Forms of manifestation of syncretism in early forms of art. Primitive culture: syncretism and magic Syncretism in art

Proceedings of the XIV International Conference of Young Scientists “Man in the World. The world in man: current problems of philosophy, sociology, political science and psychology.” Perm, 2011

UDC 141.338+7

Syncretism of art

Perm State National Research University,

E-mail: *****@***com

During the second half of the 20th century. social reality is changing rapidly. The era of postmodernism is imbued with eschatologism, eclecticism and cruelty, in its traditional sense. The impulsively changing reality is reflected in the artistic activities of people. Contemporary art of postmodernism shows us the striking features of cultural syncretism. These features in post-industrial society, in accordance with our hypothesis, are transformed into a new syncretism due to the progress of human universality. On the basis of new technologies and the development of human intelligence, the possibility of synthesizing all types of arts is currently being formed. In the future, art will acquire the quality of syncretic unity and cohesion. We are witnessing emerging trends in the cultural space, where there is no boundary between types of art, viewer and author, art and everyday life.

During the second half of the 20th century, social reality, overcome by the economic crisis and environmental threat, was rapidly changing. This process finds expression in the artistic activity of people. In this regard, in order to understand our rather contradictory reality, people direct their gaze to contemporary art, as its reflection.

Informatization and “training of labor” in leading sectors of the economy, the growth of the service sector and the systemic crisis of capitalism are forcing humanity to think about the “new” that is absorbing our society. In culture in general and in art in particular, there is a tendency to comprehend the “new” reality as an integrity in all its structural and functional diversity. The explosive nature of the ongoing social changes has come into clear contradiction with the psychological, cognitive and cultural attitudes of people who have a thousand-year history. The mixture of styles, genres and trends in contemporary art reflect the vacuum in which modern man unexpectedly finds himself.

Postmodernism initially emerged as a visual culture that differs from classical painting and architecture in that it focuses its attention not on reflection, but on modeling reality. The new state in which culture found itself after the transformations experienced is usually called postmodernism; it affected all spheres of people’s life, such as the rules of the game in science, literature and art.

Contemporary art of postmodernism shows us the bright features of cultural syncretism. These features in post-industrial society, in accordance with our hypothesis, are transformed into a new syncretism due to the progress of human universality. On the basis of new technologies and the development of human intelligence, the possibility of synthesizing all types of arts is currently being formed, which in the future will acquire the quality of syncretic unity and unity. We are only witnesses of emerging trends in the cultural space, where there is no boundary between types of art, viewer and author, art and everyday life. The fusion of various arts, the unity of types and genres - such syncretism is closely related to the phenomenon of mixed technology, with various kinds of mixing and synthetism. Conscious mixing of different types of art gives rise to redundancy of means and techniques of artistic expression. To create an artistic image, authors use all kinds of media devices, artists are attracted to new means of expression, the capabilities of a video camera, sound and music design, the development of action over time, etc. There are many examples illustrating these trends that can no longer be ignored. However, the question of whether artistic creativity will follow the path of further syncretization or choose a different path of development remains open. We should not forget that art is initiated in more fundamental layers of social life: in culture, social relations and, ultimately, in social existence. That is why the outlines of new horizons for art depend on where the ship of social development turns.

According to Castells, the factor determining social development is technology; in the 1980s, it was information technology that provoked “socio-practical restructuring.” “At the end of the twentieth century we are experiencing one of these rare moments in history. This moment is characterized by the transformation of our “material culture” through the work of a new technological paradigm built around information technology.” Thus, new media systems, telecommunications and the Internet are characterized by interactivity, which is already changing culture. The interactivity of virtuality lies in the fact that the subject is able to influence virtual reality in real time in the process of its formation and perception. It is the tendency towards interactive creativity that allows us to talk about the blurring of boundaries between the author and the subject of perception, because the traditional holistic image of a work of art is giving way to co-authorship. It turns out that the entire world of art can be imagined as a cosmos of virtual worlds, which is realized only in the process of aesthetic perception. In the process of forming a classical artistic image, a person actively experiences events that actually arise in his subjective world.

The second most significant trend in contemporary art is evident: “blurring the boundaries of authorship” or the emergence of the viewer as a creator, as a co-author, the blurring of traditional hierarchies. This becomes possible thanks to the fundamental property of virtual reality – its interactivity. Using the example of the “Active Fiction Show” project, one can clearly demonstrate the synthesis of traditional artistic means with high technology, which forms a proto-virtual reality. It is implemented on the theater stage, when the characters are looking for a way out of the maze, and the spectator in the hall, by analogy with a computer game, chooses a character and watches him not only from the hall, but also from the depths of the stage.

For us, the greatest interest is in the attempts of modern authors to create a multi-component spectacle based on computer technology. Dance, cinema, music and theater merge into a single whole and begin to move towards modern syncretism.

As society enters the post-industrial era, and culture enters postmodernity, the status of knowledge changes, as Jean-François Lyotard writes about this in his book “The State of Postmodernity”. In the last 40 years, advanced sciences have dealt with language, so the future society will be correlated with both Newtonian anthropology and the pragmatics of language particles.

This trend is manifested in the fact that nowadays a stable need for an intellectual viewer is often formed in the art environment. Modern “bead players” are able to freely navigate the problem and speak the languages ​​of different cultures, which frees up the hands of artists who play with codes and meanings. The viewer is now required to be able to master these codes and styles of different cultures, for successful mixing and eclecticism.

