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Section I FUNDAMENTALS OF CULTURAL STUDY

Empirical methods in cultural studies – are used at the initial level of research, based on the collection and description of factual material within the framework of humanitarian cultural studies.
Historical method– is aimed at studying how a given culture arose, what stages of development it went through and what it became in its mature form.
Structural-functional method - consists in decomposing the object under study into its component parts and identifying the internal connection, conditionality, relationship between them, as well as determining their functions.
Semiotic method – considers culture as a sign system, i.e. use semiotics.
Biographical method - involves analyzing the life path of a cultural figure for a better understanding of his inner world, which reflects the system of cultural values ​​of his time.
Modeling model – associated with the creation of a model of a certain period in the development of culture.
Psychologicalmethod - involves the ability to find out, through the analysis of memoirs, chronicles, myths, chronicles, epistolary heritage, treatises, the most typical reactions of people of a particular culture to the most significant phenomena for them: famine, wars, epidemics. Such reactions manifest themselves both in the form of social feelings and mentality in general. The use of the psychological method allows, through understanding the nature of a particular culture, to perceive the motivation and logic of cultural actions.
The diachronic method involves elucidating the chronological, that is, time sequence of change, appearance and course of a particular cultural phenomenon.
The synchronic method consists of analyzing changes in the same phenomenon at different stages of a single cultural process. In addition to the above, the synchronic method can also be understood as a cumulative analysis of two or more cultures over a certain period of their development, taking into account existing connections and possible contradictions.

World history and public culture (this is the foundation, the basis of science) is knowledge about achievements in science, art, about the development of religious thought; cultural history explores the real process of continuity of cultures of different eras and peoples.
History of cultural theoriesis a story about the process of formation and development of cultural thought, i.e. history of cultural studies.
Theory of culture is the main complex of scientific concepts in the field of culture, the study of basic theoretical problems cultural studies.
Sociology of culture - studies the process of functioning of culture in society, the characteristics and values ​​of various social groups, the specifics of lifestyle and spiritual interests, explores various forms of deviant behavior common in society.
Cultural anthropology– represents a section related to the peculiarities of interaction between culture and man, culture and personality.
Applied cultural studies– cultural studies, focused on practical actions in the field of culture. It's about about social work, about activities to preserve cultural values ​​and assistance in the transfer of spiritual experience to other generations.

Question 2. The concept of culture, its essence, structure and functions.
Culture, understood in a broad sense, covers the entire set of social values ​​that create a collective portrait of the identity of each particular society.
In a broad sense, the concept "culture"(Latin "cultura") is used asopposition to “nature”, “nature”(Latin “natura”). “Culture is everything that is not nature,” i.e. the entire set of material and ideal objects, social achievements, thanks to which a person stands out from nature.
In a narrow sense, culture – it's synonymous with art, i.e. a special sphere of human activity associated with the artistic and imaginative understanding of the world in the form of literature, architecture, sculpture, painting, graphics, music, dance, theater, cinema, etc.
Culture is the link between society and nature. The basis of this connection is a person as a subject of activity, cognition, communication, experience, etc.
Talking about structure culture should be defined as two spheres of its existence -material and spiritual. Such manifestations of culture are associated with two spheres of human activity: material and spiritual. In them, on the one hand, there is an expression of human powers, on the other hand, their formation and improvement.
Culturologists highlight the following functions crops:

Basic (human)- Man lives not in nature, but in culture.
In it he recognizes himself. There are also moments of worldview, formation, education and sociologization of a person. Otherwise, it is also called the transformative function, since mastering and transforming the surrounding reality is a fundamental human need.
Informative (epistemological) – aimed at ensuring human knowledge of the world around us. It is expressed in science, in scientific research, aimed at systematizing knowledge and discovering the laws of development of nature and society, and at man’s knowledge of himself.
Communicative– ensures the process of information exchange using signs and sign systems.
Regulatory (regulatory or protective function) - is a consequence of the need to maintain a certain balanced relationship between man and the environment, both natural and social.
Value (axiological) – culture shows the significance or value of what is valuable in one culture is not so in another.
Spiritual and moral– educational roles of culture.

Question 3. The evolution of the understanding of the term “culture”: from antiquity to modernity.
Initially, the concept of culture (cultura) came into use as a word of Latin origin. It was used inThe Roman Empire in the sense of cultivating, cultivating, cultivating; to inhabit, to inhabit the earth.
Those. culture meant the settlement of a person in a certain territory, cultivation, cultivation of the land. This is where the term comes from agriculture - agriculture, land cultivation. Thus, the concept of culture is directly associated with such an important life of society the concept of agriculture (as a purposeful human activity). In Latin, the harbinger of culture is the term cultus - “care, care for the deity, cult (veneration).”
Thus, the ancient complex of the concept “Culture” reflects three facets of a single meaning and represents a holistic formula: arrangement of the place where a person lives, cultivation of the land, veneration of the gods.
For the first time, the concept of culture was used in a figurative sense in his work by the outstanding Roman politician, orator and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), calling philosophy “the culture of the soul.”
The term culture began to be perceived somewhat differently during the heyday of the Christian worldview in Europe. If we talk about the main difference in the worldview and science of that period, then from the cosmocentrism inherent in antiquity, European thought comes to the complete worship of God, worship of God. Man, his desires, his body, his needs become insignificant, only the spirit remains, which is eternal, the salvation of which must be taken care of, and in the Christian world another meaning of culture comes first -reverence, boundless and undivided veneration of God.It was the veneration of the triune God that became the basis of human spiritual development in Christianity. Thus, in the Middle Ages, the religious cult became the main thing in the formation of a person.
As for secular culture, some Christian theologians interpret it as a preparation for religious insight, while others interpret it as a path of error that leads away from the truth in the face of God.
Renaissance became the second stage on the path to the justification and definition of the concept of culture. The very attitude towards a person as a separate creative unit, an individual, is changing. An anthropocentric picture of the world is being formed. In the Renaissance there is a constant Delight human creative abilities, new breakthroughs in art, literature, painting, architecture. The study of the culture of ideology continued in the direction of identifying the boundary between the innate and acquired in a person.
In the Age of Enlightenment, it was believed that culture was not just an inherent desire for freedom or mercy, but an activity illuminated by the light of reason. And in this new model of the Enlightenment project, reason, rationalism dominates, and it is on this foundation that the edifice of European culture is erected. Before this period, the word "culture" was used only in phrases, denoting the function of something, but in contrast to thisGerman educators began to talk about culture in general or about culture as such.
So, in the Age of Enlightenment, the concept of “culture” meansactive transformation of the world by man. Unlike Cicero, educators consider culture not only the spiritual, but also the material activities of people. This is improving people's lives through agriculture, crafts, and various techniques. But first of allculture is the spiritual improvement of the human race and individuals, the instrument of which is the mind.
Over the centuries, the understanding of culture has varied, evolved, and certain thinkers have given their meaning to a given word in a certain era.
Today, culture is a special spiritual experience of human communities, accumulated and transmitted from generation to generation, the content of which is the value meanings of things, forms, norms, and ideals, relationships and actions, feelings, intentions, expressed in specific signs and sign systems – cultural languages.

Question 4. Enlightenment theories of culture of the 18th century (I.-G. Herder, J.-J. Rousseau, G. Vico)
In the Age of Enlightenment treatises and essays appear devoted to the study of culture as an integral world created by man. Among those who laid the foundations for the study of culture as an integral phenomenon are calledJ. Vico (1668-1744) and German thinker I. Herdera (1744-1803). The fact is that before them the word “culture” was used only in phrases, denoting the function of something. In contrast to this, German enlighteners, in particular I. Herder, leadtalking about culture in generalor about culture as such. According to Herder's views, highThe purpose of man is in the development of two universal principles - Reason and Humanity.For this purpose, education and upbringing, overcoming ignorance, serve. To explore the root cause, the spirit of humanity, is the true task of the historian.The highest humanity is manifested in religion. Therefore, reason, humanity and religion are the three most important values ​​of culture.
J. Vico- historian and philosopher, doctor of law and rhetoric from the University of Naples in his main work"Foundations of the New Science of the General Nature of Nations"» puts forward ideas about the cultural unity and diversity of the world, the dynamics of the cyclical development of culture and the change of eras.In his statements, he relies on the ancient ideas of the Egyptians, according to which they divided the time that passed before them into three main periods: the age of the gods, the age of heroes and the age of people, and he accepts these views as the basis of the universal history that he intends to create. Historical evolution, according to Vico, is formed and replaced by different eras or “centuries”.Each era differs only in its inherent characteristics of art and morality, law and power, myths and religion, but the cycle of cycles reflects the infinity of human development. Throughout the entire work, Vico consistently illustrates the coincidence of phenomena and causes, and finds analogies in the development of human history and culture.
Over the course of time, eras succeed each other, and Vico talks only about the endless evolution of history. Speaking about the change of cycles in history and culture, Vico draws attention to the emergingat the end of the cycle, barbarism into which all nations fall.From his point of view, barbarism is considered as an integral period in the progressive development of mankind. He divides this phenomenon into two types -natural barbarism, the story begins with him; the second - more refined and aggressive is inherent in historical development in subsequent cycles, people of a higher level of culture, the cruelty of this barbarism is distinguished by more skillful and secret means. (We can draw parallels with fascism).
Such ideas of Vico formed the basis of future cultural studies, cultural anthropology.
J.J. Rousseau created his own “concept of anticulture.” In his treatise "Discourse. Has the revival of science and the arts contributed to the improvement of morals?" he says that everything beautiful in a person comes out of the bosom of nature and spoils in him when he gets into society.

