The concept of "universals of culture"

In order to designate the constituent elements of universal culture in cultural studies and sociology, there is the concept of "cultural universal".

Definition 1

Cultural universals are existing customs, traditions, values, rules and norms that are universal in nature, that is, they are characteristic of most cultures and do not depend on the time of existence, historical era, features of the geographical location and social structure of a given society.

Elements that make up the universals of culture

Let us consider in more detail the constituent elements of cultural universals:

1. Traditions- this is a collective experience, features of actions and relationships, norms of behavior that persist for a sufficiently long period of time, transmitted from generation to generation and ensure the process of preserving and transmitting cultural information, values ​​and patterns of behavior.
2. customs- this is an elementary type of cultural regulation, based on unwritten rules and habitual patterns of behavior that are performed on an established occasion at a certain time period and in a certain place.
3. Rites and rituals- these are separate, special cases of customs, which usually have ethnic, religious or social specifics.
4. foundations is a kind of customs that have moral significance. This category includes behavior that is characteristic of a given society and falls under the moral assessment of members of the society.
5. cultural norms- these are the standards of certain activities that have been established in the course of the historical development of society, which regulate the behavior and attitudes of people, reflect their moral attitudes towards worthy and desirable. Norms may differ in the obligatory nature of their implementation and the degree of freedom to choose them.
6. Values- these are certain properties of objects or phenomena, reflecting the level of its significance for the effective satisfaction of the interests and desires of members of society.

Types of values

Each person has his own, certain system of values. There is a classification various kinds values:

• life values, which include the basic physiological needs of a person (housing, food, water);
• social values, which are determined by the need for public recognition of the achievements of the individual by his immediate environment;
• moral values, which include friendship, honesty, kindness, mutual assistance;
• religious values ​​that promote faith in God, salvation, a virtuous life and universal human values;
• aesthetic, which include beauty, harmony, the ability to perceive beauty in the surrounding world;
• political, including patriotism, civil rights and freedoms.

On the basis of the system of values ​​existing in society, certain values ​​are formed, which are passed down from generation to generation with the help of education and training.

Language as one of the most significant cultural universals

Another, perhaps the most significant cultural universal is language.

Definition 2

Language is a set of signs and symbols that are endowed with a certain content and organized according to certain rules. Language is one of the most important carriers of culture, a way of storing and transmitting human experience from generation to generation.

Thus, we can conclude that the emergence of cultural universals is due to the uniformity of human life as a unit of society. Any person, no matter what culture he belongs to, has practically the same physical needs, social problems, as representatives of other cultures. These problems and ways to solve them are posed by the world around humanity.

Cultural universals- these are such norms, values, rules, traditions and properties that are inherent in all cultures, regardless of geographical location, historical time and social structure of society.

Cultural value universals are universal values. They arise because all people, in whatever part of the world they live, are physically arranged in the same way, they have the same biological needs and face the common problems that poses to humanity environment. People are born and die, so all nations have customs associated with birth and death.

Human values ​​have been and remain a problem for social science. Many researchers are engaged in their identification, description and interpretation. There are many approaches, and they are different. Someone is looking for universal human values ​​in the semantics of value terms and in checking the truth, the truth of value judgments. Someone turns to genealogy for help: the more ancient the values, the more "human" they are. Someone sees a way out in the approving opinion of the majority, and so on.

Heinrich Rickert(1863 – 1936), German philosopher, one of the founders of the Baden school of neo-Kantianism, places universal human values ​​in special world transcendence and objective significance, which is on the other side of the subject and object, their usual relationship for us. He has three worlds: the world of reality, the world of values ​​and the world of immanent meaning (in the latter, the first two are combined).

In the biogenetic concept of universal human values, developed B.K. Malinovsky(1884 - 1942), the universal phenomena of culture have a functional commonality, i.e. satisfy the vital needs of a person and society, strengthen social ties between people. The functional commonality of meeting these needs (ultimately, the need for survival, adaptation to the environment) extends to all cultures without exception, this is their identically essential characteristic.

Louis P. Podjman he calls universal human values ​​the core of morality as such, since they are objective or prima facie (accepted "from the first time", "immediately") in nature. Based on the rational nature of man and rationally weighing various moral systems, he singles out ten “candidates” for universal human values ​​(root or basic moral principles):

Don't kill innocent people;

Do not cause unnecessary pain and suffering;

Soften, relieve, where possible, pain and suffering;

Keep promises and contracts;

Do not encroach on the freedom of another person;

Be fair, treat equals equally and unequally unequal;

Accept with gratitude the services rendered to you, reciprocate;

Be truthful and sincere;

Help other people;

Follow fair laws.

