The concept of values in culture. What are cultural values

Today it has become fashionable to talk about culture. Some argue that society is losing it year by year, some, on the contrary, argue that culture is degenerating and becoming more multifaceted. Is this true? Let's figure out what it is - cultural values, and let's try to answer the question of what happens to them.

What is culture

In Latin, the word "cultura" originally meant "cultivation." How did it happen that over time the term changed its meaning? In fact, the meaning of the word “culture” remains the same. Upbringing, development and education are the cultivation of the human soul.

It was culture that helped man move from a primitive communal tribe, first to an agrarian revolution, and subsequently to a cultural revolution. Today the concept includes various areas of human activity, being a set of skills, abilities and products of self-expression. Cultural values are an integral part of the life of society. Let's take a closer look at them.

Cultural values - what are they?

Oddly enough, this concept can be interpreted in different ways. First option: cultural values are the moral principles of a person. It is according to established patterns of behavior that a person lives and thinks. But when these boundaries of moral norms are violated, a person is automatically recognized as uncultured. Moreover, this does not interfere with his life in any way, but sometimes it can shock those around him.

The second interpretation is the most popular. Cultural assets are buildings, paintings, objects, technologies and objects. Everything that can be seen or understood. All this knowledge and the material product of human activity helped our society make a rapid leap in its development.

The third option for the meaning of cultural values is a product of human activity that is hidden from our view in people’s heads. This includes knowledge, science, skills and scientific values.

Well, the latest interpretation of the cultural values of society is languages, traditions, crafts, folklore. All that is why we consider ourselves a civilized society with a rich history.

Do different countries have the same or different cultural values?

If you look at the interpretation of the term itself, everything becomes clear. Each country has its own history, set of laws and, as a result, a unique culture. Accordingly, values will be different everywhere. Why did this happen? Countries developed under different conditions, and their religions were also different.

But it is human beliefs that make up a huge layer of culture. Our country has been pagan for a long time, and this could not but affect modern society. Russians have been considered barbarians for many centuries, and now foreigners who have never been to our country and only know about it from news reports have the same opinion.

But this does not mean that our ancestors did not have culture. The pagan faith demanded not only strict submission to the gods, but also the creation of temples, totems and monuments. And when polytheism was replaced by monotheism, people did not abandon their heritage. They simply remade the Byzantine faith, adapting it to our country. Thus, it turned out that in the process of various evolutions and revolutions, people and their consciousness changed.

What are cultural norms?

Usually this concept refers to standards of behavior. Moreover, like the cultural values of peoples, the norms are different in all countries. They are expressed in the form of rewards and punishments and are regulated by the state. In our country, cultural norms are not just lip service. They are written in the Constitution, which limits human rights within reasonable limits. But at the same time, it gives him maximum freedom of action within reason. In case of non-compliance with cultural norms, a person will face regulated punishment.

Human cultural values

There are many peoples and nationalities on earth. Each individual person has a set of cultural values and norms. What are they like? It is clear that each country has its own concept of culture, but most of the values are still similar:

The desire to know our history and understand the essence of what is happening to us and our homeland. This value called “love for the Fatherland” is embedded in every person. After all, only a person who knows his history can create future countries.
Knowledge of the characteristics of national creativity. Folklore, crafts, traditions and customs are rarely studied in school. This knowledge is given to a person in the family. And only thanks to them can a person better know who he is and what he does in this world.
Religion is one of the basic cultural values of a person. It is she who sets the unwritten rules, not regulated by the constitution, by which all people should live.

Cultural values of the state

Citizens of one country represent a single group united by general history and general future. The values of the entire society as a whole include the cultural norms of each individual person. What's the difference then? In global thinking. The rulers of countries can change cultural values if they want. But people have a very bad attitude towards such changes, so they happen infrequently.

The main task of any state is to preserve and enhance cultural values. That is, it should help talented people to realize themselves, for scientists to make discoveries, and for architects to build buildings. Today, intangible cultural values fade into the background, and the product of human activity that brings some benefit to society and the state comes to the fore.

