Cultural anthropology. Culturology and cultural history

1. Cultural anthropology

Cultural anthropology (or cultural anthropology) is one of the most important areas of cultural research. It is part of a huge system of knowledge about man, called anthropology (the science of man). Within its framework, there are theological (theological), or religious, anthropology, psychological anthropology, natural-science (biological) anthropology, cognitive anthropology, which studies the problems of human cognition of the world. In this series, cultural anthropology has found a place, exploring culture as a form of life and human activity, the habitat of people.

Cultural anthropology, in its origin, is closely related to ethnography - a science that studies the cultures of various tribes and peoples, mainly living in Africa, America, Australia and Oceania. Cultural anthropology still actively uses ethnographic materials, although it has long gone beyond the scope of ethnography. Cultural anthropology includes ethnography, which collects material about individual cultures, ethnology, which theoretically generalizes this material, general anthropological theories, information from the field of linguistics, archeology, the history of society and culture, and religious studies. Knowledge about the cultures of various peoples and tribes has been accumulated over many centuries. They are contained in the monuments of ancient literature, historical and religious thought, stories of travelers. The first attempts to generalize this material were made already in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, but as a science anthropology was formed only by the second half of the XNUMXth century.

The first significant scientific school in cultural anthropology can be called the evolutionism of the XNUMXth - early XNUMXth centuries, or classical evolutionism (G. Spencer, E.B. Taylor, D.D. Fraser, L.G. Morgan, etc.).

Evolutionism was formed under the influence of the dominant in the XIX century. ideas of evolution and progress that evolutionary anthropologists have applied to the study of culture. They considered various phenomena of culture and culture of different peoples as stages of cultural evolution, built their single line of evolutionary development.

Anthropologists-evolutionists drew analogies between the evolution of the individual (childhood, youth, maturity, old age) and the evolution of culture. The advantages of classical evolutionism include the processing of a colossal amount of information, which was built into clear, convincing schemes developed on the basis of a unified theory.

Evolutionary anthropologists left a well-developed terminology, a lot of scientific concepts. However, at the beginning of the XX century. evolutionism is in crisis due to its shortcomings:

1) the desk nature of most studies;

2) the desire to adjust the factual material to speculative evolutionary constructions.

As a reaction to the flaws of evolutionism in the cultural anthropology of the first half of the XNUMXth century. new directions emerge.

One of them was the historical school, or the Boas school (F. Boas, F. Grebner, A. Kroeber, R. Lone, and others).

Its representatives made the main emphasis on specific research, methods of scrupulous description of all the features of any culture. The historical school sought to trace and document the origin of each feature of a culture, to determine whether it originated within a given culture or penetrated it from outside. Various cases of diffusion (interpenetration) of cultures, cultural transformation (changes) were studied. The most important achievement of the Boas school was the development of the theory of acculturation. Acculturation is a process of culture change that occurs with direct contact and interaction of several groups of people who are carriers of different cultures.

Three types of relations between these groups can be traced: either the culture of one group is accepted by another partially ("acceptance") or completely ("assimilation"); either there is an adaptation, adaptation of the elements of one culture to the needs of another; or there is a "reaction" - a complete rejection of the forms of a foreign culture.

Simultaneously with the historical school, diffusionism, or the school of Ratzel, developed (L. Frobenius, W. Schmidt, W. Rivers, V. G. Child and others).

This direction has developed the concept of "cultural circles" ("cultural provinces"), each of which is a combination of a number of cultural features in a particular geographical area. A "cultural circle" can interact with other contemporary "cultural circles" (diffusion), move in space (migration), overlap cultural layers formed by previous "cultural circles" (stratification). In the history of culture, supporters of diffusionism attached particular importance to the migration of "cultural circles", which occurs as a result of trade contacts between countries, the migration of peoples, and colonization.

At the end of XIX - beginning of XX centuries. there is a French school of sociology and anthropology, headed by E. Durkheim, and then M. Mose. One of the basic principles of Durkheim's school was functionalism. Various social and cultural phenomena must be studied not only from the point of view of their causes, but also from the point of view of their functions, that is, the roles they play in relation to other phenomena and the entire socio-cultural system as a whole. By the middle of the XX century. in cultural anthropology, interest in evolutionism is being revived, a cultural-evolutionary school (neo-evolutionism), or the school of L.A. White.

White saw in the concept of "culture" not an abstraction with little content, but a reflection of objective reality in biological reality. He believed that the main function of culture is to serve the adaptation of man to the environment.

Culture is a system that develops through certain stages depending on the accumulation or expenditure of energy.

White distinguished three subsystems in this system:

1) technological (production tools, weapons, clothing, housing, etc.);

2) social (all types of individual or collective behavior of people);

3) ideological (knowledge, ideas, beliefs).