In 1959 an American sociologist and ethnographer George Murdoch identified more than 60 cultural universals common to all societies: language, religion, symbols, tool making, sexual restrictions, gift-giving customs, sports, and so on. These universals exist because they satisfy the most important biological and social needs.

A. Maslow(1908 - 1980) also highlighted the values ​​inherent in each individual: truth, goodness, beauty, integrity, overcoming dichotomy, vitality, uniqueness, perfection, necessity, completeness, justice, order, simplicity, wealth, ease without effort, play, self-sufficiency.

So, the value system of a social subject may include various values, but they are all divided into two large groups: material and spiritual. Such a dichotomy of values ​​is due to the dual nature of man: material (bodily, biological) and spiritual (ideal, conscious).

Man, as a biological being, lives a material life; he has material (biological, vital) needs, the satisfaction of which is necessary to save life. It is these material needs that determine the emergence of material value, which is one of the important areas of value consciousness. The objects and phenomena of the world are of value to a person only in so far as they serve as a means of satisfying his material needs. That which is not such has no value for man as a material (biological) being.

However, man is not only a material (biological) being; he becomes a man only when he can control his biological needs, subordinate them to his consciousness. Man also has spiritual needs, which are the basis of spiritual life, stimulating him to spiritual development. This is the so-called field of spirituality, where personal values, ideas and actions are formed under the influence of spiritual reality.

At each stage of the development of society, a certain “field of spirituality” is formed, the boundaries of which are set through the dominant forms of spiritual experience and knowledge obtained on the basis of this experience.

The specificity of the spiritual situation of our time lies in the fact that modern man, sharply feeling the lack of spirituality of his era, has lost some of the initial foundations for understanding spirituality and is left with a sense of self-loss and complete loss of life guidelines, when he has nothing to believe in. The crisis of spirituality in modern society is determined and accompanied by a number of reasons: theological - the loss of religious feeling; metaphysical - devaluation of absolute values; culturological - the general disorganization of life and the loss by a person of guidelines for the meaning of life.

A person needs a “value vertical”, in correlation with absolute values ​​and meanings. Spiritual search and movement towards spiritual perfection were associated with striving for absolute values. By right, religious values ​​can be attributed to spiritual values, affecting the deep levels of the life of the human spirit.

Cultural universals

Cultural universals are such norms, values, rules, traditions and properties that are inherent in all cultures, regardless of geographical location, historical time and the social structure of society.

In 1959, George Murdoch identified more than 70 universals: age gradation, sports, body jewelry, calendar, cleanliness, community organization, trade, visiting, observing the weather, etc.

Cultural universals arise because all people, no matter where they live in the world, are physically the same, they have the same biological needs, and they face common problems that the environment poses to the human race.

Universals come from the fact that in the world there is a very stable order formed by society. Society is a large collection of people who are in more or less constant communication with each other.

The famous American culturologist and sociologist Clyde Kluckhohn believed that the list of cultural universals should be supplemented with values ​​and ways of thinking. However, J. Clark resolutely opposed the theory of cultural universals, the basic needs cannot determine the specific aspects of culture. Clark Whisler singled out only nine: speech; material features; art; mythology and scientific knowledge; religious practice; family and social system; own; government; war. He called them universal patterns (structures, patterns) of culture.

Values ​​and norms as content elements of culture

Values ​​and norms are part of culture. Values ​​are a product of the interaction of people and their groups, during which the ability of a particular phenomenon or process to satisfy the needs, interests, desires of an individual, social group or society as a whole is revealed and its assessment takes place. It is they who allow each member of society to understand and assimilate what is recognized in it as good and what is evil; what traits of personality behavior are accepted, approved and to what extent, and which ones and to what extent are condemned. Of course, not all people in the same society are committed to the same values, equally understand and accept the principles of goodness, equality, justice, freedom, brotherhood, etc. Some are supporters of collectivism, others are individualists, for one the main thing in life is a career, for another it is wealth, for another honesty and decency, etc.

