Culturology: Textbook for universities Apresyan Ruben Grantovich
3.3. Material and spiritual culture
The division of culture into material and spiritual is associated with two main types of production - material and spiritual.
Concept « material culture» introduced into cultural studies by ethnographers and anthropologists, who understood material culture as character traits culture traditional societies. According to B. Malinovsky’s definition, human material products are artifacts, built houses, manned ships, tools and weapons, objects of magical and religious worship, which constitute the most tangible and visible part of culture. Subsequently, the concept of “material culture” began to define all material and practical human activity and its results: tools, homes, everyday items, clothing, means of transport and communication, etc. Human labor, knowledge, and experience are invested in all of this.
Spiritual culture covers the sphere of consciousness. This is a product of spiritual production - the creation, distribution, consumption of spiritual values. These include: science, art, philosophy, education, morality, religion, mythology, etc. Spiritual culture is a scientific idea, piece of art and its execution, theoretical and empirical knowledge, views that emerge spontaneously, and scientific views.
Manifestations of material and spiritual culture, the creation and use of objects related to each of them are different.
For a long time (and sometimes even now), only spiritual activities and spiritual values were considered culture. Material production remains beyond the boundaries of culture. But human activity- This is primarily a material activity. Beginning with primitive society, the entire human culture - the way of obtaining food, as well as customs, mores, etc. are determined, directly or indirectly, by material grounds. The creation of a “second”, “artificial” nature begins in material sphere. And what its level is ultimately determines the development of spiritual culture. At the dawn of humanity communication primitive art with character labor activity was immediate and obvious. At higher stages of development of human society, the belonging of material activity to the sphere of culture became no less obvious: some manifestations of people’s material activity turned out to be such a direct manifestation of culture that their very designation is terminologically defined as culture. Thus, at the end of the 20th century, technical and technological, technotronic, screen and other cultures emerged.
In addition, the very development of spiritual culture largely depends and is determined by the level of development of material culture.
Material culture and spiritual culture are interconnected, and the border between them is often transparent. scientific idea embodied in a new model of a machine, device, aircraft, i.e., it is clothed in material form and becomes an object of material culture. Material culture develops depending on what scientific, technical and other ideas are implemented in it. Also, an artistic idea is embodied in a book, painting, sculpture, and outside of this materialization it will not become an object of culture, but will remain only the creative intention of the author.
Some types creative activity In general, they are on the verge of material and spiritual culture and belong equally to both. Architecture is both art and construction. Design, technical creativity – art and technology. The art of photography became possible only on the basis of technology. Just like the art of cinema. Some theorists and practitioners of cinema argue that cinema is increasingly ceasing to be art and becoming technology, because the artistic quality of the film depends on the level and quality of technical equipment. One cannot agree with this, but one cannot help but see the dependence of the quality of a film on the quality of filming equipment, film and other material and technical means of cinema.
Television, of course, is an achievement and embodiment of technology. But the idea of television, its invention belongs to science. Having been realized in technology (material culture), television also became an element of spiritual culture.
It is obvious that the boundaries between various areas culture and its individual forms are very conditional. Almost all forms of culture are interconnected. For example, art culture interacts, at least indirectly, with science, and with religion, and with everyday culture, etc. The development of science and the formation a certain picture world affected the development of art - the development of natural science knowledge contributed to the formation of the genres of landscape and still life, and the emergence of new technical inventions led to the emergence of new types of art - photography, cinema, design. Household culture is also associated with religious tradition, and with those dominant in society moral standards, and with arts such as architecture and decorative arts.
But the values of material culture differ in their characteristics from the values of spiritual culture. Values related to spiritual culture are closer to values of a universal human nature, therefore, as a rule, they have no limits to consumption. Indeed, such moral values, like life, love, friendship, dignity, have existed as long as all human culture. Masterpieces of artistic culture do not change their significance – “ Sistine Madonna", created by Raphael, is greatest work art not only for the Renaissance, but also for modern humanity. Probably, the attitude towards this masterpiece will not change in the future. The values of material culture have temporary limits of consumption. Production equipment wears out, buildings deteriorate. In addition, material assets can become “morally obsolete.” Keeping physical fitness, means of production may not meet the requirements modern technologies. Clothes sometimes go out of fashion faster than they wear out.
