In France, onion soup has long been considered a delicacy. It was this dish that put ...
(material by Kravchenko)
To date, scientists have more than 500 definitions of culture. They split them into several groups. The first included descriptive definitions. For example, culture is the sum of all activities, customs, beliefs. In the second, those definitions that link culture with traditions or social heritage of society. Culture is a socially inherited complex of practices and beliefs that defines the foundations of our lives. The third group emphasized the importance for culture of the rules that organize human behavior. In other cases, scientists understood culture as a means of adapting society to the natural environment, or emphasized that it is a product of human activity. Sometimes it is spoken of as a set of forms of acquired behavior characteristic of a certain group or society and passed down from generation to generation.
IN everyday life the concept of culture is used in at least three meanings:
Firstly, culture means a certain sphere of society that has received institutional consolidation ... Not only in our country, but also in other countries, there is a ministry of culture with a ramified apparatus of officials, secondary specialized and higher educational institutions that train specialists in culture, magazines, societies, clubs, theaters, museums, etc., engaged in production and distribution spiritual values.
Secondly, culture means a set of spiritual values \u200b\u200band norms inherent in a large social group, community, people or nation.
We are talking about elite culture, Russian culture, Russian foreign culture, youth culture, working class culture, etc.
Thirdly, culture expresses a high level of quality development of spiritual achievements.
In ancient Rome, where this word came from, culture (cultura) was understood primarily as the cultivation of the land. Cultivation of the soil, agricultural crops - concepts associated with the work of the peasant. Only in the 18th-19th centuries did culture acquire a spiritual connotation for Europeans. She began to denote the improvement of human qualities. A person who is well-read and refined in demeanor was called cultural. Until now, the word "culture" is associated with fine literature, an art gallery, an opera house and good education.
IN modern language the term culture is used very often, mainly in two meanings - "wide" and "narrow". In a broad sense, culture includes all the generally accepted forms of life that have become established in society - customs, norms, institutions, including the state and the economy. In the "narrow sense" the boundaries of culture coincide with the boundaries of the sphere of spiritual creativity, with art, morality, and intellectual activity.
Adherents of a narrower approach to understanding culture consider it wrong to extend it to the entire totality of social phenomena. There are many ugly, disgusting things in society that cannot be called culture. Drug addiction, crime, fascism, prostitution, war, alcoholism - all of this is artificially created by man, they all belong to the sphere of social phenomena. But do we have the right to refer them to the cultural sphere?
If culture, by definition, consists of values, and not only of norms and customs (they can be any), then fascism or crime cannot be included in the composition of culture, since they do not have a positive value for society. They are aimed at destroying a person, therefore, they do not act as humanistic values. But if something is aimed at destroying the positive values \u200b\u200bcreated by man, then this something must be called not culture, but anti-culture. The criterion here is the person, the measure of his development. And then culture is only that which promotes development, not degradation of man.
It seems that both meanings, broad and narrow, have equal rights, and they should be used depending on the situation and context. The difference between them is as follows. In the first case, culture includes social problems, in particular, social institutions (religion, science, family, economics, law). In the second, it is limited to the history and theory of artistic culture and art. In the first case, more emphasis is placed on sociological, anthropological, ethnographic methods and data, in the second - on art history, philosophical and literary techniques and data.
Both approaches - wide and narrow - are fruitful in their own way. The first approach has been adopted by the majority of anthropologists and sociologists, as well as some cultural scientists. The second is a part of culturologists and practitioners working in the field of culture: art historians, architects, philologists, urban planners, employees of the Ministry of Culture, etc.
The second, narrow approach assumes that culture is a) the sphere of society, b) an aspect of society or types of social activity. These are two different things. With a "spheral" interpretation, the whole society is divided into several spheres - social, economic, political and cultural. The cultural sphere represents one of the segments of society. With the "aspect" approach, society is also divided into spheres. For example, the Nizhny Novgorod culturologists identify 8 spheres: economic, environmental, pedagogical, managerial, scientific, artistic, medical, and physical education. But there could be the same four main areas mentioned above. Their quantity is not as important here as quality.
The definition of culture, which was proposed in 1871 by Edward Taylor (1832-1917) - an outstanding English ethnographer, one of the founders and anthropology:
Culture- a complex that includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws, customs, as well as other abilities and skills learned by a person as a member of society.