Norms are more or less generally accepted behavioral standards, i.e. beliefs shared by a society or social group about the goals to be achieved and the main ways and means that lead to these goals. In other words, they answer the question of how they relate to what already exists and to what can be. Thus, in a democratic society: peace, freedom, equality and brotherhood of people, their honor, dignity, social justice, solidarity, civic duty, material well-being, spiritual wealth and much more.

Norms are derived from values ​​and are based on them. Norms are rules of behavior, expectations and standards that regulate people's behavior, social life in accordance with the values ​​of a particular culture and determine the stability and integrity of society. Compliance with these norms is ensured in society usually through the use of social incentives and social punishments, i.e. positive and negative sanctions, acting as a more specific, direct and immediate element in the structure of social regulation. It is especially important for the value-normative regulation of the life of society to divide them into legal and moral ones. The former manifest themselves in the form of law, sometimes state or administrative normative act, contain even dispositions that determine the conditions for the application of this legal norm, and the sanctions carried out by the relevant authorities. Compliance with the second is provided by force public opinion, the moral duty of the individual. A culture that prescribes standards of correct behavior is called a normative culture. Social norms can be based not only on legal and moral norms, but also on customs and traditions.

cultural universals. J. Murdoch singled out common features common to all cultures. These include:

1) joint labor;

3) education;

4) the presence of rituals;

5) kinship systems;

6) rules for the interaction of the sexes;

The emergence of these universals is connected with the needs of man and human communities. Cultural universals appear in the variety of specific variants of culture. They can be compared in connection with the existence of East-West supersystems, national culture and small systems (subcultures): elite, popular, mass. The diversity of cultural forms raises the problem of the comparability of these forms.

Cultures can be compared by elements of culture; manifestation of cultural universals.

Cultural universals- these are such norms, values, rules, traditions and properties that are inherent in all cultures, regardless of geographical location, historical time and social structure of society.

In 1959 an American sociologist and ethnographer George Murdoch identified more than 70 universals - elements common to all cultures: age gradation, sports, body jewelry, calendar, cleanliness, community organization, cooking, labor cooperation, cosmology, courtship, dancing, decorative arts, divination, interpretation of dreams, division of labor, education, etc.

Cultural universals arise because all people, no matter where they live in the world, are physically the same, they have the same biological needs and face common problems that the environment poses to humanity. People are born and die, so all nations have customs associated with birth and death. Because they live living together, they have a division of labor, dances, games, greetings, etc.

Culture acts as an important factor in social change. It sensitively reacts to all the changes taking place in society, and itself has a significant impact on social life, shaping and determining many social processes.

Modern Western sociologists assign a large role to culture in the development of modernization processes. In their opinion , A "breakthrough" of the traditional way of life in a number of countries should occur under the direct influence of their socio-cultural contacts with already existing centers of market-industrial culture. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of the specific historical conditions of these countries, their traditions, features national character, prevailing cultural and psychological stereotypes, etc.

The special role of culture in the evolution of society was noted by the classics of world sociological thought. It is enough to cite the famous work M. Weber“Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism”, where it was shown how the ideological attitudes of Protestantism led to the formation of a system of value orientations, motivation and behavioral stereotypes, which formed the basis of capitalist entrepreneurship and significantly contributed to the formation of the bourgeois era.

The role of culture as a factor of social change especially increases during the period of social reforms. This can be clearly seen in the example of our country.

In these conditions special meaning acquires the development of a new cultural policy. Cultural policy is understood as a set of measures to regulate the development of spiritual and value aspects of social life. Culture is given the role of forming value-oriented, optimally organized and socially effective activities.

Cultural policy involves compliance with a number of important requirements arising from the historical experience of the functioning and development of culture itself:

1) not to conflict with socio-historical processes, to capture the main trends and focus on the stable laws of socio-cultural evolution;

2) to consider the whole society as an object of cultural policy, characterized by heterogeneity and requiring a flexible combination of universal and local methods of influence;

3) not to limit the understanding of the subject of cultural policy only to the state, the subject is society itself as a self-organizing, self-developing system, in the regulation of which various cultural organizations can participate;

4) gradually influence the public consciousness, value orientations and morals through science, education, enlightenment, upbringing, etc., forming the socio-cultural values ​​of society;

5) constant consideration of the multinational character of Russian culture.

