LECTURE No. 1. General concepts of the history of culture

1. What is culture

When in the Middle Ages a new way of cultivating grain appeared, more progressive and improved, called the Latin word culture, no one could yet guess how much the concept of this expression would change and expand. If the term agriculture and in our time means the cultivation of grain, then already in the 18th-19th centuries. the word itself culture will lose its usual meaning. A person with elegance of manners, education, and erudition began to be called cultured. The “cultured” aristocrats were thus separated from the “uncultured” common people. In Germany there was a similar word kultur, which meant a high level of development of civilization. From the point of view of the enlighteners of the 18th century. the word culture was explained as “reasonableness.” This rationality related primarily to social orders and political institutions; the main criteria for its evaluation were achievements in the field of art and science. Making people happy is the main goal of culture. It coincides with the desires of the human mind. This direction, which believes that the main goal of a person is to achieve happiness, bliss, joy, is called eudaimonism. His supporters were the French educator Charles Louis Montesquieu (1689-1755), Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), French philosopher Paul Henri Holbach (1723-1789), French writer and philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), French philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803).

Culture began to be perceived as a scientific category only in the second half of the 19th century. The concept of culture is becoming more and more inseparable from the concept of civilization. For some philosophers these boundaries did not exist at all, for example for the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the existence of such boundaries was undeniable; he pointed out them in his writings. An interesting fact is that already at the beginning of the 20th century. German historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler (1880-1936)On the contrary, he contrasted the concept of “culture” with the concept of “civilization.” He “revived” the concept of culture, comparing it with a certain set of closed “organisms”, endowing them with the ability to live and die. After death, culture turns into the opposite civilization, in which naked technicalism kills everything creative.

The modern concept of culture has expanded significantly, but there are similarities in its modern understanding and in its understanding in the 250th-300th centuries. remained. As before, for most people it is associated with various types of art (theater, music, painting, literature), and good upbringing. At the same time, the modern definition of culture has discarded the former aristocracy. Along with this, the meaning of the word culture is extremely broad; an accurate and established definition of culture does not yet exist. Modern scientific literature provides a huge number of definitions of culture. According to some sources, there are about XNUMX-XNUMX of them, according to others - over a thousand. At the same time, all these definitions, in turn, are correct, because in a broad sense the word culture is defined as something social, artificial, it is in contrast to everything natural, created by nature.

Many scientists and thinkers have been involved in the definition of culture. For example, the American ethnologist Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960), being one of the leading representatives of the school of cultural anthropology of the 20th century, studied the concept of culture, tried to group the main features of culture into one clear, clear core definition.

Let us present the main interpretations of the term “culture”.

1. Culture (from Latin culture - “education, cultivation”) - a generalization of artificial objects (material objects, relationships and actions) created by man, which have general and special patterns (structural, dynamic and functional).

2. Culture is a person’s way of life, which is determined by his social environment (various rules, norms and orders accepted in society).

3. Culture is the various values ​​of a group of people (material and social), including customs, behaviors, and institutions.

4. According to the concept of E. Taylor, culture is a set of various types of activities, all kinds of customs and beliefs of people, everything created by man (books, paintings, etc.), as well as knowledge about adaptation to the natural and social world (language, customs, ethics, etiquette, etc.).

5. From a historical point of view, culture is nothing more than the result of the historical development of mankind. That is, this includes everything that was created by man and passed on from generation to generation, including various views, activities and beliefs.

6. From the theory of learning it follows that culture is the behavior of people that they learn, and not that which they received as a biological inheritance.

7. According to the ideological theory, culture is a certain flow of ideas, these ideas pass from person to person through various actions, means of communication (words, repetition of other people's experiences).

8. According to psychological science, culture is a person’s adaptation to the surrounding world (natural and social) to solve various problems at his psychological level. The concept of culture consists precisely of all these devices.

9. According to the symbolic definition of culture, it is nothing more than a set of various phenomena (ideas, actions, material objects), organized through the use of all kinds of symbols.

