Spiritual and material culture are two parts of one whole. Studying one area is almost impossible without studying another. Material culture implies any material achievements of mankind. Eg, technical inventions, architecture, household items. Objects of material culture greatly help archaeologists in their work. Based on material finds, they can reconstruct the life of our ancestors, their way of life. Material culture is the most important part of life, which changes and improves every year, in accordance with the development of humanity.
Spiritual culture is also the main indicator of the civilization of people. What does this concept include? First of all, any ideas, discoveries, concepts. For example, spiritual culture includes psychology and various works of art. This definition includes everything that has been achieved by the power of human thought and talent.
Material culture is inextricably linked with the spiritual aspect. Before constructing any building or creating any other physical object, intellectual powers people, their imagination. At the same time, objects related to spiritual culture are also expressed through material objects. For example, a person created a philosophical work and introduced it to his readers through a book.
The spiritual aspect, like material culture, also helps to understand. First of all, this is the merit of archaeologists who study ancient works of art and achievements of thought. However, spiritual culture is studied not only by historians. For example, ancient beliefs, fairy tales, and legends were carefully analyzed in their works by the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, as well as his followers. Spiritual culture allows us to understand how our forefathers saw the world, what their psychology was, which is very valuable for a deep and thoughtful knowledge of history.
What more can be said about these two concepts? Material and spiritual culture existed, of course, in different versions of development, in almost all times. Even ancient people carved drawings on the walls of caves, symbolizing animals, some everyday actions, for example, hunting.
Material culture, like spiritual culture, has experienced ups and downs many times throughout the history of mankind. Priorities also changed. That is, one culture became more important than another. It is interesting to consider people's interest in the spiritual and material aspects using the example of the well-known concept. This famous concept helps to analyze why one aspect of culture becomes more important than another. A person deprived of basic material goods, that is, shelter, food and means to help protect himself, is unlikely to be interested in the spiritual side of life. A person who has satisfied all his basic needs is already drawn to such areas as art, philosophy, and religion.
Material culture clearly shows how much a person was able to adapt to natural conditions. Without this aspect, the existence of a state, and even a person, is practically impossible. However, spiritual culture is also very important for the entire society. Without it, man would have remained a barbarian. Spiritual culture sets certain standards of behavior, forms ideals, and develops a sense of beauty. Without it, no civilization is unimaginable. However, spiritual culture is not entertainment for the elite, because it includes education, cinema, and various books. The harmony of material objects and the achievements of human intelligence helps to achieve a high level of existence, both for an entire state and for an individual.
Material culture is based on a rational, reproductive type of activity, is expressed in an objective form, and satisfies the primary needs of a person.
Composition of material culture:
Work culture (equipment and tools, energy sources, production facilities, communication systems and energy infrastructure);
Everyday culture is the material side of human life (clothing, furniture, utensils, Appliances, utilities, food);
Culture of the topos or place of settlement (type of dwelling, structure and characteristics of settlements).
Material culture usually refers to artificially created objects that allow people in the best possible way adapt to natural and social living conditions.
Objects of material culture are created to satisfy various human needs and are therefore considered as values. When speaking about the material culture of a particular people, they traditionally mean such specific items, such as clothing, weapons, utensils, food, decorations, housing, architectural structures. Modern science, by studying such artifacts, is able to reconstruct the lifestyle of even long-vanished peoples, of which there is no mention in written sources.
With a broader understanding of material culture, three main elements are seen in it.
The actual objective world created by man is buildings, roads, communications, instruments, objects of art and everyday life. The development of culture is manifested in the constant expansion and complexity of the world of artifacts, the “domestication” of the human environment. Life modern man It is difficult to imagine without the most complex artificial devices - computers, television, mobile phones, etc., which lie at the basis of modern information culture.
Technologies - means and technical algorithms for creating and using objects objective world. Technologies are material because they are embodied in specific practical methods of activity.
Technical culture is the specific skills, abilities, and abilities of a person. Culture preserves these skills and abilities along with knowledge, transmitting both theoretical and practical experience from generation to generation. However, unlike knowledge, skills and abilities are formed in practical activity, usually by example. At each stage of cultural development, along with the complexity of technology, skills also become more complex.
