What society is called traditional. What it is? Typologies of society during the formation of sociological science

Introduction.

Modern society requires initiative young people who are able to find "themselves" and their place in life, restore the Russian spiritual culture, morally stable, socially adapted, capable of self-development and continuous self-improvement. The basic structures of personality are laid in the first years of life. This means that the family has a special responsibility for cultivating such qualities in the younger generation. And this problem becomes especially relevant at this modern stage.

Arising naturally, the "evolutionary" human culture includes an important element - a system of social relations based on solidarity and mutual assistance. Many studies, and even ordinary experience, show that people became human precisely because they overcame selfishness and showed altruism that goes far beyond short-term rational calculations. And that the main motives for such behavior are irrational and connected with the ideals and movements of the soul - we see this at every step.

There are also acts of exchange, for the most part, which do not have the nature of free and equivalent sale and purchase (exchange of equal values) - the market regulates only a small part of traditional social relations. Therefore, the general, all-encompassing metaphor for social life in a traditional society is the “family”, and not, for example, the “market”. Modern scientists believe that 2/3 of the world's population to a greater or lesser extent has features of traditional societies in their way of life. What are traditional societies, when did they arise and what characterizes their culture?

The purpose of this work: to give a general description, to study the development of traditional society.

Based on the goal, the following tasks were set:

Consider different ways of typology of societies;

Describe traditional society;

Give an idea of the development of traditional society;

To identify the problems of the transformation of traditional society.

Typology of societies in modern science.

In modern sociology, there are various ways of typifying societies, and all of them are legitimate from certain points of view.

There are, for example, two main types of society: first, pre-industrial society, or the so-called traditional society, which is based on a peasant community. This type of society still covers most of Africa, a significant part of Latin America, most of the East, and dominated Europe until the 19th century. Secondly, the modern industrial-urban society. The so-called Euro-American society belongs to it; and the rest of the world is gradually catching up to it.

Another division of societies is also possible. Societies can be divided according to political characteristics - into totalitarian and democratic. In the first societies, society itself does not act as an independent subject of public life, but serves the interests of the state. The second societies are characterized by the fact that, on the contrary, the state serves the interests of civil society, the individual and public associations (at least ideally).

It is possible to distinguish the types of societies according to the dominant religion: Christian society, Islamic, Orthodox, etc. Finally, societies are distinguished by the dominant language: English-speaking, Russian-speaking, French-speaking, etc. It is also possible to distinguish societies along ethnic lines: single-ethnic, binational, multinational.

One of the main types of typology of societies is the formational approach.

According to the formational approach, the most important relations in society are property and class relations. The following types of socio-economic formations can be distinguished: primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and communist (includes two phases - socialism and communism). None of the above basic theoretical points underlying the theory of formations is now indisputable.

The theory of socio-economic formations is not only based on the theoretical conclusions of the middle of the 19th century, but because of this it cannot explain many of the contradictions that have arisen:

· Existence along with zones of progressive (ascending) development of zones of backwardness, stagnation and dead ends;

· the transformation of the state - in one form or another - into an important factor in social production relations; modification and modification of classes;

· the emergence of a new hierarchy of values with the priority of universal human values over class ones.

Finally, in the second half of the twentieth century, the third stage begins - a post-industrial society, which is characterized by the use of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution; sometimes it is called the information society, because the main thing is no longer the production of a certain material product, but the production and processing of information. An indicator of this stage is the spread of computer technology, the unification of the whole society into a single information system in which ideas and thoughts are freely distributed. Leading in such a society is the requirement to respect the so-called human rights.

From this point of view, different parts of modern humanity are at different stages of development. Until now, maybe half of humanity is in the first stage. And the other part is going through the second stage of development. And only a smaller part - Europe, the USA, Japan - entered the third stage of development. Russia is now in a state of transition from the second stage to the third.

General characteristics of traditional society

Traditional society is a concept that focuses in its content a set of ideas about the pre-industrial stage of human development, characteristic of traditional sociology and cultural studies. There is no single theory of traditional society. Ideas about a traditional society are based, rather, on its understanding as a socio-cultural model that is asymmetric to modern society, than on a generalization of the real facts of the life of peoples who are not engaged in industrial production. Characteristic for the economy of a traditional society is the dominance of subsistence farming. In this case, commodity relations either do not exist at all, or are focused on meeting the needs of a small stratum of the social elite.

