Types and types of culture

Taking the dominant values ​​as a basis, both material and spiritual culture, in turn, can be divided into the following kinds.

Artistic culture, its essence lies in the aesthetic exploration of the world, the core is art, the dominant value is beauty .

Economic culture, this includes human activity in the economic sector, production culture, management culture, economic law, etc. The main value is work .

Legal culture is manifested in activities aimed at protecting human rights, relations between the individual and society, and the state. Dominant value - law .

Political culture is associated with the active position of a person in the organization of government, individual social groups, and the functioning of individual political institutions. The main value is power .

Physical culture, i.e. the sphere of culture aimed at improving the physical basis of a person. This includes sports, medicine, relevant traditions, norms, actions that form healthy image life. The main value is human health .

Religious culture is associated with the directed human activity of creating a picture of the world based on irrational dogmas. It is accompanied by the performance of religious services, adherence to the norms set out in sacred texts, certain symbolism, etc. Dominant value - faith in God and on this basis moral improvement .

Ecological culture lies in the reasonable and careful attitude to nature, maintaining harmony between humans and the environment. The main value is nature .

Moral culture is manifested in the adherence to special ethical standards arising from traditions and social attitudes that dominate in human society. The main value is morality .

This is not a complete list of types of culture. In general, the complexity and versatility of the definition of the concept of “culture” also determines the complexity of its classification. There is an economic approach (agriculture, culture of livestock breeders, etc.), a social-class approach (proletarian, bourgeois, territorial-ethnic), (the culture of certain nationalities, the culture of Europe), spiritual and religious (Muslim, Christian), technocratic (pre-industrial, industrial) , civilizational (the culture of Roman civilization, the culture of the East), social (urban, peasant), etc. However, based on these numerous characteristics, several important ones can be identified: directions, which formed the basis typologies of culture .

This is, first of all, ethnoterritorial typology. The culture of socio-ethnic communities includes ethnic , national, folk, regional culture. Their carriers are peoples and ethnic groups. Currently, there are about 200 states uniting over 4,000 ethnic groups. For the development of their ethnic, national cultures influenced by geographical, climatic, historical, religious and other factors. In other words, the development of cultures depends on the terrain, lifestyle, entry into a particular state, and belonging to a particular religion.

Concepts ethnic And folk cultures are similar in content. Their authors, as a rule, are unknown; the subject is the entire people. But these are highly artistic works that remain in the memory of the people for a long time. Myths, legends, epics, fairy tales belong to the best works of art. Their most important feature is traditionalism.

Folk culture consists of two types - popular And folklore. Popular widespread among the people, but its object is mainly modernity, life, way of life, morals, folklore however, it is more focused on the past. Ethnic culture is closer to folklore. But ethnic culture is primarily everyday culture. It includes not only art, but also tools, clothing, and household items. Folk and ethnic cultures can merge with professional, that is, with the culture of specialists, when, for example, a work was created by a professional, but gradually the author is forgotten, and a monument of art becomes essentially folk. There may also be a reverse process when, for example, in the Soviet Union, through cultural and educational institutions, they tried to cultivate ethnic culture by creating ethnographic ensembles and singing folk songs. With a certain convention, folk culture can be considered a connecting link between ethnic and national cultures.

Structure national cultures are more complex. It differs from ethnicity by clearer national characteristics and a wide range. It may include a number of ethnic groups. For example, the American national culture includes English, German, Mexican and many others. National culture arises when representatives of ethnic groups realize that they belong to a single nation. It is built on the basis of writing, while ethnic and folk may be unwritten.

Ethnic and national cultures may have their own common features that are different from others, expressed in the concept “ mentality "(Latin: way of thinking). It is customary, for example, to single out English as a reserved type of mentality, French as playful, Japanese as aesthetic, etc. But national culture, along with traditional everyday culture and folklore, also includes specialized areas. A nation is characterized not only by ethnographic, but also by social characteristics: territory, statehood, economic ties, etc. Accordingly, national culture, in addition to ethnic culture, includes elements of economic, legal and other types of culture.

Co. second group can be attributed social types. These are, first of all, mass, elite, marginal cultures, subcultures and countercultures.

Mass culture is commercial culture. This is a type of cultural production produced in large volumes, designed for a wide audience of low and medium levels of development. It is intended for mass, i.e., an undifferentiated set. The masses are inclined towards consumer information.

Mass culture appeared in modern times with the invention printing press, the spread of low-grade pulp literature, and developed in the 20th century under the conditions of a capitalist society with its orientation towards a market economy, the creation of a mass comprehensive school and the transition to universal literacy, and the development of the media. It acts as a commodity, uses advertising, overly simplified language, and is available to everyone. An industrial and commercial approach was applied in the cultural sphere; it became a form of business. Mass culture focuses on artificially created images and stereotypes, “simplified versions of life,” beautiful illusions.

Philosophical basis popular culture is Freudianism, which reduces all social phenomena to biological ones, putting instincts in the foreground, pragmatism, which places main goal benefit.

