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First scientific ideas about cultural dynamics appeared in the 19th century. within the framework of evolutionism. The term “dynamics” itself was not yet used. Scientists talked about evolution, the gradual natural development of society and culture. In the 20th century ideas about the nature and direction of changes in change and expand. Now change is understood not only as development, but also as any transformation within culture. The concept of “cultural dynamics” was introduced into scientific circulation by P. Sorokin in his work “Social and Cultural Dynamics” (1937–1941).
Cultural dynamics as a branch of theory, it studies sociocultural changes and cultural processes from the standpoint of distinguishing the types of cultural influence and the nature of cultural changes.
When we're talking about O socio-cultural dynamics , refers to changes that occur in society, culture and people under the influence of external and internal forces. Change is an inherent property of culture. The concept of “change” includes both internal transformation of cultural phenomena (non-identity with oneself in time) and external changes (interaction with each other, movement in space, etc.). To characterize changes occurring in culture, a more specific term is often used - cultural development.
The concept of cultural development and cultural progress.
Sources of cultural dynamics
Cultural development - this is a change in the spiritual and material components of culture, leading to a change in its composition and ensuring a transition to a new qualitative state.
Cultural development is characterized by three properties: irreversibility, direction, regularity . Development includes an ascending line - progress and descending - regression . Progress is a transition from higher to lower, from simple to complex, from less perfect to more perfect. In modern times, there are two points of view on the problem of cultural progress. In other words, for the better or for the better the worst side some changes are taking place in the life of society. The essence of one approach to the idea of progress is that there is no progress in human cultural development. Even the ancient Greek poet Hesiod argued that people are gradually degrading, becoming worse and worse. In the era of the collapse of clan relations and the emergence of class antagonisms, the past of humanity was idealized, the future seemed gloomy and unpromising.
Jewish and Christian teaching about the lost paradise and the future the Last Judgment also reflects this mood. Rousseau called for a return from the vices of civilization back to the “golden age” in the 18th century. Such cultural researchers as O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, P. Sorokin doubt the progress of culture as its progressive development and express the idea various types local, autonomous cultures with their own life cycle.
The second point of view is associated with the assertion that cultural progress exists, that with the course of history, people's living conditions are gradually changing for the better. Enlightenment philosophers of the 17th-18th centuries tried to comprehend history as a way to improve society based on the development of culture. They were confident that the liberation of the human mind from religious dogmatism and feudal foundations would lead to the creation of a “kingdom of reason” - the creation of a new rational social order.
The idea of progress became one of the most popular in social thought of the 18th-19th centuries. It was assumed that there are general laws of history that determine the sequence of stages in the advancement of society, that all peoples sooner or later go through the same stages social development. Two approaches to the interpretation of the driving causes of progress can be distinguished: evolutionary and revolutionary.
Evolutionism is a type of model of cultural dynamics and understands culture as the process of adaptation of people to the natural environment. The one-line model of the evolutionary development of culture and human development is substantiated in the works of E. Taylor, L. Morgan, J. Fraser and others. Its essence is that in the course of development human history There are three consecutive periods: savagery, barbarism and civilization . Evolutionary cultures are expressed in the layering of one element of culture on another and the displacement of the old by the new.
The second branch of evolutionary development rejects the universal laws of development and recognizes multiple paths of sociocultural progress . Human adaptation to environment, to nature, lead to the emergence of new cultural phenomena- say supporters of these views.
Revolutionary understanding human history and culture, their progress are most clearly expressed in the Marxist concept of culture. The source of cultural dynamics here is the dialectic of productive forces and production relations. Scientific and technical progress leads to change public relations, including changes in lifestyle, everyday life and other forms of culture. The transition form is social revolution. Humanity in its development passes through the stages of primitive communal, slaveholding, feudal, capitalist socio-economic formations, striving to embody the ideals of communism. Progress with this approach loses its linear character and is interpreted as development in a spiral, as uneven, antagonistic development. In modern Marxism, when interpreting cultural development the emphasis is on human activity as a universal, infinite and universal being in its development. Of course, each era and system limits the scope of this development, but each new type culture in resolving the contradictions of the era will be more progressive if it contributes to the development of universal human abilities.
Main stages (types) of cultural dynamics
Cultural dynamics are described by three main types of interaction: phase, or stage, cyclic and inversion .