All of these definitions are correct, but it is almost impossible to compose one of them. We can only make some generalization. Culture is the result of people's behavior, their activities, it is historical, that is, it is passed on from generation to generation along with ideas, beliefs, and values ​​of people through study. Each new generation does not assimilate culture biologically; it perceives it emotionally during its life (for example, with the help of symbols), makes its own transformations, and then passes it on to the next generation.

We can view human history as the purposeful activities of people. The same is true with the history of culture, which in no way can be separated from the history of mankind. This means that this activity approach can help us in studying the history of culture. It lies in the fact that the concept of culture includes not only material values, products of human activity, but also this activity itself. Therefore, it is advisable to consider culture as the totality of all types of transformative activities of people and those material and spiritual values ​​that are the products of this activity. Only by considering culture through the prism of human activity and peoples can one understand its essence.

When a person is born, he does not immediately become a part of society, he joins it with the help of training and upbringing, that is, mastering culture. This means that it is precisely this introduction of a person to society, to the surrounding world of people that is culture. By comprehending culture, a person himself can make his own contribution, enriching the cultural baggage of humanity. Interpersonal relationships play a huge role in mastering this baggage (they appear from birth), as well as self-education. We should not forget about another source that has become very relevant in our modern world - the media (television, Internet, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc.).

But it is wrong to think that the process of mastering culture affects only the socialization of a person. By comprehending cultural values, a person first of all leaves an imprint on his personality, makes changes to his individual qualities (character, mentality, psychological characteristics). Therefore, in culture there are always contradictions between socialization and individualization of the individual.

This contradiction is not the only one in the development of culture, but often such contradictions do not slow down this development, but, on the contrary, push it towards it.

Many humanities study culture. First of all, it is worth highlighting cultural studies.

Culturology is a humanities science that studies various phenomena and laws of culture. This science was formed in the 20th century.

There are several versions of this science.

1. Evolutionary, i.e. in the process of historical development. Its supporter was the English philosopher E. Taylor.

2. Non-evolutionarybased on education. This version was supported by an English writer Iris Murdoch (1919-1999).

3. Structuralist, this includes activities of any kind. Supporter - French philosopher, cultural and scientific historian Michel Paul Foucault (1926-1984).

4. Functional, for which the British anthropologist and cultural scientist spoke out Bronislaw Kasper Malinowski (1884-1942).

5. Gaming. Dutch historian and idealist philosopher Johan Huizinga (1872-1945) saw the basis of culture in the game, and the game as the highest essence of man.

6. Synergetic.

7. Dialogical, whose supporter was the Russian philosopher, literary critic, and art theorist Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895-1975).

There are no specific boundaries between cultural studies and related philosophy of culture. But still, these are different sciences, since the philosophy of culture, unlike cultural studies, is engaged in the search for super-experimental principles of culture. Philosophers of culture include the French writer and philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau, French writer and philosopher-enlightenment, deist Voltaire (1694-1778), representative of the “philosophy of life” movement, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900).

In addition to these humanities, there are a number of others that are based specifically on culture. These sciences include: ethnography (studies the material and spiritual culture of individual peoples), sociology (studies the patterns of development and functioning of society as an integral system), cultural anthropology (studies the functioning of society among different peoples, which is determined by their culture), culture morphology (studies cultural forms), psychology (the science of the mental life of people), history (studies the past of human society).

Let us dwell on the basic concepts of culture in more detail.

Artifact (from lat. arte/actum - "artificially made") culture - unit of culture. That is, an object that carries with it not only physical features, but also symbolic ones.

Such artifacts include clothing of a particular era, interior items, etc.

Civilization - the totality of all characteristics of society, often this concept acts as a synonym for the concept of “culture”. According to a public figure and thinker Friedrich Engels (1820-1895), civilization is the stage of human development following barbarism. The same theory was adhered to by the American historian and ethnographer Lewis Henry Morgan (1818-1881). He presented his theory of the development of human society in the form of a sequence: savagery, barbarism, civilization.

