Culture of everyday life: description, history of development, mention in literature

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

Culture is a multifaceted and multifaceted phenomenon. It covers all spheres of human activity, including the ordinary life of people: their way of life, housing, food, speech. All this adds up to the concept of "everyday culture". Let's talk about what it is, how it was developed and studied, and what is its structure and specificity.

The concept of everyday life

In sociology and psychology, everyday life is understood as a special sphere of human life. This is a certain natural state of an individual's life, a set of his daily activities in order to satisfy basic needs. At the same time, a person does not reflect on this activity, and this is the specificity of the culture of everyday life, that it is the result of the usual, everyday activities of people. In the course of everyday activities, a person uses a large number of objects, so everyday life is often equated with the material, material and bodily world.

Culture of everyday life: characteristics of the concept

Studying the everyday life of people in cultural studies develops late, in the middle of the 20th century. This is due to the fact that for a long time everyday life was perceived as a banality, an activity without cultural value, it was even perceived as the antipode of culture. Later, however, the understanding came that everyday life is connected with the natural way of life of a person, that this culture is closely connected with labor activity, with the creation of the material world. Therefore, considering the culture of everyday life, researchers focus on its content, it is not the result of special activity, reflection and does not require special efforts from a person. This is how a person's ordinary life develops: his life, food, clothes, speech.

History of learning everyday culture

For the first time, scientists addressed the study of everyday life of people within the framework of historiography. They were interested in such components of culture as the human environment, the body and everything connected with it in human practice, rituals, traditions, family and group relations, forms of leisure. However, the culture of everyday life as an independent field of scientific knowledge takes shape only in the 60s of the 20th century. This is due to the fact that ordinary life seemed so mundane and banal that it did not reveal anything significant for a broad understanding of culture. But later, scientists realized that it is in the culture of everyday life and everyday life that national and individual identity is hidden, and they actively began to catch up. From thistime begins the rehabilitation of the culture of everyday life. Books devoted to the study of this phenomenon began to be published in the last third of the 20th century. L. White noted that everyday things have a special symbolic meaning and can be considered in a Semitic aspect.

The first scientific school, which made everyday life the main object of its research, was the French school of Annales. The representative of this school, F. Braudel, noted that everyday life is the conditions in which a person lives, his work activity, needs and ways to satisfy them, these are interactions between people. In sociology, A. Schutz became the main researcher of everyday life. This approach is characterized by the understanding of everyday life as a certain framework of ideas and principles in which a person builds his ordinary life. Later, other approaches to the study of this phenomenon were formed: from the point of view of cultural studies, philosophy, history.

Signs of everyday life

A. Schutz most fully described the distinctive characteristics of the culture of everyday life, these include:

1. Active labor activity of people aimed at creative transformation of the surrounding reality. A person, as part of his daily activity, has no time to think, he acts to ensure his existence.
2. Natural conventional wisdom. In order to live, a person needs to have some habitual attitudes. For example, the culture of everyday life in Ancient India is built on the idea of rebirth and reincarnation, and this affects all everyday practices. Indians.
3. Vital tone. A person in his everyday life constantly tensely solves some urgent tasks, high involvement in everyday activities provides him with a feeling of fullness of life.
4. Special ideas about time. In everyday worldview, time is perceived as an eternal repetition.
5. Typified world. Everyday life is built on repetition and typical situations. This guarantees a person the inviolability of his natural attitudes and allows him to be confident in the future.

Thus, the predictability of history in the culture of everyday life is perceived as a guarantee of peace. This allows a person to save resources without asking unnecessary and painful questions.

National specifics of everyday life

Since everyday life is connected with the life of people, it has a pronounced ethnic flavor. Everyone knows, for example, that the culture of everyday life in Japan is radically different from the life of Europeans. This specificity is due to the primordial ideas about the world order, attitude to work, ritual culture. The influence on the daily culture of religion is most clearly tangible. So, the life of Christians and Muslims is built on different grounds, this leads to a different organization of life, food, costume. From the inhabitants of Europe, for example, people from Southeast Asia differ significantly in their way of life. This is due to climate, religion, ideas about the structure of the world, national traditions.

