ethnic groups realize that they belong to a single nation. It is built on the basis of writing, while ethnic and folk may be unwritten.

Ethnic and national cultures may have their own common features that are different from others, expressed in the concept “ mentality "(Latin: way of thinking). It is customary, for example, to single out English as a reserved type of mentality, French as playful, Japanese as aesthetic, etc. But national culture, along with traditional everyday culture and folklore, also includes specialized areas. A nation is characterized not only by ethnographic, but also by social characteristics: territory, statehood, economic ties, etc. Accordingly, national culture, in addition to ethnic culture, includes elements of economic, legal and other types of culture.

Co. second group can be attributed social types. These are, first of all, mass, elite, marginal cultures, subcultures and countercultures.

Mass culture is commercial culture. This is a type of cultural production produced in large volumes, designed for a wide audience of low and medium levels of development. It is intended for mass, i.e., an undifferentiated set. The masses are inclined towards consumer information.

Mass culture appeared in modern times with the invention of the printing press, the spread of low-quality pulp literature, and developed in the 20th century under the conditions of a capitalist society with its focus on market economy, creation of mass secondary school and the transition to universal literacy, the development of means mass media. It acts as a commodity, uses advertising, overly simplified language, and is available to everyone. An industrial and commercial approach was applied in the cultural sphere; it became a form of business. Mass culture focuses on artificially created images and stereotypes, “simplified versions of life,” beautiful illusions.

The philosophical basis of mass culture is Freudianism, which brings everything together social phenomena to biological ones, which puts instincts in the foreground, pragmatism, which places main goal benefit.

The term "mass culture""first used in 1941 by a German philosopher M. Horkheimer . The Spanish thinker José Ortega y Gasset (1883 - 1955) tried to more broadly analyze the phenomenon of mass and elite cultures. In his work “The Revolt of the Masses,” he came to the conclusion that European culture is in a state of crisis and the reason for this is the “revolt of the masses.” The mass is the average person. Ortega y Gasset opened preconditions mass culture. This is, firstly, economic: growth in material well-being and relative accessibility material goods. This changed the vision of the world; he began to be perceived, figuratively speaking, as serving the masses. Secondly, legal: the division into classes disappeared, liberal legislation appeared, declaring equality before the law. This created certain prospects for the rise of the average person. Thirdly, it is observed rapid population growth. As a result, according to Ortega y Gasset, a new human type- mediocrity incarnate. Fourthly, cultural background. A person satisfied with himself ceased to be critical of himself and reality, to engage in self-improvement, and limited himself to a craving for pleasure and entertainment.

The American scientist D. MacDonald, following Ortega y Gasset, defined mass culture as created for the market and “not quite culture.”

At the same time, mass culture also has a certain positive significance, since it carries a compensatory function, helps to adapt, maintain social stability in difficult socio-economic conditions, and ensures the general availability of spiritual values, achievements of science and technology. Under certain conditions and quality individual works mass culture stand the test of time, rise to the level of highly artistic, gain recognition and eventually become in a certain sense folk.

Many culturologists consider the antipode of mass elitist culture (French favorites, best). This is the culture of a special, privileged layer of society with its specific spiritual abilities, characterized by creativity, experimentalism, and closedness. Elite culture is characterized by an intellectual avant-garde orientation, complexity and originality, which makes it understandable mainly for the elite and inaccessible to the masses.

Elite (high) culture created by a privileged part of society, or at its request by professional creators. It includes fine art, classical music and literature. High culture (for example, the painting of Picasso or the music of Schoenberg) is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an averagely educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary scholars, regulars of museums and exhibitions, theatergoers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population increases, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its varieties include secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is “art for art’s sake.”