Etiquette - an established order of behavior in any circles of society. Divided into business, casual, guest, military, etc.

historical traditions - elements of cultural heritage that are passed on from generation to generation. Distinguish optimistic и pessimistic historical traditions. The German philosopher is considered an optimist Immanuel KantEnglish philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), German philosopher, esthetician and critic Johann Gottfried Herder. These and other optimistic philosophers viewed culture as a community of people, progress, love and order. In their opinion, the world is dominated by a positive principle, that is, good. Their goal is to achieve humanity.

The opposite of optimism is pessimism (from the Latin pessimus - “worst”). According to pessimistic philosophers, it is not good that prevails in the world, but the negative principle, that is, evil and chaos. The discoverer of this doctrine was the German irrationalist philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860). His philosophy became widespread in Europe at the end of the 19th century. In addition to A. Schopenhauer, supporters of the pessimistic theory were Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist, the founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), as well as Friedrich Nietzsche, who advocated cultural anarchy. These philosophers were interesting because they denied all cultural boundaries and were against all kinds of prohibitions imposed on human cultural activity.

Culture is an integral part of human life. It organizes human life as genetically programmed behavior.

2. The subject and object of the study of culture

The study of the cultural history of mankind throughout its existence is based on such sciences as cultural studies, philosophy of culture, etc. What is the subject of study of all these sciences?

The subject of study is the identification of patterns of cultural processes (both generally global and national), as well as various phenomena of spiritual and material culture, cultural monuments, factors and initial paths that became prerequisites for the emergence, development and further development of cultural interests, outlook, needs and requirements of people. In addition, it is also important that these achievements, phenomena, monuments, etc. cultural material and spiritual values ​​should not only be consumed by people, but also multiplied by them, preserved and passed on from generation to generation. At the stage of this historical transfer of experience, a new contradiction of culture arises - the relationship between traditions and updates that each subsequent generation brings. More Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948), a Russian religious philosopher, considered culture to be a complex antinomic (contradictory) system.

All aspects of people's social life belong to the concept of a cultural object. Also, the object is a study of all the features and achievements of basic cultural and historical types, all kinds of processes and trends in the modern socio-cultural environment.

If the main sciences that study culture are cultural studies and philosophy of culture, then there are sciences whose contribution to its study is also very significant. Such sciences include psychology, anthropology, sociology, history and, of course, philosophy. But the identification of specific subjects and objects related to certain sciences allows them to be distinguished. For example, for cultural studies, in contrast to sociology, the most important role is played by the content side of people’s joint life activities. Unlike history and social philosophy, which are more interested in the event-activity content of the life of society, cultural studies is more interested in specific forms of the history of this life, ways to preserve them, organize and regulate them. Although the emergence of cultural studies dates back to the beginning of the 90th century, in Russia it happened even later, only in the XNUMXs. XX century At the same time, in the West there are no clear boundaries for the ownership of this science. Its responsibilities were assumed and shared by such sciences as sociology, cultural anthropology, philosophy of culture, ethnography, ethnology, etc.

Scientists distinguish three stages in the formation of cultural studies.

1. Ethnographic (1800-1860).

2. Evolutionist (1860-1895).

3. Historical (1895-1925).

It is during these periods that the basic concepts of cultural studies are formed, which are also inherent in its modern version. Although from the second half of the 20th century. cultural studies becomes characterized by a certain pragmatism. Valuable knowledge is becoming more and more in demand due to the emergence and expansion of the media, the application of this knowledge in diplomacy, politics, military affairs, etc.

3. Structure of culture

Many scientists and philosophers, for example N.A. Berdyaev, viewed culture as a complex system. According to the German philosopher-historian O. Spengler, this complex system consists of “closed organisms.” That is why it is quite logical to introduce the concept "culture structure". Let's consider the main features of this structure. To do this, we need to decide what kind of culture interests us: a culture at rest, repeating and unchanging, or one in constant process, in motion, changing all the time. The first type of culture was named cultural staticssecond - cultural dynamics.