Culture and technology
Engineering and technology as terms and concepts. Technology and sociocultural values: the categorical imperative of culture in technical civilization. The essence and values of technology-and-technology. The nature of the connection between technology and nature, society, and culture. Models further development technology. Assessments of technology as part of culture: optimism and pessimism. Model of a new type of person and technical culture.
The word technology (from ancient Greek - skill, art) denotes or defines a set of means created by people to optimize their activities.
According to the philosopher of technology F. Rappe, two types of definitions of the concept “technology” can be distinguished. Technology in the narrow sense of the word is engineering activity, in the broad sense it is any effective methodological human activity. It should be borne in mind that in the Western tradition the concept of technology is closer to the concept of technology or, according to F. Rappe, technology in in a broad sense words. In the East, the word “technology” means a machine. For example, educational technology is a typical concept Western culture, and in the East there may be a cultural protest about this: the formation of a person is likened to a machine assembly line?!
Why in place of technology in the sense Greek culture comes the technique-and-technology of Western culture? Equipment and technology have existed as long as humanity can remember. Among the diversity of ancient civilizations there is one type of technical toolkit; technology here is something from the periphery of culture. Only in last centuries within the framework of the Euro-Christian culture of the West, technique and technology acquire special meaning. Technology becomes a universal phenomenon modern world, significantly influencing changes in all human cultures. Supporters of technical civilization claim that the origins of modern global problems not so much the consequences last decades spontaneous development of technology, as much as the boundless faith of Christianity in human genius, the Christian idea of a man-god, a co-creator of the God-man. Hence the optimistic opinion about the fundamental solvability of global problems of our time.
Modern understanding The technique involves several characteristic points. Technology is of artificial origin, that is, it is created by people in the process of materializing ideal models. The technique is rational, that is, it can be reproduced quite quickly in a given community. It has a utilitarian character, that is, technology is related to the practical needs of people and serves to satisfy these needs.
Technology is a cultural phenomenon that exists on the border between nature and culture. Technology is a part of nature transformed by man to influence nature. The social character of technology is given by its dependence on the level of cultural development of society. Technical progress, expanding human capabilities to influence natural processes, entails sociocultural changes. The cultural assimilation of new technological achievements by a specific community is quite complex and time-consuming; the process of assimilation is determined by cultural traditions, including the sociocultural attitude towards the perception of innovation.
Technology is a set of methods for processing and producing objects and things. Technology is a systemic education; it is related to the technology and culture of a given community. Among the features of the technology are: rational methods activities; promoting the development of society; subordination to the dominant values of a given culture.
So, technology is the tools of human activity, and technology is a system of effective methods developed by man for his purposeful activities.
Technology and sociocultural values. In the conditions of modern technical civilization, the evolution of technology, primarily the introduction of new technologies, depends on the sociocultural factors of a given community. So, traditional form social competition of peoples (“if you want to live peacefully, prepare for war”) asserts the priority of the development of the military-industrial complex. There is sufficient basis for the statement: the essential characteristics of technology most often become a reflection of the community’s value system. The variability in the use of technology poses the leading moral problem of technical civilization - the responsibility of scientists for the possible application of their discoveries in technology. Hence the categorical imperative of culture in technical civilization: the principles of humanism and ecology are higher economic efficiency, technical feasibility and political benefit. It should be noted that in the known modern science traditional societies Ah, technology is always subordinated to the values of life. It is possible that violations of this principle became one of the reasons (or the reason) for the disruption of ecological balance in the local region and the disappearance of civilizations and cultures.
The rapid development of technology, its transformation into a powerful component of modern planetary civilization, brought to life different interpretations essences and values of technology-and-technology. The problem of the consequences of computerization of society and the creation artificial intelligence is one of the most popular in discussions. The controversy between supporters and opponents led to the realization of the need for new research into the nature of the mind, consciousness (spirit) of man. A special place in modern philosophical literature is occupied by works devoted to the assessment of technology; before designing and financing innovative projects it is necessary to know the totality of consequences of the introduction of a particular innovation. Understanding the problems of axiology of technology at a philosophical level has acquired general cultural significance. In particular, it is noted that perfect planning of technical progress is impossible even in the conditions of a technocratic society, which, as is known, turns the individual into an element of a machine. The position has gained recognition that the criteria for the rationality of planning technical innovation should be developed outside of technical, economic or political factors. The fact is that the sociocultural problem of technology is its use, and technology is used, as a rule, in the interests of a group of people.