Thing in everyday life

The everyday life of a person is closely connected with things. They organize all its manifestations, from the rites of birth and death to the daily meal. Material culture and everyday life are two inseparable phenomena. Things have a culture-forming influence on a person; they concentrate aesthetic content, psychological attitudes, and people's values. In the culture of the 20th century, things acquire special significance, they become a kind of measure of the significance of a person.

For example, everyone knows what distinguishes a successful person - the presence of an apartment, a car, a dacha. Things become a symbol of prestige, correct, socially approved behavior of a person, characterize the belonging of individuals to one or another social group. For example, as you can learn from history, the culture of everyday life in the post-war period was such that special importance was attached to things that preserve the memory of the past, as well as symbolizing peace and tranquility. It can be recalled that an important thing in post-war apartments is a round table and a lampshade over it as symbols of the family, one's stable circle of life.

Russian features of everyday life

The culture of Russia has absorbed the traditions of many nations, but in general its identity is determined by its history. Despite all the events of the 20th century, Russian culture at its core remains the culture of an agrarian society. It has strong patriarchal ideas about life and its organization. are important to peoplesimple values: family, prosperity, he alth. This is evidenced, for example, by Russian proverbs: "one's own shirt is closer to the body", "a family is strong when there is only one roof over it." The Russian culture of everyday life is associated with traditional housing, until now in Russia they continue to build wooden houses, the center of which is the kitchen, where earlier, in a Russian hut, there was a stove - as a center of attraction for the whole family.

Bread is endowed with sacred meaning, which is still perceived as the highest value of everyday life. You can read about the features of Russian everyday culture, for example, in I. Shmelev's novel "The Summer of the Lord." In it, the author describes the life and cultural traditions of the Russian people.

Daily life of an individual

The most important characteristic of the culture of everyday life is repetition. Every day a person performs the same actions, rituals - this characterizes his everyday life, it is the opposite of weekends and holidays. Daily time is divided between sleep, work, satisfaction of basic needs and leisure. All these spheres a person draws up with the help of things, they make up the culture of everyday life. These are household items, clothes, home decoration, which a person chooses based on national traditions, social standards and his own tastes. It is generally accepted that everyday life is a kind of average standard, without pretensions to high. For example, in Soviet times, a set of environment was obligatory for each person: TV, refrigerator,furniture wall, carpet on the wall. With the growth of material opportunities and the stratification of society, there is an increase in the options for organizing everyday life.

Home as a place of daily life

For a person, everyday life takes place primarily in his home. The arrangement of the house is the best way to tell about the national character, traditions and values. So, in a Russian traditional house in the most prominent, "red" corner, a home iconostasis was always arranged, since religion played an important role in people's lives. The house in Russia was built in such a way that the rays of the sun lingered in it for as long as possible. And, for example, in Central Asia, the dwelling, on the contrary, was built so that the rays of the sun did not penetrate inside, in order to protect people from the scorching heat. In Chinese practice, there is a whole direction in the organization of living space - Feng Shui, associated with national values and philosophy. The house has zones for all areas of daily activities: sleep, cooking and eating, leisure, communication. So, for Russians, the kitchen is still the center of the house, and for Europeans it is the living room. This immediately shows the differences between these cultures.

Daily wear

The most important part of everyday life is a suit. It is not in vain that in all cultures there are clothes for every day and for holidays, and there are also costumes for special events: christenings, weddings, funerals. The culture of everyday life is closely connected with the culture of the costume.

For example, for Russiansa fur coat is still not a subject of special desire (because it is prestigious), as in Europe, but a natural necessity, because this is the best way to protect yourself from the cold. Since ancient times, a man has shown his concern for a woman, bringing her fur skins for dressing. And today the wife expects from her husband that he will take care of her and buy a fur coat. Despite the fact that in everyday urban life this wardrobe item may no longer be relevant.

Gastronomic aspect of everyday life

An important part of the culture of everyday life is the kitchen, ways of eating. So, Asian peoples traditionally sit down at the table with the whole family, and this ritual is observed to this day. In Russia, this tradition is gradually being lost, and this, oddly enough, leads to discord in the family. Because eating is a sacred act that has axiological significance for people.