What underlies the concept of culture? These are, first of all, values. They are tangible and intangible. In accordance with this, culture is divided into material and intangible. Most often, intangible culture is called spiritual. You should not always try to consider these seemingly different concepts separately, since in ordinary life they often intersect, and sometimes one cannot exist without the other. What are the features of these types of crops?

Under material culture is understood as the totality of all material goods, as well as the means and forms of their production and consumption. An important feature of material culture is the non-identity of the material life of society, as well as all material activity and production. Since material culture is understood as human activity as an influencing factor on the development of mankind. This development is of great importance for material culture, and with it the creative abilities and capabilities of a person that he received with this development.

Material culture has a complex structure, which includes the following components.

1. Material production.

2. Work culture.

3. Culture of topos (cities, villages, villages, houses).

4. Culture of one's own body, attitudes towards it.

5. Physical culture.

spiritual culture refers to cultural statics. These are various intangible objects (laws, norms, rules, religions, languages, spiritual values, traditions, mythology) that need a material intermediary. This means that spiritual culture is the totality of those areas of activity, knowledge, thinking, etc., which relate to the formation of spiritual values.

As mentioned above, there are no clear boundaries between material and spiritual cultures. There is such a thing as a “vertical section” of culture. It includes such types of culture that relate equally to both the material and spiritual sides of the concept of culture. These types of culture include economics, politics, aesthetics, ecology, etc.

An important feature of cultural statics is that all its elements are divided according to temporal and spatial characteristics. Culture is historical; part of the material and spiritual values ​​created by one generation is passed on to subsequent generations if these values ​​have stood the test of time. This is the essence of such a phenomenon as cultural heritage. Cultural heritage plays a huge role in the formation of a unified society, since it is the decisive factor in assessing the cohesion of a nation.

What, if not cultural heritage, can unite and strengthen society in difficult times.

Cultural heritage is not the only concept related to cultural statics. An important concept is cultural area. It immediately becomes clear that we are talking about a geographical area. This concept includes those cultural features that are similar among different peoples, countries, and regions. After all, culture is influenced by a huge number of factors; it directly depends on the geographical location of a particular social group. Moreover, an important feature is that in different areas remote from each other, something can be found in common, especially in the modern world, where the media have become widespread, thanks to which knowledge is becoming increasingly accessible. That is why, along with the concept of a cultural area, it is appropriate to introduce another one that would express cultural heritage on a global scale. Such a concept is cultural universals. What is it? The word "universals" comes from the Latin universalis, which means "common." That is, when we talk about cultural universals, we are talking about those values, traditions, norms, laws and rules that are inherent not in any particular region, but in all cultures, regardless of their geographical location, historical period and other properties of society.

Cultural scientists have been studying such universals for many years. For example, American anthropologists distinguish about seventy such universals. These include concepts familiar to us. For example, cooking, the presence of a calendar, age gradation, numbers, personal names, family, dancing, religious rituals, etc.

Anthropologists usually distinguish four basic elements of culture.

1. Concepts, i.e. concepts that regulate and organize people's experience. Basically, concepts are contained in the language spoken by a particular people.

2. Valuables - those beliefs that a person should strive for. They are based on morality, generally accepted norms, etc.

3. Rules - norms that help regulate human behavior. Here we can see the relationship between values ​​and rules, since they establish certain rules, laws and norms.

4. Relations - means of communication between certain cultural concepts, even those that are scattered in space and time.

An important role in all these elements of culture is played by language. Being a communication system, it has its own complex structure. With the help of language, people are socialized; thanks to it, people gain experience, accumulate it, and pass it on from generation to generation. Language can both unite a society and lead to its disunity, when people speak different languages ​​but live in the same territory.

4. Forms of culture, its classification

Since culture is a complex system, it is customary to consider it from different angles according to certain characteristics.

