Types of culture, forms, types. Functions of culture

 Cultures of different eras

(Culture of Kievan Rus; Culture of Medieval Europe, etc.);

 Modern culture, Actual culture.

By carrier:

 World culture

 Continental cultures

(European, Asian, Latin American, Oriental, etc.);

 Civilization cultures

(the culture of Ancient Egypt, the culture of Ancient Greece, etc.);

 national culture

(cultures of various ethnic groups and countries);

 Cultures of social communities

(class, urban, rural culture, and etc.);

 Group culture(organizational culture, family culture, etc.);

 Personal culture.

Depending on the subject:

 Folk and professional cultures.

Depending on the goals put forward and the values ​​​​created:

 Material culture(culture of labor and material production, culture of life, culture of the place of residence);

 Spiritual culture(cognitive and intellectual culture, moral, artistic, legal, pedagogical, religious).

In relation to social values ​​and norms:

 dominant (nationwide) culture,

 subculture,  counterculture.

In relation to cultural tradition and social structure:

 traditional culture and

 marginalized culture.

Depending on the tasks, content and results:

 creative and destructive culture.

By areas of human activity:

 economic, political, environmental, aesthetic culture.

Depending on the conditions and nature of the activity:

 ordinary and  specialized culture

(organizational, professional, sports, etc.);

The main types of culture include:

 World culture is a synthesis of the best achievements of all national cultures various peoples inhabiting our planet.

 personal culture - reflects the way of life of an individual. Personal culture includes: value orientations, culture of relationships; culture of communication and dialogue, culture of behavior, speech culture, external image, etc.

 Family culture - belong to different types of family.

Family culture means the customs, order, values, norms and rules of behavior that exist in the family, they are passed on from the older generation to the younger.

 everyday culture - characterizes the features of behavior, consciousness, activities of people in everyday life.

 dominant culture is an official, dominant culture, a system of common values ​​and norms. It includes various subcultures, some of which become the foundation of the dominant culture (for example, Christianity).

 Civilizational culture (civilization) - refer to mega-societies that, during certain periods of their development, gave rise to peculiar cultural channels for the development of many ethnic and national cultures.

 Regional culture - belong to different societies, united by the natural and territorial proximity of living conditions.

 National culture - refer to multi-ethnic countries at the industrial and later stages of development. These are national customs, traditions, mores, etiquette, etc. Features of national culture are determined by the mentality of the people. mentality(lat. mens, mentis - mind, mind) - the general way of thinking, features of consciousness, mentality, psychological and moral predispositions of the community; a stable way of perceiving the world, combining value, rational, emotional and other views, norms and stereotypes.

 Group culture - belong to certain groups, social strata, communities. They characterize the features of behavior, consciousness, activities of people in specific areas. public life. Any social group has its own manners, customs, etiquette. In the group culture, the way of life of the social group is fixed (the culture of the estate, the culture of the class, the culture of the stratum of society - the intelligentsia).

 Marginalized culture (historical and cultural pseudomorphoses)- a deformed and eclectic culture, cut off from its roots with a deformed and contradictory system of values, formed as a result of historical and cultural pseudomorphoses.

 Organizational culture exists in any organization, enterprise. It can be formed arbitrarily within the workforce, or maybe consciously - with the active participation of management.

There are three levels in organizational culture:

1) superficial (symbolic), which reflects external attributes such as architecture, design, work ethic, behavioral style, language, slogans, corporate identity, etc.;

2) internal - values ​​and norms shared by members of the organization;

3) deep - the history of the development of the enterprise, ideology, myths that contribute to the formation of people's behavior in a certain direction.

Top management can manage the culture of an organization in three ways:

1) a leadership approach in which the leader is able to see the goals of the organization, the possibilities for achieving them and can inspire his employees with his faith, activity, and his own example;

2) democratic, when a system is built to track the development trends of the organization at all its levels, the opinions and suggestions of employees to improve the functioning of the organization are taken into account;

3) manipulation, in which top management only manipulates the previously developed symbols and the system of material and moral incentives adopted in the organization.

 Subculture - a system of values, traditions, customs inherent in a large social group. Subcultures are called large components of integral local cultures that differ in certain local specifics. Subculture is part of common culture some people, in some aspects different from the dominant culture (language, outlook on life, behavior, hairstyle, clothing, customs). The differences can be very strong, but the subculture does not oppose the dominant culture. In general, it agrees with her.

The formation of subcultures occurs according to class, ethnographic, confessional, professional, group (sports subculture), functional characteristics, on the basis of age (youth subculture, subculture of the elderly) or social specificity (subculture of aristocrats, homeless people, etc.).

There are several main types of subculture:

ethnic subculture - Its carriers are connected by the unity of origin, are aware of their belonging to their native culture, have a self-name, have a special mental make-up and group mentality and cultural characteristics.

confessional subculture - is formed on the basis of a common religion, belonging to the same church. On the basis of this community, a community of symbols, values, ideals and patterns of behavior is formed. For example, you can talk about Christian, Muslim, Buddhist cultures.