“The death of the author”, stated in the cultural environment starting from M. Foucault and R. Barthes, has become as natural a phenomenon as virtual reality. The erasing of the boundaries of authorship, as well as the general popularization of modern art with its basic axioms, does not at all formulate this phenomenon as a historical event, but rather reveals the hidden nature of human practice. Who has the right to bear this proud title of author? Does Duchamp have the right to claim the authorship of his ready made works, since his “Fountain” was not created directly by him? Today, a stable understanding has formed that the author is not only the one who “discovered” and created a thing, but also the one who demonstrated an individual understanding of this thing, who gave a completely different sound to existing forms. The author loses the title of creator; now he is not at the foundation, but rather at the temporary end of a thing. Regardless of how you look at it, the process of consuming what has already been created absorbs the creative function of art, since in the era of global communication it is impossible to perform this function alone. The question, however, is whether the modern viewer himself is ready to perform creative functions.

Thus, in the world of artistic discourse, what currently matters is not the signature of the author, but the signature of the consumer. This is art from the era of global consumption. It is believed that a work of art in itself does not carry value as an autonomous product; its value is revealed only in the process of consumption, in the process of aesthetic practice. As a result, in contemporary art museums we see not so much the products of creativity, but rather options for its personal consumption. For example, Victor Pushnitsky’s composition “Light” uses canvas, oil, wire and incandescent lamp, but in ten works created from these materials, he sought to express his original view of human life at a certain moment in his life. The light of truth in the composition is the connecting link that permeates it along this path. Here we see not so much a product as options for an individual way of consuming it.

Many authors call this feature the “quotation quality” of the modern worldview. In the works of Bravo Claudio “Madonna” (), this feature takes on an essential character. The composition, human figures, plot have long been familiar to viewers, the author only skillfully compiles them. Everything that could be created has already been created, so modern artists can only repeat the past with some arbitrary combinations.

In our opinion, the tendency towards the synthesis of all types of arts, as well as towards the technologization of art, cannot be ignored. Virtual reality, as the brainchild of HI-TEC, takes on a fundamentally new meaning for modern aesthetics. It is thanks to the increasing pace of technology development that a person has the opportunity to visibly and clearly reproduce various situations of the past, as well as what he himself did not witness. Man is on the path to the moment when he will be able to unite time, synthesize space and overcome his materiality, making space-time boundaries more transparent. Technologies provide a means for expressing the author's view, which can be aimed both at the past, the present and the future. And the viewer here is no longer just a recipient of art, but a co-author, creating his own unprecedented fantasy world. On the basis of new technologies, in our opinion, the possibility of synthesizing all types of arts is being formed, which in the future will acquire the quality of syncretic unity and cohesion.

In the “topology of the moment” project – the N+N Corsino project – the action is interactive. The attraction is that a computer figure of a girl appears on a five-meter screen, she makes monotonous dance movements, moving through virtual labyrinths and platforms. Movements generally depend on the viewer: the viewer presses the buttons on the remote control, changing the space. Thus, the visitor to the exhibition himself becomes a choreographer. The dancer is already a animated graphic scheme that exists on the screen with an independent life. Merger and contrast, dance and environment – ​​these are the oppositions that the authors persistently confront in their production.

Thus, experiments with three-dimensional imaging and cloning of performers expand space and break the boundaries of perception, on the way to another art, where research institutes become co-authors. In 2004, Nicole and Norbert Corsino were invited to the French Research Institute of Acoustics and Music (IRCAM) and Informatics (IRISA) as choreographer researchers. This indicates that art is rapidly being included in the scientific process. Modern sound and visual technologies turn out to be new means of expressing the artistic intention of the author, and, according to P. Greenaway, the artist has no right to ignore the way of thinking and technical achievements of his generation.

Only with a sufficient level of development of science and technology has it become possible to erase the boundaries between reality and virtuality, originality and derivativeness, etc. As a result of this step by mankind, the pseudo-authenticity of virtual artifacts becomes the focus of modern art.

One of the consequences of the introduction of new technologies into contemporary art was a change in the very image of the museum. Here, too, there is a tendency towards the disappearance of the boundary between individual works and the exhibition space, which sometimes plunges the eternal day of the museum into impenetrable darkness. This phenomenon can be illustrated by the work of Yuri Vasiliev, who, as part of the “Clean Project,” presented a video “prayer of the deaf and dumb.” The peculiarity was that the video was projected onto the floor directly under the viewer’s feet. Bypass? Step over? Stay? Any action of the viewer reflects the internal position of everyone. In the project “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, Nietzsche’s words “Man is a rope stretched between an animal and a superman - a rope over an abyss” are taken literally. The authors of the project built a rope stretched from the image of a monkey to the image of a man, and placed this exhibition in pitch darkness. According to the authors of the exhibition, the spectators, holding flashlights in their hands, were supposed to illuminate the path themselves, connecting the two sides of the abyss. To the music of Mahler, the audience seemed to “emerge” Nietzsche’s words from the darkness, merging with the corresponding picture. Uniform light is replaced by a beam of light more reminiscent of a movement trajectory. Now light does not perform the function of illumination, now light is the images themselves.

The entire Western culture is based on the oppositions meaning - form, essence - chance, literal - figurative, transcendental - empirical, and so on. The first concept is considered defining, and the second is derivative, revealing the meaning of the first. This classical hierarchy collapses at the foot of postmodern philosophy. Derrida writes about this wanting to demonstrate a revolution in traditional understanding. For modern metaphorical etymology, the quality of the first concept is just a variant of the second: that the literal is nothing more than a special case of the figurative. Here there is a play of text against meaning, a change in traditional accents and values.

Thus, in the modern world, the world of global consumption, we observe a non-trivial communication between the public and art, where the very binary of classical oppositions disappears - author and viewer, “high” and “low”, art and everyday life. Shocking, shock and destructiveness deliberately reveal all the ins and outs of the human soul and put it on public display. It is no coincidence that the alternative “theater without performance” brings to the fore the secondary characters of classical plays, paraphrasing on the theme of well-known plots. This allows you to unleash the creative potential of the audience and destroy the canons associated with the perception of traditional works. Minority theater performed by K. Bene provokes Deleuze to reconsider the role of the theatrical figure: the retelling of the text on stage is replaced by a surgical operation to amputate limbs. The viewer is presented with a challenge to which it is necessary to give a worthy answer. The ability to give such an answer, in our opinion, is an important criterion characterizing the likelihood of “post-industrial transformation” in a given society.