In this definition, both values \u200b\u200bof culture are organically combined - broad and narrow.
Culture- a set of symbols, beliefs, values, norms and artifacts. It expresses the characteristic features of a given society, nation, group. Because of this, societies, nations and groups differ precisely in their culture. The culture of a people is its way of life, its clothing, dwelling, cuisine, folklore, spiritual ideas, beliefs, language and much more.
The culture also includes social attitudes, socially accepted gestures of courtesy and greetings, gait, etiquette, and hygiene habits. Household utensils, clothing, ornament, folklore - all this has an ethnic tone and is passed down from generation to generation, forming an ethnic style. The inscriptions on the porch and on the fences, which do not always correspond to the norms of the literary language, also express a certain culture, or rather, the youth subculture.
(material not by Kravchenko)
The peculiarity of the sociological approach to understanding culture is that culture is considered as a mechanism for regulating human behavior, social groups, the functioning and development of society as a whole.
In the most general sociological approach to understanding culture, three of its characteristics are usually noted:
1) culture is a generally shared system of values, symbols and meanings;
2) culture is what a person comprehends in the process of his life;
3) culture is everything that is broadcast from generation to generation.
Thus, we can give the following definition: culture is a system of socially acquired and transmitted from generation to generation significant symbols, ideas, values, beliefs, traditions, norms and rules of behavior, through which people organize their life.
The concept of tradition originates from the Latin word traditio, which means "to transmit" in translation. Initially, this word was understood literally, meaning material action. For example, in ancient Rome, they used it when it came to giving someone a certain item and even marrying a daughter. But the transferred object can also be intangible, for example, a skill or skill.
Tradition is a collection of elements of cultural and social heritage that have been passed down from one generation to another. Such a transfer still occurs constantly and everywhere and is present in all spheres of people's lives.
Traditions appeared in the distant past. They belong to the spiritual side of human life. Traditions are mobile and energetic, like social life itself. They appear, are activated by vital necessity, develop and modify with the change of these same needs.
Nothing appears in the life of society if there is no need for it. Traditions are called to life and are supported because they carry an informative load and perform certain functions for them, namely: the purpose of support and transfer of experience, skills, acquisitions in the field of spiritual and material culture from generation to generation, the functions of applying established in previous eras traditions.
In literature, traditions are divided into progressive and reactionary, which creates serious methodological obstacles. Not possessing a sufficiently reliable objective criterion when formulating what should be classified as progressive and what should be considered reactionary, the creators of this concept sometimes, without realizing it, had to resort to biased considerations and assessments. In this regard, it is necessary to abandon it and take objectivity and historicism as a basis, since before writing about traditions, one must know them well, examine all their sides and connections, how they appeared and what social function they perform.
Tradition reflects a hereditary connection in development, a connection between eras. Traditions as a single social action include not only positive, but also ancient elements that have outlived their time.
In ancient traditions, there are a lot of interesting, sensible and colorful. Development in the younger generation good attitude to the cultural heritage of the past is one of the most important elements of pedagogical work, which contributes to the development of a feeling of love in them, to respectfully treat everything that gives people joy, delight and aesthetic pleasure. These include labor traditions, wise parables, luxurious traditional nationwide holidays, respect for women, the elderly and their rich life experience.
Traditions have informational functions. Everything new in life, positive experience of the older generation, which has become traditional, is passed on as an invaluable heritage to the next generation.
Today, more and more people are interested in everything ethnic, including national music, crafts, dances. Most, exhausted from the pressure of globalization, are looking for a chance to get closer to living history. Many interactive museums open, various festivals and outdoor fairs are held. Learning about the cultural customs and traditions of your nation is very worthy and exciting!
A set of traditions, customs, social norms, rules governing the behavior of those who live now, and transmitted to those who will live tomorrow.
The continuity of culture is achieved through socialization. And it oversees whether socialization is going right or wrong, a special mechanism, or, as they used to say in the old days, an institution. It's called social control. Control permeates the entire society, takes many forms and guises (public opinion, censorship, detectives, etc.), but consists of only two elements - social norms (instructions on what to do) and sanctions (rewards and punishments that stimulate compliance with the instructions ). Social control is a mechanism for regulating the behavior of individuals and groups, including norms and sanctions. When there are no laws and norms in a society, disorder or anomie is established. And when an individual deviates from the norms or violates them, his behavior is called deviant.
