Flier Andrey Yakovlevich,

Doctor of Philosophy, Professor,

Chief researcher worker, 

Education in the sphere of Culture, 

Russian Institute for Cultural Research, 

Lykhachev Russian Research Institute 

for Cultural and Natural Heritage

e-mail: andrey.flier@yandex.ru

 

 

Culture as social regulatory system and its historical typology

 

Abstract: The article analyzes historical typology of culture as regulatory system and  determines its major social functions in regulating collective human activities. The article presents a hypothesis of gradual transformation of functions of culture from immediate regulation of society’s self-organization to mediate psychological ensuring of regulatory process and humans’ orientation in sociocultural space. 

 

Key words: culture, regulatory system, social functions, regulating, typology, culture-custom, culture-ideology, culture-reference 

 

[1] See: Styopin V.S. Culture // Questions of Philosophy. 1999. N 8. I do not agree with definition of culture as exceptionally superbiological program. My research proves that culture is a synthesis of both biological and surerbiological components. (See: Flier A.Y. Essays on Theory of Historical Dynamics of culture. Moscow: Soglasie, 2012).

[2] See, ex.: White, Leslie Alvin. The Science of Culture: A Study of Man and Civilization. N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1949

[3] See, ex.: Cassirer, Ernst. Philosophie der symbolischen Formen. Berlin, 1923-1929  

 [4] Of course this is a deliberate simplification of the opportunities for symbol creation. Nowadays such utilitarian function is carried out by religion and art only "eventually" and it is not actually reflective. But I take into account the cases of primitive society and peasant community of agrarian era, when religion and art (in the forms of mythology and folklore) carried out this social regulatory function in the most direct form. 

[5] See, ex.: Girard, René.  La  violence  et  le  sacré. Paris:  Grasset, 1972; Flier A.Y. Ciltural Foundations of Violence // Knowledge, Understanding, Skill. 2012. N 1, etc. 

[6] Dilthey Wilhelm. Einleitung in die Geisteswissenschaften. Leipzig: Duncker und Humblot, 1883; Parsons, Talcott. Theories of Society. N.Y.: The Free Press of Glencoe. 1961. Vol. II. N 4

[7] Knabe G.S. Lecture Materials on General Theory of Culture and Culture of Ancient Rome: Textbook for Higher school. M: Indrik, 1993.

[8] Lem, Stanislaw. Filozofia Przypadku. Krakоw: Wydawanctwo literackie, 1968

[9] Butovskaya M.L., Plyusnin Y.M. Principles of Organization of Spatial Behavior of Humans and Higher Primates (Benchmarking) // Modern Anthropology and Genetics and the Problem of Human Race. Moscow: Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography of Russian Academy of Sciences Press, 1995.

[10] Luhmann, Niklas.  Die  Gesellschaft  der  Gesellschaft (1.3 Evolution).  Frankfurt  am  Main:  Suhrkamp, 1997

[11] For more details see: Flier A.Y. Essays on Theory of Historical Dynamics of culture. Moscow: Soglasie, 2012. P. 132-151

[12] It is still a disputable question, what should be considered to be the starting point of human history: the beginning of anthropogenes (about 6 million years ago, by present data), or the earliest traces of paleo-anthropological species of Homo sapiens (dated very wide – about 400-250 thousand years ago). That is, by the time of its origin, Homo sapiens is "coeval" of closely related to him Homo Neanderthalensis and older that his "brothers" Homo Sapiens Idaltu, Homo Floresiensis and the recently discovered Homo Altaiensis (See: Markov A.V. The Origin and Evolution of Human. Review of Achievements in Paleoanthropology , Comparative Genetics and Evolutionary Psychology / Report presented at the Institute of Developmental Biology,  Russian Academy of Science on March 19, 2009. [Electronic resource]. URL: http://evolbiol.ru/markov_anthropogenes. htm. Date of Access: 10.08.2011).

[13] See, ex.: Blumer, Herbert.  Collective Behavior.  Principles of Sociology. N.Y.: Barnes & Noble, 1951; Flier A.Y. Culture as a Stage in Biological Evolution // Bulletin of Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, 2013, N 4 (54).

[14] See, ex.: Mauss, Marcel. Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l’echange dans les sociétés archaïques // «L’année Sociologique». 1923-1924. 2 série

[15] For more details see: Kostina A.V. Correlation of Tradition and Creativity as the Basis of Socio-Cultural Dynamics. Moscow: URSS, 2009; Kostina A.V., Flier A.Y. Ternary Functional Model of Culture // Kostina A.V., Flier A.Y. Culture: Between Slavery of Conjuncture, Slavery of Tradition and Slavery of Status. Moscow: Soglasie, 2001. 

[16] A.A. Pelipenko aptly called this type of culture logocentric and described it as serving to some great idea – religious, political, or class one. (See: Pelipenko A.A. Dualistic Revolution and Semiogenesis in History. Moscow: Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, 2007).

[17] Durkheim, Émile. De la division du travail social. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1893

[18] Habermas, Jürgen. Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1985

[19] McLouhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of man. N.Y.: McGraw Hill, 1964

[20] See: Derrida, Jacques. L'Écriture et la difference. Paris: Seuil, 1967; Baudrillard, Jean. La Guerre du Golfe n'a pas eu lieu. Paris: Galilée, 1991; etc.

[21] Kostina A.V. Mass Culture as a Phenomenon of Post-industrial Society. Moscow: URSS, 2004; National culture – Ethnic culture – Mass culture: "The Balance of Interests" in Modern Society. Moscow: URSS, 2009; Kostina A.V. Correlation of Tradition and Creativity as the Basis of Socio-Cultural Dynamics. Moscow: URSS, 2009.

[22] Peliprnko A.A. Understanding of Culture. In 2 vol. Vol. 1. Culture and Meaning. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2012.

[23] ‘Axial Age’ was also an epoch of establishment of logocentric principals (See: Pelipenko A.A. Dualistic Revolution and Semiogenesis in History. Moscow: Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, 2007). About ‘Axial Age’ see: Jaspers, Karl. The Origin and Goal of History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1953.

[24] This two-level model of evolution dubbed ‘semiogenetic’ was developed by A.A. Pelipenko in his work: Pelipenko A.A. Understanding of Culture. In 2 vol. Vol. 1. Culture and Meaning. Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2012. About different evolutional models see: Grant, Verne. The Evolutionary Process. A Critical Review of Evolutionary Theory. N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1985; Haken, Нermann. Principles of Brain Functioning. A Synergetic Approach to Brain Activity, Behavior and Cognition. Berlin: Springer, 1996; Vasilkova V.V. Order and Chaos in the Development of Social Systems: Synergetics and Theory of Social Self-organization. St. Petersburg: Lan, 1999. 

[25] See: Flier A.Y. Vector of Cultural Evolution // Observatory of Culture. 2011. N. 5; Flier A.Y. Theory of Culture as Philosophy of History. 2014. N 1

[26] Beck, Ulrich. What Is Globalization? Cambridge: Polity, 2000.