Among the leading philosophical problems of technology and technology is the question of the origin of technology and the nature of its connection with nature, society, and culture. Thus, there are concepts about the merger of modern science and technology, in which the property of primacy is given natural sciences or technology, respectively, the consequence is technology or natural science. This discussion has a fundamental basis: scientific and technological progress begins with large-scale theoretical understanding or random discoveries, which are then given the appearance of a solid justification. If the latter, then it is possible that after testing the next technical innovation created by inquisitive technology fans at random, there will be no one to justify it. Thus, the action of a life-threatening thing that falls into the hands of a child for whom the whole world is a toy can lead to a fatal result for many. The paradigm of technical progress, as a conveyor belt of limitless possibilities for improving human existence, developed by European thinking a couple of centuries ago, was based on the ideas of unlimited natural resources and the perfection of man, existing autonomously from nature. These ideas have been refuted by life. Is there a future for a technical person? Is there a future for culture, society, civilization with or without technology? These and similar philosophical and worldview questions give different answers.
For the existence of culture, it is fundamentally important to pose fundamental questions on the problem, indicating that humanity is growing out of technical childhood. In this sense, the need to develop ideals (models) for further development is essential. This problem is normative and brings the philosophy of technology to the level of sociocultural forecast. The traditional model (the model of the scientific and technological revolution) is based on the principles of technological determinism, popular in the West. She is characterized by a belief in limitless possibilities. human mind, which solved and will solve any development problems. The general model dominant in the West is based on limiting technical projects for reasons of their possible harm. Technological progress is inevitable because it is vital, but technical, economic and political personnel must be educated and controlled by external institutions. This model focuses on the development of sociocultural methods for assessing technology. The constraint model is based on the need to limit human needs and the scope of technological innovation. The limitation criterion proposes a threshold beyond which the satisfaction of needs or the use of technology does more harm than good. Radical (not very popular among sensible people) variants of this model suggest a return to the way of life of our ancestors for all of humanity or the population of the so-called developing countries, where technology has not yet become a necessity of everyday culture.
Technology as a part of culture is viewed in a range of optimistic and pessimistic opinions. The concept of technical (technological) determinism includes opposing interpretations. Technocratic (power of technology) interpretations tend to be associated with optimistic views of the role of technology in culture. Technocratic thinking prefers to explain the negative sociocultural consequences of the introduction of scientific and technological progress by the inhibition of technological development on the part of culturally backward people or groups. Catastrophic changes in the life and culture of the peoples of entire continents, brought about by scientific and technological progress, are hushed up or interpreted differently. An essential component of an optimistic interpretation of the role of technology in society and culture is technocracy - a theory of power based on scientific and technical knowledge and foresight, and the scientific and technical competence of the political elite. The founder of the theory of industrial society, R. Aron, believes that the reality of the modern world is not a set of different social systems, and one industrial society with a variety of ideologies. As the industrial component develops, ideological differences will move to the periphery of culture. The contradictions of scientific and technological progress, the culturologist believes, are not an essential, but a temporary characteristic inherent in the initial stage of development. At the next stage of development, in the so-called information society, the negative aspects of the technical environment will be overcome. Pessimistic views represented primarily by philosophers, writers, artists and leaders religious organizations, view technology as a threat to humanity. Critics of technical civilization emphasize its mechanicalness, unnaturalness, and the suppression of personality, nature, and life by technology. Pessimists - supporters of views about the negative impact of technology on socio-cultural processes - have been calling for a return to traditional types economic activity a person with strict control of the individual’s life activity by the community. In the last century, a variant of active counteraction to technical culture appeared. Opponents of technical civilization called for organizing a counterculture to fight against the repressive mind of “power-knowledge” and the alienation of man.