Phase stage of cultural dynamics
Most simple picture cultural development is presented in traditional theory of linear progress, i.e. purposeful forward movement cultural forms, understood in evolutionism as the improvement of the human race, society, the individual, as well as the results of his material and spiritual activities . This type of cultural dynamics is called phase, or staged . To study it, the method of historical periodization is used, the leading criterion of which is the dominant type of social relations (type of sociality). The type of sociality is formed on the basis of the predominance of interpersonal relationships in pre-industrial society, commodity-money factors in industrial society, or the power-property-information complex that forms the type of sociality of modern post-industrial society.
Within the framework of historical materialism, the concept of the formational development of culture asserted changes in the mode of production as the main factor. In accordance with these changes, the main periods of linear development of world culture were identified, which gave rise to the corresponding types of culture: slave, feudal, bourgeois and socialist. As expected, a change in the nature of production leads to a change social order, and with it culture. If you change the scale and introduce a stage criterion universal level, then social cultural dynamics will appear as a global process of changing world-historical eras: , and . Dynamics is assessed in this case as a complex progressive ascent of the human community along the stages of historical progress.
The foundation of the phase type of cultural dynamics is sociocultural transformation . It occurs when a different state arises as a result of a change in the previous one under the influence of intensive processes of social renewal. Distinguish three main types of transformations: reform, transformation and revolution .
Reform is called a change, a reorganization of any aspect of sociocultural life that does not destroy the foundations of the existing order. IN social theory
and in practice, reforms are considered to be more or less progressive transformations, a certain step for the better.
By transformation I mean a set of phenomena and processes that gradually and formally non-violently lead the socio-cultural system to a fundamentally new quality of relations. A revolution is defined as a deep qualitative change in the development of something. In relation to the sociocultural environment, they talk about a radical, usually violent, overthrow of the most important traditional values and stereotypes (behavior, consciousness, thinking), a change of ideologies, sharp turn
state policy in the field of culture, a radical transformation of the social composition of the intelligentsia.
Cyclic type of cultural dynamics cultural dynamics is based on the idea that changes in the world are subject to the law of repetition and reversibility. Each culture goes through a certain life cycle from birth to death, moving in a vicious circle to the initial state of chaos. Similar views were common in the V-IV centuries. BC e. in (Aristotle, Polybius) and ancient Chinese (Sima Qian) philosophy. The idea of cyclicality opposed the idea of the progressive progressive development of human culture in the 19th-20th centuries, being reflected in the movement of cultural and historical types of N. Ya. Danilevsky, the life of “cultural organisms” in the concept of O. Spengler, the circulation of “local civilizations” by A. Toynbee, the theory of “ethnogenesis” by L. N. Gumilyov.
Changes within the cycle appear to be repeatable, with societies moving along similar trajectories over many generations. Within the framework of a cyclical understanding of culture, time is perceived as closed, periodically returning to the starting point. The past is therefore poeticized in legends about the “golden age”, which contains all the best for peoples, intended for imitation and reproduction.
N. Ya. Danilevsky, relying on the richest factual historical material, comes to the conclusion that the very idea of progress does not consist in everyone going in the same direction, but in starting from the entire field that makes up the entire field of historical activity of mankind.
O. Spengler in his work “The Decline of Europe” defends the idea of the uniqueness of each culture. By analogy with living organisms, cultures, in his opinion, go through the following stages of development, representing a complete cycle: “childhood” - “spring” (the period of chaos and accumulation of strength), “youth” - “summer”, “maturity” - “autumn” ", when all the possibilities of the cultural soul and "old age" are "winter", the period of "civilization", the death of culture. O. Spengler allocates about a thousand years for the entire cycle of a cultural organism; the period of civilization is 200-300 years.
A. Toynbee, an English historian and sociologist, in his work “Comprehension of History” develops the ideas of O. Spengler. He believes that there are “local”, i.e. closed civilizations like stable aggregates territorial, religious and political characteristics. “Local civilizations” in their development go through a certain cycle, which includes five successive stages of development: growth, dawn, breakdown, decay and death (associated with the depletion of “vital forces”).
Inversion as a type of cultural dynamics
Another type of sociocultural dynamics is called inversion , which is sometimes considered as a special case of cyclical changes. However, this is not entirely true, because inversion describes changes that do not move in a circle, but perform pendulum swings - from one pole cultural meanings to another and back. This type of dynamics arises in societies where a stable cultural core, a “golden mean” or a strong structure has not developed. Therefore, the weakening of strict normativity and restrictions can lead to laxity of morals, wordless obedience in relation to existing orders and their bearers can be replaced by “senseless and merciless rebellion”, revelry of passions and sensuality can give way to extreme asceticism and rational rationalism. The less stable a society is and the weaker the relationships between its various components are, the greater the scope of the changes in its spiritual and political life.