It has been known since ancient times, when priests and tribal leaders became the owners of special knowledge inaccessible to others. During feudalism similar relationships were reproduced in various denominations, knightly or monastic orders, capitalism- V intellectual circles, learned communities, aristocratic salons, etc. True, in the new and modern times elitist culture was no longer always associated with strict caste isolation. There are cases in history when gifted individuals came from common people, for example Zh.Zh. Russo, M.V. Lomonosov, went through a difficult path of formation and joined the elite.

Elite culture is based on philosophy A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche who divided humanity into “people of geniuses” and “people of utility,” or into “supermen” and the masses. Later thoughts about elitist culture developed in the works of Ortega y Gasset. He considered it the art of a gifted minority, a group of initiates capable of reading the symbols embedded in work of art. The distinctive features of such a culture, Ortega y Gasset believes, are, firstly, the desire for “ pure art“, that is, creating works of art only for the sake of art; secondly, understanding art as a game, and not a documentary reflection of reality.

Subculture(lat. subculture) is the culture of certain social groups, different or even partially opposed to the whole, but in its main features consistent with the dominant culture. Most often it is a factor of self-expression, but in some cases it is a factor of unconscious protest against the dominant culture. In this regard, it can be divided into positive and negative. Elements of subculture appeared, for example, in the Middle Ages in the form of urban, knightly cultures. In Russia, a subculture of the Cossacks and various religious sects has developed.

Forms of subculture different - culture professional groups(theatrical, medical culture, etc.), territorial (urban, rural), ethnic (Gypsy culture), religious (culture of sects different from world religions), criminal (thieves, drug addicts), teenage and youth. The latter most often serves as a means of unconscious protest against the rules established in society. Young people are prone to nihilism and are more easily influenced by external effects and paraphernalia. Culturologists call the first youth subcultural groups “ teddy boys ", which appeared in the mid-50s of the 20th century in England.

Almost simultaneously with them, “modernists” or “fashions” arose.

By the end of the 50s, “rockers” began to appear, for whom the motorcycle was a symbol of freedom and at the same time a means of intimidation.

By the end of the 60s, “skinheads” or “skinheads”, aggressive football fans, separated from the “mods”. At the same time, in the 60-70s, the subcultures of “hippies” and “punks” emerged in England.

All these groups are distinguished by aggressiveness and a negative attitude towards the traditions that dominate society. They are characterized by their own symbolism, sign system. They create their own image, first of all their appearance: clothes, hairstyles, metal jewelry. They have their own manner of behavior: gait, facial expressions, peculiarities of communication, their own special slang. Their own traditions and folklore appeared. Each generation assimilates the norms of behavior, moral values, folklore forms (sayings, legends) rooted in certain subgroups and through a short time no longer differs from its predecessors.

Under certain circumstances, particularly aggressive subgroups, for example, hippies, can become in opposition to society, and their subculture develop into counterculture. This term was first used in 1968 by the American sociologist T. Roszak to assess the liberal behavior of the so-called “broken generation.”

Counterculture- these are socio-cultural attitudes that oppose dominant culture. It is characterized by a rejection of established social values, moral norms and ideals, the cult of the unconscious manifestation of natural passions and the mystical ecstasy of the soul. Counterculture aims to overthrow the dominant culture, which is represented by organized violence against the individual. This protest accepts various shapes: from passive to extremist, which manifested themselves in anarchism, “leftist” radicalism, religious mysticism, etc. A number of culturologists identify it with the movements of “hippies,” “punks,” and “beatniks,” which emerged both as subcultures and as cultures of protest against the technocracy of industrial society. Youth counterculture of the 70s in the West they called it a culture of protest, since it was during these years that young people especially sharply opposed the value system of the older generation. But it was at this time that the Canadian scientist E. Tiryakan considered it a powerful catalyst for the cultural and historical process. Any new culture arises as a result of awareness of the crisis of the previous culture.

It should be distinguished from counterculture marginal culture (lat. region). This is a concept that characterizes the value systems of individual groups or individuals who, due to circumstances, find themselves on the verge of different cultures, but have not integrated into any of them.