The main principle of the organization of social relations is a rigid hierarchical stratification of society, as a rule, manifested in the division into endogamous castes. At the same time, the main form of organization of social relations for the vast majority of the population is a relatively closed, isolated community. The latter circumstance dictated the dominance of collectivist social ideas, focused on strict observance of traditional norms of behavior and excluding individual freedom of the individual, as well as an understanding of its value. Together with caste division, this feature almost completely excludes the possibility of social mobility. Political power is monopolized within a separate group (caste, clan, family) and exists mainly in authoritarian forms.

A characteristic feature of a traditional society is either the complete absence of writing, or its existence in the form of a privilege of certain groups (officials, priests). At the same time, writing quite often develops in a language different from the spoken language of the vast majority of the population (Latin in medieval Europe, Arabic in the Middle East, Chinese writing in the Far East). Therefore, intergenerational transmission of culture is carried out in a verbal, folklore form, and the main institution of socialization is the family and the community. The consequence of this was the extreme variability of the culture of one and the same ethnic group, manifested in local and dialectal differences.

Traditional societies include ethnic communities, which are characterized by communal settlements, the preservation of blood and family ties, predominantly handicraft and agrarian forms of labor. The emergence of such societies dates back to the earliest stages of human development, to primitive culture. Any society from a primitive community of hunters to the industrial revolution of the late 18th century can be called a traditional society.

A traditional society is a society governed by tradition. The preservation of traditions is a higher value in it than development. The social structure in it is characterized (especially in the countries of the East) by a rigid class hierarchy and the existence of stable social communities, a special way of regulating the life of society based on traditions and customs. This organization of society seeks to preserve the socio-cultural foundations of life unchanged. The traditional society is an agrarian society.

For a traditional society, as a rule, are characterized by:

· traditional economy - an economic system in which the use of natural resources is determined primarily by tradition. Traditional industries predominate - agriculture, resource extraction, trade, construction, non-traditional industries practically do not receive development;

the predominance of the agrarian way of life;

the stability of the structure;

class organization;

· low mobility;

· high mortality;

· high birth rate;

low life expectancy.

A traditional person perceives the world and the established order of life as something inseparably integral, sacred and not subject to change. A person's place in society and his status are determined by tradition (as a rule, by birthright).

In a traditional society, collectivist attitudes prevail, individualism is not welcome (because the freedom of individual actions can lead to a violation of the established order). In general, traditional societies are characterized by the primacy of collective interests over private ones, including the primacy of the interests of existing hierarchical structures (state, clan, etc.). It is not so much individual capacity that is valued, but the place in the hierarchy (bureaucratic, class, clan, etc.) that a person occupies.

In a traditional society, as a rule, relations of redistribution rather than market exchange prevail, and elements of a market economy are tightly regulated. This is due to the fact that free market relations increase social mobility and change the social structure of society (in particular, they destroy estates); the system of redistribution can be regulated by tradition, but market prices are not; forced redistribution prevents "unauthorized" enrichment, the impoverishment of both individuals and estates. The pursuit of economic gain in a traditional society is often morally condemned, opposed to selfless help.

In a traditional society, most people live all their lives in a local community (for example, a village), ties with the “big society” are rather weak. At the same time, family ties, on the contrary, are very strong.

The worldview of a traditional society is conditioned by tradition and authority.

Development of traditional society

Economically, the traditional society is based on agriculture. At the same time, such a society can be not only landowning, like the society of ancient Egypt, China or medieval Russia, but also based on cattle breeding, like all the nomadic steppe powers of Eurasia (Turkic and Khazar Khaganates, the empire of Genghis Khan, etc.). And even fishing in the exceptionally rich coastal waters of Southern Peru (in pre-Columbian America).