Professional subculture - is formed on the basis of common symbols, values, norms and patterns of behavior shared by one or another professional. It is closely related to the content of the work, social status and roles that its representatives have in society. It is influenced by vocational education and training.

youth subculture linked to the processes by which industrial society "takes" children out of the family and prepares them to function in the larger system. The youth subculture as something independent appeared in the mid-1950s in industrialized countries. Youth subcultures provide a set of values, attitudes and norms of behavior for adaptation to the transition period (youth). In addition, the youth subculture is filled with artificial substitutes for real values ​​(pseudo-independence, imitation of the relationship of adults with a system of domination and domination of strong personalities). One of the main problems of young people comes down to the marginality of their status (no longer children, but not yet adults). Youth culture is designed to alleviate the uncertainty and tension of this period.

Marginal subculture (from lat. margo - edge) - characterizes the position and characteristics of the life of groups and individuals whose attitudes, value orientations, behavior patterns are simultaneously correlated with various cultural systems, but not one of which they are not fully integrated. Such examples can be various kinds of migrants (for example, rural residents in the city, emigrants), the unemployed, the impoverished, people who have entered into mixed marriages, bisexuals, etc. E. Stonequist showed that “cultural hybrids” objectively find themselves in a situation of peripherality in relation to to both cultures - both to the dominant one, in which they cannot fully integrate and are not accepted by it to the end, and to their native, original one, which rejects them as apostates. Marginality is characterized by the “splitness” of the personality, the “interculturality” of its orientations, which predetermines the complexity of the process of self-identification. This can manifest itself both in increased activity (often in aggressive forms) with a focus on self-affirmation, in social movements, and in passivity, detachment (leading to the loss of developed socio-cultural ties by the individual).

Criminal subculture distinguishes criminal communities. It develops its own system of norms, values, behavior patterns, symbols, etc.

 Counterculture - this is such a subculture that is not only different from the dominant culture, but opposes it, is in conflict with the prevailing norms and values. Sometimes a group actively seeks to develop norms and values ​​that are in conflict with core aspects of the dominant culture. On the basis of such norms and values, a counterculture is formed. At present, through the mass media (mass communication media), values ​​that contradict the traditional ones can very quickly infiltrate the public consciousness and change the content of the dominant culture.

The counterculture includes: “drug culture”, occultism, Satanism, some practices of “psychotherapy”, sexually “revolutionary” “mysticism of the body”, etc.

Classification of the main forms of culture

Any culture is multifaceted and multifaceted, its content is clothed in different forms. Emphasizing the unity, integrity and versatility of culture, there are many concepts in cultural studies that divide culture on different grounds.

Firstly, the tradition, which comes from archaeologists, distinguishes two parts of culture - material and spiritual culture. These are two large groups objects of culture in which the main is either their material-objective, material form and utility function ( material culture) - or their symbolically rich spiritual content (spiritual culture). Ultimately, any object of culture has a symbolic content, contributed by a person, and a material form of consolidation. A book, a picture, music are also material objects, but their symbolic function predominates in them: they embody, preserve and transmit from generation to generation the experience of intellectual and moral development, aesthetic value and religious faith. At the same time, the house, clothes, weapons, etc. also symbolically saturated objects of culture, although their utilitarian function predominates in them. Therefore, the division of culture into material and spiritual is not absolute, and gives little in the cultural study of culture. Even the use of the terms "material culture" and "spiritual culture" depends on which direction or school in cultural studies this or that researcher belongs to. For example, P. Sorokin singled out material and ideational (religious) culture; A.Ya. Flier singles out socially determined and intellectually determined culture; etc. That is, many culturologists are focused on other terminology and other grounds for differentiating culture.

Today much attention is paid to the identification and study of the following structural elements of culture:

1. Mass and elite culture - peculiar and opposing phenomena of social differentiation of modern culture.

Mass culture – it is a culture that created professionally and replicated using modern technical means for daily consumption by large masses of people. As a rule, it is of a commercial nature and is designed for an "average" person with his tastes, needs, intellectual abilities, etc. It is available to everyone, regardless of their financial situation, education, residence, etc. This accessibility is its main advantage.

Although functional and formal analogues of mass culture (culture for all) are found in history, starting from ancient civilizations, true mass culture is associated with the formation of an industrial society, when the necessary technical means appear, on the one hand, and the need to prepare the population for life in a technical environment, on the other hand. Urbanization, transformation class societies into national laws on universal literacy of the population, the degradation of many forms of traditional agrarian culture, the release of a relatively large amount of free time and, accordingly, the formation of a need for leisure among the general population - all this prepared the emergence of mass culture in the full sense of the word. Mass culture has taken a special place in the life of modern society as a result of the transition to the information process. technological development in the second half of the twentieth century.

Mass culture is a contradictory phenomenon and is evaluated ambiguously. To positive qualities popular culture include:

Simple and affordable for all a form that does not require great intellectual effort;

A way accessible to all adaptation to modern society, his problems and opportunities, his knowledge and forms of communication; with the help of modern information systems, a person gets a fairly complete picture of his society and the world in which he lives;

Mass culture is focused on the diversity of people, their needs, conditions, etc., and therefore very varied; everyone here man will find for himself something interesting and necessary for him and now;

Mass culture is not only simple in form, but entertaining; one of its most important functions is entertainment, and she has vast experience in this matter;

Mass culture is able to perform a psychologically important function - a compensatory function, enabling a person to be distracted from problems. own life, its injustice (lack of money, success, recognition) and, empathizing with the hero of a work of art, identify yourself with a prosperous hero. It is no coincidence that Hollywood is called the "factory of dreams", which are so important for the "little man". This is especially important in times of trouble in the life of society;

Not being rigidly tied to national forms of culture, mass culture is universal in nature and contributes to rapprochement of peoples, their mutual understanding.