Thus, in the conditions of modern Russian society culture is called upon to give a moral and ethical analysis of various aspects of life, to correlate the existing contradictions of the situation of transition to market relations with universal values, to show the possibilities of social progress, to give it a humanistic orientation. The social role of culture is also manifested in the formation of models and stereotypes of the activities of various social groups and strata. Currently, there is a destruction of existing orientations that no longer correspond to the changed situation. Culture seeks to preserve the positive norms and values ​​formed earlier, and to create new models and standards of behavior and activity, thus exerting a regulatory impact on the development of social processes.

Target sociological research crops - set producers cultural property, channels and means of its dissemination, assess the impact of ideas on social action, on the formation or disintegration of groups or movements.
Sociologists approach the phenomenon of culture from different points of view:

1) subject, considering culture as a static entity;

2) valuable, paying great attention creativity;

3) activity, introducing the dynamics of culture;

4) symbolic, asserting that culture consists of symbols;

5) gaming: culture is a game where it is customary to play by your own rules;

6) textual, where the main attention is paid to language as a means of transmitting cultural symbols;

7) communicative, considering culture as a means of transmitting information.

Sociologists identify several main patterns in the development of culture.

1) The dependence of the type of culture on the natural and artificial conditions of society and its inverse effect on their change.

2) Continuity in the development of culture. It can be temporal and spatial, positive (continuation of one or another cultural tradition) and negative (denial of previous cultural experience).

3) The uneven development of culture, which is expressed in two aspects: a) the rise and fall of culture do not coincide with the periods of rise and fall in other areas public life(for example, in economics);

b) the types of culture themselves develop unevenly.

4) The special role of personality, individuality in the cultural process.

Great importance for the development and functioning of culture have qualitative changes in science and technology, giving new opportunities for the production and dissemination of cultural values. This is the emergence of writing, and the invention of printing, as well as modern achievements in science and technology.

There are three main forms of culture dissemination - through cultural borrowing (targeted imitation), cultural diffusion (spontaneous dissemination), and independent discoveries.

Cultural borrowings experts consider it a more common source of cultural change, they are referred to as a peaceful way of transferring the values ​​of one culture to the soil of another. The concept of cultural borrowing indicates what and how exactly is adopted: material objects, scientific ideas, customs and traditions, values ​​and norms of life.

One people does not borrow everything from another, but only what is close to its own culture, will raise the prestige of the people, will allow it to move up the steps of progress, will give it an advantage over other peoples, and meets the internal needs of this ethnic group.

A country that borrows something from someone else is called recipient culture, and the country that gives its own is called donor culture.

cultural diffusion - this is the mutual penetration of cultural features and complexes from one society to another when they come into contact. Cultural contact is called cultural contact. It may not leave any trace in both cultures, or it may end up with an equal and strong influence of them on each other, or no less strong, but one-sided influence. The channels of diffusion are migration, tourism, missionary activity, trade, war, scientific conferences, trade shows and fairs, student and professional exchanges, etc. Cultural diffusion can occur not only between countries and peoples, but also between groups and classes.

When we are talking not just about cultural changes, but about changes in which integrity and direction take place, when certain patterns can be traced, then one speaks of the dynamics of culture. If we keep in mind that culture is a meaningful aspect of the joint, that is, social, life of people, then it will be correct to speak of sociocultural dynamics. Changes in culture can be progressive and regressive, gradual, evolutionary and revolutionary, there can be states of crisis and stagnation or stagnation.

cultural transmission- the process by which culture is transmitted from previous generations to subsequent generations through learning. Cultural transmission makes possible the phenomenon of cultural continuity, its continuity in time. The successive change of cycles of cultural development within the framework of one people or country should take place in such a way that the basic elements of culture are transmitted from generation to generation, and only secondary ones are modified.

Since any culture develops over time, a significant part of the past cultural heritage, which has proven its value, is preserved at a new stage. The break of the cultural chain occurs in those cases when the way of life of people - the bearers of this culture - suddenly changes. Although this has happened repeatedly in the history of many countries, there has never been a complete break with the past. The continuity or continuity of a culture proves its viability. In 1917 in Russia there was a complete break with past culture and it has been artificially suppressed for 75 years. But after 75 years in Russia they again returned to the values ​​of the past, pre-revolutionary culture. The return became possible due to the fact that the monuments survived, albeit in small numbers. material culture(churches, books), living carriers of culture, as well as some traditions, customs, religion, historical memory people.