The values of spiritual culture very often do not have a monetary expression. It is impossible to imagine that beauty, goodness and truth can be assessed in some fixed units. At the same time, the values of material culture, as a rule, have a certain price. “Inspiration is not for sale, but you can sell a manuscript” (A. Pushkin).
The purpose of material culture values is clearly utilitarian in nature. The values of spiritual culture, for the most part, are not practical in orientation, but sometimes they can also have a utilitarian purpose (for example, such types of art as architecture or design).
Material culture includes several forms.
Production. This includes all means of production, as well as technology and infrastructure (energy sources, transport and communications).
Life This form also includes the real side Everyday life– clothing, food, housing, as well as traditions and customs family life, raising children, etc.
Body culture. A person’s attitude towards his body is a special form of culture, which is very closely related to forms of spiritual culture and reflects moral, artistic, religious and social norms.
Ecological culture – human relationship to the natural environment.
Spiritual culture includes both scientific and non-scientific knowledge, both theoretical and empirical, views that arose under the direct influence of ideology (for example, political views, legal consciousness), and those that develop spontaneously (for example, social psychology).
Spiritual culture, its features and forms will be discussed in the second section of the textbook.
From the book Culturology: A Textbook for Universities author Apresyan Ruben GrantovichSection II Spiritual culture
From the book Aryans [Founders European civilization(liters)] by Child Gordon From the book History and Cultural Studies [Ed. second, revised and additional] author Shishova Natalya Vasilievna From the book Japanese Civilization author Eliseeff Vadim From the book Requests of the Flesh. Food and sex in people's lives author Reznikov Kirill YurievichPart three Material culture
From the book of Kumyks. History, culture, traditions author Atabaev Magomed Sultanmuradovich From the book Tabasarans. History, culture, traditions author Azizova Gabibat Nazhmudinovna From the author's bookSpiritual culture of the Eastern Slavs Diverse and colorful material culture ancient Rus' corresponded to the vibrant, multifaceted, complex spiritual culture of the Eastern Slavs. Since time immemorial, folk oral poetry has developed in Rus', a wonderful
From the author's book3.2. Material culture Ancient China The formation of the material culture of Ancient China was affected by the uneven development of material production in different parts of the country. From traditional types home production and crafts are most characteristic of pottery
From the author's book3.3. Spiritual Culture of Ancient China Philosophy in China emerges at the end of the third period in the history of Ancient China (“separate states”) and reaches its highest flowering during the Zhanguo period (“warring kingdoms,” 403–221 BC). At that time there were six main
Spiritual and material cultures, their features
Any culture is multifaceted and multifaceted, its content is expressed in different shapes. Morphology of culture is a branch of cultural studies, the subject of which is the study of typical forms of culture, characterizing its internal structure as integrity.
When analyzing the morphology of a culture, the need arises to clarify the conceptual apparatus on this topic. It includes the concepts of type of culture and form of culture.
Within the framework of the anthropological concept, culture can be structured on the basis of the main types of human activity in society inherent in all cultures, sometimes called spheres of cultural creativity.
Type of culture – These are areas of human cultural creativity that are determined by the diversity of human activity itself and are varieties of a more general culture.
Culture exists in objective and personal forms - these are the characteristics of culture in terms of its external and internal content. The object form of culture is its external appearance, an encounter with culture. Personal types of culture are people as subjects of activity, bearers and creators of cultural values.
The cultural activity of people can be applied in relation to nature, society, and an individual.