Paying tribute to the positive qualities of mass culture, it is actively criticized, evaluating it as a means of alienation and oppression. human personality. At the same time, the negative aspects of mass culture include:

Focusing on the availability of its products, mass culture has developed standards, which satisfy, above all, the primitive and base tastes of the masses, without prompting a person to intellectual and spiritual growth;

Taking into account the real interests and needs of people, mass culture simultaneously forms standard tastes, stereotypes of thinking and behavior, that benefit those who pay; stimulates mass consumer demand for a prestigious "product" of mass production; mass culture is one of the most profitable sectors of the economy;

Possessing a well-developed mechanism for the formation of standards and stereotypes mass consciousness, producers of mass culture are not interested in spending a lot, reducing its profitability; therefore, the products of mass culture are very often a model of low artistic quality and just bullshit , what negatively affects the formation of aesthetic tastes masses (this does not exclude the possibility of the appearance of highly artistic works, but this is much less common);

An important role is played by mass culture in the formation of the political and ideological orientation of the masses, manipulating in the interests of the ruling elite and ensuring the spread mass social mythology.

You can probably name more negative and positive qualities of mass culture, but these characteristics also give an idea of ​​the ambiguity of this phenomenon. You can't get away from mass culture today. It penetrates into all spheres of society: the media, education, art, leisure culture, etc. But a person striving for self-development should not close himself only within the framework of mass culture, accustoming himself to independent intellectual and spiritual work; do not allow yourself to get used to the lighter forms of culture: "the soul must work!".

In opposition to popular culture is elite culture, which is created and consumed by the privileged part of society (the elite). The elite is represented, firstly, by the part of society that is most capable of individual spiritual creativity in art, in science, etc., and secondly, by a group of political leaders, big businessmen etc., who, by virtue of their position in society, can afford the cultural products of the highest quality: education, artistic works, participation in the development of new and diverse forms of culture, etc. In the confrontation between mass and elite culture, it is the latter that is associated with the process of cultural development, the creation of new forms of culture and the determination of new ways in the development of culture.

It should be noted that only belonging to the layer of rich people or to the environment of politicians does not automatically make a person a representative of the elite and elite culture. People often use wealth and power solely for the purpose of maximizing the consumption of things and services, quite in the spirit of mass consumer culture, without burdening themselves with fundamental education, constant self-education, serious work of thought and creativity. Therefore, it is probably necessary to single out the creative elite and the exacelite, whose place in culture is very different.

2. Subcultures and countercultures - the largest components of an integral local culture, which are associated with the specifics of living conditions and the interests of individual social groups. Interest in these cultural phenomena today is very high, although their research is just beginning.

Subculture(from lat. "sub" - "under") is social group culture within (subordinate position) the dominant culture in society, which is different some specific value orientations, patterns of behavior, features of speech, forms of leisure activities, etc., what makes her stand out from a number of other subcultures and indicates specificity in relation to the dominant culture.

The main sign that we are dealing with a subculture, and not with a completely independent culture, is that any culture consists of many elements that make up its specificity (language, religion, customs, mores, art, economic structure, etc.). etc.), and the subculture in terms of the bulk of these elements is identical or very close to the dominant culture, differing only in some features.

The existence of subcultures is due to the fact that almost every specific historical community is internally heterogeneous, it includes, in addition to the main ethnic and social core, certain inclusions - groups with specific ethnographic, class, confessional and other characteristics. The specificity of these signs can be generated by the relatively isolated residence of this group (for example, Russian Kamchadals), a special religion (Old Believers in Russia), special class-professional functions (Cossacks), etc. There are many subcultures associated with age and professional specifics. For example, the youth subculture, the subculture of pensioners, the subculture of the artistic intelligentsia, the subculture of doctors, lawyers, etc.

The level of specificity of subcultures in relation to the main national culture in each case is unique, as well as the tendency of their convergence or even greater disengagement from the dominant culture. So, three centuries ago, France consisted of two dozen ethnic groups with peculiar cultures, and actually French was only a subculture of the city of Paris and its environs. Today, there is almost no trace of this local diversity, everything has merged into a single national French culture.

In the twentieth century, of particular interest are youth subcultures. This is partly due to the crisis of culture, which led to the intensification of the processes of differentiation of society and the erosion of traditional value orientations. Youth is the most active part of the population, which has shown its desire for self-determination. In addition, young people are the most sensitive to everything new - both good and bad. As a result, in the 20th century, informal youth groups emerged that created their own specific subcultures: hippies, beatnik rockers, goths, and many others. Often they are associated with various hobbies in the field of leisure, and this is significant: young people have more free time and the importance of self-determination in this area is increasing. Among youth subcultures, the most famous are associated with certain genres music, and the image of informals is largely formed in imitation of the stage image of popular performers in this group.

This does not mean that youth subcultures do not have their own ideology. Already the emergence of the hippie subculture was associated not only with a passion for rock music, but also with the promotion of pacifism. With the strengthening of their own oppositional ideology, subcultures develop into a counterculture. Counterculture- a kind of subculture, when it becomes openly opposed to the dominant culture, denies its values, moral norms and ideals.