Characteristic of a pre-industrial traditional society is the dominance of redistributive relations (i.e., distribution in accordance with the social position of each), which can be expressed in a variety of forms: the centralized state economy of ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia, medieval China; the Russian peasant community, where redistribution is expressed in regular redistribution of land according to the number of eaters, etc. However, one should not think that redistribution is the only possible way of the economic life of a traditional society. It dominates, but the market in one form or another always exists, and in exceptional cases it can even acquire a leading role (the most striking example is the economy of the ancient Mediterranean). But, as a rule, market relations are limited to a narrow range of goods, most often objects of prestige: the medieval European aristocracy, getting everything they needed on their estates, bought mainly jewelry, spices, expensive weapons of thoroughbred horses, etc.

In social terms, traditional society is much more strikingly different from our modern one. The most characteristic feature of this society is the rigid attachment of each person to the system of redistributive relations, the attachment is purely personal. This is manifested in the inclusion of everyone in a collective that carries out this redistribution, and in the dependence of each on the “seniors” (by age, origin, social status), who are “at the boiler”. Moreover, the transition from one team to another is extremely difficult, social mobility in this society is very low. At the same time, not only the position of the estate in the social hierarchy is valuable, but also the very fact of belonging to it. Here you can give specific examples - caste and class systems of stratification.

Caste (as in traditional Indian society, for example) is a closed group of people who occupy a strictly defined place in society.

This place is delineated by many factors or signs, the main of which are:

traditionally inherited profession, occupation;

endogamy, i.e. the obligation to marry only within one's own caste;

Ritual purity (after contact with the "lower" it is necessary to undergo a whole purification procedure).

The estate is a social group with hereditary rights and obligations, enshrined in customs and laws. The feudal society of medieval Europe, in particular, was divided into three main classes: the clergy (the symbol is a book), chivalry (the symbol is a sword) and the peasantry (the symbol is a plow). in Russia before the revolution of 1917. there were six classes. These are nobles, clergy, merchants, petty bourgeois, peasants, Cossacks.

The regulation of estate life was extremely strict, down to minor circumstances and minor details. So, according to the “Charter to Cities” of 1785, Russian merchants of the first guild could travel around the city in a carriage drawn by a pair of horses, and merchants of the second guild could only travel in a carriage with a pair. The class division of society, as well as the caste one, was consecrated and fixed by religion: everyone has his own destiny, his own destiny, his own corner on this earth. Stay where God placed you, exaltation is a manifestation of pride, one of the seven (according to medieval classification) deadly sins.

Another important criterion of social division can be called a community in the broadest sense of the word. This refers not only to a neighboring peasant community, but also to a craft workshop, a merchant guild in Europe or a merchant union in the East, a monastic or knightly order, a Russian cenobitic monastery, thieves' or beggarly corporations. The Hellenic polis can be viewed not so much as a city-state, but as a civil community. A person outside the community is an outcast, outcast, suspicious, an enemy. Therefore, expulsion from the community was one of the most terrible punishments in any of the agrarian societies. A person was born, lived and died tied to the place of residence, occupation, environment, exactly repeating the lifestyle of his ancestors and being absolutely sure that his children and grandchildren would follow the same path.

Relationships and bonds between people in traditional society were permeated through and through with personal loyalty and dependence, which is understandable. At that level of technological development, only direct contacts, personal involvement, individual involvement could ensure the movement of knowledge, skills, abilities from teacher to student, from master to journeyman. This movement, we note, had the form of transferring secrets, secrets, recipes. Thus, a certain social problem was also solved. Thus, the oath, which in the Middle Ages symbolically and ritually sealed relations between vassals and seigneurs, in its own way equalized the parties involved, giving their relationship a shade of simple patronage of a father to his son.

The political structure of the vast majority of pre-industrial societies is determined more by tradition and custom than by written law. Power could be justified by the origin, the scale of controlled distribution (land, food, and finally water in the East) and supported by divine sanction (that is why the role of sacralization, and often direct deification of the figure of the ruler, is so high).

Most often, the state system of society was, of course, monarchical. And even in the republics of antiquity and the Middle Ages, real power, as a rule, belonged to representatives of a few noble families and was based on these principles. As a rule, traditional societies are characterized by the merging of the phenomena of power and property, with the determining role of power, that is, having more power, also had real control over a significant part of the property that was at the aggregate disposal of society. For a typical pre-industrial society (with rare exceptions), power is property.