The term "mass culture""first used in 1941 by a German philosopher M. Horkheimer . The Spanish thinker José Ortega y Gasset (1883 - 1955) tried to more broadly analyze the phenomenon of mass and elite cultures. In his work “The Revolt of the Masses,” he came to the conclusion that European culture is in a state of crisis and the reason for this is the “revolt of the masses.” The mass is the average person. Ortega y Gasset opened preconditions mass culture. This is, firstly, economic: growth in material well-being and relative availability of material goods. This changed the vision of the world; he began to be perceived, figuratively speaking, as serving the masses. Secondly, legal: the division into classes disappeared, liberal legislation appeared, declaring equality before the law. This created certain prospects for the rise of the average person. Thirdly, it is observed rapid population growth. As a result, according to Ortega y Gasset, a new human type has matured - mediocrity incarnate. Fourthly, cultural background. A person satisfied with himself ceased to be critical of himself and reality, to engage in self-improvement, and limited himself to a craving for pleasure and entertainment.

The American scientist D. MacDonald, following Ortega y Gasset, defined mass culture as created for the market and “not quite culture.”

At the same time, mass culture also has a certain positive significance, since it carries a compensatory function, helps to adapt, maintain social stability in difficult socio-economic conditions, and ensures the general availability of spiritual values, achievements of science and technology. Under certain conditions and quality individual works mass culture stand the test of time, rise to the level of highly artistic, gain recognition and ultimately become, in a certain sense, popular.

Many culturologists consider the antipode of mass elitist culture (French favorites, best). This is the culture of a special, privileged layer of society with its specific spiritual abilities, characterized by creativity, experimentalism, and closedness. Elite culture is characterized by an intellectual avant-garde orientation, complexity and originality, which makes it understandable mainly for the elite and inaccessible to the masses.

Elite (high) culture created by a privileged part of society, or at its request by professional creators. It includes fine art, classical music and literature. High culture (for example, the painting of Picasso or the music of Schoenberg) is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an averagely educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary scholars, regulars of museums and exhibitions, theatergoers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population increases, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its varieties include secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is “art for art’s sake.”

It has been known since ancient times, when priests and tribal leaders became the owners of special knowledge inaccessible to others. During feudalism similar relationships were reproduced in various denominations, knightly or monastic orders, capitalism- V intellectual circles, learned communities, aristocratic salons, etc. True, in the new and modern times elitist culture was no longer always associated with strict caste isolation. There are cases in history when gifted individuals, people from the common people, for example Zh.Zh. Russo, M.V. Lomonosov, went through a difficult path of formation and joined the elite.

Elite culture is based on philosophy A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche who divided humanity into “people of geniuses” and “people of utility,” or into “supermen” and the masses. Later, thoughts about elite culture were developed in the works of Ortega y Gasset. He considered it the art of a gifted minority, a group of initiates capable of reading the symbols embedded in work of art. The distinctive features of such a culture, Ortega y Gasset believes, are, firstly, the desire for “ pure art“, that is, creating works of art only for the sake of art; secondly, understanding art as a game, and not a documentary reflection of reality.

Subculture(lat. subculture) is the culture of certain social groups, different or even partially opposed to the whole, but in its main features consistent with the dominant culture. Most often it is a factor of self-expression, but in some cases it is a factor of unconscious protest against dominant culture. In this regard, it can be divided into positive and negative. Elements of subculture appeared, for example, in the Middle Ages in the form of urban, knightly cultures. In Russia, a subculture of the Cossacks and various religious sects has developed.

Forms of subculture different - the culture of professional groups (theatrical, medical culture, etc.), territorial (urban, rural), ethnic (Gypsy culture), religious (culture of sects different from world religions), criminal (thieves, drug addicts), teenage youth The latter most often serves as a means of unconscious protest against the rules established in society. Young people are prone to nihilism and are more easily influenced by external effects and paraphernalia. Culturologists call the first youth subcultural groups “ teddy boys ", which appeared in the mid-50s of the 20th century in England.

Almost simultaneously with them, “modernists” or “fashions” arose.

By the end of the 50s, “rockers” began to appear, for whom the motorcycle was a symbol of freedom and at the same time a means of intimidation.

By the end of the 60s, “skinheads” or “skinheads”, aggressive football fans, separated from the “mods”. At the same time, in the 60-70s, the subcultures of “hippies” and “punks” emerged in England.

All these groups are distinguished by aggressiveness and a negative attitude towards the traditions that dominate society. They are characterized by their own symbolism, sign system. They create their own image, first of all. appearance: clothes, hairstyles, metal jewelry. They have their own manner of behavior: gait, facial expressions, peculiarities of communication, their own special slang. Their own traditions and folklore appeared. Each generation internalizes the norms of behavior that are ingrained in certain subgroups, moral values, folklore forms (sayings, legends) and after a short time no longer differs from its predecessors.

Under certain circumstances, particularly aggressive subgroups, for example, hippies, can become in opposition to society, and their subculture develop into counterculture. This term was first used in 1968 by the American sociologist T. Roszak to assess the liberal behavior of the so-called “broken generation.”