The counterculture can be not only a youth subculture. So, Christianity was once formed as a counterculture in relation to ancient culture. Christianity denied the entire value system of antiquity: instead of polytheism, monotheism; instead of reason, faith; instead of harmony of body and spirit, the unconditional priority of the spirit, etc. This was the reason for the mass persecution of Christians in ancient Rome. But gradually the new value system of Christianity begins to spread throughout the territory of the Roman Empire, which was going through a deep spiritual crisis, and in the IV century AD. Christianity becomes the state religion of Rome, and later the spiritual basis of the dominant culture in Western Europe.

Not many countercultures have such a victorious fate. Most of them either lose their critical sharpness, passing into the rank of subculture, or cease to exist altogether.

3. Marginal subcultures is another structural element that is now attracting the attention of researchers. Marginal culture (from Latin "marginalis" - located on the edge, on the border) is a set of cultural values ​​in which combining elements of diverse lifestyles. Are formed marginal crops as a result of processes in society (migration, modernization public systems, social mobility, etc.), when people, being carriers of certain cultural traditions, are forced to assimilate alien cultural values and social roles. The inconsistency of the position of the marginal strata is accompanied by a blurring of value orientations, uncertainty in ideas and assessments of behavior, which often leads to deviant forms of behavior, up to criminal ones. And this applies not only to declassed persons or the homeless. Thus, the emergence of "new Russians" in Europe was accompanied by scandals, since they simply did not know the cultural forms of behavior adopted in Europe. It seemed that big money gives the right to any behavior: we pay! It turned out that this was not the case. Owners ski resorts, where the "new Russians" began to travel, suffered enormous damage, as traditional European tourists stopped going there, shocked by the behavior of marginals.

We have named far from all possible structural elements of culture, highlighting those that today attract the attention of researchers as the most relevant. But we remind you that there are other approaches to their selection. For example, the division of culture on the basis of a culture carrier (world, national, ethnic, etc.), according to the main spheres of human life, etc.

→ The structure of culture and its main elements

Considering culture in a broad sense, it is possible to single out the material and spiritual means of human life. In other words, culture consists of elements that form a certain unity: material and spiritual culture . Both are created by man himself. Spiritual culture plays a decisive role in this unity. At the same time, we are not talking about excluding or belittling the role of the material side of society's life. Culture is the unity of the spiritual and the material, but the harmony of this unity is ensured by the spiritual activity of man.

material culture

Material culture (material values) exists in subject form. These are houses, machines, clothes - everything that an object turns into a thing, i.e. an object, the properties of which are determined by the creative abilities of a person, have an expedient purpose.

Material culture is the spirituality of a person, transformed into the form of a thing, it is, first of all, the means of material production. These are energy and raw materials, labor tools (from the simplest to complex), as well as various types of practical activities person. The concept of material culture also includes the material and objective relations of a person in the sphere of exchange, i.e. industrial relations. Types of material values: buildings and structures, means of communication and transport, parks and man-made landscapes, are also included in material culture.

It should be borne in mind that the volume of material values ​​is wider than the volume of material production, therefore, they also include monuments, archaeological sites, architectural values, equipped natural monuments, etc.

Material culture is created to improve human life, to develop it creativity. In the history of mankind, various conditions have developed for the realization of the material and technical capabilities of a person, for the development of his "I". The lack of harmony between creative ideas and their implementation led to the instability of culture, to its conservatism or utopianism.

spiritual culture

spiritual culture , closely connected with the material and technical development of society, includes the totality of the results of spiritual activity and spiritual activity itself. The earliest, established types of spiritual culture are religious beliefs, customs, norms and patterns of human behavior that have developed in specific historical social conditions. The elements of spiritual culture also include art, morality, scientific knowledge, political ideals and values, various ideas. It is always the result of the intellectual, spiritual activity of man. Spiritual culture, like material culture, is also created by man to meet his specific needs. Of course, the division of culture into material and spiritual is to a certain extent conditional. After all culture is the self-creation of man as a species. On the one hand, a person generates culture, on the other hand, he himself acts as its result. But in the interests of analyzing such a multidimensional concept as culture, let's take the starting points: there is material production - the production of things, and there is spiritual production - the production of ideas. From this follows the structural division of culture.

The difference between material and spiritual culture can be traced in various directions. So, for example, the values ​​of spiritual culture (art) do not experience obsolescence, unlike tools, machine tools, etc. In addition, spiritual values ​​can exist not only in an objective form (books, paintings, etc.), but also as acts of activity. For example, the game of a violinist, an actor on stage, etc.

Finally, spiritual values ​​bear the imprint of the identity of their creator: poet, singer, artist, composer. The unique individuality of the author allows us to comprehend not only the content, but also the emotional and sensual essence of works of art, philosophical ideas, religious systems etc.

Obviously, a person's need for spiritual values ​​is unlimited, in contrast to the level of material well-being, which has limits. Manifestations of spiritual culture are customs, traditions, norms.

Custom represents one of the most ancient phenomena of spiritual culture. AT primitive society the first customs were formed as regulators of human behavior.

Customs are formed mainly in the domestic environment, therefore, they are distinguished by stability, longevity, and “survivability”. They are present in any developed culture, as habitual patterns of behavior that are little exposed to awareness. ( "Let's sit down, friends, before a long journey, let the path seem easy"). A custom is a stereotype in human behavior. Customs are closely related to traditions, which are maintained through ceremonial and ritual actions. As links of one chain, such concepts as custom, rite, ritual should be considered. Often they are defined as a moment of tradition.

tradition called the transmission and preservation of social and cultural experience from generation to generation. Traditions are certain values, norms of behavior, customs, rituals, ideas. Sometimes they are perceived as remnants, they can disappear and then be reborn. The selection of traditions produces time, but there are also eternal traditions: honoring parents, respectful attitude towards women, etc.