Bibliographic list

1. Barsova by Gustav Mahler. St. Petersburg, 2010.

2. Derrida J. Psyche: inventions of the other. M., 1987.

3. Castells M. Information era. Economy, society and culture. M., 2000.

4. Lyotard J. The state of postmodernity. M., 1998.

5. Description of the project “Active Fiction Show”. URL: http:///author/andreyi_ulyanovskiyi/marketingoviye_kommunikacii_28_instrumen/read_online. html? page=2 (date of access: 08/09/2011).

6. Description of the project “Thus Spoke Zarathustra.” URL:http://www. /N20605 (date of access: 08/09/2011).

7. , Vasiliev Economics. Perm, 2005.

8. Official website of the N+N Corsino project.URL: http://www. (access date: 08/09/2011).

9. Soros J. The crisis of world capitalism. M., 1999.

syncretism of art

Oksana J. Gudoshnikova

Perm State National Research University, 15, Bukirev str., Perm, Russia

During the second half of XX century the social reality is changing rapidly. The era ofpostmodernism is imbued with eschatology, eclecticism and cruelty, in its traditional sense. Impulsively changing reality is reflected in people’s artistic activity. Contemporary art of postmodernism is displaying us features of culture of syncretism. These features of postindustrial society, in accordance with our hypothesis, transform into a new syncretism due to the progress of human universality. Based on new technologies and development together with the human intellect the possibility of synthesis of all arts is being formed. In the future quality of art will acquire a syncretic unity and fusion. We are the only witnesses to the emerging trends in the cultural space where there are no boundaries between art forms, the viewer and the author, art and everyday life.

per article Gudoshnikova Oksana Yurievna

"Syncretism of Art"

The graduate student’s work “Syncretism of Art” is devoted to a very important issue of contemporary art and a discussion of the specifics of modern artistic consciousness, which becomes especially relevant in the light of the sociocultural processes taking place in the Perm region. The author demonstrated a fairly high theoretical and methodological level when discussing the current state of the issue. Among the shortcomings we include the insufficiently developed question of the philosophical, general theoretical foundations of the work.

However, taking into account the comments made in future work, this article may be recommended for publication.

A special type of synthesis of arts - syncretism was the form of existence of ancient art. This form of synthesis was characterized by an undifferentiated, organic unity of different arts that had not yet split off from a single original historical trunk of culture, which included in each of its phenomena not only the rudiments of various types of artistic activity, but also the rudiments of scientific, philosophical, religious and moral consciousness.

The worldview of ancient man was syncretic in nature, in which there was a mixture of fantasy and reality, realistic and symbolic. Everything that surrounded a person was thought of as a single whole. For primitive man, the supernatural world was closely connected with nature. This mystical unity was based on the fact that the supernatural is common to both nature and man.

Primitive syncretism is the indivisibility and unity of art, mythology, and religion. Ancient man comprehended the world through myth. Mythology, as a branch of culture, is a holistic view of the world, transmitted in the form of oral narratives. The myth expressed the worldview and worldview of the era of its creation. The first myths were ritual ceremonies with dances in which scenes from the life of the ancestors of a tribe or clan, who were depicted as half-humans and half-animals, were played out. Descriptions and explanations of these rituals were passed down from generation to generation, gradually becoming isolated from the rituals themselves - they turned into myths in the proper sense of the word - tales about the life of totemic ancestors. Later, the content of myths consists not only of the deeds of ancestors, but also of the actions of real heroes who accomplished something exceptional. Along with the emergence of belief in demons and spirits, religious myths began to be created. The most ancient monuments of art testify to the mythological relationship of man to nature. In his quest to master the forces of nature, man created apparatus of magic. It is based on the principle of analogy - the belief in gaining power over an object through mastery of its image. Primitive hunting magic is aimed at mastering the beast, its goal is a successful hunt. The center of magical rituals in this case is the image of an animal. Since the image is perceived as reality, the depicted animal is perceived as real, then actions performed with the image are thought of as occurring in reality. The principle on which primitive magic is based underlies the witchcraft widespread among all peoples. The first magical images can be considered handprints on cave walls and stones. This is a deliberately left sign of presence. Later it will become a sign of possession. Along with hunting magic and in connection with it, there is a cult of fertility, expressed in various forms erotic magic. The religious or symbolic image of a woman, the feminine principle, which is found in the primitive art of Europe, Asia, Africa, in compositions depicting hunting, occupies an important place in rituals aimed at the reproduction of those species of animals and plants that are necessary for nutrition. Research has shown that most of the female figurines were placed in a specially designated area near the hearth.

Image of people in animal masks. These drawings indicate that the magical disguise of a person, camouflage, was an essential part of both the hunt itself and the magic associated with it. Magical rituals, which often featured characters reincarnated as animals, may also have been associated with some mythological heroes in the appearance of an animal. Various rituals, which included dancing and theatrical performances, had the goal of attracting the beast, mastering it, or enhancing its fertility.

In modern traditional art, as well as in primitive art, art serves as a universal instrument of magic, while at the same time performing a broader – religious function. Rock carvings of the Bushmen's rain bull, the Australian Wonjina, symbolic signs of the Dogon, statues of ancestors, masks and fetishes, decoration of utensils, painting on bark - all this and much more has a special cult purpose. Everything plays an important role in rituals aimed at ensuring a military victory, a good harvest, successful hunting or fishing, protection from disease, etc.