1. Types of culture in relation to nature : farming culture, gardening culture, landscape reclamation, special cultivation of individual plants (cereals, legumes) - human activity in relation to nature, its transformation or restoration of the natural environment.
2. Types of cultural activities in relation to society: the polyvariance and multidimensionality of culture is largely considered precisely in society:
- culture as a slice public life: ancient culture, medieval culture;
- culture as a social institution: political culture, religious culture;
- culture as a system of social regulatory norms: moral culture, legal culture.
The concept of “culture” is also applied in relation to certain spheres of human activity: artistic culture, everyday culture, Physical Culture. In relation to art forms: musical culture, theatrical culture.
3. Types of culture in relation to personality : culture of speech of the individual, culture of communication, culture of behavior.
From this point of view, the formal structure of culture can be represented the unity of two types of culture - spiritual and material. The division of culture into spiritual and material is, of course, relative. It is inappropriate to differentiate and contrast spiritual and material cultures: after all, on the one hand, all culture as a whole is spiritual, since it is a world of meanings, and, on the other hand, because it is materialized in certain signs and texts. Spiritual and material cultures complement each other; each element of culture contains both spiritual and material. Ultimately, everything material acts as a realization of the spiritual .
| | | next lecture ==> | |
Culture is the human activity of creating various kinds values, as well as the result of such activities. IN in a general sense This concept can include everything created by man. However, speaking about material and spiritual culture, we mean different concepts: all of the above belongs to the first category, and the second includes ideas, images, traditions, customs, and theories.
Features of material culture and its differences from spiritualThe material culture of a particular people includes traditional clothing, food, weapons, housing, jewelry, and various devices. Material culture in a broad sense includes two main elements:
- Items, created by hand human (architecture, appliances, household elements). In this case, culture is the act of adaptation of a person to the environment, and the environment to the person. Modern information culture is built on the basis of various devices: telephones, the Internet, television.
- Technologies, man-made. Technologies belong to material culture, and not to spiritual, because they have a real living embodiment. For example, touch technology has found application in new generation phones, tablets and laptops.
- Skills and abilities are not just theoretical knowledge, they are their real embodiment. It is because they have a physical image that they are included in this category. In this one can see spiritual and material culture, but it is more correct to speak simply about material culture, as a specific embodiment of a skill.
Accordingly, all elements of culture that do not fit the description of a material form can be classified as spiritual.
Spiritual culture and its relationship with materialThe main difference between spiritual and material culture is that one of them does not have an exact physical appearance, while the other does. Spiritual culture is not found in our world, but in the area of intellectual activity, feelings and self-expression.
Initially, mythology was the ideal form of spiritual culture. Myths regulated various kinds of relationships, explained the structure of the world, and could serve as a normative guide. Later, their role was taken by religion, and then philosophy and art were added to it.
It is believed that the ideal form of culture cannot be associated with a specific opinion - this is scientific knowledge, moral standards, language. In the same category you can include educational activities and objective media.
However, spiritual culture also exists in a subjective sense - it is a person’s internal baggage, represented by his opinion, moral principles, knowledge, behavior, and religious ideas.
It is also interesting that spiritual culture can smoothly flow into material culture - the sculptor’s idea will be embodied and become an object of material culture. However, material culture also turns into spiritual: reading books, discussing their meaning, 
a person translates real material culture into subjective spiritual culture.
Material and spiritual culture of Russia
The culture of Russia, like any other country, dates back many centuries. Since the state is multinational, the local culture is multifaceted, it would be difficult to sum it up under one common denominator.
Moreover, each specific period of time is marked by its own cultural objects - in ancient times these were chronicles, everyday life, National costumes, then - numerous paintings, books, monuments, poems. Nowadays, culture still retains many customs, traditions and other parts of the culture of the past, but much is borrowed from other countries. This is a process common to many countries in the 21st century.
Any culture is multifaceted and multifaceted. But conditionally it can be divided into two spheres of activity, into two forms. These are the material and spiritual spheres of culture.