The mode of existence of tradition, in addition to customs, is also rites or rituals. A rite is a sequential order of actions that completes a custom. Rites, as a rule, are tied to certain dates or events (rite of initiation, initiation into students, wedding ceremonies, rites associated with the end of the harvest - “dozhinki”) and others.

Norms can operate in a spiritual culture. Norm is a generally accepted rule of conduct or action. They (norms) stand out from the customs and acquire an independent existence. Human actions are largely determined by the norms accepted in society. Distinguish norms-prescriptions, norms-prohibitions, norms-samples. The latter reflect the level of culture achieved in society.

Values ​​are a more complex and developed product of spiritual culture. Value implies a choice, allows different, even opposite decisions and preferences. Value includes such elements as the interest and need of the individual, duty and ideal, motivation and motive. There are different types of values: moral, religious, artistic and aesthetic, political, vital(related to in a healthy way life). You can also talk about family and related values, labor, ideological. Often, values ​​in certain cultures are personified in the form of saints, heroes, leaders, classics, etc. A rich set of values ​​of a particular culture indicates the level of spiritual culture of society, its ability to communicate with other cultures.

If we classify the elements of spiritual culture, considering it as one of the forms public consciousness, then on this basis it stands out:

political culture;
moral culture (morality);
aesthetic culture(art);
religious culture;
philosophical culture, etc.

But this is not the only attempt to classify the elements of spiritual culture. With a social approach, culturologists distinguish two forms of existence of culture: mass and elite . Mass culture is a type of cultural production that is produced every day in large volumes (detective, western, melodrama, musical, comic book, etc.). The producer and consumer of elite culture is the highest, privileged stratum of society - the elite. The content of culture is all human activity.

Having considered the structure of culture, it should be noted the presence in the culture of each people class and universal, national and international values. In traditional societies with a rigid organization, the authority of social norms, and strong power, such non-class forms of culture as science, technology, and language slowly developed. The same forms of culture on which the power of the ruling classes was based were quite developed. This is art. So, for example, in our society, where the working class was declared the "hegemon", culture was built according to the standards of proletarian culture, which led to an aggravation of the problem of universal human values.

Universal, i.e. supraclass values exists in every national culture. The national character of culture is manifested not only in self-consciousness, in the mentality of the nation, but also in the fact that each nation considers its culture both native and universal at the same time. The word "people" means in the names of many tribes and peoples "real people", i.e. every nation quite naturally considers itself a real person, first of all. Japan is usually cited as an example of a harmonious combination of national and international principles in culture. On the one hand, Japan traditional society with special traditions, customs, values, on the other hand, in recent decades, this country has managed to successfully combine international technologies, innovations in technology and production with national characteristics its culture and pulled ahead in a harmonious combination of one and the other.

Needs play an important role in the development of culture. Need - this is a need for something, this is a certain state of a person associated with a feeling of need, satisfaction. Need drives a person to act. There is primary human needs - natural, and secondary - social or cultural. A person appreciates cultural needs more than natural ones, although the vital value of the latter is often underestimated (clean air, clean water, natural nature). The role of needs is that a person with their occurrence awakens interest in something. This leads to creative activity, to some kind of discoveries, inventions, ideas, etc. As a result, certain values ​​are created, the production of which is culture.

Physical Culture

- this is the transformation of the natural principle in man himself; the formation of socially necessary skills and abilities of the human body. An analysis of the composition of the Russian language shows that words denoting innate bodily actions make up no more than 0.9% of the total number of verbs that reflect actions learned by a person through training.

At the core physical education lies home physical training, including the development of coordination of movements of the entire body of the child (the formation of macro-actions) and the articulatory apparatus (micro-movements of the maxillofacial muscles, respiratory organs, digestion). In other words, this is the solution of such a responsible task as teaching speech, walking upright, moving objects, hygiene rules, cultivating differences in behavior by sex or age.

On this foundation, all subsequent, more complex or specialized physical skills and coordinated movements such as ballet dance, hand movements of a turner, surgeon or magician are built. To learn all this, you need not so much suitable physical data as rich cultural traditions and the ability brought up in a person to improve body movements in relation to certain professional tasks.

Types of culture

In addition to the main forms of culture, there are also various types of culture. Among the large number of classifications, one can stop at the one that relies on the concept of the subject-bearer of culture, as the most generalized and universal. Applying everything we already know about this concept, we get the following distribution of types of culture: culture of society, culture of the team (organization), culture of the individual .

None of the types of culture can be reduced to the other two, either in total or separately. So, society culture - this is the objective integrity of cultural creativity, the structure and patterns of which do not depend on the activities of individual groups or individuals, are primary in relation to it. Team culture is formed as a result of the accumulation of experience, traditions of joint activities of a stable group of people. culture of personality is determined not only by the degree of assimilation of social and collective culture, but also by subjectivity, the unique character of each particular "I".

It should be noted that any classification of forms and types of culture is, to some extent, relative, and in reality they are intertwined and interconnected with each other. The complexity of socio-cultural reality is also determined by the historical variability (variability) of all its essential characteristics. Therefore, the introduced theoretical concepts of the subject, types and forms of culture need further interpretation with the help of specific historical material.