The cultural life of traditional societies was decisively influenced precisely by the substantiation of power by tradition and the conditionality of all social relations by class, communal and power structures. Traditional society is characterized by what could be called gerontocracy: the older, the smarter, the older, the more perfect, the deeper, the true.

Traditional society is holistic. It is built or organized as a rigid whole. And not just as a whole, but as a clearly prevailing, dominant whole.

The collective is a socio-ontological, not a value-normative reality. It becomes the latter when it begins to be understood and accepted as a common good. Being also holistic in its essence, the common good hierarchically completes the value system of a traditional society. Along with other values, it ensures the unity of a person with other people, gives meaning to his individual existence, guarantees a certain psychological comfort.

In antiquity, the common good was identified with the needs and development trends of the policy. A polis is a city or society-state. Man and citizen in it coincided. The polis horizon of ancient man was both political and ethical. Outside of its borders, nothing interesting was expected - only barbarism. The Greek, a citizen of the polis, perceived the state goals as his own, saw his own good in the good of the state. With the policy, its existence, he linked his hopes for justice, freedom, peace and happiness.

In the Middle Ages, God was the common and highest good. He is the source of everything good, valuable and worthy in this world. Man himself was created in his image and likeness. From God and all power on earth. God is the ultimate goal of all human aspirations. The highest good that a sinful person is capable of is love for God, service to Christ. Christian love is a special love: God-fearing, suffering, ascetic-humble. In her self-forgetfulness there is a lot of contempt for herself, for worldly joys and comforts, achievements and successes. In itself, the earthly life of a person in its religious interpretation is devoid of any value and purpose.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, with its community-collective way of life, the common good took on the form of a Russian idea. Its most popular formula included three values: Orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality. The historical existence of a traditional society is slow. The boundaries between the historical stages of "traditional" development are barely distinguishable, there are no sharp shifts and radical shocks.

The productive forces of traditional society developed slowly, in the rhythm of cumulative evolutionism. What economists call pent-up demand, that is, was missing. the ability to produce not for the sake of immediate needs, but for the sake of the future. Traditional society took from nature exactly as much as needed, and nothing more. Its economy could be called environmentally friendly.

Transformation of traditional society

The traditional society is extremely stable. As the well-known demographer and sociologist Anatoly Vishnevsky writes, “everything is interconnected in it and it is very difficult to remove or change any one element.”

In ancient times, changes in traditional society took place extremely slowly - over generations, almost imperceptibly for an individual. Periods of accelerated development also took place in traditional societies (a striking example is the changes in the territory of Eurasia in the 1st millennium BC), but even during such periods, changes were carried out slowly by modern standards, and upon their completion, the society returned to a relatively static state. with a predominance of cyclical dynamics.

At the same time, since ancient times, there have been societies that cannot be called completely traditional. The departure from the traditional society was associated, as a rule, with the development of trade. This category includes Greek city-states, medieval self-governing trading cities, England and Holland of the 16th-17th centuries. Standing apart is Ancient Rome (until the 3rd century AD) with its civil society.

The rapid and irreversible transformation of traditional society began to occur only from the 18th century as a result of the industrial revolution. To date, this process has captured almost the entire world.

Rapid changes and departure from traditions can be experienced by a traditional person as a collapse of landmarks and values, a loss of the meaning of life, etc. Since adaptation to new conditions and a change in the nature of activity are not included in the strategy of a traditional person, the transformation of society often leads to the marginalization of part of the population.

The most painful transformation of a traditional society occurs when the dismantled traditions have a religious justification. At the same time, resistance to change can take the form of religious fundamentalism.

During the period of transformation of a traditional society, authoritarianism may increase in it (either in order to preserve traditions, or in order to overcome resistance to change).

The transformation of traditional society ends with a demographic transition. The generation that grew up in small families has a psychology that differs from that of a traditional person.

Opinions on the need to transform traditional society differ significantly. For example, the philosopher A. Dugin considers it necessary to abandon the principles of modern society and return to the "golden age" of traditionalism. Sociologist and demographer A. Vishnevsky argues that the traditional society "has no chance", although it "fiercely resists." According to the calculations of the academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Professor A. Nazaretyan, in order to completely abandon development and return society to a static state, the human population must be reduced by several hundred times.

