The article will discuss the main components of the cultural environment of man.
When Robinson Crusoe, when he got to a desert island, initially no cultural sphere could be formed, despite the fact that Robinson himself belonged to 17th-century English culture. There was no one on the island with whom he could enter into communication and interaction, which would be the beginning of the process of creating a new environment.
Thus, cultural space is a public phenomenon, for its emergence a society and a social situation are required, which is formed only as a result of steady contacts of several people. Only with the advent of Friday on the island began the formation of the cultural space of the island. An environment is a process of interaction between two or more people.
The concept of cultural space
The cultural environment is a social phenomenon, its formation requires a social situation, which is formed only as a result of contacts between people. But it is not the result of total interaction and communication. In everyday life, communication and interaction can be playful, situational, normative, deviant.
The cultural environment is a culture, but considered in its spatial embodiment; it is a set of preferences of the population, concentrated within the boundaries of a certain space. These cultural preferences are manifested in the social behavior of people.
Cultural Space Development
The development of the cultural environment was a long process, and there is no exact date for its emergence and establishment. But, despite this, the chronological boundaries are quite obvious. If we assume that a person arose about 40 thousand years ago (according to new data - 80 thousand years ago), then the first elements of cultural interaction arose about 150 thousand years ago. And since by culture we understand, first of all, spiritual manifestations, it is this date that is more acceptable. That is, in other words, a culture is much older than a person. During this period of time the process of formation and evolution of the cultural environment of man was going on.
Cultural history
Five large periods of the formation of the cultural environment are conventionally distinguished:
- First. It began 150 thousand years ago and ended in 4 millennium BC. This is the culture of primitive man or the period of infancy of mankind. A person learns to speak, but still does not know how to write. He builds the first dwellings - a cave. Man creates the first works of art: sculpture, painting, drawings, the main feature of which is naivety. At this time, the first religious cults took shape. For example, the cult of the dead, rituals associated with hunting and burial. A man saw a miracle in everything, everything that surrounded him seemed to him magical and mysterious. Even surrounding objects were perceived by him as living, which is why close ties were established with them in humans.
- The second period is from the 4th millennium BC to the 5th century AD. This is the most fruitful stage in the evolution of human culture. It develops on the basis of civilization, has not only a magical, but also a mythological character, since mythology begins to play a fundamental role in it, in which, together with fantasy, there is a rational kernel. The main cultural centers are Ancient Egypt, China and India, Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome and Greece, the peoples of America. All these centers were distinguished by their originality and made a significant contribution to the development of human culture. This is the period of the emergence and development of mathematics, philosophy, medicine, astronomy. Reaching classical forms of sculpture, architecture, bas-relief.
- The third period (V-XIV centuries). This is the culture of the Middle Ages, the dawn of religions - Buddhism, Christianity, Islam. This is the period of the first crisis of human consciousness. At this time, along with existing civilizations, new ones appear: Western Europe, Byzantium, Kievan Rus. The leading cultural centers of this period are China and Byzantium. The intellectual and spiritual domination of man is religion.
- The fourth period covers the XV-XVI century and is called the Renaissance. This period is characteristic mainly for European countries. This is a transitional time from the Middle Ages to the New Age. It is characterized by profound changes. Humanism becomes the main idea, faith in God gives way to faith in reason and in man. The highest value in society is the life of a person and himself. All genres of art are experiencing unprecedented prosperity. This is the era of great geographical discoveries, discoveries in astronomy, anatomy.
- The fifth period begins in the middle of the 17th century. This is the period of the birth of natural science, the main values of a person are science, intelligence, reason. This is the era of capitalism and the expansion of Western European culture to other continents and to the East.
The cultural environment has been the subject of philosophical analysis since the era of antiquity. But the question became especially acute in the 19th century, when human culture became connected with the socio-political, legal, economic and moral problems of the peoples of Western Europe, which claimed leadership in the whole world. At this time, two points of view on culture were formed:
- One considers it as a means of ennoblement of a person, turning him into a creative, harmonious person, a carrier of civilizational grain.
- The second point of view considers culture a means of turning a person into a submissive obedient instrument.
Structure
The cultural environment consists of four components:
- A symbolic activity that performs the function of teaching people the norms of behavior accepted in society.