Representatives of the technocracy - scientists, economic and political leaders - joined in the criticism negative aspects technical civilization. They paid attention to ecological problems, to turn a person into a servant and hostage of the spontaneous development of the technical environment. According to scientists, the source of the problem is man’s inability to use technology for the benefit of humanity and nature. It is necessary to form a different interaction between man and technology, a different type of person, capable of integrating with people, existing in unity with technology and nature.
One of them components The model of a new type of person is technical culture. The technical background of the existence of modern man is the same for all humanity. It assumes two normative parameters of people’s behavior: handling equipment according to the operating instructions and a certain tradition of using technical means. Abilities and attitude to work, technological discipline and labor discipline, forms of diligence and work skills are derived from cultural traditions society. Conscious inclusion technical culture V sociocultural characteristics of a specific community and individual allows us to understand and accept technology as an organic part of human interaction with humanity and nature.
Each of us has needs that can be divided into spiritual and material. To do this, just remember the pyramid famous psychologist Maslow, in which the lower (need for food, sex, air, etc.) and higher human desires (the desire to be a respected person, the desire for self-affirmation, a sense of security, comfort, etc.) were shown in a hierarchical sequence. To satisfy all of the above in the process historical development of humanity, cultural classifications have been formed, including material culture.
What is material culture?
Let us recall that material culture is called surrounding a person Wednesday. Every day, thanks to the work of everyone, it is updated and improved. This gives rise to a new standard of living, as a result of which the demands of society change.
Types of material culture include:
- Animals. This category includes not only livestock, but also decorative breeds of cats, birds, dogs, etc. However, cheetahs do not belong to this species because they live in the wild and have not been subjected to the process of deliberate interbreeding with other species of their own kind. And cats and dogs, the development of whose nature has been invaded by man, are representatives of material culture. Also one of these reasons is that their gene pool and appearance have been changed.
- Plants. The number of new varieties increases every year. Man achieves this through selection.
- The soil. This is the top layer of the earth, by fertilizing which every farmer strives to get a bountiful harvest. True, in the race for money, environmental indicators are sometimes ignored, and as a result, the earth is filled with harmful bacteria and viruses.
- Building. An equally important achievement of material culture is considered to be structures and architecture that are created with the help of human labor. The culture of buildings includes real estate, which is constantly being improved, and thereby improving the standard of living of people.
- Equipment, tools. With their help, a person simplifies his work and spends two or more times less time on achieving something. This, in turn, significantly saves his life time.
- Transport. This category, like the previous one, is aimed at improving living standards. For example, earlier, when many traders went to China to buy silk, it took at least a year to get from the USA to this country. Nowadays it’s enough just to buy a plane ticket and you don’t have to wait 360 days.
- Means of communication. The area includes a miracle of technology Cell phones, World Wide Web, radio, mail.
Features of material culture
It should be noted that the distinctive quality of this type of culture is the variety of objects created by human labor, which help to adapt to changeable conditions as quickly as possible. 
environmental and social conditions. In addition, each nation has its own material features, characteristic specifically for a certain ethnic group.
The relationship between material and spiritual culture
One of the main intermediaries between the spiritual and material worlds is money. So, they can be spent on purchasing much-needed food, clothes that help you stay warm in the frosty winter, or simply interior elements. It all depends on the desire of the person and his capabilities. Using this market equivalent, one can purchase a ticket to a seminar at which a person will increase the level of his knowledge, which is already spiritual culture, or he can go to the theater.
Material culture is the world of things created or transformed by man. These include new varieties of plants, new breeds of animals, production, consumption, everyday life and man himself in his material, physical essence. The very first steps of culture on earth are connected with things, tools with which man influenced the world. Animals can also use various natural objects in the process of obtaining food, but none of them has created anything that does not exist in nature. Only man turned out to be capable of creating new objects that expand his capabilities and abilities to satisfy his needs.
This creative process had extremely important consequences. On the one hand, simultaneously with the creation and mastery of tools and the taming of nature (fire, animals), human consciousness gradually developed. For further activities It turned out that the senses alone were not enough for him, which reflect only the external aspects of things. Actions with things required an understanding of their internal properties, relationships between parts of objects, the causes and possible consequences of one’s own actions, and much more, without which human survival in the world is impossible. The need for such an understanding gradually develops the abstract-logical activity of consciousness, thinking. Great German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) said that animals reflect only the necessary light of the sun directly for life, humans reflect the radiance of distant stars; only human eyes know selfless joys, only man knows spiritual feasts. But man was able to come to spiritual feasts only when he began to change the world around him, when he created the tools of labor, and with them his history, in the process of which he endlessly improved them and improved himself.