The connection between art and religion, which was discovered already in the Paleolithic era and can be traced right up to the modern era, was the reason for the emergence of the theory according to which art is derived from religion: “religion is the mother of art.” However, the syncretic nature of primitive culture and the specific forms of primitive art give reason to assume that even before religious ideas were formed, art was already partially performing those functions that would only later constitute certain aspects of magical-religious activity. Art appeared and was already quite developed when religious ideas were just emerging. Moreover, there is enough reason to assume that it was the development of visual activity that stimulated the emergence of such early cults as hunting magic. The objective existence of religion is unthinkable outside of art. All major religious cults and rituals everywhere and at all times have been closely associated with various types of art. From the most ancient forms of traditional rituals, which use sculpture and painting (masks, statues, body paintings and tattoos, drawings on the ground, rock painting, etc.), music, singing, recitative, and where the whole complex as a whole is a special a kind of theatrical action, to the modern church, which is a real synthesis of strictly canonized art - everything is so permeated with art that in these collective actions it is almost impossible to distinguish religious ecstasy from that caused by the actual rhythms of painting, plastic arts, music, singing.

B. Rosenfeld

Syncretism - in the broad sense of the word - is the indivisibility of various types of cultural creativity, characteristic of the early stages of its development. Most often, however, this term is applied to the field of art, to the facts of the historical development of music, dance, drama and poetry. In the definition of A. N. Veselovsky, S. is “a combination of rhythmic, orchestral movements with song-music and elements of words.”

The study of S. phenomena is extremely important for resolving questions of the origin and historical development of the arts. The very concept of “S.” was put forward in science as a counterweight to abstract theoretical solutions to the problem of the origin of poetic genera (lyrics, epic and drama) in their supposedly sequential emergence. From the point of view of the theory of S., the construction of Hegel, who affirmed the sequence: epic - lyric - drama, and the construction of J. P. Richter, Benard and others, who considered the original form to be lyric, are equally erroneous. From the middle of the 19th century. these constructions are increasingly giving way to the theory of S., the development of which is undoubtedly closely connected with the successes of bourgeois evolutionism. Already Carriere, who generally adhered to Hegel's scheme, was inclined to think about the initial indivisibility of poetic genera. G. Spencer also expressed the corresponding provisions. S.'s idea is touched upon by a number of authors and is finally formulated with complete certainty by Scherer, who, however, does not develop it in any broad way in relation to poetry. The task of an exhaustive study of the phenomena of S. and elucidation of the ways of differentiation of poetic genera was set by A. N. Veselovsky, in whose works (mainly in “Three Chapters from Historical Poetics”) the theory of S. received the most vivid and developed (for pre-Marxist literary criticism) development, substantiated by vast factual material.

In the construction of A. N. Veselovsky, the theory of poetry basically boils down to the following: during the period of its inception, poetry not only was not differentiated by genre (lyrics, epic, drama), but in general it itself did not represent the main element of a more complex syncretic whole: The leading role in this syncretic art was played by dancing - “rhythmic orchestious movements accompanied by song-music.” The lyrics were originally improvised. These syncretic actions were significant not so much in meaning as in rhythm: sometimes they sang without words, and the rhythm was beaten out on a drum; often the words were distorted and distorted to suit the rhythm. Only later, on the basis of the complication of spiritual and material interests and the corresponding development of language, “an exclamation and an insignificant phrase, repeated indiscriminately and without understanding, as the support of a chant, will turn into something more integral, into an actual text, an embryo of the poetic.” Initially, this development of the text was due to the improvisation of the lead singer, whose role was increasingly increasing. The lead singer becomes the singer, leaving only the chorus for the choir. Improvisation gave way to practice, which we can now call artistic. But even with the development of the text of these syncretic works, dance continues to play a significant role. The choral song-game is involved in the ritual, then combined with certain religious cults; the development of the myth is reflected in the nature of the song and poetic text. However, Veselovsky notes the presence of non-ritual songs - marching songs, work songs. In all these phenomena are the beginnings of various types of art: music, dance, poetry. Artistic lyricism became isolated later than artistic epic. As for drama, in this matter A. N. Veselovsky decisively (and rightly) rejects the old ideas about drama as a synthesis of epic and lyric poetry. Drama comes directly from syncretic action. The further evolution of poetic art led to the separation of the poet from the singer and the differentiation of the language of poetry and the language of prose (in the presence of their mutual influences).

There is much that is true in this entire construction of A.N. Veselovsky. First of all, he substantiated with vast factual material the idea of ​​the historicity of poetry and poetic genera in their content and form. The facts of S., attracted by A.N. Veselovsky, are beyond doubt. With all this, in general, the construction of A. N. Veselovsky cannot be accepted by Marxist-Leninist literary criticism. First of all, despite the presence of some individual (often correct) remarks about the connection between the development of poetic forms and the social process, A. N. Veselovsky treats the problem of poetry as a whole in isolation, idealistically. Without considering syncretic art as a form of ideology, Veselovsky inevitably narrows the field of syncretic art to the phenomena of only art, only artistic creativity. Hence not only a number of “blank spaces” in Veselovsky’s scheme, but also the general empirical nature of the entire structure, in which the social interpretation of the analyzed phenomena does not go further than references to class, professional, etc. moments. Essentially, questions about the relationship of art (in its initial stages) to the development of language, to myth-making remain outside the field of view of Veselovsky; the connection between art and ritual is not fully and deeply considered; only a passing mention is made of such an essential phenomenon as work songs, etc. etc. Meanwhile, S. embraces the most diverse aspects of the culture of pre-class society, by no means limiting itself only to the forms of artistic creativity. Taking this into account, it is possible to assume that the path of development of poetic genera from syncretic “rhythmic, orchestic movements with song-music and elements of words” is not the only one. It is no coincidence that A. N. Veselovsky blurs the question of the significance of oral prose legends for the initial history of the epic: while mentioning them in passing, he cannot find a place for them in his scheme. It is possible to take into account and explain the phenomena of S. in their entirety only by revealing the social and labor basis of primitive culture and the various connections connecting the artistic creativity of primitive man with his labor activity.