Thanks to cultural transmission, each subsequent generation gets the opportunity to pick up where the previous one left off. The younger generation adds new knowledge to the already accumulated wealth. Accumulation takes place where more new elements are added to the cultural heritage than old ones are discarded, this is a process of enrichment existing culture new elements: the emergence of new patterns, differentiation, integration of old ones and borrowing from other cultures. On the contrary, when more cultural traits disappear during a given period than are added, one speaks of cultural attrition.

Cultural accumulation is such a process, the final completion of which is the formation of cultural heritage. Society, supporting its culture, has created a system of cultural institutions designed to accumulate cultural heritage, preserve and pass it on to the next generations. In particular, they include museums and libraries.

Under cultural integration implies a process of increasing interdependence between different cultures leading to the formation of an integral harmonious cultural system. Integration or unity of culture is created due to the proximity or similarity of the main elements of culture and the difference between non-basic, non-main elements. The elements that make up a culture tend to be a coherent and balanced whole. However, perfect integration is not achievable for the simple reason that historical events continuously influence culture. Moreover, it is not enough to simply be aware of salient features one culture or another. Two cultures can have identical sets of elements and still differ significantly. It is necessary to know how the various cultural ingredients are interrelated. Examples are the modern holidays of Christmas and Easter. In pre-Christian times, many European peoples performed rituals dedicated to the middle of winter. The midwinter festival was often accompanied by games, dancing, mutual gifts, and general merriment. These elements have entered the celebration of Christmas and are reflected in the traditional greeting “Merry Christmas!” The first Christians found it convenient to combine the celebration of Christmas and Easter with the already existing traditional holidays.

Culture is an important factor in social change. Slowly, over many centuries, people made single inventions and discoveries that became cultural basis for an avalanche of discoveries and inventions of the future. It took a man several hundred millennia to invent the wheel, which was then used in thousands of other inventions and discoveries. This and many other examples show that in human society, culture developed extremely slowly in prehistoric times, more rapidly in the Middle Ages and during the period new history, and then unusually quickly and with an unlimited area of ​​\u200b\u200bdistribution in our time. A large part of the problems modern man is to adapt yourself and adapt the social structure of society to a rapidly changing culture. With the development of material culture and the spread of cultural patterns, it is impossible not to see fundamental changes in the norms Everyday life, political norms, laws and government. As a result, the state, religious, economic, educational and family institutions, as well as the structures of relationships between members of society, were completely transformed.

Thus, the emergence of agricultural and industrial technologies also led, according to the American sociologist N. Smelser, to profound changes:

1) in the political sphere - from simple tribal or village power systems to complex systems suffrage, political parties, representative and civil bureaucracy;

2) in the field of education, changes lead to the reduction of illiteracy and the development of economically productive skills and abilities;

3) in the religious sphere, changes lead to the separation of religion from education, the beginning of the transformation of traditional beliefs;

4) in the family sphere, the spread of kinship and clan associations is stopped;

5) in the sphere of stratification, increased geographical and social mobility leads to the disintegration of fixed, rigidly prescribed hierarchical systems.

Thus, cultural changes, both in the material and in the spiritual sphere, lead to the reorganization of all aspects of society.

In order to exist in the social world, a person needs communication and cooperation with other people. But essential for the implementation of joint and purposeful action should be such a situation in which people have a common idea of ​​how to act correctly and how it is wrong, in which direction to apply their efforts. In the absence of such a vision, concerted action cannot be achieved. Thus, a person, as a social being, must create many generally accepted patterns of behavior in order to successfully exist in society, interacting with other individuals. Similar patterns of behavior of people in society, regulating this behavior in certain direction are called social norms. So, for a handshake, we stretch out our right hand; Arriving at the store, we stand in line; We don't talk loudly in the library. In carrying out these activities, we adhere to generally accepted norms. Our culture defines such behavior as correct.

A cultural norm is a system of behavioral expectations, a cultural image of how people are expected to act. From this perspective, a normative culture is an elaborate system of such norms, or standardized, expected ways of feeling and acting, that members of a society follow more or less exactly. There are thousands of commonly accepted patterns of behavior. Each time, from a huge number of options for possible behavior, the most efficient and convenient ones are selected. Through trial and error, as a result of influence from other groups and the surrounding reality, the social community chooses one or more options for behavior, repeats, consolidates them and accepts them to meet individual needs in everyday life. On the basis of successful experience, such behaviors become ways of life of the people, everyday, everyday culture or customs.