On the other hand, along with the improvement of tools, living conditions also changed, knowledge of the world developed, relationships between people became more complex, and material culture became more and more intertwined with the also developing spiritual culture, forming a systemic integrity. In order to more fully understand the structure of culture, it is necessary to dismember this integrity and consider separately its main elements.
The culture of production is the most important element in material culture, since it is it that determines the quality of life in which this or that local culture develops and influences it. From whatever point of view we consider the forms and methods of human existence in the world, we must admit that only the activity of obtaining and creating material wealth is the basis of our life. A person eats to live, but he also needs other objects, without which life is similar to animal existence (home, clothes, shoes), as well as what can be used to create it. First of all, in the process of human activity various tools of labor are created. It was they who laid the foundation for the formation of man as a rational being (as opposed to an animal) and became the main condition for his further development.
The early period of human existence left us only primitive objects associated with the very main task society of that time - the task of survival. Based on the tools that our ancestor used, we can draw conclusions about his general development, the types of activities and, consequently, the skills that he possessed. But people also made objects not related to work - utensils and decorations, sculptural images and drawings. All this also required for its creation special devices, and certain knowledge about the materials used, and the corresponding skills. Many researchers believe that necklaces are made from natural material, figures, drawings were directly related to the same main task. Each element of the necklace signified the practical achievement of the person wearing it, the figures of people and animals, the drawings carried a magical meaning, everything was subordinated to one single goal - obtaining a means of subsistence. We can say that production activity forms the basis of the entire culture of the world; in any case, it served as the motivating force that revealed human capabilities, developed them and established “active man” (homo agens) in the world.
Already at the most early stages material production, its three main components emerged and became established, which became certain indicators of culture: technical equipment (tools, means of labor and production, etc.), the labor process and the result of labor.
The degree of development of technology and all its elements in society demonstrates the level of knowledge accumulated by it related to providing living space, meeting the needs of each person, and the characteristics of the needs themselves. Each tool of labor is not only objectified knowledge, but also necessary condition activities of people. Consequently, it requires appropriate skills and abilities from those who apply it. Thus, the emergence of new technology and new technologies raises society to new level development. Labor activity creates a double connection between people and production: a person creates a tool of labor, and a tool of labor creates, changes and, to a certain extent, improves a person. However, the relationship between man and tools is contradictory. Each new tool to one degree or another increases the natural capabilities of a person (expands the scope of his activity, reduces the expenditure of muscular energy, acts as a manipulator where the environment is dangerous for a person, takes on routine work), but thereby limiting the manifestation of his abilities, since an increasing number of actions cease to require him to fully devote his own strength. This increases labor productivity, improves individual abilities and skills of the worker, but dulls all other human data, “cancels” it as unnecessary. Together with the division of labor, a person becomes a “partial” person, his universal capabilities do not find application. He specializes, developing only one or a few of his abilities, and his other abilities may never reveal themselves. With the development of machine production, this contradiction deepens: production needed a person only as an appendage to the machine. Work on an assembly line is dull, since the worker has neither the need nor even the opportunity to think about what actions he is performing; all this must be brought to automaticity. These “demands” of technology on man marked the beginning of a process of alienation, in which both technology and the results of labor begin to confront man as some kind of external force. The creation of automated production intensified the processes of alienation and brought to life many new problems. At the center of them is the problem of a person’s loss of his individuality. The measure of culture of society and production is largely related to whether it will be possible to overcome the process of alienation and return a person to his personal beginning. One thing is clear: the more developed the technology, the higher the certain general, abstract level of skills and abilities, the wider the range of professions needed by society, the richer the range of goods and services. It is believed that all this should ensure high development of culture. But that's not true. There is a strict relationship between the technical equipment of production and the level general culture There is still no society. The development of technology is not a condition for the equally high development of spiritual culture and vice versa. Narrow specialization is the opposite of the universality and integrity of a person, and the culture of a society based on highly developed production and high technology forces a person to “pay” for this progress. Those employed in such production and the people generated by it constitute a faceless mass, a crowd that is manipulated by Mass culture. Therefore, modern scientists are looking for ways to resolve this kind of contradictions, suggesting that the culture of society and production itself becomes fully culture only if society compensates a person for his spiritual losses. Thus, the culture of production breaks the boundaries of its existence and turns out to be interconnected with all aspects of society, its goals, principles, ideals and values.