When they talk about nature of cultural change , mean the direction of their impact on society. From this point of view there are:
- changes leading to the enrichment and differentiation of culture;
- changes leading to weakening cultural differentiation;
- changes that may not manifest themselves in any way for a long time, dooming the culture to stagnation.
Cultural enrichment It is customary to view it as a process of deepening the differentiation of its structure while maintaining the stability of the fundamental parts of the system. Positive changes are always associated with the formation of new genres, trends, styles of art, the introduction of new technologies, the emergence of new cultural centers, the birth of geniuses, etc. But the new does not always serve as a synonym for progress, but only when it contributes to the spiritual and moral improvement of a person, helping to expand his freedom without harming all living things.
Cultural decline most often associated with the weakening of the significance of high spheres of culture, its primitivization, and the growth of pragmatic orientation public consciousness, i.e. with a set of factors caused by the standardization of life in conditions. Decline can also express itself either as fatigue, a relaxation reaction to the previous turbulent period of cultural development, or as dissatisfaction with its results.
Cultural crisis accompanied by a sharp weakening of traditional ties between the most important elements and institutions of culture. Because of this, the system undergoes decay. The crisis may be final, but it may also give rise to the formation of other, more relevant elements and their connections, becoming the embryo of a new culture.
On cultural stagnation they say when changes do not occur for a long time. Society reveals a commitment to traditions, focuses on the immutability of norms, values, meanings, knowledge, and introduces a ban on innovation. In such sociocultural environments, a cyclical type of dynamics prevails, which is extremely difficult to straighten into a line of progressive development.
One or another version of cultural change, as a rule, does not cover the culture as a whole. Against, distinctive feature Any culture is its multi-layered nature, due to which changes can occur simultaneously in it, directed in different directions and with at different speeds. The movement towards renewal usually causes the accumulation of tendencies towards stabilization, which sooner or later leads to a rollback and a change of orientation.
In addition, different components of culture change at different rates. Mythology turns out to be the most stable, capable of preserving its images in one form or another for many centuries. A large amount of conservatism also includes the function of integrating society. It turns out to be more mobile art culture, flexibly responding to changes in the spiritual state of society or its individual layers. But the highest ability to change is marked modern science, doubling its knowledge base in 10-12 years.
References:
1. Afonin V. A., Afonin Yu. V. Theory and history of culture. Tutorial For independent work students. – Lugansk: Elton-2, 2008. – 296 p.
2.Cultural studies in questions and answers. Toolkit to prepare for tests and exams in the course “Ukrainian and foreign culture” for students of all specialties and forms of study. / Rep. Editor Ragozin N.P. – Donetsk, 2008, - 170 p.
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Lecture 7.
Mukhlynkina Yu.V.
Lecture outline:
1) Dynamics of culture.
2) Sources of cultural dynamics.
3) Models (forms) of cultural dynamics.
1. Dynamics of culture and its sources.
Culture is a constantly evolving system. Many different changes and transformations are constantly taking place in it. Culture originates, is preserved, spreads, is destroyed, etc. Therefore, when studying culture, it is impossible to ignore the topic of its dynamics.
Dynamics of culture– any changes in the cultural system that are causally determined by its previous state and have a certain stage and direction. This concept describes the change or modification of cultural traits over time and space.
The first scientific ideas about cultural dynamics appeared in the 19th century within the framework of the concept evolutionism. The term “culture dynamics” itself has not yet been used, but researchers have already started talking about the gradual natural development of society and culture, about the evolution from a primitive state to a civilized society. True, it should be noted that evolutionists understood the dynamics of culture in a very limited way, because absolutized the idea of progress, considering it a programmed phenomenon.
Since the 20th century, ideas about the nature and direction of changes in culture have been expanding. Changes mean not only development (progress), but also any transformations within culture: crises, return to the old, complete disappearance of culture, etc. Big role played in the development of a new understanding of the dynamics of culture P. Sorokin and his book "Social and cultural dynamics" (1937-1941), thanks to which the term “culture dynamics” was introduced into scientific circulation.
The widespread use of the concept of “cultural dynamics” occurred in the second half of the 20th century, when scientists were faced with an urgent need to study the problems of development, change and spread of cultural institutions; innovation, degradation, stagnation and crisis of culture; types of cultural development; interactions different cultures and cultural conflicts. Eventually, Today, the dynamics of culture mean not only development, but also any change in culture, a stable order of interaction of its constituent components, one or another of its periodicity, stages, direction towards any state .