Question 5. The formation of cultural studies as a science. L. White's theory.
Beginning with the European Enlightenment, interest in culture as an integral social and anthropological reality is gradually but steadily emerging. Subsequently, historical researchers and cultural scientists will call this a culture-centric picture of the world.
Culture in all its diversity and richness is the focus of attention of philosophers, anthropologists, as well as writers, artists, and politicians.
If we look at different cultures and traditions, including in the temporal plane, we will see that every nation has an economic way of life, creates tools, all social life is regulated by the rules of law, all cultures develop, are at different stages of development and progress. He begins to move away from the positions of Eurocentrism and realize the significance and uniqueness of each culture, whichall cultures are equal, have equal rights, there are no worthy or despised cultures, they are all original, this diversity is the main wealth of the cultural life of the world. Such areas of science as cultural anthropology, ethnography and sociology are emerging. The term cultural studies appears in the work of the English anthropologist E. Tylor (1832-1917), “Primitive Culture”, he substantiates the concept of culture, determines the natural connections between cultural phenomena, develops methods for classifying the stages of cultural development, compiles an ethnographic and anthropological description of the cultures of more than 400 peoples and ethnic groups of different countries.
Anthropologist Leslie White (1900-1975) devoted his works to the substantiation of cultural studies as a science; in 1949 he published treatise“The science of culture”, in which he proposes to call the branch of humanities cultural studies. It was he who brought worthy arguments in favor of this science being separated from the complex of humanities knowledge about culture into a separate discipline. This allows us to consider him the founder of cultural studies. L. White viewed culture as a symbolic reality. Man has a unique ability to attach a certain meaning to objects and phenomena surrounding him, to endow them with meaning, and to create symbols. It is this ability to symbolize, according to White, that creates the world of culture.These are values, ideas, faith, customs, works of art, etc., which are created by man and endowed with a certain meaning; outside this circle, objects lose value and turn into material - matter, clay, wood, nothing more.The symbol is the basic element for understanding human behavior and culture.
White identifies 3 types of symbols: ideas, relationships, external actions, material objects.All these types relate to culture and express a person’s ability to symbolize. Culture is not just objects, without the human thought process, without its ability to evaluate and symbolize, it is emptiness, but endowed with symbols and meanings, this environment turns into a human habitat, and in turn contributes to the value understanding of human existence, helps a person adapt to the world around him . Thus,White views it as a holistic system, divided into three interconnected areas:

technological- equipment, protective equipment, transport, materials for building a home, this ensures human interaction with nature
social – relationships between people in all spheres of society, it determines a person’s mastery of the social environment
spiritual sphere. Knowledge, faith, customs, myths, folklore, on this basis religion, mythology, philosophy, art, morality, etc. develop. This creates the spiritual world of man.

Question 6. Typology of culture: ethnic, national, world, regional cultures.
Typology means a certain classification of phenomena according to the commonality of some characteristics. The type of culture can be understood as a community of traits, characteristics, manifestations that distinguishes a given culture (culture) from others, or the fixation of certain, qualitatively homogeneous stages of cultural development.Typology of culture is knowledge, understanding, description, classification of manifestations of culture according to some principle.
Any typological scheme is based on the general idea that human history includes two main periods:archaic (primitive) and civilizational.
It is worth distinguishing between the concepts of typologization of cultures - this is a method of cultural-historical analysis, and typology of cultures is a system of identified typical models of cultures, the result of applying the method.
The typology distinguishes the following types of culture:

Ethnic culture– the culture of a certain ethnic group (social community of people), the creative form of its life activity for the reproduction and renewal of existence. The basis for identifying ethnic culture isethnic community: she initially has a biological nature, the oldest go back to prehistoric times. They are based ongeneral hereditary psychophysiological characteristics of people,connected by a common origin, and in the early stages by a specific area of ​​habitat.Ethnic culture – totality cultural traits relating primarily to everyday life and everyday culture.It has a core and periphery. Ethnic cultureincludes tools, morals, customs, values, buildings, clothing, food, means of transportation, housing, knowledge, beliefs, and types of folk art.Formation ethnic culture occurs

in progress :

synthesis of primary factors: language, development of the territory, location, climatic conditions, features of farming and life;
synthesis of secondary generative factors: systems of interpersonal communication, the evolution of cities, the predominance of a particular religion; the formation of a certain economic and cultural type in the economy;

creation of an education system, ideology, propaganda; influence of political factors; psychological characteristics, behavioral stereotypes, habits, mental attitudes; external interactions with other ethnic groups within the national state and beyond. National culture unites people living over large areas and not necessarily related by blood. new type social communication,associated with the invention of writing, with the moment of birth literary language and national literature.It is thanks to writing that the ideas necessary for national unification gain popularity among the literate part of the population.The concept of national culture cannot be defined without the existence of state structures in this culture. So nations can bemonoethnic and multiethnic.It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of “nation” and “people”.

A nation is a territorial, economic and linguistic association of people with a social structure and political organization . National culture includes, along with traditional everyday, professional and everyday culture, also specialized areas of culture. Ethnic cultures are part of the national culture..
World – this is a synthesis of the best achievements of all national cultures of the peoples inhabiting our planetRegional culture -Regional culture is a variant of national culture and at the same time an independent phenomenon with its own patterns of development and logic of historical existence.

It is distinguished by the presence of its own set of functions, the production of a specific system of social connections and its own type of personality, and the ability to influence the national culture as a whole.
Behind the differentiation of concepts lies the understanding that there are forms and mechanisms that transform the culture of a region into a regional culture. On the other hand, this allows us to include the concept of regional culture in the typological series of historical and cultural phenomena. Question 7. Elite and mass culture. Concepts of mass culture in cultural studies.Elite (high) culture created and consumed by the privileged part of society - the elite(from fr.Elite- the best selection, favorites),or commissioned by professional creators.The elite represents the part of society most capable of spiritual activity.High culture includes fine art, classical music and literature. It is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. The circle of consumers of high culture is a highly educated part of society (critics, literary critics, theatergoers, artists, writers, musicians). This circle expands when the level of education in the population increases.and the practice of "pure art".The meaning of elite culture is in the search for beauty, truth, and the cultivation of moral qualities of the individual..
Mass culture(from Lat. massa- lump, piece and cultural- cultivation, education)does not express the refined tastes or spiritual quest of the people. It appeared in the middle of the twentieth century, whenMedia (radio print, television)penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. The term "mass culture" was first introduced by the German philosopher M. Horkheimer in 1941 And by the American scientist D. MacDonald in 1944
Mass culture May beinternational and national. She has less artistic valuethan elitist. She has the mostwide audienceand it is the author's. Pop music is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of education level, because Mass culturesatisfies the immediate needs of people.
Therefore, its samples (hits) quickly lose relevance, become obsolete and go out of fashion. This does not happen with works of elite and popular culture.
Mass culture is a state, or more precisely, a cultural situation corresponding to a certain form of social structure, in other words, culture “in the presence of the masses.”In order to be able to talk about the presence of mass culture, it is necessary that its representative - a historical community called the mass - appear on the historical arena, and also that the corresponding type of consciousness - mass consciousness - acquires dominant significance.Mass and mass consciousness are connected and do not exist in isolation from each other. They act as both an “object” and a “subject” of mass culture. It is around the masses and mass consciousness that his “intrigue” revolves.
Accordingly, only where we find the beginnings of these social and mental attitudes do we have the right to talk about the presence of mass culture. Therefore, both the history and prehistory of mass culture do not go beyond the framework of the modern European past. The people, the crowd, the peasants, the ethnic group, the proletarians, the broad urban “lower classes”, any other pre-modern European historical community and, accordingly, speak, think, feel, react in specific cases.She models situations and assigns roles.
The purpose of mass culture is not so much to fill leisure time and relieve stress for a person in an industrial and post-industrial society, butstimulating consumer consciousness in the recipient(viewer, listener, reader) thatforms a special type of passive, uncritical perception of this culture in a person. This creates a personality that is easily manipulated.
The mass consciousness formed by mass culture is diverse in its manifestations. It is characterized by conservatism, inertia, limitations, and has specific means of expression. Mass culture focuses not on realistic images, but on artificially created images (image) and stereotypes, where the main thing is the formula. This situation encourages idolatry.
Mass culture has given rise to the phenomenon of a consumer society in which there are no spiritual values.