The culture of production begins with the mutual relationship between man and technology, which consists in the degree of man’s mastery of technology. But another contradiction arises between man and technology: technology can be improved endlessly, but man is not infinite. Therefore, the development of a culture of technical relations requires the humanization of technology. This means that when creating new technology, it is important to take into account the physical and mental characteristics of the person himself. Development and design of labor tools, equipment and technical systems ergonomics is involved in meeting the needs of a person as much as possible.
The labor process is the central link in production culture. It links together all stages of product creation, so it includes a variety of elements labor activity- from abilities, skills, mastery of performers to management problems. Modern American leadership expert Stephen R. Covey believes that the effectiveness of any activity (he calls it a skill that is developed by a person in the process of activity) is at the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire. We can say that the same qualities underlie the culture of the labor process. If all the elements of the labor process we have named are on different levels development and perfection (for example: knowledge is higher than skills; there is knowledge and skills, there is no desire; there is desire and knowledge, but no skills, and so on), it is impossible to talk about the culture of production as a whole. If in the field of technology the main role belongs to technical relations, then for the labor process the relations between technology and technology (technological relations) and between man and man (production relations) are more significant. High technologies involve and high level knowledge, practical and theoretical, and a higher level of training of specialists. Since high technologies most significantly affect economic, environmental, and moral relations existing in society, the training of specialists for such production should involve the development of not only production skills, but also personal qualities, associated with responsibility, the ability to see, formulate and solve problems of varying degrees of difficulty, and have creative potential.
The production system and all the relationships that develop within it are contradictory. The culture of production largely depends on how and to what extent these contradictions are resolved in society. So, if the level of technical development is high, but people do not have the knowledge to work with this technology, then it is impossible to talk about production culture. Another example: workers have the necessary level of development, but the technology is primitive, therefore, in this case we cannot talk about production culture. Production culture in in every sense this word is possible only with the harmony of interaction between man and technology. Improvement of technology should bring to life an increase in the level of professional training of people, and an increased level of professionalism is a condition for further improvement of technology.
Since part of production culture is related to relationships between people, great place it focuses on management culture. In ancient civilizations, production management involved coercion. In primitive society, there was no place for coercion as a form of relations between people: life itself, its conditions, daily and hourly forced people to extract and create material wealth for the sake of survival. Modern highly developed production cannot use direct coercion. The tools of labor became too difficult to use, and professional mastery of them turned out to be impossible without the internal discipline, responsibility, energy and initiative of the worker. As work becomes more complex, there are fewer and fewer possibilities for effective direct control and coercion: “you can bring a horse to water, but you cannot force it to drink.” Therefore, management activity consists of streamlining connections in society as a whole, in production as its main component, and is increasingly replacing coercion. Management culture, on the one hand, is associated with economic, political and legal culture, on the other, includes production ethics, ethics, morality, knowledge of etiquette, the ability to place people in production process in such a way as to take into account their individual characteristics and production needs. Otherwise, the labor process inevitably comes to crises or conflicts. Everything mentioned above relates to a special level of human culture, which is called professional culture.
Professional culture is a complex systemic unity that combines practical skills and abilities in the field of specific activities, possession of the equipment necessary in a given branch of production, special theoretical knowledge directly or indirectly related to production activities, as well as moral standards and rules necessary in the production system. Professional culture is at the intersection of a person’s general culture and his special training, therefore it includes those criteria that determine relationships in the production process and the requirements that exist in society outside of production. The culture of production reveals itself in the creation of objects and things that meet the needs of society. This means that the items produced must be varied, functional, economical, have high quality performance and aesthetic appearance. Each produced object, representing objectified knowledge, demonstrates a specific cultural level of society, sector of the economy or enterprise. In addition, it reflects the technology of its execution, the materials used speak volumes: all of these are indicators of the culture of this production. Of course, it is possible to produce unique items using outdated equipment, manual labor, and the massive use of unskilled labor, but such production becomes unprofitable. So the efficiency of production, the optimal ratio of costs and profits in it are also indicators of the culture of the enterprise. Manufactured products can influence the entire lifestyle of society, shaping its tastes, needs and demand. Things created in production occupy a central place in everyday culture.