Counterculture- these are socio-cultural attitudes that oppose the dominant culture. It is characterized by a rejection of established social values, moral norms and ideals, a cult of the unconscious manifestation of natural passions and the mystical ecstasy of the soul. Counterculture aims to overthrow the dominant culture, which is represented by organized violence against the individual. This protest accepts various shapes: from passive to extremist, which manifested themselves in anarchism, “leftist” radicalism, religious mysticism, etc. A number of culturologists identify it with the movements of “hippies”, “punks”, “beatniks”, which arose both as subcultures and as cultures of protest against technocracy industrial society. Youth counterculture of the 70s in the West they called it a culture of protest, since it was during these years that young people especially sharply opposed the value system of the older generation. But it was at this time that the Canadian scientist E. Tiryakan considered it a powerful catalyst for the cultural and historical process. Any new culture arises as a result of awareness of the crisis of the previous culture.

It should be distinguished from counterculture marginal culture (lat. region). This is a concept that characterizes the value systems of individual groups or individuals who, due to circumstances, find themselves on the verge of different cultures, but have not integrated into any of them.

The concept " marginal personality "was introduced in the 20s of the 20th century by R. Park to indicate the cultural status of immigrants. Marginal culture is located on the “outskirts” of the corresponding cultural systems. An example would be, for example, migrants, villagers in the city, forced to adapt to a new urban lifestyle for them. A culture can also acquire a marginal character as a result of conscious attitudes towards rejection of socially approved goals or methods of achieving them.

3. Special place ranks in the classification of culture historical typology. There are a number of different approaches to solving this problem.

The most common ones in science are the following.

This is stone, bronze, iron age, according to archaeological periodization; pagan, Christian periods, according to periodization, gravitating towards the biblical scheme, such as, for example, G. Hezhel or S. Solovyov. Proponents of evolutionary theories of the 19th century distinguished three stages of social development: savagery, barbarism, and civilization. The formation theory of K. Marx proceeded from the division of the world cultural and historical process into eras: primitive communal system, slaveholding, feudalism, capitalism. According to "Eurocentric" concepts, history human society is divided into the Ancient World, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Modern Times, and Contemporary Times.

Availability of a variety of approaches to defining historical typology culture allows us to conclude that there is no universal concept that explains the entire history of mankind and its culture. However, in recent years, the attention of researchers has been particularly attracted by the concept of the German philosopher Karl Jaspers(1883 - 1969). In the book “The Origins of History and Its Purpose” in the cultural-historical process he highlights four main periods . First is the period of archaic culture or the “Promethean era”. The main thing at this time is the emergence of languages, the invention and use of tools and fire, the beginning of sociocultural regulation of life. Second The period is characterized as the pre-Axial culture of ancient local civilizations. High cultures arose in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and later in China, writing appeared. Third stage is, according to Jaspers, a kind of “ world time axis"and refers to VIII - II centuries BC e. This was an era of undoubted success not only in material, but, above all, in spiritual culture - in philosophy, literature, science, art, etc., the life and work of such great personalities as Homer, Buddha, Confucius. At this time, the foundations of world religions were laid, a transition from local civilizations to single history humanity. During this period, modern man is formed, the basic categories with which we think are developed.

Fourth stage covers the time from the beginning of our era, when the era of scientific technical progress, there is a rapprochement of nations and cultures, two main directions are emerging cultural development: “Eastern” with its spirituality, irrationalism and “Western” dynamic, pragmatic. This time is designated as the universal culture of the West and the East in the post-Axial period.

The typology of civilizations and cultures of the German scientist of the early 20th century also seems interesting. Max Weber. He distinguished between two types of societies and, accordingly, cultures. These are traditional societies where the principle of rationalization does not apply. Those that are based on rationality, Weber called industrial. Rationalization, according to Weber, manifests itself when a person is driven not by feelings and natural needs, but by benefit, the possibility of receiving material or moral dividends. In contrast, the Russian-American philosopher P. Sorokin based the periodization of culture on spiritual values. He identified three types of cultures: ideational (religious-mystical), idealistic (philosophical) and sensual (scientific). In addition, Sorokin distinguished cultures according to the principle of organization (heterogeneous clusters, formations with similar sociocultural characteristics, organic systems).

Received quite wide popularity at the beginning of the 20th century Social-historical school, which has the longest, “classical” traditions and goes back to Kant, Hegel and Humboldt, grouping around itself mainly historians and philosophers, including religious ones. Its prominent representatives in Russia were N.Ya. Danilevsky, and in Western Europe - Spengler and Toynbee, who adhered to the concept of local civilizations.

Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky(1822-1885) - publicist, sociologist and natural scientist, one of many Russian minds who anticipated the original ideas that later arose in the West. In particular, his views on culture are surprisingly consonant with the concepts of two of the most prominent thinkers of the twentieth century. - German O. Spengler and Englishman A. Toynbee.

The son of an honored general, Danilevsky, however, from a young age devoted himself to the natural sciences, and was also keen on the ideas of utopian socialism.