The main classifications of culture are maintained:

1) by geographical features (East, West, etc.);

2) according to temporal characteristics (a chronology of cultures is maintained);

3) according to formation characteristics (Stone Age, Iron Age, etc.);

4) by technological characteristics (characteristics of new information technologies);

5) according to the carrier of culture.

Let us dwell in more detail on the last classification - according to the bearer of culture. Depending on this, culture is divided into world и national.

World culture includes all the best that has been achieved by the national cultures of various peoples around the world.

National culture is a set of cultures not of peoples, but of various classes, groups and strata of society. National culture includes spiritual values ​​(language, religion, literature, etc.) and material ones (housekeeping, tools, economic structure).

That culture with its values, customs, beliefs, way of life and traditions, which is inherent in the majority of members of society, is dominant culture. But various factors (the disintegration of society into separate social groups) led to the emergence of so-called subcultures, i.e. cultures that are inherent in small cultural worlds. Such subcultures may include youth, pensioners, national minorities and other groups. Often the differences between the dominant culture and the subculture are small. But it happens that the differences are huge, groups appear that begin to resist the dominant culture. This phenomenon is called counterculture. Sometimes this contradiction develops from passive into extremist. Often such groups are characterized by anarchism and radicalism. It is worth remembering the sixties and seventies of the 20th century. In Europe and the USA, such a significant movement as hippies appeared. “Flower children,” as its participants called themselves, rejected the moral norms of society and lived according to their own principles and beliefs (“free love”). They did not agree with the conformism inherent in the society of that time, with its restraint and rationalism. The basis of the new movement was youth. The "flower children" were replaced by a new movement, already more radical and fierce - punk. Translated from English, the word punk means “rot, garbage.” Punks were characterized by anarchic ideals, music and paraphernalia, which distinguished them from the “consumer” society with its thirst for profit and outdated moral values.

Multi-level culture, depending on who creates this culture, has several forms: elite, folk, mass.

From the very names of these forms one can already draw conclusions about which cultural creators we are talking about here. But let us dwell in more detail on each of the forms of culture.

Elite culture often call high culture. It is created by order of the elite of society, its privileged part, by professionals in their field. This includes classical music, classical literature, and various types of fine art. The slogan is the saying “Art for art’s sake.” Elite culture is most often inaccessible to poorly educated people and is somewhat isolated from them.

An example of such a culture is the Russian art association "World of Art". It was created in St. Petersburg in 1898 by a Russian artist, critic and art historian Alexander Nikolaevich Benois (1870-1960) and Russian theatrical and artistic figure Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (1872-1929) and existed until 1924. The figures of this society advocated “pure” art and sought to “transform” life with this art.

The opposite of elitist (high) culture is the culture folk, other name - amateur culture. Its creators do not have any professional training in their field, and their names often remain unknown. The most commonly used definition for folk (amateur) culture is folklore. This includes various myths, fairy tales, traditions, dances and songs. Folk culture is divided into individual (narratives, fairy tales, legends), group (dances, songs) massive (carnivals).

Folklore, unlike elite culture, remains tied to a specific place, to its traditions and norms.

Another kind of culture Mass culture. Second name - public culture. She is not distinguished by any sophistication and aristocratic tastes. Mass culture appears in the middle of the 20th century. This is due to the proliferation of mass media in most countries. Mass art is art for everyone, and therefore must satisfy the tastes of the majority. That's why it directly depends on the market.

Popular culture is also subdivided, it includes international и national mass cultures.

Unlike elite culture, mass culture is intended for a larger audience, and in contrast to folk culture, which is characterized by anonymity, mass culture is authorial.