How cultural values are protected

Today, many states are concerned about the increasing growth of vandalism. That is why many of them united and set themselves the goal of protecting cultural values. Thus, it was decided to protect buildings, paintings, and sculptures. Yes it is most heritage of any country. It is from these monuments that have survived to our time that we can judge how our ancestors lived.

But culture is not only material assets. This term refers to both our mentality and language. And few people monitor the purity of their speech. Today there is so much slang in the Russian language that it is difficult to talk about the culture of the language. This also applies to religion. If churches, mosques and other religious buildings are protected and, as a result, preserved, then the faith itself changes from year to year.

Prospect for the development of cultural values

As mentioned above, the world does not stand still. Culture and cultural values change and transform. But you shouldn't regret it. This is a natural stage of development. You need to believe that everything that happens is always for the better. Of course, this does not mean that you need your own with my own hands kill cultural monuments of past centuries.

Although sometimes you can be very surprised to see how quickly street art began to be considered art. It’s not bad when artists paint gray, boring houses, but when they start creating on churches or monuments, it makes you shiver. To prevent this from happening, every person must understand the line of what is permitted and not cross it.

The cultural assets of the 21st century generation are largely located online. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine how the collection, systematization and preservation of this type of creativity will occur in the future. Perhaps, separate servers will be created where paintings by artists, songs and films will be stored; they will be the rebirth of modern museums.

The most common feature of cultural values is their historical, scientific, artistic or other cultural significance for society. Cultural values should be understood as irreplaceable tangible and intangible objects and works of culture created by man as a result of creative process, having artistic and property value, universal significance and having an aesthetic, scientific, historical impact on humans.

Thus, the Great Legal Encyclopedia (2005 edition) gives a more detailed definition of cultural value, these are “... moral and aesthetic ideals, norms and patterns of behavior, languages, dialects and dialects, national traditions and customs, historical toponyms, folklore, arts and crafts, works of culture and art, results and methods of scientific research cultural activities buildings, structures, objects and technologies of historical and cultural significance, historically and culturally unique territories and objects.”

An object of cultural value should not only provide a person with information of a historical, artistic or scientific nature, but primarily influence the senses. Such an object can cause, for example, visual and auditory pleasure. These impressions influence the human mind, thus transmitting, sometimes from the distant past, the thoughts of the creator of cultural value.

There are several fundamental characteristics by which an object or item can be classified as “cultural property”:

1) universality, i.e. the subject is of global interest (has value for all peoples);

2) irreplaceability: it is impossible to create an absolutely identical sample;

3) uniqueness, considered as an aesthetic message carried by the object;

4) time criterion: cultural values include those objects of the material world that were created, for the most part, more than 100 (50) years ago;

5) value in equivalent terms: cultural values are subject to property valuation and can be classified as objects of the material world (things).

Classification by K.Ts. Quite a difficult task, since they are too diverse, their number is innumerable, they are unique. The classification, constructed using completely heterogeneous criteria, does not stand up to criticism; almost each of the types listed in it includes objects that can simultaneously be classified as other types of monuments. However, for the protection of historical and cultural monuments, their scientific classification, which allows choosing the most optimal means of their protection, is important.

Article 1 of the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict provides a classification of cultural property, dividing it into 3 categories:

1) Directly cultural values, namely: monuments of architecture, art or history, religious or secular, archaeological sites, architectural ensembles, which as such are of historical or artistic interest, works of art, manuscripts, books, other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological significance, as well as scientific collections or important collections of books, archival materials or reproductions of property mentioned above.

2) Buildings whose main purpose is the storage and display of movable cultural property classified in the first category. These include museums, large libraries, and archive storage facilities.

3) Centers for the concentration of cultural values. The Convention includes centers in which a significant amount of cultural property is collected in this category. An example of such a center is the Kazan Kremlin, itself an architectural and historical monument, on the territory of which other significant cultural values are concentrated.

The basis for the classification of K.Ts. The time factor may also serve, i.e. time of creation of the item: artifacts, modern ones, as well as the value of K.Ts. Taking as a basis such a distinction and consumer (mercantile) interest in the history of human development, we see the function of cultural values as a means of familiarization with culture.