CONCLUSION

Based on the work carried out, the following conclusions were drawn.

Traditional societies are characterized by the following features:

· Predominantly agrarian mode of production, understanding of land ownership not as property, but as land use. The type of relationship between society and nature is built not on the principle of victory over it, but on the idea of merging with it;

· The basis of the economic system is community-state forms of ownership with a weak development of the institution of private property. Preservation of the communal way of life and communal land use;

· Patronage system of distribution of the product of labor in the community (redistribution of land, mutual assistance in the form of gifts, marriage gifts, etc., regulation of consumption);

· The level of social mobility is low, the boundaries between social communities (castes, estates) are stable. Ethnic, clan, caste differentiation of societies, in contrast to late industrial societies with class division;

· Preservation in everyday life of combinations of polytheistic and monotheistic ideas, the role of ancestors, orientation to the past;

· The main regulator of public life is tradition, custom, adherence to the norms of life of previous generations.

The huge role of ritual, etiquette. Of course, the "traditional society" significantly limits scientific and technological progress, has a pronounced tendency to stagnation, and does not consider the autonomous development of a free person as the most important value. But Western civilization, having achieved impressive successes, is currently facing a number of very difficult problems: ideas about the possibilities of unlimited industrial and scientific and technological growth turned out to be untenable; the balance of nature and society is disturbed; the pace of technological progress is unsustainable and threatens a global environmental catastrophe. Many scientists draw attention to the merits of traditional thinking with its emphasis on adaptation to nature, the perception of the human person as part of a natural and social whole.

Only the traditional way of life can be opposed to the aggressive influence of modern culture and the civilizational model exported from the West. For Russia, there is no other way out of the crisis in the spiritual and moral sphere, except for the revival of the original Russian civilization on the basis of the traditional values of national culture. And this is possible if the spiritual, moral and intellectual potential of the bearer of Russian culture, the Russian people, is restored.

TOPIC: Traditional Society

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………..3-4

1. Typology of societies in modern science……………………………….5-7

2. General characteristics of a traditional society…………………….8-10

3. Development of a traditional society…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11-15

4. Transformation of traditional society……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 17- 17

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………..18-19

LITERATURE…………………………………………………………….20

Introduction.

The relevance of the problem of traditional society is dictated by global changes in the worldview of mankind. Civilization studies today are especially acute and problematic. The world oscillates between prosperity and poverty, the individual and the digital, the infinite and the private. Man is still looking for the real, the lost and the hidden. There is a “tired” generation of meanings, self-isolation and endless waiting: waiting for light from the West, good weather from the South, cheap goods from China and oil profits from the North. Modern society requires initiative young people who are able to find "themselves" and their place in life, restore the Russian spiritual culture, morally stable, socially adapted, capable of self-development and continuous self-improvement. The basic structures of personality are laid in the first years of life. This means that the family has a special responsibility for cultivating such qualities in the younger generation. And this problem becomes especially relevant at this modern stage.

The culture of a traditional society is based on the concept of "people" - as a transpersonal community with historical memory and collective consciousness. An individual person, an element of such - the people and society, is a "cathedral personality", the focus of many human ties. He is always included in solidarity groups (families, village and church communities, labor collectives, even a gang of thieves - acting on the principle "One for all, all for one"). Accordingly, the prevailing attitudes in traditional society are such as service, duty, love, care, and coercion. There are also acts of exchange, for the most part, which do not have the nature of free and equivalent sale and purchase (exchange of equal values) - the market regulates only a small part of traditional social relations. Therefore, the general, all-encompassing metaphor for social life in a traditional society is the “family”, and not, for example, the “market”. Modern scientists believe that 2/3 of the world's population to a greater or lesser extent has features of traditional societies in their way of life. What are traditional societies, when did they arise and what characterizes their culture?

The purpose of this work: to give a general description, to study the development of traditional society.

Based on the goal, the following tasks were set:

Consider different ways of typology of societies;

Describe traditional society;

Give an idea of the development of traditional society;

To identify the problems of the transformation of traditional society.