L. White played a key role in the development of cultural studies as an independent science. In the first decades of the XX century. at the junction of cultural anthropology and linguistics, ethnolinguistics began to take shape - a science that studies the features of the functioning of the language in the cultures of different ethnic groups. Prominent figures in ethnolinguistics E. Sapir, B. Whorf and many others developed a hypothesis according to which the structure of human thinking, the ways a person cognizes the world, the characteristic features of culture depend on the structure and features of the language. Everything perceived by a person is perceived by him through language. One of the most influential figures in the history of ethnography, sociology and anthropology of the XNUMXth century. became the English scientist B. Malinovsky. He created a number of theoretical concepts of cultural anthropology. Malinovsky distinguished two types of human needs:

1) primary (physiological and psychological), which a person has from birth;

2) secondary, generated by culture.

Culture, according to Malinowski, is a system of social institutions that satisfy primary and secondary needs. The differences between cultures lie in the ways in which needs are met, which are determined by the "cultural imperative" (drive). Cultural anthropology occupies a special place among cultural scientific disciplines. It has no equal in the richness of factual material, the diversity and thoughtfulness of theories, and the breadth of coverage of a wide variety of phenomena.

2. Culturology and cultural history

The history of culture is closely connected with cultural studies. These links are multifaceted and systemic.

Modern historical and cultural research is conducted on the basis of the latest developments in the field of cultural theory, the sociology of culture, and cultural dynamics.

It should be noted that the history of culture has always acted as an almost inexhaustible supply of factual material for cultural knowledge.

Culturology performs the function of comprehending this material, systematizing it, modeling the processes that have taken place in the social and cultural history of individual peoples, civilizations and all mankind.

In addition, the historical and cultural research itself, conducted on a specific issue, often gives rise to promising cultural theories and scientific approaches.

Examples include the game theory of culture, developed by the historian and art critic J. Huizinga, when studying the culture of the late European Middle Ages, the study of mentalities initiated by the French historians of the Annales school and giving rise to a new cultural discipline - historical anthropology.

The works of the historical school in cultural anthropology, which, on the basis of extensive ethnographic material, substantiated the theory of acculturation (cultural interaction).

Thus, in the system of modern culturological sciences there is a fruitful cooperation between the history of culture, theoretical culturology and other culturological disciplines.

One of the most important areas is the creation of historical typologies of culture.

3. Artistic style as a symbolic expression of the soul of culture

From the XNUMXth century in the history of artistic culture, the concept of style begins to appear. The artistic style as a system of complex symbolic reflection of the spirit of the time through the images of art arose in the European Middle Ages. The first pan-European style - Romanesque, from the Latin romanus - "Roman". Its features: severity and external simplicity, resemblance to early examples of ancient Roman architecture. The time frame for the dominance of this direction is X-XIII centuries. In many ways, the buildings of this style inherited the features of Roman architecture. Numerous towers, fortresses of the XNUMXth century can serve as an example of this style. These are structures with a small number of windows, thick strong walls, built necessarily in an inaccessible place.

Gothic - one of the two leading artistic styles of the European Middle Ages, combining lightness, elegance, decorativeness. It replaced Romanesque art in the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries. Gothic cathedrals became symbols of the unity of the heavenly and the earthly, the personifications of the viability of the city. Lancet arches, windows, turrets and spiers directed the Gothic temple to heaven, to God; large windows flooded it with light, which embodied divine light for Catholics. Extensive use was made of lavish decor with gold, woodcarving, and religious sculpture. Early Gothic is the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Later Gothic - Rouen Cathedral, Reims Cathedral.

Culture of the XVI-XVIII centuries. represented by baroque and classicism styles.

Baroque - the main style direction in the artistic culture of Europe, combining solemnity, splendor, compositional diversity and dynamism of forms. The Baroque style has spread mainly in Catholic countries. Baroque from the Italian barocco - "strange, bizarre".

This style is characterized by excessive splendor, idleness. Baroque sought to directly influence the feelings of the audience; it is characterized by fantasticness, enchantment and carnivalism, along with intellectuality and emotionality. A person in baroque art is a multifaceted personality with a complex world of experiences.

Center for the development of the Baroque in the XVI-XVII centuries. became Rome. Park and palace ensembles, cult architecture, decorative painting and sculpture, ceremonial portrait, as well as still life and landscape became the main views and genres of the Baroque. The masters of the Roman Baroque are the architect Borromini and the architect and sculptor J. L. Bernini. Many churches were built according to the designs of these architects. The grandiose creation of Bernini is the Cathedral of St. Peter and the design of the giant square near this cathedral. He created many sculptural altars, was the ancestor of the baroque portrait.

Classicism (from Latin dassicus - "educated") - a trend in the artistic culture of the XNUMXth - early XNUMXth centuries, which turned to the standards of ancient Greek classics, cultivating rigor, straightforwardness, harmony, orderliness. The aesthetics of classicism is based on the principle of "ennobled nature", on the desire to idealize reality. The hero in the culture of classicism fulfills his duty to the state, subordinates his personal passions to reason. The main aesthetic postulate of classicism is fidelity to nature, the natural rationality of the world with its objectively inherent beauty, which is expressed in symmetry, proportion, measure, harmony, which should be recreated in art in perfect form. Artistic works were subjected to a certain systematization and hierarchy.