G. V. Plekhanov went in this direction in explaining the phenomena of primitive syncretic art, who widely used Bucher’s work “Work and Rhythm”, but at the same time he argued with the author of this study. Fairly and convincingly refuting Bucher’s propositions that play is older than labor and art is older than the production of useful objects, G. V. Plekhanov reveals the close connection of primitive art-play with the labor activity of pre-class man and with his beliefs determined by this activity. This is the undoubted value of G.V. Plekhanov’s work in this direction (see mainly his “Letters without an address”). However, for all the value of G.V. Plekhanov’s work, despite the presence of a materialistic core in it, it suffers from the defects inherent in Plekhanov’s methodology. It reveals biologism that has not been completely overcome (for example, imitation of animal movements in dances is explained by the “pleasure” experienced by primitive man from the discharge of energy when reproducing his hunting movements). Here is the root of Plekhanov’s theory of art as play, which is based on an erroneous interpretation of the phenomena of the syncretic connection between art and play in the culture of “primitive” man (partially remaining in the games of highly cultural peoples). Of course, the syncretism of art and play takes place at certain stages of cultural development, but this is precisely a connection, not identity: both are different forms of displaying reality - play is imitative reproduction, art is an ideological-figurative reflection. The phenomenon of S. receives a different light in the works of the founder of the Japhetic theory - Academician. N. Ya. Marra. Recognizing the language of movements and gestures (“manual or linear language”) as the most ancient form of human speech, Acad. Marr connects the origin of sound speech, along with the origin of the three arts - dancing, singing and music - with magical actions that were considered necessary for the success of production and accompanying one or another collective labor process ("Japhetic Theory", p. 98, etc.). So. arr. S., according to the instructions of academician. Marr, included the word (“epic”), “the further development of the rudimentary sound language and development in the sense of forms depended on the forms of society, and in the sense of meanings on the social worldview, first cosmic, then tribal, estate, class, etc. » (“On the Origin of Language”). So in the concept of acad. Marra S. loses its narrow aesthetic character, being associated with a certain period in the development of human society, forms of production and primitive thinking.

The problem of S. is still far from sufficiently developed. It can receive its final resolution only on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist interpretation of both the process of the emergence of syncretic art in pre-class society and the process of its differentiation in the conditions of social relations of class society (see “Poetic Genera”, “Drama”, “Lyrics”, “ Epic", "Ritual poetry").

Explanations of mysterious monuments of primitive culture are almost always based on ethnographic data. But how deeply do we understand the spiritual life of backward modern peoples and the place of art in it? Primitive art can be correctly understood only in a social context, in connection with other aspects of the life of society, its structure, and worldview. One of the features of primitive society is that individual specialization is just beginning to emerge. In primitive society, every person is both an artist and a spectator. The early development of specialization is associated with the vital function that it performs from the point of view of primitive society.

TOTEMISM AS ONE OF THE MAIN FORMS OF RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS early-birth society is a reflection of the socio-economic foundations of this society, but in it the concept of the sacred, the holy, crystallizes.

In the conception and practice of primitive man, labor and magic are equally necessary, and the success of the former is often inconceivable without the latter. Primitive magic is closely related to what can be called primitive science. The personification of the fusion of these two principles in consciousness and practice is the characteristic figure of the sorcerer-healer. These principles are also generalized in the activities of cultural heroes-demiurges. A striking example of the syncretic thinking characteristic of this stage of cultural development are the words of Prometheus in the tragedy of Aeschylus. Prometheus speaks of the arts that he taught to people:

"...I am the rising and setting stars

The first one showed them. For them I made it up

The science of numbers, the most important of sciences...

I showed them ways

Mixtures of painkiller potions,

So that people can ward off all diseases.

I installed various fortune telling

And he explained what dreams come true,

What are not, and prophetic words meaning

I revealed it to people, and it will take on the meaning of the road,

Birds of prey and claws were explained by flight,

Which ones are good..."

(Aeschylus, "Prometheus Bound")

Primitive mythology is a complex phenomenon; religion is intertwined in it with pre-scientific ideas about the origin of the world and human society. Myths reflect, often in highly artistic form, the creative activity of human society, and if magic is the practice of syncretic consciousness, then myth is its theory. Syncretic thinking, which is being lost by humanity as a whole, is preserved by child psychology. Here, in the world of children's performances and games, one can still find traces of bygone eras. It is no coincidence that the child’s artistic creativity has features that bring it closer to primitive art. However, what became a game for a child was in primitive times a ritual, socially determined and mythologically interpreted. “In Acts is the beginning of Being,” says Faust.

TO STUDY PRIMITIVE ART YOU MUST CONTACT to modern culturally backward peoples, because only here can one see how art functions in life and society. The most important source is ethnographic materials related to the aborigines of Australia, who have brought archaic forms of culture and life to the present day. Having inherited the anthropological type of their ancient Upper Paleolithic ancestors and retained in isolation some features of their culture, the aborigines of Australia also inherited a number of achievements of this great era in the development of fine arts. Very interesting in this sense is the labyrinth motif in its various versions, sometimes highly stylized, including one of the most characteristic and ancient - in the form of a meander. Similar forms of ornament are widespread throughout the three great cultural and historical worlds of antiquity - in the Mediterranean and the Caucasus, in East Asia and Peru.