Cultural values are the main elements of civilization and culture of peoples and familiarization with them contributes to mutual understanding and mutual respect between peoples; each state must protect the property consisting of cultural values located on its territory from the dangers associated with their illegal export, import and transfer ownership rights to them.

1.3.1. Types of values

Among the values that shape culture, there are two main groups - material and spiritual. The first consists of a set of outstanding works of intellectual, artistic, religious creativity: works of painting, literature, architectural monuments, handicrafts, etc. The second includes the social experience of society, “the principles of life that have most justified themselves and shown the greatest social efficiency: morals, customs, stereotypes of behavior and consciousness, patterns, assessments, images, opinions, interpretations, etc., that is, fundamental norms of behavior and judgment that lead to increased social integration of the community, to increased mutual understanding between people...” [Flier 2000: 252]. In other words, this is the social experience of society, acquired as a result of adaptation to the social environment, a system of ideas about how relationships between people should be built and what a person should be.

Many values accumulated by humanity throughout history are universal. However, the significance of certain values, their hierarchy on the value scale in different cultures ah different. This is what determines the originality of each culture, its originality and uniqueness. The commonality of cultural values and traditions, along with language, is one of the most important characteristics of an ethnic group [Karaulov 2002: 47]. The basis of any culture is its inherent system of values, which act as the main guidelines for life and, ultimately, determine the culture of a given society. For eastern tradition For example, such values as the unity of society and individuals, family, respect for parents and elders, personal self-improvement, interdependence, harmony in interpersonal relationships, modesty. For Western tradition– opposition between the individual and society, the priority of individual values over public ones, independence, personal freedom, equality, etc.

When learning about another culture, people, as a rule, react painfully to differences in the value system and proceed from their ideas about the significance of certain values, which sometimes leads to rather harsh judgments and assessments. To illustrate, here is an example of what Russian guys who have lived in London for several months write about the English:

The notorious British traditionalism, in fact, is a kind of computer program, from which the Briton will not deviate one iota throughout his life. There are a lot of rules and traditions, and the British mentality consists entirely of them. the British are not people, but some kind of cyborgs [Sakin, Spiker 2002: 178].

Their negative impression of the English is strengthened after reading the results of a survey conducted in English universities, where informants were asked what is most important to them in life and what they live for:

The results were stunning. Money-making (59% of respondents) was ahead by a huge margin from all other points; career was in second place (about 40%)... Traditional and natural, as it would seem to a Russian person, values - family, friendship, love, children - or occupied the last place of this “hit parade”, or were completely absent [Sakin, Spiker 2002: 181].

To overcome ethnocentrism in the perception of representatives of another culture and gain a better understanding, it is important to know the features of their value system. American anthropologists F. Kluckhohn and F. Strodtbeck identified five main parameters according to which the views of representatives of different cultures on the world around us differ and which determine their value orientation. In their opinion, this is: a) man’s attitude towards nature (man-nature orientation); b) his attitude to activity (activity orientation); c) attitude to time (temporal orientation); d) the nature of relationships between people (relational orientation); e) human nature orientation. On the basis of these relationships, a people’s system of values is formed, their views, concepts, and culture are formed. Let us briefly look at some of these relationships in the cultures we are considering and try to find evidence of their manifestation in communication.

See also

Out of doors
When I reached this final chapter, I realized that there was still a lot I didn’t have time to talk about. Especially about what constitutes the life of an American family outside its home, or, as they say here, out of doors. ...

Auditor's report
The report is dated on the date corresponding to the date of completion of the audit, and not earlier than the date of signature or approval financial statements. The auditor's report is usually signed by...

Culture
Modern Uruguayan culture is diverse in nature, as the country's population is very multicultural. The country has an impressive heritage of artistic and literary traditions. This...

Culture is the core, the first brick of society. The main role in this is played by material and spiritual culture. TO material culture can include all artifacts (everything artificially created) - physical elements: tools, roads, buildings, monuments, burials, houses, bridges, steamships, airplanes, clothes, dishes, luxury goods and more. Spiritual culture includes everything that is created by the human mind, for example, knowledge, religion, norms, customs, traditions, spiritual values, rituals, ideas, standards of behavior, laws, commandments and much more that exists in the human mind.