Question 8. Mainstream, subculture and counterculture: typology, main features.
Mainstream(main current) - the predominant direction in any field (scientific, cultural, etc.) for a certain period of time.It is often used to designate any “official”, mass trends in culture and art to contrast with the alternative, underground, non-mass, elitist direction.I highlight meistirim in cinematography and music.
Mainstream cinema , is usually used in relation toNorth Americancinema - blockbusters, and films by famous European directors. In the Russian Federation the term mainstream in relation to cinema began to be especially actively usedafter the reform of the system of state financing of domestic cinema with priority allocation of budget money to “major” film studios, whose high-budget films form the basis of the “mainstream” of Russian cinema.
Musical mainstream is used to denote the most popular on radio and commercially profitable movement in popular music, within which elements of the most popular in this moment styles. The concept originated in the USA in the 40s of the 20th century. The most powerful influences on the musical mainstream are the USA (Billboard), Great Britain, Germany and Scandinavia.
You can also highlightmainstream in literature is, for example, great popularity detective genre among modern readers.
Subculture(lat. sub - under + cultura - culture; = subculture) -part of the culture of a society that differs from the prevailing one, as well as social groups of carriers of this culture.The concept was introduced in 1950 by the American sociologist David Reisman . A subculture may differ from the dominant culture in its own value system, language, behavior, clothing and other aspects. There are subcultures,formed on national, demographic, professional, geographical and other bases. In particular, subcultures are formed by ethnic communities that differ in their dialect from the linguistic norm. Another well-known example is youth subcultures. A subculture can arise from fandom or hobby. Most often, subcultures are closed in nature and strive for isolation from mass culture. This is caused both by the origin of subcultures (closed communities of interests) and by the desire to separate from the main culture.
Subcultures:

They highlight the musical a subculture that is associated with certain genres of music (hippies, rastafarians, punks, metalheads, goths, emo, hip-hop, etc.). The image of musical subcultures is formed largely by imitation of the stage image of popular performers in a given subculture.
Art subculture arose from a passion for a certain type of art or hobby, an example is anemo.
Interactive subcultures appeared in the mid-90s with the spread of Internet technologies: fido communities, hackers.
Industrial (urban) subcultures appeared in the 20s and are associated with the inability of young people to live outside the city. Some industrial subcultures emerged from fans of industrial music, but computer games had the greatest influence on them.
To sports subcultures include Parkour and football fans.

Question 9. The problem of “East-West”, “North-South” in cultural studies.
East-West. When getting acquainted with the eastern countries, even an uninitiated person is struck by theiroriginality and dissimilaritysimilar to what we are used to seeing in Europe or America. Everything is different here: architecture, clothing, food, lifestyle, art, the structure of language, writing, folklore, in a word, the most obvious components of any culture. Is it true,To the European eye, the East appears as something uniformly “oriental,” although in reality the differences between the countries of this region are sometimes very large.In fiction of the 20th century. The most prominent exponent of the idea of ​​​​the incompatibility of Western and Eastern cultures was the famous English writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), whose work was largely intended to show thatEast is East and West is West and that they will never understand each other. True, this last statement is now refuted by life itself.
Differences between East and West, although they are being smoothed out under the pressure of modern technotronic civilization, they are stillremain very significant.
This is not least explained by a certain “Eastern” type of thinking, closely associated with Eastern religions, which, with the exception of Islam, seem to be more tolerant, more prone to pantheism, i.e. deification of nature, and more “inscribed” in the very matter of culture.
In the East, particularly in India, religion and culture practically coincided for thousands of years.An Eastern person, unlike a European, is characterized by: greater introversion, i.e. focus on oneself and one’s own inner life; less tendency to perceive opposites, which are often denied; great faith in the perfection and harmony of the surrounding Universe, and hence the orientation not towards its transformation, but towards adaptation to a certain “cosmic rhythm”.
In general, to put it somewhat schematically,the eastern type of thinking in relation to the surrounding world is more passive, more balanced, more independent of external environment and is focused on unity with nature.
One might suspect that it was precisely these “compensatory” qualities of the Eastern worldview in our turbulent times that became the reason for what is now observed in Europe, America, and in Lately and in our country, passion for Eastern religions, yoga and other similar beliefs, aimed not at “conquering” nature, but at mastering the secrets of man himself.
North South. Along with the East-West problem, the North-South problem has recently become increasingly important. The “South” refers to the social and cultural world of the peoples of the subtropical zone - the African continent, Oceania, Melanesia. The peoples living to the north form the sociocultural world of the “North”, in which dance plays a leading role. Thus, improvisational jazz has become widespread in our time (starting with the “hot five” of L. Armstrong, who introduced traditions born in Negro music into the culture of the North).
The art of the South left its mark on the work of such outstanding European artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as Gauguin, Vlaminck, Matisse, Picasso, Dali, etc. African culture was one of the sources of expressionism and cubism in painting. Many European and American poets and writers (Apollinaire, Cocteau, etc.) reflected its motifs in their works. An echo of African culture is present in philosophy (for example, in the concept of “respect for life” by the 20th century European thinker A. Schweitzer, who spent a long time in the wilds of Africa). Thanks to black athletes, with their passion, refined technique and rhythm of movements, many sports spectacles became livelier, sharper and more dynamic: football, basketball, boxing, athletics, etc.
Thus, the culture of the South is already having a noticeable impact on the North. At the same time, the southern peoples are also intensively mastering the cultural achievements of the northern countries. Further strengthening of contacts between the North and South will undoubtedly contribute to the mutual enrichment of these social and cultural worlds.

Question 10. Religion as a cultural phenomenon, main features and characteristics.
Religion is a multifaceted, branched, complex social phenomenon, represented by various types and forms, the most common of which are world religions, including numerous directions, schools and organizations.
In the history of culture, the emergence of three world religions was of particular importance:Buddhism in the 6th century. BC e., Christianity in the 1st century. AD and Islam in the 7th century. n. e.These religions made significant changes to culture, entering into complex interaction with its various elements and aspects. The term “religion” is of Latin origin and means “piety, sacredness.”Religion is a special attitude, appropriate behavior and specific actions based on belief in the supernatural, something higher and sacred.In interaction with art, religion turns to the spiritual life of a person and in its own way interprets the meaning and goals of human existence. Art and religion reflect the world in the form of artistic images, comprehend the truth intuitively, through insight. They are unthinkable without an emotional attitude to the world, without developed imagery and fantasy. But art has broader possibilities for figuratively reflecting the world, going beyond the limits of religious consciousness. Primitive culture is characterized by the lack of differentiation of social consciousness, thereforein ancient times, religion, which was a complex synthesis of totemism, animism, fetishism and magic, was merged with primitive art and morality.All together they were an artistic reflection of the nature surrounding man, his work activity - hunting, farming, gathering. First, obviously, dance appeared, which was magical body movements aimed at appeasing or intimidating spirits, then music and mimic art were born. Religion had a huge influence on ancient culture, one of the elements of which was ancient Greek mythology.Ancient Greek mythology had a great influence on the culture of many modern European peoples. Religion has had a great influence on literature. The three main world religions - Buddhism, Christianity and Islam - have given the world three great books - the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran.The role of religion in the history of world culture was not only that it gave humanity these sacred books - sources of wisdom, kindness and creative inspiration. Religion has had a significant influence on the fiction of different countries and peoples.
Thus, Christianity influenced Russian literature.