Ancient authors called a labyrinth a structure with a complex and intricate plan or an ornament, pattern (meander) - a symbolic image of mystery, enigma, which has many interpretations. The ancient tombs of royalty, Egyptian, Cretan, Italian, Samian, were built in labyrinthine structures to protect the ashes of their ancestors. The same protective symbolism was carried by jewelry - in their complex patterns the spirits of evil were supposed to get confused and lose their power. This symbol is also associated with the psychological meaning of passing through the labyrinth in major religions: initiation (enlightenment), symbolic return to the mother's womb, transition through death to rebirth, the process of self-discovery. One of the variants of the labyrinth motif, called the “thread of happiness” by the Mongols, became an element of Buddhist symbolism. The ornament (one of the varieties of the ancient meander), widespread in East Asia, has the same sacred meaning - “a linear attempt to generate eternal movement, eternal life.”

The sacred meaning of these stylized labyrinth forms is due to the fact that in ancient times they were associated with magical ideas, which can be expanded based on modern Australian parallels. In the eastern provinces of Australia, images in the form of a labyrinth were carved on tree trunks surrounding the graves of ancestors or places forbidden to the uninitiated where initiation rites were performed. Similar symbols were depicted on the ground. These images played an important role in the ritual life of the indigenous population; their meaning was esoteric - they could not be seen by the uninitiated. Initiated teenagers are led with their eyes closed along a path on which symbolic images of the labyrinth are inscribed. This is how the aborigines see the path of great cultural heroes and totemic ancestors across the earth and through the “land of dreams.” Sometimes, next to the image of the labyrinth, the outline of an animal was drawn, which the aborigines struck with spears during rituals. Such images were an integral part of a complex religious and magical rite.

STILL THE TRIBES IN CENTRAL AUSTRALIA ARE ON THE EARTH with the blood of animals, ritual drawings depicting the “land of dreams” - the sacred land of the ancestors, where the events of mythology unfolded, from where the ancestors of current generations once came and where they went again, having completed their earthly journey. Rock carvings of a labyrinth are also known, for example, in the south-eastern province of New South Wales. Here the labyrinth is combined with images of animal tracks, hunting scenes, and people performing a ritual dance. At the other end of the continent, mother-of-pearl shells decorated with the image of a labyrinth were used in initiation rites. Through intertribal exchange, these shells were spread over a thousand kilometers almost throughout Australia, and everywhere they were treated as something sacred. Only men who had undergone the initiation rite were allowed to hang them on themselves. They were used to cause rain, they were used in love magic, etc. The sacred meaning of the image of a labyrinth on shells is also confirmed by the fact that the production of these images was accompanied by the performance of a special song-spell of mythological content and turned into a ritual. Here is another striking example of primitive syncretism - a synthesis of fine art, a song-spell, a sacred ritual and the esoteric philosophy associated with it.

The connection of the image of the labyrinth with the rite of passage and at the same time with the funeral ritual is not accidental - after all, the rite of passage itself is interpreted as the death of the initiate and his return to a new life. Ethnographic materials on some other peoples provide similar symbolism of the labyrinth. The Chukchi depicted the abode of the dead as a labyrinth. Structures in the form of a labyrinth (sometimes underground) in Ancient Egypt, ancient Greece and Italy had religious and cult significance. The connection of the labyrinth with ideas about the world of the dead and initiation rites sheds light on the origin of the mysterious stone structures in the form of a labyrinth, common in northern Europe, from England to the White Sea. The labyrinth motif was preserved in Paleolithic painting on the rocks of Norway, in the caves of Spain and France. Images of a labyrinth in the form of a complex interweaving of lines or spirals, images of animals with their internal organs (the so-called X-ray style), images of hunters armed with boomerangs or clubs - we still see all this today in the art of the Australian aborigines.

WHAT EXPLAINS THE STABILITY OF THE LABYRINTH MOTIF OVER MANY MILLIONS OF YEARS? The fact that initially religious and magical content was invested in this ornament. That is why the image of the labyrinth could be inherited by the peoples of the Mediterranean, East Asia and Australia, and, through East Asia, by the peoples of America, for whom it was a sacred symbol based on similar ideas and ideas. Often in the complex interweaving of labyrinth lines there are images of humans, animals or commercial fish. Perhaps the labyrinths served as models of the “lower world”, where magical rites of production were performed, the return to life of killed animals, the multiplication of commercial fish and the transition of hunters, armed with boomerangs and clubs, from the “lower world” to a new life. Ethnography knows examples when rites of fertility, multiplication of animals or plants are performed simultaneously with initiation rites, as if intertwined with them. In the minds of primitive people, the productive rites of returning animals and plants to a new life and the rites of initiation, through which those initiated are reborn after temporary “death,” are connected by a deep inner meaning. The role that these images played in the religious and ritual life of the Aborigines is evidenced by the fact that even today in the Western Desert, in one of the most isolated and inaccessible places in Australia, there is still a revered totemic sanctuary dedicated to the emu bird in ancient times - "Dreamtimes"

Gallery caves depicting mythological heroes, mostly totemic ancestors, in Central Australia and the Arnhem Land Peninsula are still sacred and full of meaning for local tribes. Anthropomorphic creatures are depicted with a glow around their heads, with faces devoid of mouths; They are associated with the rite of fertility, so next to them a “rainbow snake” is depicted, also symbolizing the productive forces of nature. Before the rainy season, the natives renew these ancient images with fresh colors, which in itself is a magical act. It is curious that on the dolmens of Spain there are images of faces without beaks. The caves of Europe are replete with handprints; a hand was pressed against the wall - and the surrounding area was covered with paint. Exactly the same handprints are imprinted on the walls of many caves in Australia as a kind of signature of the person who came to perform the ritual. Images of human feet are also known in Australia. For Australians, hunters and trackers, who can recognize any person by their footprint, these images are associated with his personality.