Culture is divided into two large components - cultural statics and cultural dynamics.

Cultural statics– this is culture at rest, its internal structure, basic elements, everything material and immaterial in it. It includes:

– cultural complexes as the sum of elements that arise on the basis of the original cultural element and are functionally related to it: sports complexes, hospitality, weddings, baptisms, births;

– cultural heritage – these are the cultures of peoples, created by past generations, tested by time, passed on by inheritance;

– cultural universals- these are norms, phenomena that have entered into the everyday life of peoples, regardless of geography, time and structure of society. This includes universal aspects from the life and activities of people that are repeated everywhere among many peoples: community, food, calendar, decoration, cleanliness, fortune telling, dancing, decorative arts, dream interpretation, courtship, education, sports, etiquette, trade, weaning a child, weather control, religious rituals. Cultural universals, there are more than 70 of them, also include what distinguishes some people from others: language, faith, clothing, housing, pastime, habits, traditions, rituals, behavior patterns.

Cultural dynamics describes the changes that culture undergoes as it spreads in time (historical aspect) or in space (expansion of culture, increase in the number of its carriers).

Cultural dynamics are described using the following concepts:

1. Innovation - is the creation or recognition of new elements of culture, especially when they are based on something already known and accepted by a given culture.

Opening– a type of innovation, the act of obtaining qualitatively new knowledge about the world that describes something that was not previously known.

Invention– a type of innovation, the creation of new combinations already known facts or elements.

2. Diffusion – penetration of traits of one culture into another culture or mutual “exchange” of cultural traits.

Diffusion presupposes cultural contact, but cultural contact does not always presuppose diffusion. In the process of diffusion, a culture selects some traits and borrows them without adopting others. This property of diffusion is called selectivity. There are several selectivity factors:

a) culture is not yet developed enough to perceive this or that phenomenon, this or that feature of another culture;

b) culture, through the values of the system and the system of norms, imposes a ban on borrowing any or some features of another culture

c) culture bearers believe that they do not need new phenomena;

d) from a cultural point of view, any innovation or a given innovation can destroy the existing state of affairs.

3. Cultural lag means uneven development of culture, when some areas (parts) of culture develop faster than others.

4. Cultural transmission – the process of translation (transfer) of cultural elements from one generation to another, which makes culture a continuous phenomenon based on continuity. Cultural transmission as a process characterizes culture as social phenomenon in general, its trends, content.

At the individual level, it corresponds to acculturation - the individual’s assimilation of the features and elements of a foreign culture, patterns of behavior, values, technologies, etc. Cultural accumulation is the process of accumulation, adding cultural information to the existing culture, in which the amount of discarded old knowledge is less than the amount of new knowledge, elements, samples.

To the main types of culture include:

Material, spiritual, technical, artistic, moral, pedagogical, scientific, political, elite, mass, classical, world, ancient, modern, Renaissance, culture of the nation, people, person, humanity, culture of work, behavior, management, subculture, counterculture and others.

Based on this, the main functions of culture:

- human-creative(humanistic), culture contributes to the development of human creative potential in all forms of his life;

- epistemological(cognitive), culture is a means of knowledge and self-knowledge of society, a social group and individual person;

- informational- culture transmits social experience, which ensures the connection of times - past, present and future, and is a means of transmitting social information;

- communicative- function social communication, ensuring the adequacy of mutual understanding, the transmission of messages between individuals, groups, nations;

- value-oriented, that is, culture sets a certain coordinate system, a kind of “map life values”, in which a person exists and is oriented;

- regulatory(managerial), which manifests itself in the fact that culture acts as a means of social control over human behavior;

- recreational– the ability of culture to restore a person’s spiritual strength, renew his potential, prevent the spiritual state, the so-called cleansing of the soul;

- function of production and accumulation of spiritual values, creating a space of spiritual wealth. Preserving the public memory of humanity;

- transformation of society-increasing in him tolerance, tolerance, goodness, justice, morality ;

- ability to reorient man, his goals, ideals, worldview in relation to nature, that is, the creation of a culture of environmental activity, the establishment of human ecological self-sufficiency.