After receiving his Ph.D. degree, he was arrested for participating in the revolutionary-democratic circle of Petrashevites (F.M. Dostoevsky belonged to it), spent three months in the Peter and Paul Fortress, but managed to avoid trial and was expelled from St. Petersburg. Later, as a professional naturalist, botanist and fish conservation specialist, he served in the department Agriculture; On scientific trips and expeditions he traveled throughout a significant part of Russia, being inspired to do a lot of cultural work. Being an ideologist of Pan-Slavism - a movement that proclaimed the unity of the Slavic peoples - Danilevsky, long before O. Spengler, in his main work “Russia and Europe” (1869), substantiated the idea of ​​​​the existence of so-called cultural-historical types (civilizations), which, like living organisms, are in constant struggle with each other and with the environment. Just like biological individuals, they undergo stages of origin, flourishing and death. The beginnings of a civilization of one historical type are not transmitted to peoples of another type, although they are subject to certain cultural influences. Each “cultural-historical type” manifests itself in four spheres : religious, cultural, political and socio-economic. Their harmony speaks of the perfection of a particular civilization. The course of history is expressed in a change of cultural and historical types that displace each other, moving from the “ethnographic” state through statehood to the civilized level. Cycle of life the cultural-historical type consists of four periods and lasts about 1500 years, of which 1000 years is the preparatory, “ethnographic” period; approximately 400 years - the formation of statehood, and 50-100 years - the flowering of all creative possibilities of this or that people. The cycle ends with a long period of decline and decay.

In our time, Danilevsky’s idea that a necessary condition for the flourishing of culture is political independence is especially relevant. Without it, the originality of culture is impossible, i.e. culture itself is impossible, “which does not even deserve the name if it is not original.” On the other hand, independence is needed so that like-minded cultures, say Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian, can freely and fruitfully develop and interact, while at the same time preserving pan-Slavic cultural wealth. Denying the existence of a single world culture, Danilevsky identified 10 cultural and historical types that have partially or completely exhausted the possibilities of their development:

1) Egyptian,

2) Chinese,

3) Assyro-Babylonian, Phoenician, Ancient Semitic

4) Indian,

5) Iranian

6) Jewish

7) Greek

8) Roman

9) Arabian

10) Germano-Roman, European

One of the later, as we see, was the European Romano-Germanic cultural community.

Danilevsky proclaims a Slavic cultural-historical type that is qualitatively new and has a great historical perspective, designed to unite all Slavic peoples, led by Russia, as opposed to Europe, which has allegedly entered a period of decline.

No matter how one regards Danilevsky’s views, they still, as in their time, feed and fed the imperial ideology and prepared the emergence of such a modern social science as geopolitics, closely related to civilizational approach to history.

Oswald Spengler(1880-1936) - German philosopher and cultural historian, author of the sensational work “The Decline of Europe” (1921-1923). The creative biography of the German thinker is unusual. The son of a minor postal worker, Spengler did not have a university education and could only complete high school, where he studied mathematics and natural sciences; As for history, philosophy and art history, in the mastery of which he surpassed many of his outstanding contemporaries, Spengler studied them independently, becoming an example of a self-taught genius. And Spengler’s career was limited to the position of a gymnasium teacher, which he voluntarily left in 1911. For several years he imprisoned himself in a small apartment in Munich and began to realize his cherished dream: he wrote a book about destinies European culture in the context of world history - “The Decline of Europe,” which went through 32 editions in many languages ​​in the 1920s alone and brought him the sensational fame of “the prophet of the death of Western civilization.”

Spengler repeated N.Ya. Danilevsky and, like him, was one of the most consistent critics of Eurocentrism and the theory of continuous progress of mankind, considering Europe already a doomed and dying link. Spengler denies the existence of universal human continuity in culture. In the history of mankind, he identifies 8 cultures:

1) Egyptian,

2) Indian,

3) Babylonian,

4) Chinese,

5) Greco-Roman,

6) Byzantine-Islamic,

7) Western European

8) Mayan culture in Central America.

According to Spengler, Russian-Siberian culture is coming as a new culture. Each cultural “organism” has a lifespan of approximately 1000 years. Dying, every culture degenerates into civilization, moves from creative impulse to sterility, from development to stagnation, from “soul” to “intellect,” from heroic “deeds” to utilitarian work. Such a transition for Greco-Roman culture occurred, according to Spengler, in the Hellenistic era (III-I centuries BC), and for Western European culture - in the 19th century. With the advent of civilization, mass culture, artistic and literary creativity loses its meaning, giving way to soulless technicalism and sports. In the 20s, “The Decline of Europe,” by analogy with the death of the Roman Empire, was perceived as a prediction of the apocalypse, the death of Western European society under the onslaught of new “barbarians” - revolutionary forces advancing from the East. History, as we know, has not confirmed Spengler’s prophecies, and the new “Russian-Siberian” culture, which meant the so-called socialist society, has not yet come to fruition. It is significant that some of Spengler’s conservative nationalist ideas were widely used by ideologists of Nazi Germany.

Arnold Joseph Toynbee(1889-1975) - English historian and sociologist, author of the 12-volume “Study of History” (1934-1961) - a work in which he (at the first stage, not without the influence of O. Spengler) also sought to comprehend the development of mankind in the spirit of the cycle "civilizations", using this term as a synonym for "culture". A.J. Toynbee came from English family average income; Following the example of his mother, a history teacher, he graduated from Oxford University and the British School of Archaeology in Athens (Greece). At first he was interested in antiquity and the works of Spengler, whom he later surpassed as a cultural historian. From 1919 to 1955, Toynbee was a professor of Greek, Byzantine, and later world history at the University of London. During the First and Second World Wars, he simultaneously collaborated with the Foreign Office, was a member of the British government delegations to the Paris Peace Conferences in 1919 and 1946, and also headed the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The scientist devoted a significant part of his life to writing his famous work - an encyclopedic panorama of the development of world culture.