Question 11. The theory of cultural-historical types N.Ya. Danilevsky.
Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky (November 28 (December 10) 1822 - November 7 (19), 1885) - Russian sociologist, cultural scientist, publicist and naturalist; geopolitician,one of the founders of the civilizational approach to history, the ideologist of Pan-Slavism.
In my work "Russia and Europe" Danilevsky criticized Eurocentrism, which dominated the historiography of the 19th century, and, in particular, the generally accepted scheme of dividing world history intoAntiquity, Middle Ages and Modern Times. The Russian thinker considered such a division to have only a conditional meaning and completely unjustifiably “link” phenomena of a completely different kind to the stages of European history.
The concept of “cultural-historical types”– central to Danilevsky’s teaching. According to his own definition,a distinctive cultural-historical type is formed by any tribe or family of peoples characterized by a separate language or group of languages ​​that are quite close to each other, if in general, in terms of its spiritual inclinations, it is capable of historical development and has already emerged from a state of infancy.
Danilevsky identified Egyptian, Chinese, Assyrian-Babylonian-Phoenician, Chaldean or Ancient Semitic, Indian, Iranian, Jewish, Greek, Roman, New Semitic or Arabian and Germanic-Roman as the main cultural and historical types that have already realized themselves in history or European, as well as Mexican and Peruvian, which did not have time to complete their development.
Main attention Danilevsky paidGerman-Roman and Slavic types: considering the Slavic type more promising,he predicted that in the future the Slavs, led by Russia, would take the place of the declining German-Roman type on the historical stage. Europe, according to Danilevsky’s forecasts, should be replaced by Russia with its mission of uniting all Slavic peoples and high religious potential.The triumph of the Slavs would mean the “decline” of Europe, which is hostile towards its “young” rival – Russia.
Like the Slavophiles, Danilevsky believed that European and Slavic statehood arose from different roots. Considering the characteristics that determine the identification of types, namely large ethnographic differences,Danilevsky points out the differences between the Slavic peoples and the Germanic ones in three categories: ethnographic features (mental structure), religiosity, differences in historical education . This analysis represents a continuation and expansion of the cultural comparative analysis of the early Slavophiles.
Danilevsky’s book contains many thoughts, the value of which increased significantly at the end of the 20th century. One of them is the warning of the author of "Russia and Europe" aboutdangers of denationalization of culture.The establishment of worldwide dominance of one cultural-historical type, according to Danilevsky, would be disastrous for humanity, since the dominance of one civilization, one culture would deprive the human race of a necessary condition for improvement - the element of diversity. Believing that the greatestevil is the loss of “moral national identity”, Danilevsky decisivelycondemned the West for imposing its culture on the rest of the world.Earlier than most of his contemporaries, the Russian thinker realized that in order for the “cultural power” not to dry up in humanity in general, it is necessary to resist the power of one cultural-historical type, it is necessary to “change the direction” of cultural development.
He insisted that“the state and the people are transitory phenomena and exist only in time, and therefore, the laws of their activity can only be based on the requirement of this temporary existence of theirs”. Considering the concept of universal human progress as too abstract, Danilevsky practically excluded the possibility of direct continuity in cultural and historical development.
“The beginnings of civilization are not transmitted from one cultural-historical type to another.”Various forms of influence of one cultural type on another are not only possible, but actually inevitable.
Actually, the key point in Danilevsky’s concept, which is still included in courses on the history of sociology around the world, iscyclicality of the civilization process.Unlike Toynbee and Spengler, Danilevsky does not focus his attention on signs of decline or progress, but collects extensive factual material that makes it possible to see the repeatability of social orders behind many historical features.

Question 12. The doctrine of the “ideal types” of culture by M. Weber.
Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (21 April 1864 – 14 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian and economist.
The most important place in Weber's social philosophy is occupied by the concept of ideal types.By ideal type he meant a certain ideal model of what is most useful to a person, objectively meets his interests at the moment and in general in the modern era.In this regard, moral, political, religious and other types can act as ideal types. values , as well as the resulting attitudes of behavior and activity of people, rules and norms of behavior, traditions.
Weber's ideal typescharacterize, as it were, the essence of optimal social states - states of power, interpersonal communication, individual and group consciousness.Because of this, they act as unique guidelines and criteria, based on which it is necessary to make changes in the spiritual, political and material lives of people. Since the ideal type does not completely coincide with what exists in society, and oftencontradicts the actual state of affairs(or the latter contradicts him), he, according to Weber, carries inyourself the features of a utopia.
And yet, ideal types, expressing in their interconnection a system of spiritual and other values, act as socially significant phenomena. They contribute to introducing expediency into people’s thinking and behavior and organization into public life. Weber's doctrine of ideal types serves for his followers as a kind of methodological installation for understanding social life and solving practical problems related, in particular, to the ordering and organization of elements of spiritual, material and political life.
Weber identifies twoideal typical organizations of economic behavior: traditional and goal-rational. The first has existed since ancient times, the second develops in modern times. Overcoming traditionalism is associated with the development of a modern rational capitalist economy, which presupposes the existence of certain types of social relations and certain forms of social order. Analyzing these forms, Weber comes to two conclusions: idealhe describes the type of capitalism as the triumph of rationality in all spheres of economic life, and such development cannot be explained solely by economic reasons.

Question 13. Psychoanalytic concepts of culture (3. Freud, K. Jung, E. Fromm).
Of particular interest in the cultural studies of psychoanalysis is psychoanalysis and the concept of culture of the Austrian psychiatrist S. Freud.
Z. Freud replaced the problem of death,identical to it in essence, but not leading to transcendencebirth problem. The concepts of “death” and “birth” really merge together, and the task of cultural studies within the framework of classical psychoanalysis can be designated asstudy of the three most important stages, birth-death of the substantial system “man-culture”:
1. The culture of birth together with the first proto-man as a system of his phobic (phobia-fear) projections,functionally breaking down into a set of provoking prohibitions and a set of obsessive rituals of their symbolic violation.
2 . Culture turns to its productive side, acting as a centuries-old program of humanization, a symbolic series of “ancient temptations”, lures of individuation. It awakens in the child’s memory field ancestral, archetypal experiences with the help of their symbolic real or fantasy repetition during the period early childhood- in fairy tales, games, dreams.
3. Culture manifests itself exclusively repressively;its purpose is to protect society from the free individual,rejected both biological and mass regulators, and means - total frustration, distillation of freedom into guilt and expectation of punishment,pushing the individual either to the depersonalization of mass identifications, or to auto-aggressive neuroticism, or to aggression directed outward, which increases cultural pressure and aggravates the situation. Culture is consolidated as the enemy of any manifestation of human individuality.S. Freud developed a universal methodology for monitoring the degree of repressiveness of culture, which he called “metapsychology”.
Carl Gustave Jung- a Swiss psychologist, philosopher and psychiatrist developed his own version of the doctrine of the unconscious, calling it “analytical psychology” and thereby wanting to emphasize both his dependence and independence in relation to Freud.Jung considered the “psychic” to be the primary substance, and the individual soul appeared to him as a luminous point in the space of the collective unconscious.If Freud saw the essence of the personal and general cultural evolutionary process in rationalization (according to the principle: where there was “it”, there will be “I”), then C. G. Jung associatedthe formation of personality with harmonious and equal “cooperation” of consciousness and the unconscious, with the interpenetration and balancing of “male” and “female” in a person, rational and emotional principles, “eastern” and “western” elements of culture, introverted and extroverted orientations, archetypal and phenomenal material of mental life.
The next step towards complicating the model of personality structure and behavior in culture was the theory E. Fromm. Erich Frommdevelops an original version of the anthropology of culture, tries to build a new humanistic religion. He places the emphasis not on revolution or medical measures, but on the tasks of cultural policy. Psychoanalysis , according to Fromm, combined with Marx's theory of alienation, class struggleallows us to reveal the true motives of human actions.
From the position of modern existential-personalist ethics, Fromm rebels against any authoritarianism, insisting that inIn each historical and individual situation, a person must make a choice himself, without shifting responsibility to anyone and without boasting about his past achievements.
Fromm sees the meaning of the cultural-historical process in progressive “individuation,” i.e. in the liberation of the individual from the power of the herd, instinct, tradition, but history is not a smoothly ascending, but a reciprocating process, in which periods of liberation and enlightenment alternate with periods of enslavement and darkening of the mind, i.e. "escape from freedom". Fromm derives the specificity of culture not only from human nature, determined by existential needs, but from the characteristics of the “human situation.”Reason is man's pride and his curse. The desire for spiritual synthesis is a strong side of E. Fromm’s work, but it also turns into eclecticism. But the spirit of optimism, humanism and courage in posing the most painful and confusing questions of civilization, faith in the possibility of their reasonable solution make Fromm’s cultural studies fascinating and inspiring.