Taking into account the fundamental diversity of the processes of cultural dynamics, modern cultural scientists identify several types of cultural transformations, describing qualitative changes in culture of different scales and levels. Here are some of them:
1) cultural stagnation (stagnation) is a state of long-term immutability and repetition of norms, values, meanings and knowledge, associated with society’s commitment to unchanging traditions and a sharp limitation or even prohibition of innovations. As a rule, this condition is characteristic of small, stable ethnic cultures, adapted to their environment, living in a state of homeostasis (equilibrium) with it. Today, this state can only be maintained in isolation from the rest of the world (tribes and small nations living in remote areas of Asia, Africa, Latin America).
But stagnation can also arise in highly organized civilizations that have decided that they have reached the peak of their development, the ideal state of culture and society, and strive to maintain this state. An example would be civilization Ancient Egypt and China.
2) Decline and degradation of culture , associated with the weakening and obsolescence of some elements of culture, the simplification of the cultural system, the disappearance of its constituent parts, previously stable norms and ideals. Such processes can be observed in the history of some small peoples who fell into the orbit of influence of strong cultures (Indians North America, indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Far East).
3) Crisis of culture – a gap between weakened or destroyed previous spiritual structures and institutions and emerging new ones that better meet the requirements of a changing society.
The approach of supporters of the postmodern paradigm to the interpretation of cultural changes is peculiar. For them, the dynamics of culture (analysis within the framework of postmodernism is usually carried out using the example of spiritual areas of cultural activity, often artistic practice, art) is not growth, not development, not purposeful spread, but a fundamentally different type of movement, which they designated with a term taken from botany , « rhizome» (random distribution, “movement of desire”, devoid of direction and regularity).
In general, the dynamics of culture are characterized by a stable order of interaction of its components, periodicity, stages, and direction. A number of its aspects have mechanisms that are symmetrical in structure and differ in directional sign. We can talk about integration or disintegration, ascending or descending cultural dynamics, the evolutionary or revolutionary nature of its changes in activity, etc.
Historically, the first ideas about the dynamics of culture in the form of a time circle (cycle) arose in the Ancient world, within the framework of mythological models of the world in Ancient China, India, Greece. They are based on the idea of the eternal cycle of events and the eternal return to their origins, as well as on the periodic repetition of phenomena in nature and culture.
The first systematic presentation of this model of cultural dynamics belongs to Hesiod and other ancient thinkers. In his model, human history is divided into four eras - the Golden, Silver, Copper and Iron Ages - and represents a movement in time, which is understood as eternity. Each era is characterized by its own state of culture. The meaning of history is constant repetition, the reproduction of general laws that do not depend on the characteristics of a particular society. The further a society moves away from the “golden age” in its development, the greater the deviation from the original ideal archetype model. Since man was considered essentially unchangeable, it was these deviations that defined culture in each of the four eras.
concepts of local civilizations N.Ya. Danilevsky, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee are also variants of the cyclic model of cultural dynamics. Denying concept world history, a single historical process, they put forward the idea of the development of individual peoples and cultures, occurring according to cyclical laws, invariant for all cultures. Individual civilizations or cultural-historical types develop both sequentially and in parallel and experience stages of emergence, development, flourishing and decline - a return to their original state. The dynamics of the development of an individual local civilization can be compared to a perennial, once-blooming plant that grows and gains strength for many years in order to bloom once, devote all its strength to it, and then die.
Local civilizations are closely related to the soil and natural landscape on which they grow. It predetermines the character and specificity of local civilizations, shapes their soul, which they are endowed with by God or the world mind, embodied in these civilizations. Full self-expression of the world mind is possible only through the totality of local civilizations and cultures, through the sum of the ideas developed by them. This is the reason for the diversity of cultures on our planet, both in the past and today.
N. Ya. Danilevsky denied the evolutionary principle. Danilevsky identified several separate “natural groups” and designated them with the term “cultural-historical types.” Any tribe or family of peoples that speaks its own language or a group of languages that are close enough to each other for their kinship to be felt directly is a unique cultural-historical type. Danilevsky lists 10 such types. each type is formed independently, with greater or lesser influence from previous or modern civilizations.