When we fill in empty cells - statuses - with people, then in each cell we find a large social group: all pensioners, all Russians, all teachers. Thus, social groups are behind the statuses. The totality of large social groups (sometimes called statistical or social categories) is called the social composition of the population. Every person has needs. The most important, or fundamental, needs are the same for everyone, and the secondary
are different. The first are universal, that is, they are inherent in the entire population, and therefore characterize society as a whole. Institutions designed to meet the fundamental needs of society are called social institutions. Family, production, religion, education, the state are fundamental institutions of human society that arose in ancient times and exist to this day. In its embryonic form, the family, according to anthropologists, appeared 500 thousand years ago. Since then, it has constantly evolved, taking on many forms and varieties: polygamy, polyandry, monogamy, cohabitation, nuclear family, extended family, single parent, etc. The state is 5-6 thousand years old, the same education, and religion is of a more respectable age. A social institution is a very complex institution, and most importantly, a real one. After all, we get the social structure by abstracting from something. And the status can only be imagined mentally. Of course, it is not easy to unite all people, all institutions and organizations that for centuries have been associated with one function - family, religion, education, state and production - and present them as one of the institutions, into a single whole. Yet the social institution is real.
First, at any given moment in time, one institution is represented by a set of people and social organizations. A set of schools, technical schools, universities, various courses, etc. plus the Ministry of Education and its entire apparatus, research institutes, editorial offices of magazines and newspapers, printing houses and many other things related to pedagogy, constitute a social institution of education. Secondly, the main, or general institutions, in turn, consist of many non-main, or private institutions. They are called social practices. For example, the institution of the state includes the institution of the presidency, the institution of parliamentarism, the army, the court, the legal profession, the police, the prosecutor's office, the institution of the jury, etc. The same is the case with religion (institutions of monasticism, baptism, confession, etc.), production, family, education.
The totality of social institutions is called the social system of society. It is associated not only with institutions, but also with social organizations, social interaction, social roles. In a word, with what moves, works, acts.
So, let's draw a conclusion about sociology: statuses, roles, social groups do not exist by themselves. They are formed in the process of meeting the fundamental needs of society. The mechanisms of such satisfaction are social institutions, which are subdivided into basic (there are only five of them: family, production, state, education and religion) and non-basic (there are much more of them), also called social practices. So we got a complete picture of society, described using sociological concepts. This picture has two sides - the static one, described by the structure, and
dynamic, described by the system. And the initial building blocks are status and role. They are also dual. To complete the picture, two more important concepts are missing - social stratification and social mobility.
Traditions are a kind of historically formed group experience embodied in social stereotypes, which is accumulated and reproduced in society. It is necessary to distinguish this concept from art, which represents a more individual creative activity. Through traditions, a certain group of individuals inherits the knowledge necessary for self-development and even survival. That is, this term can be interpreted as a certain mechanism of collective communication. Experts identify the main types of traditions: folk (ethnic), social, national, religious and cultural.
Origin of the term
The well-known word "tradition" for many has a fairly clear meaning. If we talk about literal translation, then in latin the term means "transfer".
Originally the concept of "tradition" was used only in a literal sense and meant action. The ancient Romans used it in the case when they had to give someone a material object or to marry a daughter. Subsequently, material objects faded into the background, they were pushed aside by the transmitted skills and abilities. Thus "tradition", or rather, its semantic spectrum, indicates the main difference from everything that could be summed up under this concept. Tradition is something that does not belong to a specific individual, as it is transmitted from the outside. Derived meaning is associated with everything that is associated with the long past, which has irrevocably lost its novelty, is invariably and symbolically stable. And strict adherence to customs relieves many of the need to independently comprehend the situation and make a decision.
Tradition and society
Each new generation, having at its complete disposal a certain set of traditional samples, does not accept or assimilate them in their finished form, it involuntarily carries out their own interpretation. It turns out that society chooses not only its future future, but also the past that has sunk into oblivion. Social groups and society as a whole, selectively accepting some elements of the social heritage, at the same time reject others. Therefore, social traditions may well be both positive and negative.
