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Lecture notes, cheat sheets
Culturology. Local cultures (lecture notes)
Directory / Lecture notes, cheat sheets Table of contents (expand) Local cultures 1. Local cultures as a model of human development. The concept of cultural and historical types (N.Ya. Danilevsky) In philosophy and cultural studies, an important problem is the question of what constitutes the historical and cultural process: the development of world culture as a whole or the change of local cultures, each of which lives its own, separate life. From the point of view of the theory of local cultures, the scheme of history is not a unidirectional linear process: the lines of development of cultures diverge. This position was held by N.Ya. Danilevsky, O. Spengler, L. Frobenius, A. Toynbee, E. Meyer, E. Troelch and others. These thinkers opposed their concepts to the idea of universality and world history (the concepts of Voltaire, Montesquieu, G. Lessing, I. Kant, I. G. Herder, V. Solovyov, K. Jaspers and others). Russian sociologist Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky (1822-1885) developed the concept of local cultural-historical types, or civilizations, successively passing through the stages of birth, flourishing, decline and death in their development. Cultural-historical types are the subjects of human history. However, the history of culture is not exhausted by these subjects. Unlike positive cultural-historical types, there is also the so-called. "negative figures of mankind" - barbarians, as well as ethnic groups, which are not characterized by either positive or negative historical roles. The latter make up ethnographic material, being included in cultural-historical types, but not reaching historical individuality. N.Ya. Danilevsky identifies the following cultural and historical types: 1) Egyptian culture; 2) Chinese culture; 3) Assyrian-Babylonian-Phoenician; 4) Chaldean, or ancient Semitic, culture; 5) Indian culture; 6) Iranian culture; 7) Jewish culture; 8) Greek culture; 9) Roman culture; 10) Arabian culture; 11) Germano-Roman, or European, culture. A special place in Danilevsky's theory is given to the Mexican and Peruvian cultures, which were destroyed before they could complete their development. Among these cultures, "solitary" and "successive" types stand out. The first type is Chinese and Indian cultures, and the second is Egyptian, Assyrian-Babylonian-Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Jewish and European cultures. The fruits of the activity of the latter were transferred from one cultural type to another as nourishment or "fertilizer" of the soil on which another culture subsequently developed. Each original cultural and historical type evolves from the ethnographic to the state state, and from it to civilization. All history, according to Danilevsky, demonstrates that civilization is not transmitted from one cultural-historical type to another. It does not follow from this that they did not mutually influence each other, but this influence cannot be considered as a direct transmission. The peoples of each cultural-historical type do not generally work; the results of their labor remain the property of all other peoples who have reached the civilizational period of their development. Under the period of civilization, Danilevsky understood the time during which the peoples that make up the type manifest mainly their spiritual activity in all those directions for which there are guarantees in their spiritual nature. Danilevsky singles out the following basis of cultural typology: directions of human cultural activity. The Russian sociologist divides all sociocultural human activity into four categories that are not reducible to one another: 1) religious activity, including a person's attitude to God - the people's worldview as a firm faith, which forms the living basis of all human moral activity; 2) cultural activity in the narrow sense (actually cultural) of this word, embracing the relationship of a person to the outside world. This is, firstly, theoretical-scientific activity, secondly, aesthetic-artistic and, thirdly, technical-industrial activity; 3) political activity, including both domestic and foreign policy; 4) socio-economic activity, in the process of which certain economic relations and systems are created. In accordance with the categories of human cultural activity, N.Ya. Danilevsky distinguished the following cultural types: 1) primary cultures, or preparatory. Their task was to work out the conditions under which life in an organized society becomes possible at all. These cultures have not shown themselves sufficiently fully or clearly in any of the categories of sociocultural activity. These cultures include Egyptian, Chinese, Babylonian, Indian and Iranian cultures, which laid the foundations for subsequent development; 2) monobasic cultures - historically followed the preparatory ones and showed themselves quite brightly and fully in one of the categories of sociocultural activity. These cultures include Jewish (creating the first monotheistic religion that became the basis of Christianity); Greek, embodied in the actual cultural activity (classical art, philosophy); Roman, which realized itself in political and legal activities (classical system of law and state system); 3) dual-basic culture - German-Roman, or European. Danilevsky called this cultural type the political-cultural type, since it was these two directions that became the basis for the creative activity of European peoples (the creation of parliamentary and colonial systems, the development of science, technology, art). Indeed, in economic activity, Europeans succeeded to a much lesser extent, since the economic relations they created did not reflect the ideal of justice; 4) four-basic culture - a hypothetical, just emerging cultural type. Danilevsky writes about a very special type in the history of human culture, who has the opportunity to realize in his life four most important values: true faith; political justice and freedom; culture itself (science and art); a perfect, harmonious socio-economic system, which all previous cultures failed to create. The Slavic cultural-historical type can become such a type if it does not succumb to the temptation to adopt ready-made cultural forms from Europeans. The destiny of Russia, Danilevsky believed, is not to conquer and oppress, but to liberate and restore. Danilevsky's philosophy of history is based on the idea of denying the unity of mankind, a single direction of progress: a universal civilization does not exist and cannot exist. Universal means colorlessness, lack of originality. Without doubting the biological unity of mankind, Danilevsky insists on the originality, self-sufficiency of cultures. The true creators of history are not the peoples themselves, but the cultures created by them and having reached a mature state. 