TO material culture include the entire area of human material and production activity and its results - tools, homes, everyday items, clothing, vehicles, methods of practical activity to create means of production and consumption, etc.
Spiritual culture includes the sphere of spiritual production (production of ideas, knowledge, spiritual values) and its results embodied in science, philosophy, art, religion, morality, etc.
The basis of existence material culture things are the result of human material and creative activity. Things in their totality create a complex and branched structure of material culture. It contains several important regions.
Agriculture (breeding, plant varieties, animal breeds, cultivated soils). Human survival is directly related to these areas of material culture, since they provide food as well as raw materials for industrial production.
Buildings and structures (housing, offices, places of entertainment, educational activities; workshops, docks, bridges, dams, etc.).
Tools, devices and equipment designed to support all types of human physical and mental labor.
Transport and communications.
Communications (mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, computer networks)
Technologies - knowledge and skills in all listed areas of activity.
Spiritual culture is a multilayered formation. Its basis knowledge, which are products of human cognitive activity, recording the information he receives about the world around him and himself, his views on life and behavior. Knowledge satisfies certain human needs, primarily related to the need to ensure the lives of people in society. For the same purposes, various value systems, allowing a person to realize, choose or create forms of behavior approved by society. Culture is the way and sphere of creating cultural values. The concept of values as an important, fundamental element of culture was first formulated I. KANTOM. One of the founders of the theory of values, in which they are presented as cultural phenomena, is G. RICKERT.
Under values is understood as a life guideline that encourages a person to take actions and actions of a certain kind. Cultural values- a set of historically and nationally determined objects, phenomena, ideas that have social and cultural significance for humans and society. Value is not the object itself, but a special type of meaning that a person sees in it. When a person knows nothing about an object, it has no value for him. The concept of “value” is not equal to the concept of “usefulness” (value can be useless, and vice versa), it differs from the concept of “cost” (value is a monetary expression of value; a penny item can be valuable).
The selection of values in society occurs in the process of practical activity.
The world of values is very diverse. Among this variety, the following can be distinguished: TYPES OF VALUES:
Final values(close concept vital values, from the Latin concept of life) – the highest values and ideals, more important than which there is nothing.
This is life, health, happiness, love, friendship, honor, dignity, legality, humanism... These Cs are necessary in themselves. Economic values –
entrepreneurship, the presence of equal conditions for commodity producers, favorable conditions for production, etc. Social values – social status
, hard work, family, tolerance, gender equality, personal independence, etc. Political values –
patriotism, civic engagement, legitimacy, civil liberties, etc. Moral values –
goodness, goodness, love, duty, selflessness, fidelity, honesty, fairness, decency, respect for elders, etc. Religious –
God, faith, salvation, grace, Holy Scripture, etc. Aesthetic values –
beauty, harmony, style, etc. It is on the basis of values that those existing today are formed varieties of spiritual culture
: 1) morality, 2) politics, 3) law, 4) art, 5) religion, 6) science, 7) philosophy. Spiritual material culture is always interconnected, since it cannot exist in complete isolation from one another. Material culture is always the embodiment of a certain part of spiritual culture. And spiritual culture can exist only by being reified, objectified, and having received one or another material embodiment. Example: any book, painting, musical composition, like other works of art, need a material carrier - paper, canvas, paints, musical instruments
etc.
It is often very difficult to understand what type of culture - material or spiritual - a particular object or phenomenon belongs to. Thus, we will most likely classify any piece of furniture as material culture. But if we talk about a three-hundred-year-old chest of drawers exhibited in a museum, we can talk about it as an object of spiritual culture. And a book, an indisputable object of spiritual culture, can be used to light a stove instead of firewood. Cultural objects can change their purpose. How then to distinguish them? The criterion can be an assessment of the meaning and purpose of an object - if an object or phenomenon satisfies the primary (biological) needs of a person, it is classified as material culture, but if it satisfies secondary needs associated with the development of human abilities, it refers to spiritual culture. In addition, between material and spiritual culture there are – transitional forms material objects that represent something other than what they themselves are. The most famous form of sign is money, used by people to denote all kinds of services. Money is a universal market equivalent that can be spent on buying food or clothing (material culture), or we can use it to buy a ticket to a theater or museum (spiritual culture). Money is a universal intermediary between objects of material and spiritual culture. This is their serious danger, since they equate these objects with each other, depersonalizing objects of spiritual culture.