Culture is the core, the first building block of society. The main role in this is played by material and spiritual culture. Material culture includes all artifacts (everything artificially created) - physical elements: tools, roads, buildings, monuments, burials, houses, bridges, ships, airplanes, clothes, dishes, luxury items and more. Spiritual culture can be attributed to everything that is created by the human mind, for example, knowledge, religion, norms, customs, traditions, spiritual values, rituals, ideas, standards of behavior, laws, commandments and much more that exists in the human mind.

Culture is divided into two large components - cultural statics and cultural dynamics.

Cultural static- this is culture at rest, its internal structure, basic elements, everything material and non-material in it. It includes:

– cultural complexes as the sum of elements that arise on the basis of the original cultural element and are functionally related to it: sports complexes, hospitality, wedding, baptism, birth;

– cultural heritage - these are the cultures of peoples, created by past generations, tested by time, are inherited;

– cultural universals- these are norms, phenomena that have entered the everyday life of peoples, regardless of geography, time and structure of society. This includes universal aspects of the life and activities of people, which are repeated everywhere among many peoples: community, food, calendar, decoration, cleanliness, fortune-telling, dancing, decorative arts, dream interpretation, courtship, education, sports, etiquette, trade, weaning, weather control, religious rituals. Cultural universals, there are more than 70 of them, also include what distinguishes some people from others: language, faith, clothing, housing, pastime, habits, traditions, rituals, behaviors.

Cultural Dynamics describes the changes that a culture undergoes when spreading in time (historical aspect) or in space (expansion of culture, an increase in the number of its carriers).

Cultural dynamics is described using the following concepts:

1. Innovation - this is the creation or recognition of new elements of culture, especially when they are based on something already known and accepted by this culture.

Opening- a kind of innovation, the act of obtaining qualitatively new knowledge about the world, which describes something that was not previously known.

Invention- a kind of innovation, the creation of new combinations of already known facts or elements.

2. Diffusion - the penetration of features of one culture into another culture or the mutual "exchange" of cultural features.

Diffusion presupposes cultural contact, but cultural contact does not always imply diffusion. In the process of diffusion, culture selects some features, borrows them, not accepting others. This property of diffusion is called selectivity. There are several selectivity factors:

a) culture is not yet sufficiently developed to perceive this or that phenomenon, this or that feature of another culture;

b) culture, through the values ​​of the system and the system of norms, imposes a ban on borrowing any or some features of another culture

c) cultural bearers believe that they do not need new phenomena;

d) from the point of view of culture, any innovation or this innovation is capable of destroying the existing state of affairs.

3. cultural lag means the uneven development of culture, when some areas (parts) of culture develop faster than others.

4. cultural transmission - the process of translation (transfer) of elements of culture from one generation to another, which makes culture a continuous phenomenon based on continuity. Cultural transmission as a process characterizes culture as a social phenomenon as a whole, its trends and content.

At the individual level, it corresponds to acculturation - the assimilation by an individual of the features and elements of a foreign culture, patterns of behavior, values, technologies, and more. Cultural accumulation is the process of accumulation, addition of cultural information to existing culture, at which the amount of discarded old knowledge is less than the amount of new knowledge, elements, samples.

To the main culture types relate:

Material, spiritual, technical, artistic, moral, pedagogical, scientific, political, elite, mass, classical, world, antique, modern, Renaissance, culture of the nation, people, man, humanity, culture of work, behavior, management, subculture, counterculture and others.

Based on this, the main cultural functions:

- human-creative(humanistic), culture contributes to the development of the creative potential of a person in all forms of his life;

- epistemological(cognitive), culture is a means of knowledge and self-knowledge of society, social group and individual;

- informational- culture transmits social experience, which ensures the connection of times - past, present and future, is a means of transmitting social information;

- communicative- the function of social communication, ensuring the adequacy of mutual understanding, the transmission of messages between individuals, groups, nations;

- value orientation, that is, culture sets a certain coordinate system, a kind of "map of life values" in which a person exists and is guided by;

- regulatory(management), which manifests itself in the fact that culture acts as a means of social control over human behavior;

- recreational- the ability of culture to restore the spiritual strength of a person, renew his potential, do prevention of the spiritual state, the so-called purification of the soul;

- the function of producing and accumulating spiritual values, creating space spiritual wealth. Preservation of the public memory of mankind;

- transformation of society- building up in it tolerance, tolerance, kindness, justice, morality ;

- reorientation ability of a person, his goals, ideals, worldview in relation to nature, that is, the creation of a culture of environmental activity, the establishment of ecological self-sufficiency of a person.

At present, in the domestic and European sociological literature, the sociology of culture appears as a collective concept. It includes: the sociology of cinema, music, theater, that is, the sociology various kinds arts, problems of intercultural understanding, dialogue and conflict of different cultures, the impact of culture on the socio-historical process, group formation, social stratification and socio-political movements.

In a broad sense, the sociology of culture is not just a branch of sociology, it covers the entire range of issues of social life, considering it from its own specific point of view. Cultural content can be identified in any purposeful social activity: work, life, politics, health care, education.

In a narrow sense, the sociology of culture has its own relatively independent subject area, which is localized in the spiritual sphere. In the sociological study of culture, of particular importance is its axiological aspect, highlighting the value component, which allows you to combine the elements of culture into a system that ensures their interconnection at various levels: society as a whole, social groups, individuals.