Oswald Spengler rejected the traditional idea of historical process as the progressive development of human society on a global scale. Culture, according to Spengler, is subject to rigid biological rhythm: birth and childhood, youth and maturity, old age and “decline”. two main stages: the stage of the ascent of culture (actually “culture” is an organic type of evolution) and the stage of its descent (“civilization” is a mechanical type of evolution).
Arnold Toynbee the idea of civilizations as self-closed discrete units into which humanity is divided. Toynbee rejects the idea of a single civilization. For him, civilization is a group of countries and peoples connected by a common destiny and worldview. civilization is characterized hierarchical structure, a universal state and a universal religion. In their development, civilizations go through four stages: genesis, growth, breakdown and collapse, and this dynamics is determined by the “law of challenge and response,” according to which each step forward is associated with an adequate “response” to the “challenge” of the historical situation.
Inversion- a variant of the cyclical model of cultural dynamics, in which changes do not occur in a circle, but perform pendulum swings from one pole of cultural meanings to another. Changes of this kind occur when a culture has not developed a strong core or structure. Therefore, the less stable a society is, the greater the scope of the turns in its spiritual or political life. Elements of inconsistency are present in different levels cultural development. For mythological consciousness, this inconsistency is interpreted as a rivalry between two oppositely directed principles, and their alternate inversion means only a temporary change of states. In Chinese cultural heritage great place is given to the relationship between two opposite life principles- yin and yang, changing their combinations determines all life situations.
A far-reaching inversion leads to the destruction of the previously accumulated positive heritage, which sooner or later causes a revival or restoration of the past. So, European Renaissance led to the restoration of ancient pagan culture. cultivating those values that were denied Christian Church for several centuries. But the Renaissance was followed by the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, which partially restored the shaky position of religion.
1. The concept of cultural dynamics and its model.
2. Mechanisms, types, factors of cultural dynamics.
3. Progress and its criteria in culture.
1. The path traveled by humanity from the stone ax to the modern computer, from the primitive human herd to the rule of law, allows us to draw an unambiguous conclusion that culture is mobile and changeable. However, it is equally obvious that changes in the cultures of different peoples occur with varying intensity and give different results. Thus, next to the rapidly developing European civilization and culture, the cultures of the peoples of Asia, Africa and Australia have coexisted for centuries and even millennia, almost unchanged.
Almost all cultural theories and schools give their explanations for the process of change in culture:
The very first attempt was made in myths. Since the myth is based on the idea of the unity of man and nature, all processes and phenomena in the world are explained through human feelings, ideas and behavior.
The search for rational causes of cultural change was undertaken in philosophy. As a rule, these reasons were found in the internal patterns of development of the world and society itself, as well as in the activities of people who use these patterns for their own purposes. On the basis of philosophical quests, a scientific approach to the study of cultural changes gradually emerged.
Unlike philosophy, which proposed speculative constructions of the historical process, science sought to rely firmly on established facts and precise (quantitative) research methods. Therefore, scientists have repeatedly tried to measure real, specific trends in cultural change, to find out how they are influenced by state cultural policy or the activities of individual people. This approach is typical for sociology of culture.
- modern cultural studies focuses on both scientific and philosophical methods of research.
Continue to exist and retain their heuristic (from Greek - I search, discover) abilities theological concepts of cultural dynamics.
The first scientific ideas about cultural dynamics appeared in the 19th century. within the framework of evolutionism, the leading direction in science of that time. True, the term “dynamics” itself has not yet been used. Explorers of the 19th century absolutized development processes, believing that all cultural changes should represent a movement from simple to complex, i.e. they spoke of a programmed progressive complication of culture.
Since the 20th century. there is an expansion of ideas about the nature and direction of changes in culture. Now change is understood not only as development, but also as any transformation within culture. These include crises, a return to the old, complete disappearance, etc. They are also beginning to talk about constant shifts and transformations of cultural forms, which can be ordered and disordered, intense and weak, stable and unstable, leading to development or crisis.
P. Sorokin’s book “Social and Cultural Dynamics” (1937–1941) became a milestone for the analysis of cultural changes. It was there that the term “dynamics of culture” was first introduced into scientific circulation. The dynamics of culture mean not only development, but also any change in culture, a stable order of interaction of its constituent components, one or another of its periodicity, stages, direction towards some state. Development and change thus become one of the forms of cultural dynamics.
Models of cultural dynamics.
Ideas about the dynamics of culture, its cycles, change and development are based on observation and study of political and economic cycles (stages) of development, rhythms in the dynamics of art, science, and everyday life. The life cycles of an individual are also of considerable importance, which are considered to be the most important and reference for assessing the dynamics of the cultural process.