Initially, Toynbee viewed history as a set of parallel and sequentially developing “civilizations”, genetically little related to one another, each of which goes through the same stages from rise to breakdown, collapse and death. Later, he revised these views, coming to the conclusion that all known cultures nourished by world religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.) are branches of one human “tree of history.” They all tend towards unity, and each of them is a particle of it. World historical development appears in the form of a movement from local cultural communities to a single common human culture. Unlike O. Spengler, who identified only 8 “civilizations,” Toynbee, who relied on broader and more modern research, numbered them from 14 to 21, later settling on thirteen , which have received the most complete development. Driving forces history, in addition to divine “providence,” Toynbee considered individual outstanding personalities and the “creative minority.” It responds to the “challenges” posed to a given culture by the outside world and spiritual needs, as a result of which the progressive development of a particular society is ensured. At the same time, the “creative minority” leads the passive majority, relying on its support and replenished by its best representatives. When the “creative minority” turns out to be unable to realize its mystical “life impulse” and respond to the “challenges” of history, it turns into a “dominant elite”, imposing its power by force of arms, and not by authority; the alienated mass of the population becomes the “internal proletariat,” which, together with external enemies, ultimately destroys a given civilization, if it does not first die from natural disasters.

According to Toynbee's law of the golden mean, the challenge should be neither too weak nor too severe. In the first case, there will be no active response, and in the second, insurmountable difficulties can completely stop the emergence of civilization. Specific examples of “challenges” known from history are associated with drying out or waterlogging of soils, the offensive of hostile tribes, and a forced change of place of residence. The most common answers: the transition to a new type of management, the creation of irrigation systems, the formation of powerful power structures capable of mobilizing the energy of society, the creation of a new religion, science, and technology.

This variety of approaches makes it possible to study this phenomenon more deeply.

Grapes are eaten fresh and also made into juice, wine, and raisins.

Under the concept "cultivated plants" includes all wild and agricultural plants that people grow for food, industrial raw materials, livestock feed and decorative purposes. Based on the final destination, everything cultivated plants are classified into 14 groups.

• cereals and cereals(wheat, rice, corn)
• grains and cereals (barley, oats, rye, millet, sorghum)
• grains and legumes (beans, soybeans, peas, lentils, beans, lupine, chickpeas)
• starch-bearing plants (potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava)
• sugar plants (sugar cane, sugar beets)
• oil plants (olive, sunflower, cotton, flax, mustard, rapeseed)
• fibrous plants (cotton, flax, hemp)
• vegetable plants (cabbage, onions, garlic, carrots, beets, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes)
• melons (watermelon, melon, pumpkin)
• fruit plants (apple tree, grapes, pear, cherry, plum, currant, raspberry)
• subtropical fruit plants (orange, tangerine, lemon, persimmon, fig)
• fruit plants of the tropics (banana, pineapple, mango, coconut palm, kiwi)
• stimulating plants (tea bush, coffee, cocoa, cola, tobacco)
• narcotic plants (poppy, hemp, coca)

In addition, separate groups of cultivated plants include ornamental, house and spice plants. There is no benefit as such from the first two, but they perform an aesthetic function. Spicy plants usually improve appetite.

Science has been studying the origin of cultivated plants for about two centuries. At the end of the 19th century, the Swiss botanist Alphonse Decandolle, the son of one of the greatest botanists Augustin Decandolle, formulated the idea of ​​centers of origin of cultivated plants. He suggested that cultivated plants began to be bred by people living in the foothills, and only then, as the flood plain lands were developed, they spread throughout the Earth. This assumption is supported by the fact that the conditions for creating small areas for sowing and irrigation from rivulets and streams are easier than the conditions on flood plain lands. Thus, it turns out that the most ancient centers of agricultural culture known to us in the interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates and the Nile Delta inherited and developed earlier human achievements and in this sense cannot be considered pioneering.

Half a century later, Nikolai Vavilov carried out more than 50 expeditions throughout to the globe and proved the existence of primary and secondary centers of origin of cultivated plants. A unique collection of them was collected, saved by the heroic efforts of the staff of the Institute of Plant Growing during the siege of Leningrad.

Coffee is the main export product of tropical countries

There are 12 regional centers of origin of cultivated plants throughout the Earth, but new data is constantly emerging, and the picture cannot be considered final. Three concepts of the origin of cultivated plants have approximately equal validity. One by one, all cultivated plants originated from one center. According to another, there were several independent centers of origin of agricultural crops. According to the third, diffuse, there were no centers at all. Some experts believe that the history of peoples and landscapes is so diverse that all three concepts may be partly true.

The age of agriculture turns out to be quite significant. People's first interest in wheat and barley appeared at least 20,000 years ago - the remains of wild wheat and barley found by archaeologists at human sites in the territory of modern Israel date back to this period. The oldest finds of cultivated wheat and barley from Jordan are 11,000 years old. Scientists estimate that the process of domestication of these crops lasted at least a thousand years. He was quite conscious. Despite the difference natural conditions and agricultural traditions, different peoples have created seeding plants with very specific characteristics that are important for farming: unbreakable ears, bare grains, high productivity and a short period of flowering and ripening. Genetic studies show that such a rate of breeding useful varieties was possible because for significant change properties of a plant, one mutation is often enough.