Question 14. The concept of local civilizations by A. Toynbee.
Among the most representative theories of civilizations is, first of all, the theory of A. Toynbee (1889-1975), who continues the line of N.Ya. Danilevsky and O. Spengler. HisThe theory can be considered the culminating point in the development of theories of “local civilizations”.A monumental study by A. Toynbee"Comprehension of History"Many scientists recognize it as a masterpiece of historical and macrosociological science. The English cultural scientist begins his research with the statement thatthe true field of historical analysis must be societies extending, both in time and space, greater than nation-states. They are called "local civilizations".
Toynbee has more than twenty such developed “local civilizations”.These are Western, two Orthodox (Russian and Byzantine), Iranian, Arab, Indian, two Far Eastern, ancient, Syrian, Indus civilization, Chinese, Minoan, Sumerian, Hittite, Babylonian, Andean, Mexican, Yucatan, Mayan, Egyptian and others. He also points tofour civilizations that stopped in their development - Eskimo, Momadic, Ottoman and Spartan and five “stillborn”».
The formation of civilizations cannot be explained either by a racial factor, or by a geographical environment, or by a specific combination of such two conditions as the presence in a given society of a creative minority and an environment that is neither too unfavorable nor too favorable.
Toynbee believes thatthe growth of civilization consists in progressive and accumulative internal self-determinationor the self-expression of civilization, in the transition from grosser to more subtle religion and culture. Growth is a continuous “retreat and return” of the charismatic (God-chosen, destined from above to power) minority of society in the process of an always new successful response to always new challenges of the external environment.
No less than 16 of the 26 civilizations are now “dead and buried.” Of the ten surviving civilizations, “the Polynesian and the nomadic... are now on their last legs; and seven of the eight others are, to a greater or lesser extent, under threat of destruction or assimilation by our Western civilization.” Moreover, no less than six of these seven civilizations show signs of breakdown and incipient decay. What leads to decline is that the creative minority, intoxicated by victory, begins to “rest on their laurels” and worship relative values ​​as absolute. It loses its charismatic appeal and most do not imitate or follow it. Therefore, force has to be used more and more to control the internal and external proletariat. During this process, the minority organizes a "universal (universal) state", similar to the Roman Empire, created by the Hellenistic dominant minority to preserve themselves and their civilization; enters into wars; becomes a slave to the inert establishment; and itself leads itself and its civilization to destruction.
According to Tylor civilizations are divided into three generations.First generation - primitive, small, unliterate cultures. There are many of them, and their age is small. They are distinguished by one-sided specialization, adapted to life in a specific geographic environment; superstructural elements - statehood, education, church, and even more so science and art - are absent from them.
In second-generation civilizations, social communication is aimed at creative individuals who lead the pioneers of a new social order.Second-generation civilizations are dynamic, they create large cities, like Rome and Babylon, and the division of labor, commodity exchange, and market develop in them. Layers of artisans, scientists, traders, and people of mental labor emerge. A complex system of ranks and statuses is being approved. Here the attributes of democracy can develop: elected bodies, legal system, self-government, separation of powers.
Civilizations of the third generation are formed on the basis of churches: from the primary Minoan the secondary Hellenic is born, and from it - on the basis of Christianity that arose in its depths - the tertiary, Western European is formed. In total, according to Toynbee, by the middle of the 20th century. Of the three dozen existing civilizations, seven or eight have survived: Christian, Islamic, Hindu, etc.

Question 15. The concept of sociocultural styles by P.A. Sorokina.
The Russian scientist Pitirim Sorokin (1889-1968) created an original concept of the sociology of culture, believing that the true cause and condition for the natural development of society or the “world of society” is the existence of a world of values, meanings of pure cultural systems.A person is a carrier of a value system, and therefore represents a certain type of culture. According to Sorokin, each type of culture is determined by the social system, the cultural systems of society and the person himself, the bearer of cultural meanings. The type of culture is revealed in people's ideas about the nature of the existing real world, about the nature and essence of their needs, and about possible methods of satisfying them. These ideas characterizethree main types of culture - sensual, ideational and idealistic.The first of them, the sensory type of culture, is based on a person’s sensory perception of the world, which is the main determinant of sociocultural processes. From Sorokin’s point of view, modern sensual culture is under the sign of inevitable collapse and crisis. The ideational type of culture, according to the scientist, represents the dominance of rational thinking, and it characterizes different peoples in certain periods of their development. This type of culture, Sorokin believes, is especially characteristic of Western European countries. And finally, the third type of culture is the idealistic type, which is characterized by the dominance of intuitive forms of knowledge of the world.
If the world of modern culture is characterized by a passion for science and the dominance of materialism, then in the future humanity must move away from these values ​​and create a new type of sociocultural processes based on the values ​​of religion and creative altruism.
Sorokin's work had a significant influence on the work of other cultural scientists, drawing their special attention to the study of the origins of the ancient cultures of Asia and Africa. By studying the systems of value orientations of a particular society, cultural scientists obtain data on the impact of values ​​on various aspects of sociocultural life - law and legislation, science and art, religion and church, social structure subordinate to a certain value system.
According to P. A. Sorokin, certain type culture must have the following characteristics: a) purely spatial or temporal proximity; b) indirect causal connections; c) direct causal connections; d) semantic unity; d) causal-semantic connection.
The typology itself should have the following characteristics: firstly, the enumeration of connections in this type usually exhausts itself; secondly, typology always has a single basis, that is, all characteristics have a single basis. However, the creation of a typology can be hampered, firstly, by the instability of the cultural characteristics themselves, and secondly, in the course of development, differences between certain cultures can be erased; thirdly, the ideological and semantic core inherent in any culture can cause unequal social consequences; fourthly, with the rapprochement of cultures within the dominant culture, certain, initially imperceptible, phenomena contrary to its spirit arise, which in the future can significantly transform the very appearance of this culture.

Question 16. O. Spengler about the relationship and fate of culture and civilization.
Book by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) " Decline of Europe "has become one of the most significant and controversial masterpieces in the field of sociology of culture, philosophy of history and philosophy of culture. World history represents the alternation and coexistence of different cultures, each of which has a unique soul. The title of Spengler's work "The Decline of Europe" expresses its pathos. He claims , Whatheyday of the west European culture ended. It has entered the phase of civilization and cannot give anything original either in the field of spirit or in the field of art.. History breaks up into a number of independent, unique closed cyclical cultures that have a purely individual fate and are condemned to survivebirth, formation and decline. Philosophers usually classify as culture everything that rises above nature. Vast ethnographic material collected by researchers after Spengler testifies:Culture is actually a unique creative impulse.This is truly a realm of the spirit, which is not always inspired by the needs of practical benefit. Primitive man, if you look at him with modern eyes, did not understand his own benefit. However, following Spengler, we can say that anyculture inevitably turns into civilization. Civilization is destiny, the rock of culture. The transition from culture to civilization is a leap from creativity to sterility, from formation to ossification, from heroic “deeds” to “mechanical work.” Civilization, according to Spengler, usually ends in death, for it is the beginning of death, the exhaustion of the creative forces of culture.Culture comes from cult, it is connected with the cult of ancestors, it is impossible without sacred traditions. Civilization, as Spengler believes, is the will to world power.Culture is national, but civilization is international.Civilization is a world city. Imperialism and socialism are equally a civilization, not a culture. Philosophy and art exist only in culture; in civilization they are impossible and unnecessary. Culture is organic, but civilization is mechanical.Culture is based on inequality, on qualities. Civilization is imbued with a desire for equality; it wants to settle in numbers. Culture is aristocratic, civilization is democratic. Each cultural organism, according to Spengler, is predetermined for a certain period (about a millennium), depending on the internal life cycle. Dying, culture is reborn into civilization. The decline of Europe, above all the decline of the old European culture, the depletion of creative forces in it, the end of art, philosophies, and religions. European civilization does not end yet. She will celebrate her victories for a long time. But after civilization there will come death for the Western European cultural race. After this, culture can only blossom in other races, in other souls.