As a result of these observations, researchers came to the conclusion that in history and culture, change has a fixed sequence of stages or states. Continuity and frequency of change in culture can exist in at least two forms:
Firstly, in the form of an evolutionary process, the essence of which is a consistent irreversible increase in the level of complexity and organization of cultural systems.
Secondly, in the form of a time circle (cycle), which is a repeating sequence of certain phases or states.
In addition to the two “pure” forms of cultural dynamics, the real course of world history and culture shows us several more models of cultural dynamics, which are variants of the cyclical and evolutionary (linear) models, or a model that synthesizes the features of the two main forms.
Cyclic model
Historically, the first ideas about the dynamics of culture in the form of a time circle (cycle) arose in the Ancient world, within the framework of mythological models of the world in China, India and Ancient Greece. They are based on the idea of the eternal cycle of events and the eternal return to their origins, as well as on the periodic repetition of phenomena in nature and culture.
The first systematic presentation of this model of cultural dynamics belongs to Hesiod and other ancient thinkers. According to his views, the entire history of mankind is divided into four eras - the golden, silver, copper and iron ages - and represents a movement in time, which is understood as eternity. Each era is characterized by its own state of culture. The meaning of history is constant repetition, the reproduction of general laws that do not depend on the characteristics of a particular society. The further a society moves in its development from the golden age, the greater the deviation from the original ideal archetype model. Since man was essentially considered unchangeable, it was these deviations that defined culture at each of the four stages. Culture was then understood as the totality moral standards, the nature of power, the connection between generations, the way of assimilating cultural values. In the golden age, man became like the gods, love and equality reigned in the world, there was a close connection between generations, there was no need to work, since man received everything necessary for life directly from nature, including the knowledge that he possessed innately. Humanity came to the Iron Age with complete oblivion of moral regulators, war of all against all, loss of communication between generations, loss of harmony with nature. The final moment of development was a cultural crisis, usually associated with the rebellion of nature against man. The crisis could not be considered a completely negative phenomenon, since it did not lead to the final collapse of culture, it returned it to the starting point from which a new development cycle began. At one point the past and the future coincided, they became invariants of each other. Such cycles were repeated endlessly, this is the meaning of the eternal return and idealization of the past.
Inversion
A variant of the cyclical model of cultural dynamics is inversion, in which changes do not go in a circle, but perform pendulum swings from one pole of cultural meanings to another. Changes of this kind occur when a culture has not developed a strong core or structure. Therefore, the lower the degree of stability of a society and the weaker the relationships between its components, the greater the scope of the turns in its spiritual or political life: from strict normativity to laxity of morals, from wordless obedience to merciless rebellion.
Elements of inconsistency are present at different levels of cultural development. For mythological consciousness, this inconsistency is conceptualized as a rivalry between two differently directed principles (day - night, life - death, good - evil, etc.), and their alternate inversion means only a temporary change of states. In the Chinese cultural heritage, a greater place is given to the relationship between two opposite life principles - yin and yang; the change in their combinations determines all life situations.
An inversion wave can cover a variety of periods - from several years to several centuries. Cultural changes in the different times and in different societies. At a certain stage, the transition from paganism to monotheism, accompanied by the eradication of previous cults, took on this character. The 20th century demonstrated a rollback from religion to atheism, which led to the destruction of former shrines, sweeping criticism of the regime and reprisals against priests, to an ever-increasing interest in religion both from the people and from the state. Many countries have demonstrated a transition from a policy of cultural isolation to intensive contact with other cultures.
Concepts of local civilizations
The concepts of local civilizations discussed above by N.Ya. Danilevsky, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee are also variants of the cyclic model of cultural dynamics. Denying the concept of world history as a single historical process, they put forward the idea of the development of individual peoples and cultures, occurring according to cyclical laws, invariant for all cultures. The development of individual civilizations, or cultural-historical types, can occur either sequentially or in parallel. The form of development is the same for everyone, but the content is unique for each culture. The development of local civilizations goes through the stages of emergence, development, prosperity and decline - a return to their original state.
The dynamics of the development of an individual local civilization can be compared to a perennial, once-blooming plant that grows and gains strength for many years in order to bloom magnificently once, devote all its strength to it, and then die.