Symbolism is a characteristic feature of Australian art. Its traditional forms, especially the frequently occurring geometric motifs, spirals, circles, wavy lines, meanders, are filled with content known only to people initiated into the mythology of the tribe, the history of ancestors, half-humans, half-animals. Australian art, like primitive art in general, develops according to special laws. But it gravitates towards a holistic image of the surrounding world, towards identifying its main essential features, and strives to express what corresponds to the level of knowledge of the aborigine about the Universe.

A specific feature of primitive culture is syncretism (unity, indivisibility) when forms of consciousness, economic activities, social life, art were not separated and were not opposed to each other.

Any type of activity contained other types. For example, in hunting there were combined technological methods for making weapons, spontaneous scientific knowledge about the habits of animals, social connections, which were expressed in the organization of hunting.

Individual, collective connections, religious ideas are magical actions to ensure success. They, in turn, included elements of artistic culture - songs, dances, painting. It is as a result of such syncretism that the characteristic of primitive culture provides for a holistic consideration of material and spiritual culture, a clear awareness of the conventions of such distribution.

G.V. Plekhanov, who widely used Bucher’s work “Work and Rhythm,” went in this direction in explaining the phenomena of primitive syncretic art. Fairly and convincingly refuting Bucher’s propositions that play is older than labor and art is older than the production of useful objects, G.V. Plekhanov reveals the close connection of primitive art-play with the labor activity of pre-class man and with his beliefs determined by this activity. This is the undoubted value of G.V. Plekhanov’s work in this direction.

The phenomenon of syncretism receives a different treatment in the works of the founder of the Japhetic theory N.Ya.Marr. Recognizing the most ancient form of human speech is the language of movements and gestures (“manual or linear language”), Academician Marr connects the origin of sound speech, along with the origin of the three arts - dancing, singing and music - with magical actions that were considered necessary for the success of production and accompanying it or other collective labor process.

So in the concept of acad. Marr, syncretism loses its narrowly aesthetic character, being associated with a certain period in the development of human society, forms of production and primitive thinking.

The problem of syncretism is still far from sufficiently developed. It can receive its final resolution only on the basis of the Marxist-Leninist interpretation of both the process of the emergence of syncretic art in pre-class society and the process of its differentiation in the conditions of social relations of class society.

Myth is a product of pre-scientific thinking. It is generated by human weaknesses, fears, lack of knowledge about the world and natural phenomena. The Enlightenmentists were convinced that as science and new knowledge about the world matured, myth would eventually be completely ousted from human culture and worldview: “man will become wiser and will no longer invent anything.” That is, myth is a cultural phenomenon inherent only in primitive thinking and is practically absent at the present stage - these are the views of representatives of the first concept.

The main characteristics of mythological consciousness as reflecting the essence of primitive culture:

1) This is a type of consciousness in which the sensual, emotional and figurative perception of the world predominates. Primitive man, as a representative of typical mythological consciousness, to a greater extent does not explain the world, but experiences it.

2) A person of mythological consciousness does not distinguish himself from any community - nature, society, the Cosmos. Man in this measurement system is always only a part of nature or even a part of the deity.

3) The homogeneity and unity of all things in mythological consciousness is ensured by the perception of everything that exists as living, animate. For primitive man, nothing is dead; everything has life, a soul.

4) In mythological consciousness, an object and its properties, and its image are fused together. A person in and of himself does not exist and means nothing. A name, a thing, character traits, actions, social roles are fused with the very essence of a person. The idea of ​​an object and the object itself are truly inseparable.

5) Mythological consciousness is not a theoretical construction, not an explanation of the world, but to a greater extent a practical, behavioral, active state of human existence. Myth necessarily realizes itself through ritual and magic. The ritual is intended to reproduce and restore the myth in practice. The myth becomes a living tangible reality precisely thanks to ritual.

6) Magic gives primitive society and man a feeling of a material connection with spirits, the spiritual world. Some cultural experts call magic the prototype, the source of science and technology. Indeed, magic is not so much a belief as it is the ritual actions themselves, aimed at the world or people with the aim of supernaturally influencing them, and for rather narrow, practical purposes. Thanks to the phenomenon of magic, it becomes clear that there are no limits to the deification of nature in primitive society. Magic is nothing more than the first attempt of people to practically use the laws of nature for their everyday (medical, commercial, military) purposes.

Mythological consciousness, through all of these beliefs, created in a person a feeling of integrity and harmony of being, and gave everything a super-significant, deep meaning. That is why many note one of the main features of myth: myth is the meaning-forming principle of culture, it is a figurative, visual embodiment of the spiritual level of existence, i.e. adaptation of the spiritual world to the conditions of human perception.

Mythology as the ideological basis of the culture of Antiquity.

The starting point of the evolution of religion was magic:

• Economic (making rain)
• Medicinal (white)
• Malicious (black)

Another form of social consciousness of primitive man was mythology as a way of understanding natural and social reality.

Mythology- historically the first form of spiritual culture. It arises at the earliest stage of social development. Then humanity, in the form of myths, i.e. legends, tried to give an answer to all the questions that worried people. Myth organizes the world in the mind, transforms chaos into space, and thereby creates the possibility of comprehending the world, presenting it in a simple and accessible form. Myth, as it existed in a primitive community, is not a story that is told, but a reality that is lived.

The myth asserted supra-personal values, hence archetypes(i.e. universal human symbols) expressing objective ideas (the world - the universe, mother earth, sacred race, hero, old sage). Example: J. Tolkien and his archetypes of Warrior, Sage, Enemy, Treasure.

Types of myths (myths about):

• cosmological myths (about the structure of the universe, the emergence of the most important natural phenomena, animals and people)
• various stages of people's lives, the mysteries of birth and death
• achievements of people: making fire, invention of crafts, development of agriculture...