National heritage
In general, tradition is a so-called cultural element that arises in one generation and is passed from ancestors to descendants, persisting over a long time. These are some norms, rules of behavior, rituals, procedures that must be followed. Considering the definition of the word “heritage” together with this term, we can say that the concepts are practically identical.
If we talk about national traditions, then these are the rules that are manifested in almost everything. This applies not only to clothing, style and behavior in general, they are also manifested in movements, gestures and other elements that exist in human psychology. Such concepts and manifestations are very important for a person, since it is they who are able to launch the unconscious mechanism in a person who is clearly able to determine the line between “ours” and “others”.
National traditions are a phenomenon that was formed as a result of the vital activity of each people or nation, regulated by functions in the consciousness of a person. In other words, regulation occurs in family life, communication, behavior. Traditions have their own characteristics, namely, they have high stability, continuity and even stereotype. They are characterized by a long-term factor that is a regulator of social phenomena.
Contemporary attitude to cultural traditions
The variety of traditions in most countries is sometimes simply amazing. What is the norm of everyday life for a certain people can often be perceived as a personal insult in another country. We can say that traditions are one of the fundamental things in cultures different countries the world. Therefore, if you decide to relax in some exotic country, you must first familiarize yourself with its customs, so as not to get into an awkward position. For example, in Turkey, one of the important traditions is the need to take off your shoes when entering a house and a temple. Still, in no case should you refuse an offer to drink a cup of tea, this may be perceived as an insult.
Not just a set of rules
Cultural traditions are not only a set of etiquette rules, they are a certain semantic flow aimed at showing the depth of the history of a country, these are values \u200b\u200blaid down for centuries, passed down from generation to generation to maintain and reveal the unique mentality of its inhabitants. For example: countries in which Buddhism is widespread believe that touching a person's head is unacceptable, since the human soul dwells in it. Tragically, in many countries, traditional rituals have gone out of fashion, so to speak, and have lost their value due to technological progress. I would like the interest in preserving one's culture not to lose its relevance in any corner of the world.
Synonym for
The word "tradition" is a feminine noun, if necessary, it can be replaced with concepts custom, steady (masculine nouns), heritage, tradition (neuter nouns). Instead of a single term, you can use phrases with the word "so", for example: it was so customary... Among writers, and not only among them, traditions are called unwritten laws. One of the most unusual synonyms in the Russian language for this noun is the word "itihasa", which in translation means "just so it was." Most sources define a synonym for the word "tradition" in several variants, in which, in addition to those presented above, are in the lead norm, establishment, custom, value... An interesting variant is the use of the word "hashar" (a term that has long been included in the Turkic and Tajik languages \u200b\u200band means "joint work").
Religious traditions
Religion also has its own traditions, which makes it a spiritual and cultural treasure. represent a set of stable forms and methods of worshiping gods (God). Each of the religions existing on earth carefully preserves and strongly supports its own tradition, but more often than not, each religion has several traditions at once, for example: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Protestantism - in Christianity, Shiites and Sunnis - in Islam, Mahayana and Hinayana - in Buddhism. The religious traditions of the East practice a certain technique of working both with the body and with the mind, which is aimed at enlightenment, i.e. obtaining extremely high states of human consciousness. Christian religious traditions include church attendance, prayer, confession and veneration. The most famous holidays are Easter, Christmas, Epiphany, Trinity, Ascension, Annunciation. Also, not all traditions are respected, if only because in the digital age people have become not as devout as their ancestors were. Now few people are in favor festive table asks for harvest or rain. Just the holiday has become another reason to get together with the whole family.
There is no future without a past
Traditions are a legacy that is unshakably authoritative, they are accepted and passed on without complaint in accordance with the fact that departed ancestors - "carriers" - have a solid foundation in the life of their heirs - "followers".
Its result is a socially mature personality. And what is a person without culture?
culture - a set of traditions, customs, social norms, rules governing the behavior of those who live now, and transmitted to those who will live tomorrow.
The continuity of culture is achieved through socialization. And it oversees whether socialization is going right or wrong, a special mechanism, or, as they used to say in the old days, an institution. It's called social control.is he permeates the entire society, takes many forms and guises (public opinion, censorship, detectives, etc.), but consists of only two elements - social norms (instructions on what to do) and sanctions (rewards and punishments that stimulate compliance with the instructions) ...
social control is a mechanism for regulating the behavior of individuals and groups, including norms and sanctions.