2. Local cultures and local civilizations (O. Spengler and A. Toynbee) The development of the problem of locally developing cultures was continued by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936). In The Decline of Europe, he defends the idea of the discrete nature of history. Spengler argues that there is no progressive development of culture, but only the circulation of local cultures. Likening cultures to living organisms, Spengler believes that they are born unexpectedly, being absolutely isolated and devoid of common ties. The life cycle of every culture inevitably ends with death. Spengler identifies eight types of cultures that have reached their completion: Chinese; Babylonian; Egyptian; Indian; antique (Greco-Roman), or "Apollo"; Arabic; Western European, or "Faustian"; the culture of the Mayan people. In a special type, which is still at the stage of emergence, Spengler singled out the Russian-Siberian culture. Contrasting the concepts of culture and life, under culture Spengler understands the external manifestation of the internal structure of the soul of the people, the desire of the collective soul of the people for self-expression. Each culture, each soul has a primary worldview, its own "primary symbol", from which all the richness of its forms flows; inspired by him, she lives, feels, creates. For European culture, the "first symbol" is only its characteristic way of experiencing space and time - "aspiration to infinity". Ancient culture, on the contrary, mastered the world, based on the principle of a visible limit. Everything irrational is alien to them, zero and negative numbers are not known. The historical and cultural type is closed in itself, exists separately, in isolation. Culture lives its own, special life; it cannot absorb anything from other cultures. There is no historical continuity, no influence or borrowing. Cultures are self-sufficient, and therefore dialogue is impossible. A person belonging to a certain culture not only cannot perceive other values, but is also unable to understand them. All norms of human spiritual activity make sense only within the framework of a particular culture and are significant only for it. According to Spengler, the unity of mankind does not exist, the concept of "humanity" is an empty phrase. World history is an illusion generated by the European cultural type. Each type of culture, with the inevitability of fate, goes through the same life stages (from birth to death), gives rise to the same phenomena, painted, however, in peculiar tones. Russian philosopher Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948) substantiates the idea of the gradual transformation of the "human race" into "humanity". A huge role in the way of humankind's awareness of its community belongs to Christianity, which historically arose and revealed itself during the period of the universal meeting of all the results of the cultural processes of the Ancient World. During this period, the cultures of the East and the cultures of the West merged. The fall of great cultures, according to N. Berdyaev, testifies not only to their experience of the moments of birth, flourishing and dying, but also to the fact that culture is the beginning of eternity. The fall of Rome and the ancient world is a catastrophe in history, not the death of culture. After all, Roman law is eternally alive, Greek art and philosophy are eternally alive, like all other principles of the Ancient World, which form the basis of other cultures. Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) in his work "Comprehension of History" develops the concept of local civilizations. Civilizations are divided by him into three generations. The first is primitive, small, non-literate cultures. There are countless of them, and their age is small. They are characterized by one-sided specialization, adaptability to life in a certain geographical environment; social institutions - the state, education, church, science - they do not have. These cultures breed like rabbits and die spontaneously unless they merge, through a creative act, into a more powerful second generation civilization. The creative act is hampered by the static nature of primitive societies: in them, the social connection (imitation), which regulates the uniformity of actions and the stability of relations, is directed to deceased ancestors, to the older generation. In such cultures, custom rules and innovation is difficult. With a sharp change in living conditions, which Toynbee calls a "challenge", society cannot give an adequate response, rebuild and change its way of life; continuing to live and act as if there was no "challenge", as if nothing had happened, culture is moving towards the abyss and perishing. However, some cultures bring forth a "creative minority" from their midst who are aware of the challenge and are able to respond satisfactorily to it. This handful of enthusiasts - prophets, priests, philosophers, scientists, politicians - with the example of their own disinterested service, carries away the bulk, and society moves on to new tracks. The formation of a subsidiary civilization begins, which inherited the experience of its predecessor, but is much more flexible and versatile. According to Toynbee, cultures that live in comfortable conditions, do not receive a challenge from the environment, are in a state of stagnation. Only where difficulties arise, where the mind of people is excited in search of a way out and new forms of survival, conditions are created for the birth of a civilization of a higher level. According to Toynbee's Law of the Golden Mean, the challenge should be neither too weak nor too harsh. In the first case, there will be no active response, and in the second, difficulties can stop the emergence of civilization. The most common answers are: the transition to a new type of management, the creation of irrigation systems, the formation of powerful power structures capable of mobilizing the energy of society, the creation of a new religion, science, and technology. In second-generation civilizations, social bonding is directed towards creative individuals who lead the pioneers of a new social order. Civilizations of the second generation are dynamic, they create large cities, they develop the division of labor, commodity exchange, the market, there are layers of artisans, scientists, merchants, people of mental labor, a