Question 17. E. Tylor and D. Fraser about primitive culture.
The main work was published in 1871 Tylor, which made his name famous - “Primitive Culture”.Culture here is only spiritual culture: knowledge, art, beliefs, legal and moral normsetc. In both earlier and later works, Tylor interpreted culture more broadly, including at least technology.Tylor understood that the evolution of culture is also the result of historical influences and borrowings. Although Tylor was aware thatCultural development does not occur in such a straightforward manner.Yet for Tylor, as an evolutionist, the most important thing was to show the cultural unity and uniform development of mankind, and in pursuing this main goal, he did not often look around. Much attention is paid in "Primitive Culture" to the theoretical justification of progress in the cultural history of mankind. Tylor resolved the question of the relationship between progress and regression in human history quite unambiguously.“Judging by the data of history, the initial phenomenon is progress, while degeneration can only follow it: after all, it is necessary to first achieve a certain level of culture in order to be able to lose it.”
Tylor introduced the concept into ethnography"primitive animism"Tylor illustrated his animistic theory of the origin of religion with impressive comparative ethnographic and historical material designed to show the spread of animism around the globe and its evolution over time.In our time, the prevailing opinion is that the original layer of religious beliefs was most likely totemism,in which people, in the only form possible for them at that time, realized their inextricable, as if family connection with their immediate natural environment.
Fraser was the first to suggest the presenceconnections between myths and rituals. His research was based onthree principles are laid down: evolutionary development, the mental unity of humanity and the fundamental opposition of reason to prejudice. First job " Totemism "was published in 1887. Frazer’s most famous work, which brought him worldwide fame, is “ golden branch "("The Golden Bough") - was first published in 1890. This book collects and systematizes a huge amount of factual material on primitive magic, mythology, totemism, animism, taboos, religious beliefs, folklore and customs of different peoples. This book draws parallels between ancient cults and early Christianity. The work was expanded to 12 volumes over the next 25 years.
D. D. Fraser deduced three stages of spiritual development of humanity: magic, religion and science.According to Frazer, magic precedes religion and almost completely disappears with its appearance. At the “magical” stage of development, people believed in their ability to change the world around them in a magical way. Later, people lost faith in this and the dominant idea became that the world obeys the gods and supernatural forces. At the third stage, a person abandons this idea. The prevailing belief is that the world is not governed by God, but by the “laws of nature,” which, once known, can be controlled.

Question 18. Culturogenesis, the origins of culture and its early forms.
Culturogenesis is the process of the emergence and formation of the culture of any people and nationality in general and the emergence of culture as such in primitive society.
The culture of primitive society covers the longest and perhaps least studied period of world culture. Primitive, or archaic culture dates back more than 30 thousand years.Primitive culture is usually understood as an archaic culture that characterizes the beliefs, traditions and art of peoples who lived more than 30 thousand years ago and died long ago, or those peoples (for example, tribes lost in the jungle) that exist today, preserving the primitive image intact life. Thus, primitive culture covers mainly the art of the Stone Age.
The first material evidence of human existence is tools. Thus, the manufacture of tools, the emergence of burials, the emergence of articulate speech, the transition to a tribal community, and the creation of objects of art were the main milestones on the path to the formation of human culture.
Based on data from archaeology, ethnography and linguistics, we can identify basic features of primitive culture.
Syncretism primitive culturemeans the indistinction of various spheres and cultural phenomena in this era.The following manifestations of syncretism can be distinguished:
Syncretism of society and nature . The clan and community were perceived as identical to the cosmos and repeated the structure of the universe.Primitive man perceived himself as an organic part of nature, feeling his kinship with all living beings.This feature, for example, manifests itself in such a form of primitive beliefs as totemism.
Syncretism of personal and public. Individual sensation in primitive man existed at the level of instinct, biological feeling. But on a spiritual level, he identified himself not with himself, but with the community to which he belonged; found himself in the feeling of belonging to something non-individual. Man initially became precisely man, displacing his individuality. Actuallyhis human essence was expressed in the collective “we” of the family. This means that primitive man always explained and assessed himself through the eyes of the community. Unity with the life of society led to the fact thatthe worst punishment, after the death penalty, was exile.For example, in many archaic tribes, people are convinced that the hunt will not be successful if the wife, who remains in the village, cheats on her husband, who has gone hunting.
Syncretism of various spheres of culture . Art, religion, medicine, productive activities, and obtaining food were not isolated from each other.Objects of art (masks, drawings, figurines, musical instruments, etc.) have long been used mainly as magical means. Treatment was carried out using magical rituals. For example, hunting. To modern man For hunting success, only objective conditions are needed. For the ancients, the art of throwing a spear and silently making their way through the forest, the desired wind direction and other objective conditions were also of great importance. But all this is clearly not enough to achieve success, because the main conditions were magical actions.The hunt began with magical actions over the hunter. At the very moment of the hunt, certain rituals and prohibitions were also observed, which were aimed at establishing a mystical connection between man and animal
etc.................

Subject of cultural studies

In a broad sense, cultural studies is a complex of individual sciences, as well as theological and philosophical concepts of culture; other elephants, these are all those teachings about culture, its history, essence, patterns of functioning and development that can be found in the works of scientists presenting various options for understanding the phenomenon of culture. In addition, cultural sciences study the system of cultural institutions through which human upbringing and education are carried out and which produce, store and transmit cultural information.

From this point of view, the subject of cultural studies forms a set of various disciplines, which include history, sociology of culture and a complex of anthropological knowledge. In addition, the subject field of cultural studies in a broad sense should include: history of cultural studies, ecology of culture, psychology of culture, ethnology (ethnography), theology (theology) of culture. However, with such a broad approach, the subject of cultural studies appears as a set of various disciplines or sciences that study culture, and can be identified with the subject of philosophy of culture, sociology of culture, cultural anthropology and other middle-level theories. In this case, cultural studies is deprived of its own subject of research and becomes integral part noted disciplines.

A more balanced approach seems to be one that understands the subject of cultural studies in a narrow sense and presents it as a separate independent science, a specific system of knowledge. With this approach, cultural studies acts as a general theory of culture, based in its generalizations and conclusions on the knowledge of specific sciences, which are theory artistic culture, cultural history and other special sciences about culture. With this approach, the initial basis is the consideration of culture in its specific forms, in which it manifests itself as an essential characteristic of a person, the form and method of his life.

Thus, subject of cultural studies is a set of issues of the origin, functioning and development of culture as a specifically human way of life, different from the world of living nature. It is designed to study the most general patterns of cultural development, its manifestations present in all famous cultures humanity.

With this understanding of the subject of cultural studies, its main tasks are:

• the most profound, complete and holistic explanation of culture, its
• essence, content, characteristics and functions;
• the study of the genesis (origin and development) of culture as a whole, as well as individual phenomena and processes in culture;
• determining the place and role of man in cultural processes;
• development of categorical apparatus, methods and means of studying culture;
• interaction with other sciences studying culture;
• studying information about culture that comes from art, philosophy, religion and other areas related to non-scientific knowledge of culture;
• study of the development of individual cultures.

The purpose of cultural studies

The purpose of cultural studies becomes such a study on the basis of which its understanding is formed. To do this, it is necessary to identify and analyze: cultural facts that together constitute a system of cultural phenomena; connections between cultural elements; dynamics of cultural systems; methods of production and assimilation of cultural phenomena; types of cultures and their underlying norms, values ​​and symbols (cultural codes); cultural codes and communications between them.

The goals and objectives of cultural studies determine the functions of this science.

Functions of cultural studies

The functions of cultural studies can be combined into several main groups according to the tasks being implemented:

• educational function - study and understanding of the essence and role of culture in the life of society, its structure and functions, its typology, differentiation into branches, types and forms, the human-creative purpose of culture;
• conceptual-descriptive function - the development of theoretical systems, concepts and categories that make it possible to create a holistic picture of the formation and development of culture, and the formulation of description rules that reflect the peculiarities of the development of sociocultural processes;
• evaluative function - carrying out an adequate assessment of the influence of the holistic phenomenon of culture, its various types, branches, types and forms on the formation of social and spiritual qualities of the individual, social community, society as a whole;
• explanatory function - scientific explanation of the characteristics of cultural complexes, phenomena and events, mechanisms of functioning of cultural agents and institutions, their socializing impact on the formation of personality on the basis of scientific understanding of the identified facts, trends and patterns of development of sociocultural processes;
• ideological function - the implementation of socio-political ideals in the development of fundamental and applied problems of cultural development, the regulating influence of its values ​​and norms on the behavior of the individual and social communities;
• educational(educational) function - dissemination of cultural knowledge and assessments, which helps students, specialists, as well as those interested in cultural problems, learn the features of this social phenomenon, its role in the development of man and society.