Therefore, customs are simply the habitual, normal, most convenient, and fairly widespread modes of group activity. shrug right hand when greeting, eating from a fork, riding on right side streets, coffee or tea for breakfast are all customs.

Moral standards. Some customs, adopted as a result of social practice in a particular group or in society as a whole, turn out to be the most important, affecting the vital interests in the interactions of members of the group, contributing to their security and social order.

These are patterns of behavior that we must follow, as they are considered essential to the well-being of the group or society and their violation is highly undesirable. Such ideas about what should and should not be done, which are connected with certain social modes of existence of individuals, are called moral standards, or mores.

My reaction to the behavior of a person walking down the street, who is discussing loudly with someone on mobile phone its problems are twofold. I was uncomfortable with the fact that I unwittingly overheard someone else's conversation, and I was annoyed by the loud voice of a stranger. I was not indifferent to his behavior, because. I experienced a feeling of inner discomfort.

Most of the people I interviewed agreed with this answer.

If a person is in a public place, then you need to follow the accepted patterns of behavior, the rules of good manners and courtesy;

However, informal norms are no less significant, because they regulate a much larger volume of human actions, and their observance is supported by the very relationships and interactions between people.

social experience human society shows that moral standards are not invented, not created intentionally, when someone recognizes something as a good idea or order. They arise gradually, from the daily life and group practice of people, without conscious choice and mental effort. Moral norms arise from a group decision that a single action is harmful and should be forbidden (or, conversely, a single action seems so necessary that its performance should be mandatory). According to the members of the group, certain moral norms should be encouraged or punished in order to achieve group well-being.

Conclusion

Culture is a spiritual component of human activity as an integral part and condition of the entire system of activity that provides various aspects of human life. This means that culture is omnipresent, but at the same time, in each specific type of activity, it represents only its own spiritual side - in all the variety of socially significant manifestations.

At the same time, culture is also a process and result of spiritual production, which makes it an essential part of the total social production and social regulation along with the economy, politics and social structure. Spiritual production and ensures the formation, maintenance, dissemination and implementation of cultural norms, values, meanings and knowledge embodied in various components of culture (myths, religion, art culture, ideology, science, etc.). As an important component of total production, culture is not limited to non-productive consumption or service. It is an indispensable prerequisite for any efficient production.

The human world is the world of culture. Culture is the mastered and materialized experience of human life. Any historical type culture in its concreteness represents the inseparable unity of two components - actual culture and accumulated culture, or cultural memory. To all the questions that arise before him, a person is looking for an answer in the culture he has assimilated. Culture is a unique characteristic of human life and therefore is extremely diverse in its specific manifestations. Culture is a complex system, the elements of which are not just multiple, but are closely intertwined and interconnected. Culture reveals its content through a system of norms, values, meanings, ideas and knowledge, which are expressed in the system of morality and law, religion, art and science. Culture also exists in a practically effective form, in the form of events and processes in which the attitudes and orientations of the participants, i.e., various strata, groups and individuals, have manifested themselves. These processes and events that are part of a common history or are associated with some manifestations of economic, social and political life, have a cultural background, turn out to be facts and factors cultural history and cultural heritage of the society.

Cultural universals are such norms, values, rules, traditions and properties that are inherent in all cultures, regardless of geographical location, historical time and social structure of society.

Culture is considered in sociology as a complex dynamic formation that has a social nature and is expressed in social relations aimed at the creation, assimilation, preservation and dissemination of objects, ideas, value ideas that ensure mutual understanding of people in various social situations. The object of sociological research is the specific distribution of forms and methods of development, creation and transfer of cultural objects existing in a given society, stable and changeable processes in cultural life, as well as the social factors and mechanisms that determine them. In this context, sociology studies the widespread, stable and recurring in time diverse forms of relations between members of social communities, groups and society as a whole with the natural and social environment, the dynamics of cultural development, which makes it possible to determine the level of development of the culture of communities and, consequently, to talk about their cultural progress or regression.

Each specific community (civilization, state, nationality, etc.) creates its own culture over many centuries, which accompanies the individual throughout his life and is transmitted from generation to generation. The result is a multitude of cultures. Sociologists are faced with the problem of determining whether there is anything in common in human culture or, in scientific terms, whether there are cultural universals.