The concept " marginal personality "was introduced in the 20s of the 20th century by R. Park to indicate the cultural status of immigrants. Marginal culture is located on the “outskirts” of the corresponding cultural systems. An example would be, for example, migrants, villagers in the city, forced to adapt to a new urban lifestyle for them. A culture can also acquire a marginal character as a result of conscious attitudes towards rejection of socially approved goals or methods of achieving them.

3. A special place in the classification of culture occupies historical typology. You can name a whole series different approaches to solving this problem.

The most common ones in science are the following.

These are the Stone, Bronze, Iron Ages, according to archaeological periodization; pagan, Christian periods, according to periodization, gravitating towards the biblical scheme, such as, for example, G. Hezhel or S. Solovyov. Proponents of evolutionary theories of the 19th century distinguished three stages of social development: savagery, barbarism, and civilization. K. Marx's formation theory proceeded from the division of the world cultural and historical process into eras: primitive communal system, slaveholding, feudalism, capitalism. According to “Eurocentric” concepts, the history of human society is divided into the Ancient World, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Modern Times, and Contemporary Times.

The presence of a variety of approaches to defining the historical typology of culture allows us to conclude that there is no universal concept that explains the entire history of mankind and its culture. However, in last years The attention of researchers was especially attracted by the concept of the German philosopher Karl Jaspers(1883 - 1969). In the book “The Origins of History and Its Purpose” in the cultural-historical process he highlights four main periods . First is the period of archaic culture or the “Promethean era”. The main thing at this time is the emergence of languages, the invention and use of tools and fire, the beginning of sociocultural regulation of life. Second The period is characterized as the pre-Axial culture of ancient local civilizations. High cultures arose in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and later in China, writing appeared. Third stage is, according to Jaspers, a kind of “ world time axis"and refers to VIII - II centuries BC e. This was an era of undoubted success not only in material, but, above all, in spiritual culture - in philosophy, literature, science, art, etc., the life and work of such great personalities as Homer, Buddha, Confucius. At this time, the foundations of world religions were laid, and a transition from local civilizations to a unified history of mankind was outlined. During this period, modern man is formed, the basic categories with which we think are developed.

Fourth stage covers the time from the beginning of our era, when the era began scientific and technological progress, there is a rapprochement of nations and cultures, two main directions of cultural development are emerging: “eastern” with its spirituality, irrationalism and “western” dynamic, pragmatic. This time is indicated as universal culture West and East in post-Axial times.

The typology of civilizations and cultures of the German scientist of the early 20th century also seems interesting. Max Weber. He distinguished between two types of societies and, accordingly, cultures. This traditional societies, where the principle of rationalization does not apply. Those that are based on rationality, Weber called industrial. Rationalization, according to Weber, manifests itself when a person is driven not by feelings and natural needs, but by benefit, the possibility of receiving material or moral dividends. In contrast, the Russian-American philosopher P. Sorokin based the periodization of culture on spiritual values. He identified three types of cultures: ideational (religious-mystical), idealistic (philosophical) and sensual (scientific). In addition, Sorokin distinguished cultures according to the principle of organization (heterogeneous clusters, formations with similar sociocultural characteristics, organic systems).

Received quite wide popularity at the beginning of the 20th century Social-historical school, which has the longest, “classical” traditions and goes back to Kant, Hegel and Humboldt, grouping around itself mainly historians and philosophers, including religious ones. Its prominent representatives in Russia were N.Ya. Danilevsky, and in Western Europe - Spengler and Toynbee, who adhered to the concept of local civilizations.

Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky(1822-1885) - publicist, sociologist and natural scientist, one of many Russian minds who anticipated the original ideas that later arose in the West. In particular, his views on culture are surprisingly consonant with the concepts of two of the most prominent thinkers of the twentieth century. - German O. Spengler and Englishman A. Toynbee.