Local civilizations are closely connected with the soil, with the natural landscape on which they grow. It predetermines the character and specificity of local civilizations, shapes their soul, which they are endowed with by God or the world mind, which is embodied in these civilizations. The essence of this embodiment is fixed in the main idea developed by this civilization. Full self-expression of the world mind is possible only through the totality of local civilizations and cultures, through the sum of ideas developed by them. This is the reason for the diversity of cultures on our planet, existing in the past and presently.
Linear model of cultural dynamics
The emergence of a linear (evolutionary) model of cultural dynamics is associated with the emergence of Christianity, and then with the understanding of its ideas within the framework of theology. It is based on one of the fundamental paradigms of Christianity - the arrow of time, opening eternity, breaking the circle of eternal return of cyclism, introducing the concepts of the beginning and end of history, which continues from the creation of the world to the Last Judgment and the end of the world. Within the framework of this model, the problems of progress in history and culture, the meaning and purpose of cultural development, and measures of cultural perfection were posed for the first time.
This model actively developed within the framework of the French and German Enlightenment (A. Condorcet, I. Herder), German classical philosophy (I. Kant, G. Hegel), in Marxism, in the evolutionism of social and cultural anthropology (E. Tylor, J. Fraser , L. Morgan), as well as in the neo-evolutionist direction of cultural studies (L. White, K. Kluckhohn). The linear model can take on a variety of forms, depending on what is recognized as the source and goal of the development of society and culture. Thus, in Kant it is the development of man himself, in Hegel it is the self-development of the absolute spirit, in Marxism it is the development of material production. But among all representatives of this trend, several fundamental ideas. The main one is the idea of the unity of the human race, the recognition of the single essence of man, which should inevitably lead to uniformity in the development of culture in any part of the world.
Reversible model.
It is a variant of the linear (evolutionary) model of cultural dynamics and represents an arrow of time facing the past. If classical evolutionary models are based on the recognition that the future is better than the past, reverse models claim the opposite - the golden age was in the past, all further development of culture only leads to a worsening of the situation of man and society. Thus, there is only involution, degradation of culture. A person striving for a golden age must turn back the course of history, return to the ideal original state of culture.
In fact, the reverse model of cultural dynamics is not a pure version of the linear model, since in addition to the idea of evolution, it uses some value determinants of cyclism (the idea of a return to the golden age, which is in the past of humanity).
An example of a reverse model of cultural dynamics is the concept of J.-J. Rousseau, for whom the development of culture and the growth of a person’s material well-being do not bring happiness, but the alienation of a person from the products of his labor, from society, from other people. For him, the development of culture is a negative factor that separates people. The transition from barbarism to civilization, which took place in ancient times, was not the beginning of the progressive development of mankind. Human happiness lies in unity with nature. You can return to it only by abandoning modern civilization and its values.
Deviant model of cultural dynamics.
It is formed within the framework of neo-evolutionism, based on a linear model of cultural dynamics. Among its authors are L. White, A. Kroeber, D. Steward and others. Graphically, it can be presented in the form of a highly branching tree, where the trunk is the general line of development of society and culture, and the branches are deviations from it, allowing one to explain the specifics of individual cultures , who have deviated in their development from the main direction prescribed by open laws.
The deviant model of cultural dynamics was clearly formulated in the works of L. White, who examined in detail the issue of unilinearity and multilinearity of the evolutionary process. White concluded that the evolutionary interpretation of human culture as a whole must be unilinear. But human culture, as a collection of many cultures, must be interpreted multilinearly. The evolution of writing, metallurgy, social organization, architecture, trade, etc. can be considered from both a single-line and a multi-line point of view. At the same time, the unilinearity of the cultural process does not raise doubts when comparing similar cultural phenomena of the Western and Eastern hemispheres, which until the end of the 15th century. developed independently of each other.
Wave model of cultural dynamics.
It is a combination of a cyclic and linear model of cultural dynamics, connecting reversible and irreversible processes. D. Vico and P. Sorokin (1889-1968) spoke about wave changes in culture, but this model was most fully revealed in the works of the outstanding economist N.D. Kondratiev (1892-1938). He suggested that the economy and other closely related cultural spheres develop based on a combination of small cycles (3.5 years) with medium-term (7-11 years) and large (50 years) cycles. The recovery phase is associated with the introduction of new means of labor, an increase in the number of workers, which is accompanied by an optimistic mood in society and a balanced development of culture. The recession causes an increase in unemployment, the depressed state of many industries and, as a consequence, pessimistic moods in society, and the decline of culture.
Kondratiev’s main ideas were statistically tested and developed by the American economist J. Schumpeter, who considered innovation, both technical and socio-cultural, to be the main factor in the cyclical dynamics.