The main types of mythology are another classification of myths:

• Cosmological
• Ethnological (origin of people and animals)
• About the cultural hero (Osiris, Prometheus, Christ)

Cosmological myths

A) myths about the genesis of the Universe (origin)

Initially, the Universe was presented in the form of animals, but then - in the form of a huge human organism (anthropomorphic representation). Example: Scandinavian mythology, the gods create the world from the body of a killed giant, where the head is the sky, the body is the earth, the blood is the sea.

B) myths about the structure of the Universe

The Universe is the structure of their three worlds, held together by the axis of the world.

Example: “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”: the eagle is the sky, the squirrel is the middle world, the wolf is the underworld.

World axis in the form:

• Tree. The first people were born under the world tree. (Example: Zeus was suckled by a goat near a tree)
• Mountains. (Example: in the myths of Ancient India - the sacred Mount Meru)
• Snake/ladder/spiral.

The axis mundi and the prototypes of the serpent, the mountain and the world tree are the central images of the Bible (Example: Noah’s ark landed on Mount Ararat after the flood).

Features of the myth:

· identification of subjective and objective reality. Mythological images are understood as really existing. Those. the myth is based on such a connection between man and the world, when man perceives natural phenomena as animate beings.

· Mythological comprehension of the world is of an emotional and sensual nature. Collective ideas are formed not on the basis of logical analysis, but on the generalization of experience.

· two aspects in myth - diachronic (the story of the past) and synchronic (the relationship between the present and the future). With the help of myth, the past was connected with the present and future.

The role of mythology:

• Myths affirmed the system of values ​​​​accepted in a given society, supported and sanctioned certain norms of behavior - they were important stabilizers of social life.
• They established harmony between the world and man, nature and society, society and the individual, and thus ensured the internal harmony of human life.

Mythology and ritual. The mythological worldview is expressed not only in narratives, but also in actions (rites). Myth and ritual formed a single whole. A myth is a story that describes a particular ritual, explaining its origin and why it is performed. Then the myth separated from the ritual. Example: the mythology of the ancient Greeks, presented in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. On the basis of mythology, heroic epics, legends, historical stories, and fairy tales are formed. The mythological background is preserved in the later “classical epic”. Through fairy tales and heroic epics, fiction is also connected with mythology.

Mythology and religion. In the earliest stages of the development of society, mythology and religion formed a single whole. Religion in the early stages of development does not know the division of the world into natural and supernatural. This division appears only at a relatively high stage of religious development. The division of the world into two levels (natural and supernatural) is also inherent in mythology at a fairly high stage of development. The main difference: the cult system, that is, the system of ritual actions. And therefore, every myth becomes religious to the extent that it is included in the cult system.
The myth is alive! Myth is born and dominates culture at the stage of archaic consciousness. But with the development of reflexive consciousness, it does not completely disappear from the stage, not only in the form of fairy tales and literary works, but is periodically reproduced in culture through social and mythological constructions. For example, German Nazism revived and used ancient Germanic pagan myths, and also created a variety of political myths. Research by Z. Freud and G. Jung shows that in developed societies, having ceased to be the only and dominant form of culture, myth does not disappear completely - it continues to live in the unconscious structures of the human psyche in the form of archetypes.

Myth and fairy tale. The main function of myth is explanatory. The main function of a fairy tale is entertaining and moralizing.

The concept appears microcosm– a closed and integral system formed by the human body and soul and which is a mirror image of the Universe.

21) Peculiar features of the culture of early civilization (using a specific example).

Using the example of Ancient India.

The most striking features of ancient Indian culture include:

Extreme conservatism (for thousands of years the same houses were built, the same streets were laid out, the same writing existed, etc.);

Extreme religiosity, the idea of ​​reincarnation, that is, posthumous reincarnation.

Difficult climatic conditions: stifling heat, followed by rainy seasons, riotous vegetation, the constant advance of the jungle on peasant crops, an abundance of dangerous predators and poisonous snakes gave the Hindu a feeling of humiliation before the forces of nature and their formidable gods.

In the 2nd millennium BC. here a strict, closed class-caste system arose, according to which people are unequal not only before society, but also before the gods. The concept of rights and duties was applied not to a person in general, but to a representative of a particular caste. Such limitations of human existence and a rigid hierarchy of castes created the preconditions for a unique understanding of life in its connection with death. Correct life was perceived as a condition that after death a person could be born again into a higher caste, and for a stupid, worthless life he could be punished by being born in the form of some animal, insect or plant. Consequently, life is a reward or punishment, and death is deliverance from suffering or its increase.

Such ideas gave rise to the ancient Hindus' desire for analysis and comprehension of every action. In the world, as in a person’s life, there is nothing accidental that would not be predetermined by his karma. Karma is a complex and very important concept in Indian culture. Karma is the sum of the actions performed by every living being and their consequences, which determine the nature of his new birth, that is, his further existence. It is not surprising that the main desire of a person is the desire to free himself, to break out of the shackles of eternal reincarnation, the series of life and death.

The fruit of this spiritual quest is Buddhism. Its founder is Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). Buddha outlined his creed in the so-called Benares Sermon. There he says that life is suffering. Birth and aging, illness and death, separation from a loved one and union with an unloved one, an unachieved goal and an unsatisfied desire are suffering. Beyond the path to the destruction of suffering lies complete liberation - nirvana (fading, attenuation).

Buddha taught that there are two extremes of life. One - the life of pleasures, lust and pleasure - is an unworthy, base life. The other is the life of an ascetic, of voluntary suffering, it is also base. A perfect person chooses the middle path - the path that opens the eyes and mind, which leads to peace, to knowledge, to nirvana. The Buddha's teaching is deeply moral. He calls for focusing on four standards of behavior: preventing evil, suppressing evil, promoting the emergence of good, supporting good.