Currently, in Russian and European sociological literature, the sociology of culture acts as a collective concept. It includes: the sociology of cinema, music, theater, that is, sociology various types art, problems of intercultural understanding, dialogue and conflict of different cultures, the impact of culture on the socio-historical process, on group formation, on social stratification and socio-political movements.

In a broad sense, the sociology of culture is not just a branch of sociology, it covers all issues public life, looking at it from your own specific angle. Cultural content can be identified in any purposeful social activity: work, everyday life, politics, healthcare, education.

In a narrow sense, the sociology of culture has its own relatively independent subject area, which is localized in the spiritual sphere. In the sociological study of culture special meaning has it axiological aspect, highlighting the value component, which makes it possible to combine cultural elements into a system that ensures their interconnection at various levels: society as a whole, social groups, individuals.

In sociological studies of culture, it is necessary to solve the following problems: a) determine representative ideas; b) identify their manufacturer; c) find out the channels and means of their distribution; d) assess the influence of ideas on the formation and disintegration of social groups, institutions and movements.

In sociology there are several traditional planes, approaches to the analysis of cultural phenomena.

By subject– the bearer of culture, are distinguished: society as a whole, nation, class, other social groups (demographic, territorial, etc.) or an individual.

By functional role – culture can be divided into general (current), necessary for every member of a particular society, as well as special, necessary for people of a particular profession.

By origin(genesis) distinguish between folk culture, which arises to a certain extent spontaneously and does not have a specific “personalized” author (for example, folklore), and “scientific” culture, created by the intelligentsia, professionals, it is always possible to clearly establish authorship.

By its nature and purpose Culture can be religious or secular.

If we talk about forms of culture, then usually there are three of them:

1) folk culture – these are works of art, including applied art, which are created by non-professional, often anonymous creators, authors (myths, legends, tales, epics, stories, fairy tales, songs, dances, amateur creativity, folklore);

2) elite culture– culture of the privileged part of society – fine art, classical music and literature, that is, these are works of art, the perception of which requires a high level of education. Elite culture often denotes something that is incomprehensible to a wide range of people and is consumed only by a sophisticated part of society;

3) popular culture, called publicly available, arose with the development of means mass media, which reach a huge audience. As a result, cultural texts (not just linguistic ones) are available simultaneously a large number people, all strata and social groups.

In practice there are also types of culture:

1) dominant culture– a culture shared by the majority of members of a particular community;

2) subculture- this is part general culture, a system of values, traditions, customs that are developed in any social group, social community and are inherent enough to a wide circle people (culture of nationality, youth groups, subculture of older people, professional and criminal culture, culture of national minorities). A subculture differs significantly from the dominant culture of most members of society. Differences relate to language, outlook on life, behavior, clothing, customs, hairstyles, family relationships;

3) counterculture- a set of cultural norms and values, methods of communication, developed by members of a community in contrast to generally accepted norms and values. A mandatory feature of counterculture is its opposition to the dominant culture and denial of dominant values.

The West and the East provide a wide panorama for viewing and comparing cultures. Among the factors that have a clear difference are: lifestyle, structure of language, architecture, writing, religion, art, clothing, folklore.

The West and the East take extreme positions, starting with issues of perception of the outside world. The West is radical, the East is irrational. For the East, a person is an introvert, immersed in inner experiences. For the West - an extrovert, focused on the external environment.

The East carries within itself: concentration, religious tolerance, deepness of mind, pantheism (deification of nature), introversion (focus on oneself), belief in the harmony of the universe, orientation towards adaptation to the cosmic rhythm, orientation towards unity with nature, the desire to preserve age-old traditions, moral standards, rituals, the primacy of the collective, the secondary nature of individualistic, private property principles.

The West is characterized by: the desire for novelty and modification, practicality, comprehension of the meaning of life, the value of technological development, the introduction of parliamentarism, the desire for a dynamic lifestyle, the desire for personal freedom and liberal values, the priority of creativity.