The subject of cultural studies, its tasks, goals and functions determine general outlines cultural studies as a science. Each of them in turn requires in-depth study.

Historical path traversed by humanity from antiquity to the present time has been complex and contradictory. On this path, progressive and regressive phenomena were often combined, the desire for something new and adherence to familiar forms of life, the desire for change and the idealization of the past. Moreover, in all situations main role Culture has always played a role in people's lives, which has helped a person adapt to the constantly changing conditions of life, find its meaning and purpose, and preserve the humanity in a person. Because of this, people have always been interested in this area surrounding world, the consequence of which was the emergence of a special branch of human knowledge - cultural studies and the corresponding academic discipline that studies culture. Culturology is primarily the science of culture. This specific subject distinguishes it from other social and humanitarian disciplines and explains the need for its existence as a special branch of knowledge.

The formation of cultural studies as a science

In modern humanities, the concept of “culture” belongs to the category of fundamental ones. Among the many scientific categories and terms, there is hardly another concept that would have so many shades of meaning and be used in so many different contexts. This situation is not accidental, since culture is the subject of research in many scientific disciplines, each of which highlights its own aspects of the study of culture and gives its own understanding and definition of culture. At the same time, culture itself is multifunctional, therefore each science singles out one of its sides or parts as the subject of its study, approaches the study with its own methods and methods, ultimately formulating its own understanding and definition of culture.

Attempts to provide a scientific explanation for the phenomenon of culture have a short history. The first such attempt was made in

XVII century English philosopher T. Hobbes and German jurist S. Puffenlorf, who expressed the idea that a person can be in two states - natural, which is the lowest stage of his development, since he is creatively passive, and cultural, which they considered as a higher level human development, since it is creatively productive.

The doctrine of culture developed at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. in the works of the German educator I.G. Herder, who considered culture in historical aspect. The development of culture, but in its opinion, constitutes the content and meaning of the historical process. Culture is the revelation of the essential forces of man, which differ significantly among different peoples, therefore in real life there are different stages and eras in the development of culture. At the same time, the opinion was established that the core of culture is the spiritual life of a person, his spiritual abilities. This situation persisted for quite a long time.

IN late XIX- early 20th century Therefore, works appeared in which the analysis of cultural problems was the main task, and not a secondary one, as it had been until now. In many ways, these works were related to the awareness of the crisis of European culture, the search for its causes and ways out of it. As a result, philosophers and scientists realized the need for an integrative science of culture. It was equally important to concentrate and systematize the enormous and varied information about the cultural history of different peoples, the relationships of social groups and individuals, styles of behavior, thinking and art.

This served as the basis for the emergence of an independent science of culture. Around the same time, the term “cultural studies” appeared. It was first used by the German scientist W. Ostwald in 1915 in his book “System of Sciences,” but then the term was not widely used. This happened later and is associated with the name of the American cultural anthropologist L.A. White, who in his works “The Science of Culture” (1949), “The Evolution of Culture” (1959), “The Concept of Culture” (1973) substantiated the need to isolate all knowledge about culture into a separate science, laid its general theoretical foundations, and made an attempt to isolate it the subject of research, delimiting it from related sciences, to which he included psychology and sociology. If psychology, White argued, studies the psychological reaction of the human body to external factors, and sociology studies the patterns of relationships between the individual and society, then the subject of cultural studies should be an understanding of the relationship between such cultural phenomena as custom, tradition, and ideology. He predicted a great future for cultural studies, believing that it represents a new, qualitatively higher level in understanding man and the world. This is why the term “cultural studies” is associated with White’s name.

Despite the fact that cultural studies is gradually occupying an increasingly firm position among other social and human sciences, disputes about its scientific status do not stop. In the West, this term was not immediately accepted and culture there continued to be studied by such disciplines as social and cultural anthropology, sociology, psychology, linguistics, etc. This situation indicates that the process of self-determination of cultural studies as a scientific and educational discipline has not yet been completed. Today, cultural science is in the process of formation, its content and structure have not yet acquired clear scientific boundaries, research in it is contradictory, there are many methodological approaches to her subject. All this suggests that this area of ​​scientific knowledge is in the process of formation and creative search.

Thus, cultural studies is a young science in its infancy. The biggest obstacle to its further development is the lack of a point of view on the subject of the study with which most researchers would agree. The identification of the subject of cultural studies is happening before our eyes, in the struggle different opinions and points of view.

The status of cultural studies and its place among other sciences

One of the main issues in identifying the specifics of cultural knowledge and the subject of its research is to understand the relationship of cultural studies with other related or similar areas of scientific knowledge. If we define culture as everything that is created by man and humanity (this definition is very common), it will become clear why determining the status of cultural studies is difficult. Then it turns out that in the world in which we live, there is only the world of culture, which exists by the will of man, and the world of nature, which arose without the influence of people. Accordingly, all sciences existing today are divided into two groups - sciences about nature (natural science) and sciences about the world of culture - social and human sciences. In other words, all social and human sciences are ultimately cultural sciences - knowledge about the types, forms and results of human activity. At the same time, it is not clear where cultural studies fits among these sciences and what it should study.

To answer these questions, we can divide the social sciences and humanities into two unequal groups:

1. sciences about specialized types of human activity, distinguished by the subject of this activity, namely:

• sciences about forms of social organization and regulation - legal, political, military, economic;
• sciences about forms of social communication and transmission of experience - philological, pedagogical, art sciences and religious studies;
• sciences about the types of materially transforming human activities - technical and agricultural;

2. sciences about the general aspects of human activity, regardless of its subject, namely:

• historical sciences that study the emergence and development of human activity in any field, regardless of its subject;
• psychological sciences that study patterns mental activity, individual and group behavior;
• sociological sciences, which discover forms and methods of unification and interaction of people in their joint life activities;
• cultural sciences that analyze norms, values, signs and symbols as conditions for the formation and functioning of peoples (culture), showing the essence of man.

We can say that the presence of cultural studies in the system of scientific knowledge is revealed in two aspects.

Firstly, as a specific cultural method and level of generalization of any analyzed material within the framework of any social or human science, i.e. How component any science. At this level, model conceptual constructions are created that describe not how a given area of ​​life functions in general and what are the boundaries of its existence, but how it adapts to changing conditions, how it reproduces itself, what are the causes and mechanisms of its orderliness. Within each science, one can identify a field of research that concerns the mechanisms and methods of organization, regulation and communication of people in the relevant areas of their life. This is what is commonly called economic, political, religious, linguistic, etc. culture.

Secondly, as an independent area of ​​social and humanitarian knowledge of society and its culture. In this aspect, cultural studies can be considered as a separate group of sciences, and as a separate, independent science. In other words, cultural studies can be considered in a narrow and broad sense. Depending on this, the subject of cultural studies and its structure, as well as its connection with other sciences, will be highlighted.

Connection of cultural studies with other sciences

Culturology arose at the intersection of history, philosophy, sociology, ethnology, anthropology, social psychology, art history, etc., therefore, culturology is a complex socio-humanitarian science. Its interdisciplinary nature corresponds to the general tendency of modern science towards integration, mutual influence and interpenetration of various fields of knowledge when studying a common object of research. In relation to cultural studies, the development of scientific knowledge leads to a synthesis of cultural sciences, the formation of an interconnected set of scientific ideas about culture as an integral system. At the same time, each of the sciences with which cultural studies comes into contact deepens the understanding of culture, supplementing it with its own research and knowledge. The most closely related to cultural studies are the philosophy of culture, philosophical, social and cultural anthropology, cultural history and sociology.

Culturology and philosophy of culture

As a branch of knowledge that emerged from philosophy, cultural studies has retained its connection with the philosophy of culture, which acts as an organic component of philosophy, as one of the relatively autonomous theories. Philosophy as such, strives to develop a systematic and holistic view of the world, tries to answer the question of whether the world is knowable, what are the possibilities and boundaries of knowledge, its goals, levels, forms and methods, and philosophy of culture must show what place culture occupies in this general picture of existence, strives to determine the originality and methodology of cognition of cultural phenomena, representing the highest, most abstract level of cultural research. Acting as the methodological basis of cultural studies, it determines the general cognitive guidelines of cultural studies, explains the essence of culture and poses problems that are significant for human life, for example, about the meaning of culture, the conditions of its existence, the structure of culture, the reasons for its changes, etc.