The son of an honored general, Danilevsky, however, from a young age devoted himself to the natural sciences, and was also keen on the ideas of utopian socialism.

After receiving his Ph.D. degree, he was arrested for participating in the revolutionary-democratic circle of Petrashevites (F.M. Dostoevsky belonged to it), spent three months in the Peter and Paul Fortress, but managed to avoid trial and was expelled from St. Petersburg. Later, as a professional naturalist, botanist and fish conservation specialist, he served in the Department of Agriculture; On scientific trips and expeditions he traveled throughout a significant part of Russia, being inspired to do a lot of cultural work. Being an ideologist of Pan-Slavism - a movement that proclaimed the unity of the Slavic peoples - Danilevsky, long before O. Spengler, in his main work “Russia and Europe” (1869), substantiated the idea of the existence of so-called cultural-historical types (civilizations), which, like living organisms, are in constant struggle with each other and with the environment. Just like biological individuals, they undergo stages of origin, flourishing and death. The beginnings of civilization historical type are not transmitted to peoples of other types, although they are subject to certain cultural influences. Each “cultural-historical type” manifests itself in four spheres : religious, cultural, political and socio-economic. Their harmony speaks of the perfection of a particular civilization. The course of history is expressed in a change of cultural and historical types that displace each other, moving from the “ethnographic” state through statehood to the civilized level. Cycle of life the cultural-historical type consists of four periods and lasts about 1500 years, of which 1000 years is the preparatory, “ethnographic” period; approximately 400 years is the formation of statehood, and 50-100 years is the flowering of all the creative capabilities of a particular people. The cycle ends long period decline and decay.

In our time, Danilevsky’s idea that a necessary condition for the flourishing of culture is political independence is especially relevant. Without it, the originality of culture is impossible, i.e. culture itself is impossible, “which does not even deserve the name if it is not original.” On the other hand, independence is needed so that like-minded cultures, say Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, can freely and fruitfully develop and interact, while at the same time preserving pan-Slavic cultural wealth. Denying the existence of a single world culture, Danilevsky identified 10 cultural and historical types that have partially or completely exhausted the possibilities of their development:

1) Egyptian,

2) Chinese,

3) Assyro-Babylonian, Phoenician, Ancient Semitic

4) Indian,

5) Iranian

6) Jewish

7) Greek

8) Roman

9) Arabian

10) Germano-Roman, European

One of the later, as we see, was the European Romano-Germanic cultural community.

Danilevsky proclaims a Slavic cultural-historical type, qualitatively new and with a great historical perspective, designed to unite, led by Russia, all Slavic peoples in contrast to Europe, which supposedly entered a period of decline.

No matter how you feel about Danilevsky’s views, they still, as in their time, feed and fed the imperial ideology and prepared the emergence of such a modern social science, as geopolitics, closely related to the civilizational approach to history.

Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) - German philosopher and cultural historian, author of the sensational work “The Decline of Europe” (1921-1923). The creative biography of the German thinker is unusual. The son of a minor postal worker, Spengler did not have a university education and was able to graduate only from high school, where he studied mathematics and natural sciences; As for history, philosophy and art history, in the mastery of which he surpassed many of his outstanding contemporaries, Spengler studied them independently, becoming an example of a self-taught genius. And Spengler’s career was limited to the position of a gymnasium teacher, which he voluntarily left in 1911. For several years he imprisoned himself in a small apartment in Munich and began to realize his cherished dream: he wrote a book about destinies European culture in the context of world history - “The Decline of Europe,” which went through 32 editions in many languages in the 1920s alone and brought him the sensational fame of “the prophet of the death of Western civilization.”

Spengler repeated N.Ya. Danilevsky and, like him, was one of the most consistent critics of Eurocentrism and the theory of continuous progress of mankind, considering Europe already a doomed and dying link. Spengler denies the existence of universal human continuity in culture. In the history of mankind, he identifies 8 cultures:

1) Egyptian,

2) Indian,

3) Babylonian,

4) Chinese,

5) Greco-Roman,

6) Byzantine-Islamic,

7) Western European

8) Mayan culture in Central America.