An important characteristic of mass culture is the concept of fashion. Mass culture must satisfy the immediate desires of people, change quickly, and be relevant. All this leads to a number of disadvantages: primitivism, cultural mediocrity, the emergence of primitive cults, heroes, the thirst for possession of things, etc. But there is also an advantage: mass culture is primarily based on archetypes. Mass culture is based on this unconscious interest of people in certain things (sex, violence, money), which is why it is so understandable to everyone. All this leads to the relegation of society to the stage of silent consumption. It is not without reason that many philosophers and writers began to address this problem. The first to start was the German philosopher and historian O. Spengler. His main work, “The Decline of Europe,” written in 1918-1922, is dedicated to the death of culture, its transformation into civilization without any creativity. The problem of having and being, “freedom for” and “freedom from” was touched upon in his book “To Have or to Be” by the German-American philosopher, psychologist and sociologist Erich Fromm (1900-1980). For these philosophers, mass culture is just spiritual unfreedom.

5. The meaning and functions of culture

The importance of culture in our world is enormous. It plays the first role in the development of society. Let us consider the main functions of culture and its phenomenon.

1. Human-creative function. She is in charge. Its other name is humanistic. All the functions discussed below are, in one way or another, consequences of the humanistic function.

2. Transfer of accumulated social experience. Here we are talking mainly about the historicism of culture. Because culture is significant in that it is continuous, that is, it is passed on from generation to generation. These transfers of experience are carried out in various ways: with the help of oral traditions, through monuments of art, literature, religion, philosophy, science, etc. Moreover, not all the accumulated experience of a generation is transmitted, but only its best examples. Humanity needs to do everything possible to ensure that this continuity never ends, as this can lead to dire consequences. There is such a thing as anomie. It precisely denotes a break in this very continuity. As a consequence of anomie, humanity is losing its social memory and historical consciousness. This effect is called phenomenon of mankurtism.

3. Epistemological function. It is associated with the ability to know, and this knowledge leads to the accumulation of rich experience and knowledge about the world around us.

4. Normative function. It lies in the fact that culture regulates various aspects of people’s social and personal life. This regulation is carried out through systems such as morality and law.

5. Semiotic (sign) function. To It includes various sign systems of culture. For example, languages, sign systems in the natural sciences (biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, trigonometry).

6. Value (axiological) function. Since culture is a system of material and spiritual values, by which one can already judge the degree of culture of a person, and, consequently, his morality and intelligence.

6. Methods and problems of studying culture

culture - a complex and multi-level system, therefore its study is not uniform.

There are several approaches to the analysis of culture:

1) technological (assesses the level of development of production);

2) activity (philosophy, painting);

3) valuable;

4) genetic;

5) structural;

6) symbolic.

In the 18th century There have been two main approaches to answering the question: what is culture?

One of the directions is pessimistic (irrational). Its founder was the French writer and philosopher-educator J.-J. Rousseau. In his understanding, man is a perfect being, and he saw the most favorable form of life for him in the natural environment, in the lap of nature. And since culture, according to Rousseau, draws the line between man and nature, he considered it the main evil. Advocating for the equality of all people, he accused culture, along with all religions, art and sciences, of preventing this equality.

A supporter of J. J. Rousseau was the German philosopher F. Nietzsche. He was a supporter of anticulture as the true nature of man. Culture, in his opinion, is an evil that cannot give freedom, but only enslaves a person. The Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist, the founder of psychoanalysis, agreed with this enslavement by culture. Z. Freud. He saw the source of various mental suffering and deviations of people in the fact that they need to adapt to the world around them with its cultural norms.

In his writings, the German-American philosopher, psychologist and sociologist Erich Fromm just started from Freudian psychoanalysis, adding to it the theory of alienation K. Marx (1818-1883).

The 20th century was marked by three theories of cultural development: O. Spengler, A. Schweitzer, M. Weber.

According to the theory of the German philosopher O. Spengler, rationalistic civilization led to the degradation of the spiritual values ​​of culture. According to Spengler, culture is an organism whose lifespan is approximately a thousand years. According to this, O. Spengler divided the entire world history into eight cultures: Egyptian, Indian, Babylonian, Chinese, Greco-Roman, Byzantine-Arab, Western European, Mayan culture.