In 1959, the American sociologist and ethnographer George Murdoch identified more than 70 universals - elements common to all cultures: age gradation, sports, body jewelry, calendar, cleanliness, community organization, cooking, labor cooperation, cosmology, courtship, dancing, decorative arts , divination, interpretation of dreams, division of labor, education, etc.

Cultural universals arise because all people, no matter where they live in the world, are physically the same, they have the same biological needs and face common problems that the environment poses to humanity. People are born and die, so all nations have customs associated with birth and death. As they live together, they have a division of labor, dances, games, greetings, and so on.

§ 3. Basic elements of culture

Such elements of culture as signs and symbols are represented mainly in the language. Thanks to them, it becomes possible to streamline the experience and behavior of a person. Language is an objective form of accumulation, storage and transmission of human experience. The term "language" has at least two interrelated meanings: 1) language in general, language as a certain class of sign systems; 2) a specific, so-called ethnic language - a specific, real-life sign system used in a specific society, at a specific time and in a specific space.

Language arises at a certain stage in the development of society to satisfy many needs. Therefore, language is a multifunctional system. Its main functions are the creation, storage and transmission of information. Acting as a means of human communication (communicative function), language ensures the social behavior of a person.

Values ​​are generally accepted beliefs about the goals that a person should strive for. They form the basis of moral principles. In Christian morality, for example, the Ten Commandments, among other requirements, provide for the preservation human life(“Thou shalt not kill”), marital fidelity (“Thou shalt not commit adultery”), and respect for parents (“Honor thy father and thy mother”).

Different cultures may favor different values ​​(heroism on the battlefield, artistic creativity, asceticism), and each social order determines what is and is not a value.

Rules - regulate the behavior of people in accordance with the values ​​of a particular culture.

And social norms can represent standards of behavior. Social punishments or rewards that encourage compliance with norms are called sanctions. Punishments that keep people from doing certain things are called negative sanctions. These include a fine, imprisonment, reprimand, etc. Positive sanctions (for example, monetary rewards, empowerment, high prestige) are rewards for compliance with the norms. Sanctions acquire legitimacy on the basis of norms.

Habits arise from skills and are reinforced through repeated repetition. Habits are an established pattern (a stereotype of behavior in certain situations).

Manners are external forms of human behavior that receive a positive or negative assessment of others. They are based on habits. Manners distinguish the educated from the ill-mannered, aristocrats and secular people from commoners. If habits are acquired spontaneously, then good manners must be cultivated. Manners are extremely diverse, some are secular, others are everyday. Separately, manners make up the elements, or features of culture, a special cultural complex called etiquette. Etiquette is a system of rules of conduct adopted in special social circles that make up a single whole. Etiquette includes specific manners, norms, ceremonies and rituals. It characterizes the upper strata of society and belongs to the field of elite culture.

Unlike manners, customs are inherent in the broad masses of people. A custom is a traditionally established pattern of behavior. It is also based on habit, but refers not to individual, but to collective habits. A custom is a form of social regulation of the activity and relations of people taken from the past, which is reproduced in a particular society or social group and is familiar to its members. The custom consists in steadfast adherence to the prescriptions received from the past. Various rituals, holidays, production skills, etc. can act as a custom. Customs are unwritten rules of behavior.

If habits and customs pass from one generation to another, they turn into traditions. Traditions are elements of social and cultural heritage that are passed down from generation to generation and preserved in a particular community, social group for a long time. Traditions function in all social systems and are a necessary condition for their life. Neglect of tradition leads to a violation of continuity in the development of society and culture, to the loss of valuable achievements of mankind. Blind worship of tradition breeds conservatism and stagnation in public life. Tradition is everything that is inherited from predecessors.

A rite is a set of symbolic stereotyped collective actions that embody certain social ideas, ideas, norms and values ​​and evoke certain collective feelings. They express some religious ideas or everyday traditions. Rites are not limited to one social group, but apply to all segments of the population. Rites accompany important moments of human life. The strength of the rite is in its emotional and psychological impact on people. In the ritual, not only the rational assimilation of certain norms, values ​​and ideals takes place, but also the participants in the ritual action empathize with them.

The performance of rituals, or ceremonial acts prescribed by religious tradition, constitutes a specific type of behavior that can be traced in any society known to science. Therefore, the ritual can be considered as information that allows you to define and describe human reality.