complex social stratification system is established. Attributes of democracy can develop here: elected bodies, legal system, self-government, separation of powers. The emergence of a full-fledged secondary civilization is not a foregone conclusion. In order for it to appear, a combination of a number of conditions is necessary. Since this is not always the case, some civilizations turn out to be frozen, or "underdeveloped". The problem of the birth of civilization from a primitive culture is one of the central ones for Toynbee. He believes that neither racial type, nor environment, nor economic structure play a decisive role in the genesis of civilizations: they arise as a result of mutations of primitive cultures, which occur depending on combinations of many causes. Predicting a mutation is difficult, as a result of a card game. Civilizations of the third generation are formed on the basis of churches. In total, according to Toynbee, by the middle of the XNUMXth century. Of the three dozen civilizations that existed, seven or eight survived: Christian, Islamic, Hindu, etc. Like his predecessors, Toynbee recognizes the cyclic pattern of development of civilizations: birth, growth, flourishing, breakdown and decay. But this scheme is not fatal, the death of civilizations is probable, but not inevitable. Civilizations, like people, are not far-sighted: they are not fully aware of the springs of their own actions and the essential conditions that ensure their prosperity. The narrow-mindedness and selfishness of the ruling elites, combined with the laziness and conservatism of the majority, lead to the degeneration of civilization. In contrast to the fatalistic and relativistic theories of Spengler and his followers, Toynbee is looking for a solid foundation for the unification of mankind, trying to find ways of a peaceful transition to the "universal church" and "universal state". The pinnacle of earthly progress would be, according to Toynbee, the creation of a “community of saints.” Its members would be free from sin and capable, by cooperating with God, even at the cost of hard effort, to transform human nature. Only a new religion, built in the spirit of pantheism, could, according to Toynbee, reconcile warring groups of people, form an ecologically healthy attitude towards nature, and thereby save humanity from destruction. 3. The theory of cultures-civilizations by S. Huntington The theory of culture-civilizations of our contemporary Samuel Huntington is consonant with the general concepts of cultures presented above. It also promotes the idea of the importance of cultural characteristics; Huntington declares the confrontation between the modern and the traditional to be the fundamental problem of the modern era. S. Huntington revives a civilized approach to the analysis of the historical and cultural process. He uses the research method used by A. Toynbee, N. Danilevsky, O. Spengler. Huntington believes that the main conflict of the era is the confrontation between modernity and traditionalism. The content of the modern era is the clash of cultures-civilizations. The leading culture-civilizations Huntington includes the following: Western, Confucian (China), Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Orthodox Slavic, Latin American and African. According to S. Huntington, identity (self-awareness, self-identification) will have an increasingly decisive significance in the near future precisely at the level of identified cultures-civilizations, or metacultures. This is also connected with the awareness of the conflict nature of the world and the upcoming clashes of civilizations along the "lines of cultural faults", that is, the spatial boundaries of metacultural communities. At the same time, S. Huntington is pessimistic about the prospect of historical development and believes that the fault lines between civilizations are the lines of future fronts. S. Huntington proceeds from the idea that the differences between civilizations-cultures are enormous and will remain so for a long time to come. Civilizations are not similar in their history, cultural traditions and - most importantly - religions. People of different cultures-civilizations have different ideas about the world as a whole, about freedom, models of development, about the relationship between the individual and the community, about God. Fundamental for the general cultural concept is S. Huntington's position that intercultural differences are more fundamental than political and ideological ones. A special role in determining the image of the modern world is played by fundamentalism (strict observance of archaic norms, a return to the old order), primarily in the form of religious movements. S. Huntington assesses the return to traditional cultural values as a reaction to the expansion of Western industrial culture into developing countries. This phenomenon has embraced, first of all, the countries of Islamic orientation, which play a significant role in the modern world. The scientist sees the main "cultural fault" in the opposition of the West to the rest of the world; the Confucian-Islamic union plays a decisive role in defending their cultural identity. S. Huntington sees one of the possible options for the development of the conflict of the era in the fact that Euro-Atlanticism, being at the peak of its power, will be able (more or less organically) to assimilate the values of other cultures. In principle, the reorientation of modern industrial culture to a more introverted one, facing the inner world of man, has already been under way in recent decades. This was expressed in a huge interest in personal improvement, in religious systems of Buddhist and Taoist orientation, in the younger generation’s rejection of a rational-material approach to life, the emergence of a counterculture and the search for the meaning of existence in Western culture. These trends have existed in Western culture since the early 1970s. They influence the internal functioning of industrialism. Authors: Islamgalieva S.K., Khalin K.E., Babayan G.V. << Back: Typology of cultures (Typology of culture. Ethnic and national types of culture. “East - West” in cultural studies. Russia and the type of its culture) >> Forward: The place and role of Russia in world culture (Russian culture and Russian national character. Slavic element of Russian culture. Orthodox motifs of Russian culture: original and borrowed. “Moscow is the third Rome” as the embodiment of the ideas of messianism in Russian culture. Westerners and Slavophiles about Russian culture and the historical fate of Russia)
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