In our article we will get acquainted with the cultivated plants of Russia. Man has long used them in his economic activities to obtain valuable nutrients and food products.

Cultivated plants: names and definition of the concept

For a long time, people have been selecting species with valuable properties, crossing them and selecting them. The result of such activity is modern cultivated plants: grains, vegetables, industrial plants.

The famous Russian scientist Nikolai Vavilov made a great contribution to the development of ideas about this process. It was thanks to his expeditions that it was possible to collect a huge collection of cultivated plants and name the centers of their origin.

Scientists have been able to establish many interesting facts. Do you know the names of cultivated plants such as rye and oats? So, initially they were weed species that grew in wheat crops. And modern cultivated rice is the result of the domestication of two wild species - African and Asian.

Ornamental crops

The names of cultivated plants are now clearly defined in the International Code of Nomenclature. Their main category is variety. Cultivated species are classified according to the purpose of their cultivation.

One of these groups is ornamental plants. They are used to decorate various areas: parks, squares, gardens, residential premises, areas for recreation and entertainment, as well as aquariums.

Most of them are grown for their beautiful flowers. These are roses, tulips, petunias, gerberas, dahlias, periwinkle and many others. Popular indoor species are anthurium, uzambar violet, and gardenia. That's what they call them - beautifully flowering ones. Some crops are valued for the aesthetic appearance of their foliage, fruits or needles.

Cereals and cereals

Wheat, rye, oats, barley, sorghum, corn, millet... These are the names of cultivated plants that belong to the Cereals family. People have long cultivated them for grain, to obtain cereals and flour, to bake bakery products, and to obtain food for domestic animals. An example of cultivated plants is buckwheat. In economic activities, whole and crushed grains and flour are used.

Cereals are high in carbohydrates and proteins. Their high nutritional value is also determined by the content of enzymes, B vitamins and PP.

Legumes and starches

Examples of cultivated plants that have been grown by humans for a long time are soybeans, peas, lentils, and peanuts. Since they are rich in proteins, their energy value is not inferior to meat products. Soybeans and peanuts contain a supply of vegetable fats, so oils are obtained from them.

The most famous starch-bearing plant is the potato. It is not for nothing that they call it “second bread”. For a long time, people thought that potatoes should be eaten as food. Therefore, it did not receive much distribution. In fact, underground modifications of shoots - tubers - are edible. Potatoes are used in cooking to obtain medicines against inflammation and burns.

Starchy crops also include sweet potato, corn, cassava, and yams. The record holder among them is rightfully considered the sago palm. More than 100 kilograms of starch are extracted from the trunk of one such tree.

Vegetables and fruits

Vegetable crops are important agricultural plants. It's hard to imagine your daily diet without tomatoes, cabbage, and sweet peppers. They are grouped by the name of the organ from which the vegetable develops.

Depending on this, leaf, root, bulbous and fruit and vegetable crops are distinguished. Examples of the first group are lettuce, spinach, sorrel, and borage. Nutritious root vegetables develop in carrots, beets, rutabaga, radishes, celery, and parsnips. But there are especially many examples of cultivated plants that belong to the group of fruits and vegetables. These are eggplants, zucchini, pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, physalis and others.

A separate group of cultivated plants consists of fruit species. They are grown for their berries, fruits and nuts. Many of them are tree-like. These are cherries, apricots, sweet cherries, peaches, apple trees. These are perennial plants, the fruiting period of which begins after several years of development.

Shrubs also produce valuable fruits: pomegranate, dogwood, hazel, currant, gooseberry. Grapes are a vine plant, and strawberries, wild strawberries, cranberries and cloudberries are perennial herbs.

IN tropical countries Various types of palm trees are widespread: date, coconut, oilseed. Many people believe that bananas also belong to this group. In fact, this plant is herbaceous.

So, cultivated plants are the species that people grow to produce agricultural products. It is used as food, animal feed, and raw material for the processing and pharmaceutical industries.

How often in life we ​​hear and use the word “culture” in relation to a variety of phenomena. Have you ever thought about where it came from and what it means? Of course, such concepts as art, rules immediately come to mind good manners, politeness, education, etc. Further in the article we will try to reveal the meaning of this word, as well as describe what types of culture exist.

Etymology and definition

Since this concept is multifaceted, it also has many definitions. Well, first of all, let's find out in what language it originated and what it originally meant. And it arose in ancient Rome, where the word “culture” (cultura) was used to describe several concepts at once:

1) cultivation;

2) education;

3) reverence;

4) education and development.

As you can see, almost all of them today fit the general definition of this term. IN Ancient Greece it also meant education, upbringing and love of agriculture.