Theory of a German scientist Max Weber (1864-1920) denied the collapse of Western European culture. According to the philosopher, some values ​​are inevitably replaced by others, which is what happened in Western Europe.

German-French thinker Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) with his work “The Decay and Revival of Culture” he supported O. Spengler. A. Schweitzer also noted the decline of Western European culture, which led to its crisis. But at the same time, A. Schweitzer, unlike O. Spengler, did not believe that this was an irreversible process. He believed that the situation could be improved.

An interesting concept of researching the culture of a sociologist Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin (1889-1968). He identified three main types of crops:

1) perfect;

2) sensual;

3) idealistic.

Ideal the type is based on the supersensible absolute, therefore it mainly refers to spiritual cultural values. Second type - sensual - puts the material at the head of everything. His needs are purely physical.

Idealistic the type is a synthesis of the ideal and sensual types of culture.

It is worth noting that the process of development of society has similar types. The first type, ideal, belongs rather to the ancient world. It operates until the 13th century. It is being replaced by an idealistic culture. It persists until the 14th century, then comes sensual culture, in the 20th century. it is falling into disrepair.

The Russian natural scientist had a great influence on the understanding of culture Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (1863-1945). He introduced a new concept "noosphere", meaning "sphere of the mind", and also studied its influence on various processes that occur on our planet.

Another bright representative of the study of the phenomenon of culture - Karl Jaspers (1883-1969), German philosopher, representative of religious existentialism. At that time, the theory of cultural cycles dominated in Europe, but he was not its supporter and introduced a new concept - axial time. This axis is the time of about 500 BC. e. He associates the largest revolution in history with the presence of this axis.

There are a number of sciences that allow you to study the history of culture. These sciences include:

1) chronology - the science of measuring time, which allows you to set the dates of historical events;

2) metrology - a historical discipline that studies the development of systems of measures, monetary accounts, etc.;

3) heraldry - the discipline that studies coats of arms;

4) paleography - a historical discipline that studies the monuments of ancient writing;

5) genealogy - a historical discipline that studies the origin and history of family ties, compiles genealogies, etc.

Author: Dorohova M.A.

>> Forward: Culture from ancient to modern times (Change of cultures. Culture of primitive peoples. Culture of the Ancient World. Culture of the Middle Ages)

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Random news from the Archive Trap of eternal desires 10.08.2022 Research shows that people are constantly trying to get more and more things, such as a new smartphone, or clothes and shoes, although this does not always bring them happiness. American scientists have found out what explains such a desire for a large number of new material goods. "People constantly strive to be happy and often this happiness lies in material things. A person constantly needs more and more. But many people cannot achieve happiness in their imagination and this causes depression. Therefore, people fall into the trap of "eternal desires" when for to find happiness, they need more and more things. But as studies show, this does not always lead to the desired result and people become, on the contrary, unhappy. Our study explains why we continue this eternal struggle, although it negatively affects us, "says Rahit Dubey from Princeton University, USA. Scientists believe that our brain is programmed to have more and more material goods. This is due to the fact that a person is constantly worried about the difference between what he has and what he wants to have. Also, a person in search of happiness often focuses on his past experience. For example, you traveled last year and had a good time, and you expect a similar experience to repeat. Also, scientists have come to the conclusion that we are constantly striving for more because of getting used to a good life, and we are also influenced by different social standards. Scientists have created computer models that mimic the way the human brain works, which can match different situations with different actions. Research has shown that even getting what you want doesn't really make you happy. We constantly compare ourselves with other people and strive to meet certain standards, as well as trying to repeat past positive experiences. On the other hand, as scientists say, if a person is not satisfied with what he has, he tries to improve his situation. But it's almost an eternal struggle. "Our research also shows that in the pursuit of happiness, we often devalue what we already have, and this leads to depression and overconsumption, that is, the acquisition of more and more material things," Dubey says. But scientists say they need to be careful about the results of their work, because a computer model may not fully correspond to human behavior.

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