At sociological research culture, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: a) determine representative ideas; b) establish their manufacturer; c) find out the channels and means of their dissemination; d) evaluate the influence of ideas on the formation and disintegration of social groups, institutions and movements.

In sociology, there are several traditional planes, approaches to the analysis of cultural phenomena.

Subject- the bearer of culture, are distinguished: society as a whole, nation, class, other social groups (demographic, territorial, etc.) or an individual.

By functional role- culture can be divided into general (actual), necessary for each member of a particular society, as well as special, necessary for people of a particular profession.

Origin(genesis) they distinguish between folk culture, which arises spontaneously to a certain extent and does not have a specific “personified” author (for example, folklore), and “scientific” culture created by the intelligentsia, professionals, in which it is always possible to clearly establish authorship.

By nature and purpose culture is religious and secular.

If speak about forms of culture, then they are usually distinguished by three:

1) folk culture - these are works of art, including applied art, which are created by non-professional, often anonymous creators, authors (myths, legends, tales, epics, epics, legends, fairy tales, songs, dances, amateur art, folklore);

2) elite culture - culture of the privileged part of society - fine arts, classical music and literature, that is, these are works of art, the perception of which requires high level education. Elite culture often means something that is incomprehensible to a wide range of people and is consumed only by a sophisticated part of society;

3) Mass culture, called the public, arose with the development of mass media, which reach a huge audience. As a result, cultural texts (not just language ones) are available simultaneously a large number people, all strata and social groups.

In practice, there are also types of culture:

1) dominant culture- a culture shared by the majority of members of a particular community;

2) subculture- it is part of a common culture, a system of values, traditions, customs that have been developed in any social group, social community and are inherent in a fairly wide range of people (the culture of nationality, youth groups, the subculture of the elderly, professional and criminal culture, the culture of national minorities) . A subculture differs significantly from the dominant culture of most members of society. The differences relate to language, outlook on life, manners, clothes, customs, hairstyles, family relationships;

3) counterculture- a set of cultural norms and values, ways of communication, developed by members of a community as opposed to generally accepted norms and values. A mandatory feature of the counterculture is its opposition to the dominant culture and the denial of dominant values.

A wide panorama for the consideration and comparison of cultures is represented by the West and the East. Among the factors that have a clear difference are: lifestyle, language structure, architecture, writing, religion, art, clothing, folklore.

West and East occupy extreme positions, starting with the perception of the outside world. The West is radical, the East is irrational. For the East, a person is an introvert, immersed in inner experiences. For the West - an extrovert, focused on the external environment.

The East carries: concentration, religious tolerance, deepening of the mind, pantheism (deification of nature), introversion (focus on oneself), faith in the harmony of the universe, orientation towards adaptation to the cosmic rhythm, orientation towards unity with nature, the desire to preserve centuries old traditions, moral standards, rituals, the primacy of the collective, the secondary nature of individualistic, private property principles.

The West is characterized by: the desire for novelty and modification, practicality, comprehension of the meaning of life, the value of technological development, the introduction of parliamentarism, the desire for a dynamic lifestyle, the desire for individual freedom and liberal values, the priority of creativity.

Depending on the scale and forms of interaction of various subjects with the environment, forms and types of culture are distinguished. Sociologists distinguish primarily two special forms culture:

1) material- a set of objectified results of human activity, which includes both physical objects created as a result of human activity (houses, tools, books, food, clothing, jewelry, etc.) and natural objects used by people. The first are called artifacts . Artifacts always have a certain value for a person, a certain symbolic meaning, and perform certain functions.

2) spiritual- a set of results of activity, which includes intangible objects created by the mind and feelings of a person (speech, knowledge, traditions, myths, symbols, etc.) They exist in the human mind, are supported by human communication, but they cannot be touched, physically felt. Non-material objects require material intermediaries: knowledge is contained in books, the tradition of congratulations is embodied in a handshake.

Depending on who creates culture and what its level is, it is distinguished kinds.

So, common human culture is a culture produced by mankind throughout the history of its existence. It is based on universal human values ​​- truth, goodness, beauty, justice, etc. Within a separate society, the following forms of culture are distinguished as elite, folk and mass.

Elite culture - a collection of artifacts that, due to their sophistication, are mainly accessible to a narrow circle of people, the cultural elite.

To the elite or high culture belongs classical music, highly intellectual literature, refined art, that they are intended for highly educated people. An elite culture is created by high-class specialists.

folk culture (also called amateur, or folklore) is a primitive culture. It is created by amateur creators who do not have professional training, and is connected with the life of the broad masses of the people. It is represented by fairy tales, legends, myths, songs, dances, paintings. According to the form of manifestation, elements of folk culture can be individual, group, mass.

AT modern society under the influence of the media, another, so-called Mass culture that appeals to everyone and is designed for mass consumption. It is distributed by the media and appeared in the middle of the twentieth century, when the media became available to all segments of the population. Mass culture displaces both elite and popular culture. It is characterized by number of storeys, standardization, unification. It has less artistic value and enriches the individual spiritually much less than elite or folk culture. Of course, there are exceptions.

Each society has a certain set of cultural models that are perceived by all members of society. Such a collection is called dominant culture.

