Cultural environment: definition, components, functions and tasks

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

The article will discuss the main components of the human cultural environment.

Robinson Crusoe, when he got to a desert island, initially could not form any cultural sphere, despite the fact that Robinson himself belonged to the English culture of the 17th century. 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 forming a new environment.

Thus, cultural space is a public phenomenon, for its emergence requires society and a social situation, which is formed only as a result of stable contacts of several people. Only with the appearance of Pyatnitsa on the island did the formation of the cultural space of the island begin. Wednesday is the 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 thatformed 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.

Cultural environment is 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.

Development of cultural space

The development of the cultural environment was a long process, and there is no exact date of its emergence and formation. But, despite this, the chronological boundaries are quite clear. If we assume that man 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, then this date is more acceptable. That is, in other words, culture is much older than man. During this period of time, the process of formation and evolution of the human cultural environment took place.

History of culture

There are five major periods of formation of the cultural environment:

First. It began 150 thousand years ago and ended in the 4th millennium BC. This is the culture of primitive man or the period of infancy of mankind. A person learns to speak, but does not yet 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 were formed. For example, the cult of the dead, rituals associated with hunting and burial. Man saw a miracle in everything, everything that surrounded him seemed magical and mysterious to him. Even the surrounding objects were perceived by him as alive, which is why a person established close ties with them

• The second period 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, along with fantasy, there is a rational grain. 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 emergence and development of mathematics, philosophy, medicine, astronomy. Sculpture, architecture, bas-relief reach classical forms.
• Third period (V-XIV centuries). This is the culture of the Middle Ages, the time of 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 are emerging: Western Europe, Byzantium, Kievan Rus. China and Byzantium became the leading cultural centers of this period. Religion has intellectual and spiritual dominion over man.
• The fourth period coversXV-XVI centuries is called the Renaissance. This period is typical 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, science, intellect, and reason become the main values of a person. 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 antiquity. But the issue acquired particular urgency in the 19th century, when human culture became associated with the socio-political, legal, economic and moral problems of the peoples of Western Europe, who claimed primacy throughout the world. At this time, two points of view on culture were formed:

• One considers it as a means of ennobling a person, turning him into a creative, harmonious personality, a bearer of a civilizational grain.
• The second point of view considers culture as a means of turning a person into a submissive obedient tool.

Structure

The cultural environment has four components:

• Symbolic activity that performsfunctions of teaching people the norms of behavior accepted in society.
• Normative social behavior is a form of interaction.
• A language used for social interaction.
• Morals, they regulate social interactions.

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 products of mankind are divided into types:

• Verbal: folklore and religious texts, philosophical and scientific works, literary and journalistic works.
• Non-verbal works: sculptural, visual, musical, architectural, choreographic, cinematographic and others.
• Religious art and rituals.
• War rituals.
• Social etiquette.
• Political symbols: flags, emblems, seals, uniforms.
• Fashion, hairstyle, makeup.
• Orders and medals.
• Signs of belonging to organizations or political parties.
• Jewelry.

Symbolic activity and its products are necessary for society, first of all, to teach 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 cubs. The same thing happens to human children in infancy. But social behavior changes with age, depending on the situation and reaction toher. That is why a person learns social behavior throughout his life, correcting 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 of the cultural environment, without which its formation is impossible, is the social behavior of people. It can be playful, situational, normative. It is normative everyday behavior that is cultural: customs (supported by historical tradition), ceremonial type of behavior (approved by power structures), rational normative behavior (determined by the human mind).

Normative behavior regulates not production, but everyday interactions between people.

Behavior plays an important role in the formation of culture and the cultural environment. Thanks to him, people carry out social interaction, acquire 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 the life of society is obvious. Many examples of this are the events when millions of people were subjected to cruel punishment for the incorrect performance of religious rites, for the free interpretation of the dominant ideology or other violations of social norms of behavior.

Language

Language and itsvocabulary is an example of cultural order. With the help of language, a stable order of phrases and word usage is determined. Language is a form of culture that embodies its inherent features: social prevalence, repetition, sustainability.

The corpus of culture is 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 intensive, constant and free communication of a group of people.

Morals

The complex of means through which the cultural adjustment of social communication is carried out is very large.

The following are the means adopted specifically to culturally and socially regulate the behavior of people under threat of violence:

• Ideology.
• Laws.
• Official rites, ceremonies, etiquette, rituals.
• Ethical, ethical and moral values.

All these means of cultural regulation can be called the term "mores". They occupy a niche in which there is practically no control by the authorities. Today mores govern group relations. With their help, people's behavior is controlled without threat and punishment, but because of the danger of limiting 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:

• Education - mastering the techniques and rules of ritual behavior in society on the examples of the images of heroes of literary, religious, folklore, works of art.
• Practical application - that is, the implementation of rituals in the form of daily behavior.
• Information exchange - generalization of the results of social behavior, information exchange, which is carried out using language.
• Cultural regulation - managing behavior through mores.

Problems of collective coexistence

The system for implementing and ensuring social behavior provides a solution to the following tasks (problems):

• Facilitates the interaction of people in society.
• Makes communication easier.
• Maintains the order of values in society.
• Demonstrates people's loy alty 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 the sphere of social consciousness of people. Cultural space is not just a territory of cultural interactions, but a special environment for public rituals and social behavior. The preservation of the cultural environment is a very important aspect of the development of society. It's savingsnot only traditions, rituals and mores, but, above all, the self-consciousness of human society.