- Normative and social behavior is a form of interaction.
- Language, with its help social interaction is carried out.
- Morals, with their help regulation of social interactions is carried out.
Symbolic activity
The most important component of the cultural environment is symbolic activity and its products, which are not produced by nature, but only by people.
All symbolic production of mankind is divided into types:
- Verbal: folklore and religious texts, philosophical and scientific works, literary and journalistic works.
- Non-verbal works: sculptural, visual, musical, architectural, choreographic, cinematic and others.
- Religious art and rituals.
- Military rituals.
- Social etiquette.
- Political symbols: flags, coat of arms, uniforms.
- Fashion, hairstyle, makeup.
- Orders and medals.
- Signs of affiliation with organizations or political parties.
- Jewelry.
Symbolic activity and its products are necessary for society, first of all, for teaching the rules of behavior (forms a cultural and educational environment).
In the animal world, learning the rules of behavior is carried out by automatically repeating the behavior of adults by the young. In human children, the same thing happens in infancy. But social behavior changes with age, depending on the situation and reaction to it. That is why a person learns social behavior all his life, adjusting emotional reactions.
In addition, symbolic activity and its products play a significant role in the formation of the human psyche, in its intellectual and moral development.
Social behavior
Another factor in the cultural environment, without which its formation is impossible, is the social behavior of people. It can be playful, situational, normative. It is the normative everyday behavior that is cultural: customs (supported by historical tradition), ceremonial type of behavior (approved by the authorities), rational normative behavior (determined by the human mind).
Normative behavior does not regulate production, but everyday interactions between people.
Behavior plays an important role in the development of culture and cultural environment. Thanks to him, people carry out social interaction, gain common interests, establish hierarchical orders. But the main thing is that social behavior gives the interaction of people a ritual type of communication. That is, culture is a ritual of social interactions.
The significance of the ritual in society is obvious. There are many examples of the events when millions of people were subjected to cruel punishment for the incorrect performance of religious rites, for the free interpretation of the prevailing ideology or other violations of the social norm of behavior.
Tongue
Language and its vocabulary are an example of a cultural order. With the help of the language, a stable order of collocation and usage is determined. Language is a form of culture that embodies its inherent features: social prevalence, repeatability, sustainability.
The corpus of culture is the vocabulary. It reflects what is in the cultural space. Language is the main means of communication, it contributes to the understanding of information. The cultural environment is formed only in a situation of intense, constant and free communication of a group of people.
Manners
The range of means by which the cultural adjustment of social communication is carried out is very large.
The following are the means that are specially adopted and with the help of which cultural and social regulation of people's behavior is carried out under the threat of violence:
- Ideology.
- The laws.
- Formal rites, ceremonies, etiquette, rituals.
- Ethical, moral and moral values.
All these means of cultural regulation can be called the term "mores." They occupy a niche in which control by the power structures is practically not working. Today, morals regulate group relationships. With their help, people’s behavior is controlled without threat and punishment, but because of the danger of restricting communication. It is the psychological dependence of a person on intensive communication that is so high that this threat is quite effective.
Specific space
So, the cultural environment is a specific space of social ritualized behavior of people that functions and is formed in the course of collective life activity:
- Education - mastering the methods and rules of ritual behavior in society based on examples of images of heroes of literary, religious, folklore, and artistic works.
- Practical application - that is, the implementation of rituals in the form of everyday behavior.
- Information exchange - a generalization of the results of social behavior, the exchange of information that is carried out using language.
- Cultural regulation - controlling behavior through morals.
Problems of collective coexistence
The system of implementation and ensuring social behavior provides a solution to the following tasks (problems):
- Facilitates the interaction of people in society.
- Simplifies communication.
- Maintains the order of values in society.
- Demonstrates the loyalty of people to the social orders that dominate society.
Instead of a conclusion
The cultural environment is a dynamic formation that changes with the consciousness of society. It is a sphere of social consciousness of people. Cultural space is not just a territory of cultural interactions, but a special environment of social rituals and social behavior. Preservation of the cultural environment is a very important aspect of the development of society. This is a saving not only of traditions, rituals and customs, but, above all, the self-awareness of human society.