As new culture According to Spengler, Russian-Siberian culture is coming. Each cultural “organism” has a lifespan of approximately 1000 years. Dying, every culture degenerates into civilization, passes from creative impulse to sterility, from development to stagnation, from “soul” to “intellect,” from heroic “deeds” to utilitarian work. Such a transition for Greco-Roman culture occurred, according to Spengler, in the Hellenistic era (III-I centuries BC), and for Western European culture - in the 19th century. With the advent of civilization, mass culture, artistic and literary creativity loses its meaning, giving way to soulless technicalism and sports. In the 20s, “The Decline of Europe,” by analogy with the death of the Roman Empire, was perceived as a prediction of the apocalypse, the death of Western European society under the onslaught of new “barbarians” - revolutionary forces advancing from the East. History, as we know, has not confirmed Spengler’s prophecies, and the new “Russian-Siberian” culture, which meant the so-called socialist society, has not yet come to fruition. It is significant that some of Spengler’s conservative nationalist ideas were widely used by ideologists of Nazi Germany.

Arnold Joseph Toynbee(1889-1975) - English historian and sociologist, author of the 12-volume “Study of History” (1934-1961) - a work in which he (at the first stage, not without the influence of O. Spengler) also sought to comprehend the development of mankind in the spirit of the cycle "civilizations", using this term as a synonym for "culture". A.J. Toynbee came from English family average income; Following the example of his mother, a history teacher, he graduated from Oxford University and the British School of Archaeology in Athens (Greece). At first he was interested in antiquity and the works of Spengler, whom he later surpassed as a cultural historian. From 1919 to 1955, Toynbee was professor of Greek, Byzantine and later world history at the University of London. During the First and Second World Wars, he simultaneously collaborated with the Foreign Office, was a member of the British government delegations to the Paris Peace Conferences in 1919 and 1946, and also headed the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The scientist devoted a significant part of his life to writing his famous work - an encyclopedic panorama of the development of world culture.

Initially, Toynbee viewed history as a set of parallel and sequentially developing “civilizations”, genetically little related to one another, each of which goes through the same stages from rise to breakdown, collapse and death. Later, he revised these views, coming to the conclusion that all known cultures nourished by world religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.) are branches of one human “tree of history.” They all tend towards unity, and each of them is a particle of it. World historical development appears as a movement from local cultural communities to a single universal human culture. Unlike O. Spengler, who identified only 8 “civilizations,” Toynbee, who relied on broader and modern research, numbered them from 14 to 21., later stopping at thirteen , which have received the most complete development. Toynbee considered the driving forces of history, in addition to divine “providence,” to be individual outstanding personalities and the “creative minority.” It responds to the “challenges” posed to a given culture by the outside world and spiritual needs, as a result of which the progressive development of a particular society is ensured. At the same time, the “creative minority” leads the passive majority, relying on its support and replenished by its best representatives. When the “creative minority” turns out to be unable to realize its mystical “life impulse” and respond to the “challenges” of history, it turns into a “dominant elite”, imposing its power by force of arms, and not by authority; the alienated mass of the population becomes the “internal proletariat,” which, together with external enemies, ultimately destroys a given civilization, if it does not first die from natural disasters.

According to Toynbee's law of the golden mean, the challenge should be neither too weak nor too severe. In the first case, there will be no active response, and in the second, insurmountable difficulties can completely stop the emergence of civilization. Specific examples of “challenges” known from history are associated with drying out or waterlogging of soils, the offensive of hostile tribes, and a forced change of place of residence. The most common answers: the transition to a new type of management, the creation of irrigation systems, the formation of powerful power structures capable of mobilizing the energy of society, the creation of a new religion, science, and technology.

This variety of approaches makes it possible to study this phenomenon more deeply.