As for modern definitions, in in a broad sense Culture is understood as a set of spiritual and material values ​​that express one or another level, that is, an era, of the historical development of mankind. According to another definition, culture is the area of ​​spiritual life of human society, which includes a system of upbringing, education and spiritual creativity. In a narrow sense, culture is the degree of mastery of a certain area of ​​knowledge or skills of a particular activity, thanks to which a person gains the opportunity to express himself. His character, style of behavior, etc. are formed. Well, the most commonly used definition is the consideration of culture as a form of social behavior of an individual in accordance with the level of his education and upbringing.

Concept and types of culture

There are various classifications of this concept. For example, cultural scientists distinguish several types of culture. Here are some of them:

• mass and individual;
• western and eastern;
• industrial and post-industrial;
• urban and rural;
• high (elite) and mass, etc.

As you can see, they are presented in pairs, each of which is an opposition. According to another classification, there are the following main types of culture:

• material;
• spiritual;
• informational;
• physical.

Each of them can have its own varieties. Some culturologists believe that the above are forms rather than types of culture. Let's look at each of them separately.

Material culture

Subjugation of natural energy and materials human purposes and the creation of a new habitat by artificial means is called material culture. This also includes various technologies that are necessary for conservation and further development of this environment. Thanks to material culture, the standard of living of society is set, the material needs of people are formed, and ways to satisfy them are proposed.

Spiritual culture

Beliefs, concepts, feelings, experiences, emotions and ideas that help establish a spiritual connection between individuals are considered spiritual culture. It also includes all products of non-material human activity that exist in an ideal form. This culture contributes to the creation of a special world of values, as well as the formation and satisfaction of intellectual and emotional needs. It is also a product of social development, and its main purpose is the production of consciousness.

Part of this type of culture is artistic. It, in turn, includes the entire set of artistic values, as well as the system of their functioning, creation and reproduction that has developed over the course of history. For the entire civilization as a whole, as well as for an individual individual, the role artistic culture, which is otherwise called art, is simply huge. It affects the inner spiritual world of a person, his mind, emotional state and feelings. Types of artistic culture are nothing more than different types of art. Let us list them: painting, sculpture, theater, literature, music, etc.

Artistic culture can be both mass (folk) and high (elite). The first includes all works (most often single ones) by unknown authors. Folk culture includes folklore creations: myths, epics, legends, songs and dances - which are accessible to the general public. But elite, high culture consists of a collection of individual works by professional creators, which are known only to a privileged part of society. The varieties listed above are also types of culture. They simply relate not to the material, but to the spiritual side.

Information culture

The basis of this type is knowledge about information environment: laws of functioning and methods of effective and fruitful activity in society, as well as the ability to correctly navigate endless streams of information. Since speech is one of the forms of information transmission, we would like to dwell on it in more detail.

A culture of speech

In order for people to communicate with each other, they need to have a culture of speech. Without this, there will never be mutual understanding between them, and therefore no interaction. From the first grade of school, children begin to study the subject “Native Speech”. Of course, before they come to first grade, they already know how to speak and use words to express their childhood thoughts, ask and demand from adults to satisfy their needs, etc. However, the culture of speech is completely different.

At school, children are taught to correctly formulate their thoughts through words. This promotes their mental development and self-expression as individuals. Every year the child acquires a new vocabulary, and he begins to think differently: wider and deeper. Of course, in addition to school, a child’s speech culture can also be influenced by factors such as family, yard, and group. From his peers, for example, he can learn words called profanity. Some people own very little for the rest of their lives. vocabulary, well, and, naturally, they have a low speech culture. With such baggage, a person is unlikely to achieve anything big in life.

Physical Culture

Another form of culture is physical. It includes everything that is connected with the human body, with the work of its muscles. This includes the development of a person's physical abilities from birth to the end of life. This is a set of exercises and skills that contribute to the physical development of the body, leading to its beauty.

Culture and society

Man is a social being. He constantly interacts with people. You can understand a person better if you consider him from the point of view of relationships with others. In view of this, there are the following types of culture:

• personality culture;
• team culture;
• culture of society.

The first type relates to the person himself. It includes his subjective qualities, character traits, habits, actions, etc. The culture of a team develops as a result of the formation of traditions and the accumulation of experience by people united by common activities. But the culture of society is the objective integrity of cultural creativity. Its structure does not depend on individuals or groups. Culture and society, being very close systems, nevertheless do not coincide in meaning and exist, although next to each other, but on their own, developing according to separate laws inherent only to them.

By the nature of creations one can distinguish the culture represented in single samples And popular culture. First form by characteristic features creators is divided into folk and elite culture. Folk culture represents single works, most often by nameless authors. This form of culture includes myths, legends, tales, epics, songs, dances, etc. Elite culture- a collection of individual creations that are created well-known representatives privileged part of society or at its request by professional creators. Here we're talking about about creators who have high level education and well known to the enlightened public. This culture includes art, literature, classical music, etc.

Mass (public) culture represents products of spiritual production in the field of art, created in large quantities for the general public. The main thing for her is to entertain the broadest masses of the population. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of level of education. Its main feature is the simplicity of ideas and images: texts, movements, sounds, etc. Samples of this culture are aimed at the emotional sphere of a person. At the same time, mass culture often uses simplified examples of elitist and folk culture(“remixes”). Mass culture homogenizes spiritual development of people.