The culture of everyday life is the material environment (apartment, house, production) and at the same time the attitude towards it. It also includes the organization of this environment, in which the aesthetic tastes, ideals and norms of man and society are manifested. Throughout history, the material world has “absorbed” all the features of the economic, social, artistic level development of society. For example, in a subsistence economy, a person himself performed all types of labor: he was a farmer, a cattle breeder, a weaver, a tanner, and a builder, and therefore made things designed for long-term use. “The house, tools, dishes and even clothes have served more than one generation.” All things made by one person reflected his idea of their practical use, as well as the characteristics of his artistic views, attitude and worldview. Most often, these handicrafts are unique, but not always skillful. When things began to be made by professionals - artisans, they became more skillful and decorative - decorated, some of them became more complex. Social inequality among people at this time determines inequality in the design of the material sphere. The surviving household items clearly demonstrate the lifestyle of a particular social stratum. Each cultural era leaves its mark on the world of things, manifesting its own style features. These features concern not only architecture, home decoration, furniture, but also clothing, hairstyles, and shoes. The material environment “reproduces” the entire system of cultural norms, aesthetic views and all the specifics of a certain era. Using the example of two drawings, comparing the main elements of life of Gothic (Middle Ages) and Rococo (XVIII century), a quick glance is enough to see how they relate to each other architectural principles, decorative elements, furniture and clothing of people of each period.
Gothic style. Rococo.
The emergence of industrial production created a world of standard things. In them, differences in social properties were somewhat smoothed out. However, endlessly repeating similar forms, styles, varieties, they impoverished and depersonalized " environment. Therefore, in the most diverse social strata there appears a desire for more frequent changes in the environment, and then for the search for an individual style in solving the material environment.
The culture of everyday life presupposes functionality, aesthetic organization - design (English design “plan, project, drawing, drawing”) and economy of the material environment. The activities of modern designers are devoted to the task of organizing the everyday sphere, eliminating “objective chaos” in it. It can hardly be said that the quantity or cost of things in any way determines the culture of the room, but we can say with certainty that they demonstrate it. By how the interior of the enterprise is organized, one can judge the attitude towards employees or visitors, as well as the lifestyle and activities of the team. If we paraphrase the statement of K. S. Stanislavsky (1863-1938) that the theater begins with a coat rack, then we can say about any room that everything in it is important: from the coat rack to the utility rooms. The same can be applied to home interiors.
Another side of everyday culture is the attitude towards the environment. For example, even in the most undemanding videos, if they want to show a negative social environment, they show scribbled walls, untidy, broken furniture, dirty, uncleaned rooms. In the film “Orchestra Rehearsal,” the great film director Federico Fellini (1920-1993) associates such vandalism of people with a symbolic picture of the end of the world, believing that its main symptom is the loss of culture in relation to everything that surrounds a person. However, the attitude towards things can also be exaggerated, excessive, when things are perceived as the only life value. At one time, the word “materialism” was widespread, characterizing people who, of all human values, put the possession of prestigious things in first place. In fact, the true culture of everyday life treats things as they deserve: as objects that decorate or facilitate our activities, or make them more “human,” bringing warmth, comfort and good feelings into them.