Structure of culture (material and spiritual)
Such a large number of definitions is explained by the fact that the structure of culture is complex, multifunctional and multifaceted, as it includes the education system, science, literature, art, religion, etc.
The cultural process is the accumulation by society of material and spiritual values, the layering of eras, times and peoples fused together. This is human activity, relying on the left heritage of 1200 generations of our kind, fertilizing and transmitting this heritage to those who will replace those currently living.
Culture can be divided into two main types - material and spiritual, which are closely interrelated.
Material culture includes: the culture of labor and material production; culture of life; topos culture, i.e. place of residence (home, house, village, city); culture of attitude towards one's own body; Physical Culture. Spiritual culture includes cognitive (intellectual) culture; moral; artistic; legal; pedagogical. We should not forget that spiritual culture also includes worship, veneration, honor, and cult. First of all - a religious cult. In ancient times, man was constantly surrounded by gods: he met them in the field and in the grove, in the greenery of trees, in shady grottoes and river pools, but the gods lived both in the city and in a person’s house, they protected city laws and the safety of citizens.
Material culture satisfies the needs of people with its material content, while spiritual culture not only satisfies the flesh, but also develops abilities. It follows from this that what more people develops spiritually, the more it changes material culture.
It is human nature to decorate our everyday life, and therefore objects of material culture in most cases are aesthetically designed and not only help our body to exist, but also delight the soul. For example, you can drink water straight from the tap, or from a crystal wine glass. This means that the spiritual side is always present in a person’s works. Cultural objects can belong to material and spiritual culture at the same time. For example, in works of architecture, decorative - applied arts. Both the house and the palace serve as housing, and the temple at various historical periods was not only a place for religious ceremonies, but also a meeting place, a repository of valuables, and even a classroom.
Another important point is that cultural objects can change their main purpose during the course of their existence. For example, using furniture and clothing that have become museum exhibits, one can study the life and customs of a certain era.
In turn, each component of spiritual culture can be structured. For example, religion - Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, etc.; science - humanitarian and technical, which can also be structured in more detail; art - decorative, plastic, easel, etc.
Basic functions of culture
Culture performs many functions: educational, social, educational, etc. There are three main functions that allow society to exist for a long time historical period, enter modern age- it is educational, informative, communicative.
The first - cognitive function - is knowledge of the world, country, society, or some phenomenon, self-knowledge (education, upbringing). This function concentrates the experience of many generations of people, the ability to accumulate a wealth of knowledge about the world and thereby create favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development. We can say that a society is intellectual to the extent that knowledge is used in the cultural gene pool of humanity. All types of society living on earth today differ primarily in this type. Some of them demonstrate an amazing ability, through culture, to take all the best that people have accumulated and put it into their service. For example, Japan shows enormous abilities in many areas of science, technology, and production. Others still live in tribes and are unable to use cognitive functions culture, dooming themselves to social anemia and backwardness.
The second - informative - is the accumulation, preservation and transmission of cultural information from generation to generation, from one country to another, from civilization to civilization, acting as a person’s social memory. Therefore, it is important not only to preserve cultural values, but also convey them.
The third is communicative - means of transmitting cultural information, remote cognition. Culture is a sign system that must be understood or be able to decipher. This means that without understanding the specific language of the world of music, painting, sculpture, architecture, theater, philosophy, etc. it is impossible to understand their content. The same applies to the language of physics, chemistry, mathematics and other natural sciences, which have their own sign systems.