When there are no laws and regulations in a society, disorder is established, or anomie. And when an individual deviates from the norms or violates them, his behavior is called deviant.
So, let's do third conclusion: the mortar that holds society together is strong because it is mobile. Such a quality gives it the social interaction of huge masses of people. For it to be an orderly process, society has developed a special mechanism for regulating behavior - social control. It consists of sanctions and cultural norms that people learn in the process of socialization.
When we fill in empty cells - statuses with people, then in each cell we find large social group: all pensioners, all Russians, all teachers, etc. Thus, social groups are behind the statuses.
The totality of large social groups (sometimes called statistical or social categories) is called the social composition of the population.
Not only sociologists are engaged in it, but also statisticians.
Every person has needs, which he is obliged to satisfy: physiological, social, spiritual. The most important, or fundamental, needs are the same for everyone, and the minor ones are different. The first ones are universal, i.e. are inherent in the entire population, and therefore characterize society as a whole.
Institutions designed to meet the fundamental needs of society are called social institutions.
Family, industry, religion, education, state - Fundamental institutions human society, which arose in ancient times and exist to this day. In its embryonic form, the family, according to anthropologists, appeared 500 thousand years ago. Since then, it has constantly evolved, taking on many forms and varieties: polygamy, polyandry, monogamy, nuclear family cohabitation, extended family, single parent, etc. The state 5-6 thousands of years, the same education, and religion has a more respectable age. A social institution is a very complex institution, and most importantly, the existing one is real. After all, we get the social structure by abstracting from something. And the status can only be imagined mentally. Of course, it is not easy to unite all people, all institutions and organizations, which for centuries have been associated with one function - family, religion, education, state and production - and present them as one of the institutions, into a single whole. Yet the social institution is real.
First, at any given moment in time, one institution is represented by a set of people and social organizations. A set of schools, technical schools, universities, various courses, etc. plus the Ministry of Education and its entire apparatus, research institutes, editorial offices of magazines and newspapers, printing houses and many other things related to pedagogy, constitute a social institution of education. Secondly, main, or general institutions in turn consist of many not basic, or private institutions. They are called social practices. For example, the institution of the state includes the institution of the presidency, the institution of parliamentarism, the army, the court, the legal profession, the police, the prosecutor's office, the institution of the jury, etc. The same is the case with religion (institutions of monasticism, baptism, confession, etc.), production, family, education.
The set of social institutions is called social system society.
It is associated not only with institutions, but also with social organizations, social interaction, social roles. In a word, with what moves, works, acts.
So, let's draw the fourth conclusion: statuses, roles, social control do not exist by themselves. They are formed in the process of meeting the fundamental needs of society. The mechanisms of such satisfaction are social institutions, subdivided into basic (there are only five of them: family, production, state, education and religion) and non-basic (there are much more of them), also called social practices. So we got a complete picture of society, described using sociological concepts. This picture two sides - static, described by the structure, and dynamic,described by the system. And the initial building blocks are status and role. They are also dual. To complete the picture, perhaps two more important concepts are missing - social stratification and social mobility.
social stratification - a set of large social groups arranged hierarchically according to the criterion of social inequality and called strata.
This is a different version of social structure. The statuses are located not horizontally, but vertically. Only on the vertical axis can they be combined into new groups - strata, layers, classes, estates, which differ from each other in terms of inequality. Poor, well-to-do, rich - a common model of stratification. To move from the general to the particular, we will divide the vertical space into four "rulers": the scale of income (in rubles, dollars), the scale of education (years of study), the scale of power (the number of subordinates), the scale of professional prestige (in expert points). The place of any status can be easily found on these scales and thereby determine the general place in the system of stratification.
The transition from one stratum to another, unequal (say, from the poor to the rich), or to an equal (say, from drivers to tractor drivers) is described by the concept of social mobility, which is vertical and horizontal, upward and downward.
That's all there is to say about the subject of sociology. In essence, we talked about the whole of sociology, but in the most general terms. The book as a whole is devoted to highlighting in more detail what is summarized in this paragraph.
Let's highlight the key concepts that make up the subject of sociology.