Subculture- this is the culture of any social group: confessional, professional, corporate, etc. As a rule, it does not deny universal human culture, but has specific characteristics. Signs of a subculture are special rules of behavior, language, and symbols. Each society has its own set of subcultures: youth, professional, ethnic, religious, dissident, etc.

Dominant culture- values, traditions, views, etc., shared only by part of society. But this part has the opportunity to impose them on the entire society, either due to the fact that it constitutes the ethnic majority, or due to the fact that it has a coercive mechanism. A subculture that opposes the dominant culture is called a counterculture. The social basis of counterculture is people who are, to a certain extent, alienated from the rest of society. Studying the counterculture allows us to understand cultural dynamics, formation and dissemination of new values.

The tendency to evaluate the culture of one's own nation as good and correct, and another culture as strange and even immoral, has been called "ethnocentrism" Many societies are ethnocentric. From a psychological point of view, this phenomenon acts as a factor in the unity and stability of a given society. However, ethnocentrism can be a source of intercultural conflicts. The extreme forms of manifestation of ethnocentrism are nationalism. The opposite is cultural relativism.

Elite culture

Elite, or high culture is created by a privileged part, or by its order, by professional creators. It includes fine art, classical music and literature. High culture, for example, the painting of Picasso or the music of Schnittke, is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an averagely educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary scholars, regulars of museums and exhibitions, theatergoers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population increases, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its varieties include secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is “ art for art's sake”.

Elite culture intended for narrow circle highly educated public and opposes both folk and mass culture. It is usually incomprehensible to the general public and requires good preparation for correct perception.

Elite culture includes avant-garde movements in music, painting, cinema, and complex literature philosophical nature. Often the creators of such a culture are perceived as inhabitants of an “ivory tower”, fenced off with their art from real everyday life. As a rule, elite culture is non-commercial, although sometimes it can be financially successful and move into the category of mass culture.

Modern trends are such that mass culture penetrates into all areas of “high culture”, mixing with it. At the same time, mass culture reduces the overall cultural level its consumers, but at the same time itself gradually rises to a higher cultural level. Unfortunately, the first process is still much more intense than the second.

Folk culture

Folk culture is recognized as a special form of culture. Unlike elitist folk culture, culture is created by anonymous creators who do not have vocational training . The authors of folk creations are unknown. Folk culture is called amateur (not by level, but by origin) or collective. It includes myths, legends, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs and dances. In terms of execution, elements of folk culture can be individual (statement of a legend), group (performing a dance or song), or mass (carnival processions). Folklore is another name for folk art, which is created by various segments of the population. Folklore is localized, that is, associated with the traditions of a given area, and is democratic, since everyone participates in its creation. Modern manifestations of folk culture include jokes and urban legends.

Mass culture

Mass or public art does not express the refined tastes of the aristocracy or the spiritual quest of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when mass media(radio, print, television, recordings, tape recorders, video) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social classes. Mass culture can be international and national. Popular and pop music is a striking example of mass culture. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of level of education.

Popular culture is usually has less artistic value than elite or popular culture. But she has the most wide audience. It satisfies the immediate needs of people, reacts to and reflects any new event. Therefore, examples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose relevance, become obsolete, and go out of fashion. This does not happen with works of elite and popular culture. Pop culture is a slang name for mass culture, and kitsch is its variety.

Subculture

The set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs that guide the majority of members of society is called dominant culture. Since society breaks up into many groups (national, demographic, social, professional), each of them gradually forms its own culture, i.e., a system of values ​​and rules of behavior. Small cultures are called subcultures.

Subculture- Part general culture, a system of values, traditions, customs inherent in a certain. They talk about a youth subculture, a subculture of older people, a subculture of national minorities, a professional subculture, a criminal subculture. A subculture differs from the dominant culture in language, outlook on life, manners of behavior, hairstyle, dress, and customs. The differences may be very strong, but the subculture is not opposed to the dominant culture. Drug addicts, deaf and dumb people, homeless people, alcoholics, athletes, and lonely people have their own culture. Children of aristocrats or members of the middle class are very different in their behavior from children of the lower class. They are reading different books, go to different schools, focus on different ideals. Each generation and social group has its own cultural world.

Counterculture

Counterculture denotes a subculture that not only differs from the dominant culture, but is opposed and in conflict with dominant values. The terrorist subculture is opposed to human culture, and the hippie youth movement in the 1960s. denied the mainstream American values: hard work, material success, conformism, sexual restraint, political loyalty, rationalism.

Culture in Russia

The state of spiritual life in modern Russia can be characterized as transitional from upholding the values ​​associated with attempts to build a communist society to the search for a new meaning of social development. We have entered the next round of the historical dispute between Westerners and Slavophiles.

Russian Federation - multinational country. Its development is determined by the characteristics of national cultures. The uniqueness of the spiritual life of Russia lies in its diversity cultural traditions, religious beliefs, moral standards, aesthetic tastes, etc., which is associated with the specifics of the cultural heritage of different peoples.

Currently, in the spiritual life of our country there are contradictory trends. On the one hand, the mutual penetration of different cultures contributes to interethnic understanding and cooperation, on the other hand, the development of national cultures is accompanied by interethnic conflicts. The latter circumstance requires a balanced, tolerant attitude towards the culture of other communities.