Physical culture is the culture of a person’s attitude towards own body. It is aimed at maintaining physical and spiritual health and includes the ability to control one’s body. Obviously, physical culture should not be associated only with success in one sport or another. Of course, sport can be a guarantee of health, but health is not the only thing that makes up physical culture. Research by specialists has shown that playing any one sport, even a beautiful or popular one, develops a person too one-sidedly and requires a constant increase in loads, and a person, despite all the versatility of his capabilities, is still finite. We know how much business people around the world value rare but intense minutes of sports activities. The presence of physical culture presupposes that the main objective a person is mastering the characteristics of his body, the ability to use it, constantly maintaining efficiency and balance, adequately responding to rapidly changing living and working conditions. This gives a real unity of mental and physical labor (physical health, endurance, the ability to control oneself, maintain high performance in mental activity, regardless of external factors, and mental activity determines the effectiveness of physical labor). Physical health is not always an indicator of physical and general culture. The world knows people who not only did not have the health of Hercules, but who were simply disabled, who reached high levels of perfection in intellectual and cultural activity. For example, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was chained to wheelchair, but nevertheless he was able to lead the country even in the most difficult years for the whole world - during the Second World War. It follows from this that only the ability to concentrate the capabilities of one’s body, complete mastery of it, allows people to act, and this is the essence of physical culture (culture organizes a person’s physical capabilities). Such a manifestation of human physical culture is a triumph not only of the body, but also of the spirit, for only man exists in the unity of the material and spiritual.
In science, there is the concept of primary needs, which include the body’s needs for food, sleep, warmth, etc. These material needs man satisfies not like an animal, but on the basis of cultural traditions. It is no coincidence that the concept "material culture" was introduced into cultural studies by ethnographers and anthropologists, who understood material culture as character traits cultures of traditional societies. According to B. Malinovsky's definition, human material products are artifacts that constitute the most tangible and visible part of culture.
Material culture usually includes tools and means of labor, equipment and structures, production (agricultural and industrial), routes and means of communication, transport, household items. Starting from primitive society, the entire human culture is a way of obtaining food, as well as customs, mores and etc. are determined, directly or indirectly, by material grounds. The creation of a “second”, “artificial” nature begins in the material sphere. We classify those elements of man that serve his organic needs as material culture.
The role of technology in material culture is unusually high. Once upon a time it replaced man in the field of physical activity, in the 20th century. it can, to a certain extent, replace it in the analytical, intellectual field, which has long been considered uniquely human. The word “technology” often means machines, mechanisms, instruments, devices, tools of any branch of production. But in the broad sense of the word, technology represents the skills and techniques of any activity and coincides in meaning with skill, art (the term “technology” itself is of ancient Greek origin and once meant precisely art or skill). Technology permeates the entire culture and as a term is often used as a synonym for it, for example: sports equipment, construction equipment, musical equipment, etc. We can say that all material culture is organized or exists according to the principle of technology. Some manifestations of people's material activities turned out to be so significant in culture that their very designation is terminologically defined as culture. Thus, at the end of the 20th century, technical and technological, technotronic, screen and other cultures emerged.
Material culture is not only human activity and its results, but also the culture of reproduction of the human race. The sphere of sexual relations cannot be considered in purely biological terms; it is an undoubted element of culture; they cannot be excluded from the sphere material relations. Since all material practice of a person is of a social nature, it requires social and organizational support. This distinguishes two more areas of material culture: physical and socio-political. Physical culture includes cultivation physical capabilities of a person, harmonization of his bodily manifestations, physical qualities, motor skills and abilities (sports, gymnastics, etc.). This should also include medicine, which makes it possible to preserve, restore and reproduce human body. The socio-political field of material culture includes a variety of institutions and practical activities ( organizational activities, establishment of new orders, etc.), which constitutes the real “body” of social existence.
The result of the impact on nature production activities people creating material wealth, there has been a decrease in life expectancy, an increase in mortality from cancer, an increase in the number of genetic deformities and allergic diseases. And the state of people's health is the most important indicator social efficiency of society. All this makes it relevant to highlight its ecological component in the sphere of material culture.
Thus, material culture includes several forms.
Production. This includes all means of production, as well as technology and infrastructure (energy sources, transport and communications).
Life This form includes the material side of everyday life - clothing, food, housing, as well as traditions and customs family life, reproduction of the human race, etc.
Body culture. A person's attitude towards his body - special shape culture, which is very closely related to forms of spiritual culture, reflects moral, artistic, religious and social norms.
Socio-political culture- policy and practice in the material sphere; state, public institutions (parliament, green parties or similar societies), organizational activities of various departments and production institutions.
Ecological culture- human relationship to the natural environment.