E. Toffler also speaks about the wave nature of human history in his work “The Third Wave”. He distinguishes three stages: agricultural, industrial and informational, replacing each other thanks to technical progress. Toffler also notes the acceleration of progress: if the first stage lasted thousands of years, then the second took only 300 years to outlive itself. Therefore, the third wave is unlikely to last more than a few decades.
The idea of cyclicity received an interesting development in the works of Yu.M. Lotman. In his book “Culture and Explosion,” the main form of cultural dynamics is called inversion, a transition from one pole of cultural meanings to another, which occurs both continuously, in gradual, well-predictable processes, and in the form of an explosion, the unpredictable emergence of something new in science and art.
A prominent representative of the ideas of cyclicity in modern Russian cultural studies is Yu.V. Yakovets. He understands the historical cycle as the time from the revolutionary revolution, which marks the birth of a new historical system, to the next revolution, which establishes the new system. Moreover, the course of history is a spiral. The pendulum never ends up at the same point twice, but oscillates in similar phases.
Newest models of cultural dynamics.
One of the latest discoveries of cultural studies is synergistic model of cultural dynamics, created as a result of the application of models of the new science of synergetics, which studies self-organization simple systems, to the study of cultural phenomena.
Self-organization is a process that transfers an open nonequilibrium system, which is in an unstable state, into a new, more stable state, characterized by more high degree complexity and orderliness. The study of these processes began in the 1970s within the framework of new sciences - synergetics, the creators of which were the German radiophysicist G. Haken and the Belgian chemist of Russian origin I. Prigozhim. They managed to show and reflect in mathematical models how order can emerge from chaos. At the same time, out of several similar systems participating in this process and located in a changing environment, only a few are preserved. They will become more complex and orderly than previous systems, and the remaining systems will die in a kind of natural selection, as a result of which only the systems most adapted to the new conditions will survive.
From the point of view of synergetics, any open nonequilibrium system in its development goes through two stages.
First stage- this is a smooth evolutionary development of the system, with well-predictable results, and most importantly, with the ability to return to its previous state when the external influence ceases.
Second phase in the development of systems – a leap that instantly transfers the system to a qualitatively new state. A leap is a highly nonlinear process, so it is impossible to predict its results in advance. When a jump occurs, the system is at a bifurcation (branch) point; it has several possible options for further evolution, but it is impossible to predict in advance which one will be chosen. The choice occurs randomly, directly at the moment of the leap, determined by the unique combination of circumstances that develop at a given moment in time and in a given place. But the most important thing is that after passing through the bifurcation point, the system can no longer return to its previous state, and all its further development is carried out taking into account the previous choice.
As it turns out, the synergetic paradigm can be used very effectively to study cultural dynamics. The synergetic model allows us to see in the dynamics of culture not a linear process of development, but many paths of evolutionary or intensely rapid (up to catastrophic), sustainable or unstable development. In general, the process of cultural dynamics can be interpreted as a manifestation of the ability of complex social systems to adapt to changing external and internal conditions of their existence.
One more modern model cultural dynamics is postmodern its interpretation. Postmodernism is not a school or scientific direction, but a general mindset of the second half of the 20th century, based on the ideas of pluralism. He does not reject any of the known forms of cultural dynamics, believing that they are all eclectically combined with each other, creating a huge variety of options. At the same time, apologists of postmodernism refuse to recognize cultural changes as a directed, orderly process, constantly emphasizing their uncertain, transitional nature. Therefore, for postmodernism, the dynamics of culture is neither growth, nor development, nor a purposeful movement towards some state, but is a disorderly spread, devoid of any direction, irregularly moving to the side, up, back. The space surrounding modern man and he himself are not reducible to any unifying principle, they are completely decentralized.
We have listed the models of cultural dynamics existing in modern cultural studies. Today there is no longer a question about which of the above models is true. It is quite obvious that choosing any of them as the only possible one would be wrong. Such a complex object of study as culture is, in principle, impossible to reduce to a single factor, cause or model. In the real dynamics of culture we can observe everything listed forms, describing both certain stages in the dynamics of specific societies and cultures, and changes in individual elements within these cultures.
The macrodynamics of culture, which we discussed above, quite clearly correlates with graphic images of this dynamics. But qualitative changes in both culture as a whole and its individual constituent elements are very difficult to represent in graphic models. This question will be more clear if we analyze the internal processes of cultural dynamics and its constituent elements, which are called types of cultural dynamics.