In the XVIII century. Western European art was in the process of revising all pre-existing values. The new Rococo style reflected the taste of the court of Louis XV and the aristocracy, being a symbol of satiety and melancholy. Rococo from the French rocail - "shell". This style originated in France. The defining features of the style: the desire for elegance, fine detailing of the form, the contrast between the external severity of buildings and the sophistication of their interior decoration, sculpture and painting are distinguished by sophistication and grace.

At the end of the XVIII century. entered the cultural scene romanticism. Romanticism is an ideological and artistic trend in European culture, associated with the absolutization of the sensual principle and interest in extraordinary manifestations of the human being and life.

Romanticism symbolized an interest in the unusual and extreme, putting the imagination, emotionality and creative spirituality of the artist at the forefront. Romanticism was interested in everything except the average.

The writers' works include:

1) the chanting of beauty;

2) the cult of heroic personalities;

3) the theme of death;

4) mystical motives.

Central to the romantics is the problem of personality. Knowledge of the world begins with self-knowledge. Second half of the XNUMXth century marked by the advent of realism.

Realism - the ideological and artistic direction of culture, associated with the desire to comprehend reality in all its completeness and diversity, taking into account the most significant and typical features. Realism is opposed to romanticism; it is a symbol of a balanced, calm, critical view of life and a person's place in it.

The works of realists are different:

1) a wide range of problems of public life;

2) a careful study of the circumstances of the life of the characters. These features are most fully reflected in the social novel. Acting as the leading method, primarily in literature and painting, realism clearly manifests itself in the synthetic, "technical" forms of art associated with them - theater, ballet, cinema, photography.

Naturalism (from Latin natura - "nature") - an ideological and artistic direction in European culture of the last third of the XNUMXth century, characterized by increased attention to the human environment, to its influence on a person. According to naturalists, the artist should depict the world without embellishment, obeying only the truth of positive, experimental science.

The main signs of naturalism are photographic and de-aestheticization of the art form. Modernism (from the French modern - "new, latest") - a set of aesthetic schools and trends of the late XIX - early XX centuries. This direction is characterized by a break with the traditions of realism and other previous schools. There are a large number of modernist schools and directions. Particularly widespread are: symbolism, surrealism, abstractionism, futurism.

In the late 60s - early 70s. XNUMXth century formed in France impressionism, characterized by the desire to capture the world in all its mobility and variability.

The theme and plot of an impressionist work can only be a direct impression of what he saw. Impressionism has become a new artistic vision of the world.

Surrealism - this trend has affected almost all types of art. Its specificity lies in the exclusively Freudian approach to creativity. His method is pure psychic automatism, breaking logical connections. In the Surrealist manifesto, the main point was the liberation from the shackles of the intellect, from morality and traditional aesthetics. This direction includes the work of S. Dali, P. Picasso, V. Kandinsky.

Symbolism - an ideological and artistic direction in European art at the turn of the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries, using various symbols as expressive means: ideas-symbols, images-ideas, etc. The symbolists saw their task in the knowledge and artistic reproduction of an essence that can only be understood with the help of intuition. Symbolist artists expressed mood and ideas through the symbolism of colors, lines and shapes. Russian symbolists - V. Ivanov, A. Bely, V. Khlebnikov, A. Blok.

Post-impressionism originated at the end of the XNUMXth century. as a reaction to impressionism. It has the following distinguishing features:

1) special attention to form, decorative stimulation;

2) the symbolism of the use of color;

3) new techniques for constructing space and volume.

Postmodernism.

Postmodern - a set of ideas that characterizes modern culture; a current that embraces philosophy, literature, art, and the humanities. The XNUMXth century is the century of postmodern culture. The term "postmodern" was first used by R. Panwitz to characterize the crisis of European culture. This term is widely used, but there is no unambiguous definition of this term. We can distinguish the main features characteristic of the postmodern worldview:

1) its main values ​​are novelty, freedom in everything, spontaneity, rejection of any authorities;

2) negative perception of the past, the desire to get rid of the power of traditions, neglect of old age, the cult of youth;

3) a critical assessment of the mind's ability to know the truth;

4) the desire to free oneself from the power of language, since words order the world, that is, language is a means of coercion;

5) absolutization of the new, understanding of novelty as a way of obtaining pleasure, striving for the new;

6) electrism (playing with chaos), where values ​​and guidelines are mixed, where opinions and preferences are destroyed and re-created;

7) the principle of deconstruction - the liberation of the text from cultural layers, the "liberation" of culture from history. The binary opposition of the concepts of modern and postmodern suggests that the principles of postmodernism were not borrowed from the previous era. They formed on their own. Postmodernism borrows nothing from tradition. He just breaks up with her. Ortega y Gasset in his work came to the conclusion that the basic principles of art of the XX century. - this is dehumanization, the rejection of the image of living forms, the transformation of creativity into a game, the attraction to irony, the rejection of transcendence. A negative attitude to the past, to the classics, to tradition is the norm for postmodern culture. In its quest, the postmodern went to the extreme: it mixed styles, leveled the sinful and the holy, the high and the low, turned the text into schizophrenic statements, began to play with the language without any rules of grammar.

Authors: Islamgalieva S.K., Khalin K.E., Babayan G.V.

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