Philosophy of culture and cultural studies differ in the attitudes with which they approach the study of culture. Cultural studies considers culture in its internal connections as an independent system, and the philosophy of culture analyzes culture in accordance with the subject and functions of philosophy in the context of philosophical categories such as being, consciousness, cognition, personality, society. Philosophy examines culture in all specific forms, while in cultural studies the emphasis is on explaining various forms of culture with the help of middle-level philosophical theories based on anthropological and historical materials. With this approach, cultural studies makes it possible to create a holistic picture of the human world, taking into account the diversity and diversity of processes occurring in it.

Culturology and cultural history

Story studies human society in its specific forms and conditions of existence.

These forms and conditions do not remain unchanged once and for all, i.e. united and universal for all humanity. They are constantly changing, and history studies society from the point of view of these changes. That's why cultural history highlights historical types cultures, compares them, reveals general cultural patterns of the historical process, on the basis of which it is possible to describe and explain specific historical features of the development of culture. A generalized view of the history of mankind made it possible to formulate the principle of historicism, according to which culture is viewed not as a frozen and unchanging formation, but as a dynamic system of local cultures that are in development and replace each other. It can be said that historical process acts as a set of specific forms of culture. Each of them is determined by ethnic, religious and historical factors and therefore represents a relatively independent whole. Each culture has its own original history, determined by a complex of unique conditions of its existence.

Cultural studies in turn, studies the general laws of culture and identifies its typological features, develops a system of its own categories. In this context, historical data helps to build a theory of the emergence of culture and identify the laws of its historical development. To do this, cultural studies studies the historical diversity of cultural facts of the past and present, which allows it to understand and explain modern culture. It is in this way that the history of culture is formed, which studies the development of the culture of individual countries, regions, and peoples.

Cultural studies and sociology

Culture is a product of human social life and is impossible outside of human society. Representing a social phenomenon, it develops according to its own laws. In this sense, culture is a subject of study for sociology.

Sociology of culture explores the process of functioning of culture in society; tendencies of cultural development, manifested in the consciousness, behavior and lifestyle of social groups. IN social structure society there are groups of different levels - macrogroups, layers, classes, nations, ethnic groups, each of which is distinguished by its own cultural characteristics, value preferences, tastes, style and way of life, and many microgroups that form various subcultures. Such groups are formed according to for various reasons- gender, age, professional, religious, etc. The multiplicity of group cultures creates a “mosaic” picture of cultural life.

The sociology of culture in its research relies on many special sociological theories that are close in the object of study and significantly complement ideas about cultural processes, establishing interdisciplinary connections with various branches of sociological knowledge - the sociology of art, the sociology of morality, the sociology of religion, the sociology of science, the sociology of law, ethnosociology, sociology of age and social groups, sociology of crime and deviant behavior, sociology of leisure, sociology of the city, etc. Each of them is unable to create a holistic idea of ​​cultural reality. Thus, the sociology of art will provide rich information about artistic life society, and the sociology of leisure shows how various groups people use their free time. This is very important, but partial information. Obviously, a higher level of generalization of cultural knowledge is required, and this task is performed by the sociology of culture.

Cultural studies and anthropology

Anthropology - a field of scientific knowledge within which the fundamental problems of human existence in the natural and artificial environment are studied. In this area today there are several directions: physical anthropology, the main subject of which is man as a biological species, as well as modern and fossil apes; social and cultural anthropology, the main subject of which is the comparative study of human societies; philosophical and religious anthropology, which are not empirical sciences, but a set of philosophical and theological teachings about human nature, respectively.

Cultural anthropology deals with the study of man as a subject of culture, gives a description of the life of various societies at different stages of development, their way of life, morals, customs, etc., studies specific cultural values, forms of cultural relationships, mechanisms for transmitting cultural skills from person to person. This is important for cultural studies, because it allows us to understand what lies behind the facts of culture, what needs are expressed by its specific historical, social or personal forms. We can say that cultural anthropology studies ethnic cultures, describing their cultural phenomena, systematizing them and comparing them. In essence, it examines a person in the aspect of expressing his inner world in the facts of cultural activity.

Within the framework of cultural anthropology, the historical process of the relationship between man and culture, human adaptation to the surrounding cultural environment, the formation of the spiritual world of the individual, embodiment creative potentials in activities and their results. Cultural anthropology reveals the “key” moments of socialization and inculturation of a person, the specifics of each stage of the life path, studies the influence of the cultural environment, education and upbringing systems and adaptation to them; the role of family, peers, generation, paying special attention to the psychological justification of such universal phenomena as life, soul, death, love, friendship, faith, meaning, spiritual world men and women.

Culturology as a science began to take shape 300 years ago in the 18th century. It was mainly formed at the end of the 19th century. and then the word culturology appeared for the first time. The name of the science was finally established by the American scientist White in 1947.

Culturology studies culture in all its forms and manifestations, the relationship and interaction of various forms of culture, the functions and laws of its development, the interaction of man, culture and society.

Main sections:

Philosophy of culture
Cultural history
Sociology of culture
Psychology of culture
Interdisciplinary connections of cultural studies: philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, ethnography, ethnology, archeology, linguistics, art, economics, medicine, etc.

Sources for studying culture: myths, tales, legends, rituals, customs, archaeological finds, monuments of art and architecture, tools and household items, written sources and literary monuments, languages, etc.

Cultural studies as an integrative scientific discipline

As for cultural studies, then it represents integrative a scientific discipline that studies culture both from the point of view of a behavioral approach to it" and from the point of view of identifying the specific place of various forms of art in a single cultural system, and from the point of view of its social conditionality, the dynamics of its structure and function, its role in human development and society. Consequently, it absorbs and rethinks from the standpoint of its own subject area the knowledge, concepts, methods inherent in sociology, psychology, philosophy of culture, anthropology, ethnology, art history and other humanities, but adds to all this something else that is unique to it, that distinguishes it from all other areas of social sciences and humanities. It's there integrative knowledge about the holistic phenomenon of culture as a specific method of human activity, as a system of ideals, values ​​and norms that regulate the behavior of an individual, a social group, a people in certain socio-historical conditions.

The foregoing provides the basis for defining the object and subject of cultural studies. An object cultural studies is a holistic phenomenon of culture as a creative, specifically human way of activity and its results in the form of material and spiritual objects necessary for truly human existence and personality development.

Having found out the uniqueness of the object of cultural studies, we get the opportunity to determine what its item. The identification of the subject of science is carried out by isolating certain properties and features of the object that interest the researcher, synthesizing them into a more or less clearly defined subject area of ​​the given science. Although culture as an object of study occupied the minds of thinkers from the period of antiquity until modern times, the identification of the subject area of ​​culturology as a science began relatively recently, only in the 20th century. The term “culturology” was first introduced by the outstanding German chemist and Nobel laureate Wilhelm Ostwald in 1913. 16 years later, the American sociologist Reed Bain correlated this term with the concepts of “sociology” and “human ecology”. However, in a meaning close to the above, this term was first used in 1939 by the outstanding American anthropologist and cultural scientist Leslie White. He interpreted cultural studies as “a branch of anthropology that considers culture as a specific order of phenomena, organized according to its own principles and developing according to its own laws.”

Over the sixty-odd years that have passed since the use of this particular term, ideas about the subject area of ​​cultural studies have expanded significantly. It now includes ideas about culture as a specific activity for the creation of symbolic forms, as a regulatory and normative system, as a collection cultural functions, ideals, norms, standards of behavior, as a dynamic social process taking place in historically specific socio-economic and spiritual conditions of a certain era.

All of the above allows us to clarify the definition of the subject of the science under consideration. The subject of cultural studies is the study of the patterns of formation and development of the integral phenomenon of culture as a specifically human way of activity, a system of symbolic forms, ideals, values ​​and norms that regulate the behavior of people and develop according to their own principles, in the context of the historical characteristics of the socio-economic, political and spiritual development of a certain people and a certain era.

Clarification of the object and subject of the scientific discipline being studied makes it possible to formulate a definition of cultural studies as a science. Culturology is a system of scientific knowledge about the characteristics, trends and patterns of the formation and development of culture as a specifically human way of activity and a system of symbolic forms, ideals, values ​​and norms that regulate the interactions of individuals and social communities (family, ethnic, territorial, etc.) in historically unique socio-economic, political, spiritual conditions of a certain era.