At the same time, certain groups of society develop certain cultural complexes that are not perceived by all members of society, that is, they form their own culture, which differs from the dominant one and is called subculture. This is an independent holistic education within the dominant culture (values, norms, beliefs, patterns of behavior, etc.), modified in accordance with age, professional, class, territorial and other characteristics of a particular social group, community. For example, ethnic or professional subculture, organizational subculture, etc. Professional culture is closely related to the content of professional activity, the role it plays in society, the organization of the workplace of representatives of this profession. It is greatly influenced by vocational education and training. Subcultures differ from the dominant culture in certain specific features that meet the conditions of the life of the community, group. The subculture retains the principles of the dominant culture, its scale of values, but there are additional elements, for example, norms that provide regulation of ties in the relevant social institutions - military, medical, educational, family subcultures.

There are subcultures in which attention is focused on the specific features of the life of their subjects: urban and rural subcultures, the subculture of the Hutsuls, Galicians, Polishchuks. Subcultures can arise on the basis of different understanding of the ways of development of society, etc. The subculture is deviantculture. For example, the lifestyle and behavior of drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, Satanists. Representatives of various subcultures are guided by different values, organize their leisure time in different ways, read different books, etc.

A subculture can be very different from the dominant culture of a society, but cannot oppose it. When this happens, it's about counterculture. There is a counterculture in every civilized society. An example of a counterculture can be subcultures of underworld groups, terrorists, various youth groups (punks, hippies, neo-fascists) that do not recognize the legal norms of society, ignore public morality, traditions, rules of conduct, actively deny the official, "state" culture and often try to destroy.

So, the composition of the culture of society includes a significant number of positive and negative subcultures, and this indicates its richness, dynamism, and the ability to adapt to new social conditions.

The task of sociology is to analyze the coexistence of all these types of cultures, to identify the contradictions between them, to study their perception by various social communities. Sociologists must know whether different cultures coexist peacefully, whether there are cultural conflicts- situations when the values ​​of one culture (counterculture or subculture) conflict with the values ​​of another (dominant). They are interested in what consequences the cultural conflict will have, whether it will contribute to positive changes in the dominant culture, the emergence of new ones in it, best models, the constituent elements.

Scientists give the greatest importance to the study of national culture.

national culture - this is a set of symbols, values, norms, patterns of behavior, beliefs that characterize a particular community (ethnicity, nation) of a certain state, country. One national culture can exist only in a country where linguistic and ethnic unity reigns. Majority modern states have several or even many national cultures - subcultures of the national majority and subcultures of national minorities.

The task of sociology is to study the possible perversion of subcultures, the mechanism of state cultural policy.

As a rule, national minorities need to make a lot of efforts to preserve their identity, protect their national values in an environment where the national majority lives, the culture of which exerts significant pressure on other cultures. Such a situation was observed in the former USSR, when the peoples that were part of it, in particular the Ukrainian people, found it very difficult to preserve their national heritage and their national culture.

The correct cultural policy of the government, the state has a significant impact on other aspects of public life, for example, on the economy, general welfare and social peace in the state.

Of particular importance for the social tranquility of the state is confessional culture, which is formed on common beliefs, belonging to one denomination, church. This gives rise to a commonality of symbols, values, ideals and patterns of behavior.

The most common in the world are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist confessional cultures. Each of them has branches - subcultures. For example, Christian culture has such subcultures as Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant. In turn, these subcultures have their own subcultures.

There are several Christian and many other confessional subcultures in Ukraine. Unfortunately, not all of them find a common language with each other.

Sociology should study the correlation of dominant cultures, subcultures, countercultures, the contradictions between them, their assessment by different social groups. An important sociological problem is the ability of ethnic self-consciousness to perceive and evaluate other cultures through the prism of the standards of their own ethnic group, to make judgments about them from the standpoint of superiority. own culture. This phenomenon is called ethnocentrism.

According to an American sociologist W. Summer, for ethnocentrism, a certain group in society is considered central, and all others are sympathetic and correlate with it, as with some universal etelon.

To a certain extent, ethnocentrism is inherent in all societies and peoples, it unites them. Ethnocentrism is a necessary condition for the emergence of national identity. Without ethnocentrism, patriotism is impossible.

However, there are also extreme manifestations of ethnocentrism, for example nationalism, disregard for other cultures. These phenomena, unfortunately, are very common today and manifest themselves in the imposition of one's own system of values, one's way of life. A striking example of this is the United States, Russia.

However, in general, ethnocentrism turns out to be in more loyal forms, and its main orientation is as follows: I prefer my customs, although I understand that certain customs of other cultures may be better in some way. The phenomena of ethnocentrism are observed everywhere and always when a person compares himself with people of a different gender, age, representatives of another organization or another region. Each time she puts herself at the center of culture and considers its other manifestations, constantly comparing them with samples of her cultural environment.

When it comes to the significant role of ethnocentrism in the process of rallying individuals around certain cultural models, its conservative role should also be noted. It can hinder the development of culture. Indeed, if culture is considered the best in the world, then why change or improve something in it?

The opposite in meaning is cultural relativism which proclaims the absolute originality of any culture. According to this principle whether a culture can only be understood in its own context and only when judged by its own standards in its entirety. This thesis was formulated
G. Sumner and subsequently developed G. Benedict.

In our opinion, one should proceed from the fact that any culture is an achievement common civilization, and it should be considered in the system of all cultures with a focus on the development trends of human culture. And this is a combination of rice ethnocentrism and cultural relativism in the perception of culture. For such an approach, the individual not only feels pride in the culture of his group or society, is a supporter of its basic models, but is also able to understand other cultures, the behavior of members of other social groups and recognizes their right to exist.