1. Typology of societies in modern science.

In modern sociology, there are various ways of typifying societies, and all of them are legitimate from certain points of view.

One of the main types of typology of societies is the formational approach.

None of the above basic theoretical points underlying the theory of formations is now indisputable. The theory of socio-economic formations is not only based on the theoretical conclusions of the middle of the 19th century, but because of this it cannot explain many of the contradictions that have arisen:

· Existence along with zones of progressive (ascending) development of zones of backwardness, stagnation and dead ends;

· the transformation of the state - in one form or another - into an important factor in social production relations; modification and modification of classes;

· the emergence of a new hierarchy of values with the priority of universal human values over class ones.

The most modern is another division of society, which was put forward by the American sociologist Daniel Bell. He distinguishes three stages in the development of society. The first stage is a pre-industrial, agricultural, conservative society, closed to outside influences, based on natural production. The second stage is an industrial society, which is based on industrial production, developed market relations, democracy and openness. Finally, in the second half of the twentieth century, the third stage begins - a post-industrial society, which is characterized by the use of the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution; sometimes it is called the information society, because the main thing is no longer the production of a certain material product, but the production and processing of information. An indicator of this stage is the spread of computer technology, the unification of the whole society into a single information system in which ideas and thoughts are freely distributed. Leading in such a society is the requirement to respect the so-called human rights.

2. General characteristics of traditional society

A traditional society is a concept that focuses in its content a set of ideas about the pre-industrial stage of human development, characteristic of traditional sociology and cultural studies. There is no single theory of traditional society. Ideas about a traditional society are based, rather, on its understanding as a socio-cultural model that is asymmetric to modern society, than on a generalization of the real facts of the life of peoples who are not engaged in industrial production. Characteristic for the economy of a traditional society is the dominance of subsistence farming. In this case, commodity relations either do not exist at all, or are focused on meeting the needs of a small stratum of the social elite. The main principle of the organization of social relations is a rigid hierarchical stratification of society, as a rule, manifested in the division into endogamous castes. At the same time, the main form of organization of social relations for the vast majority of the population is a relatively closed, isolated community. The latter circumstance dictated the dominance of collectivist social ideas, focused on strict observance of traditional norms of behavior and excluding individual freedom of the individual, as well as an understanding of its value. Together with caste division, this feature almost completely excludes the possibility of social mobility. Political power is monopolized within a separate group (caste, clan, family) and exists mainly in authoritarian forms. A characteristic feature of a traditional society is either the complete absence of writing, or its existence in the form of a privilege of certain groups (officials, priests). At the same time, writing quite often develops in a language different from the spoken language of the vast majority of the population (Latin in medieval Europe, Arabic in the Middle East, Chinese writing in the Far East). Therefore, intergenerational transmission of culture is carried out in a verbal, folklore form, and the main institution of socialization is the family and the community. The consequence of this was the extreme variability of the culture of one and the same ethnic group, manifested in local and dialectal differences.

Any society from a primitive community of hunters to the industrial revolution of the late 18th century can be called a traditional society.

For a traditional society, as a rule, are characterized by:

the predominance of the agrarian way of life;

the stability of the structure;

class organization;

· low mobility;

· high mortality;

· high birth rate;

low life expectancy.

The worldview of a traditional society is conditioned by tradition and authority.

3.Development of traditional society

Caste (as in traditional Indian society, for example) is a closed group of people who occupy a strictly defined place in society. This place is delineated by many factors or signs, the main of which are:

traditionally inherited profession, occupation;

endogamy, i.e. the obligation to marry only within one's own caste;

Ritual purity (after contact with the "lower" it is necessary to undergo a whole purification procedure).

The estate is a social group with hereditary rights and obligations, enshrined in customs and laws. The feudal society of medieval Europe, in particular, was divided into three main classes: the clergy (the symbol is a book), chivalry (the symbol is a sword) and the peasantry (the symbol is a plow). In Russia before the revolution of 1917 there were six estates. These are nobles, clergy, merchants, petty bourgeois, peasants, Cossacks.

Traditional society is holistic. It is built or organized as a rigid whole. And not just as a whole, but as a clearly prevailing, dominant whole.

The historical existence of a traditional society is slow. The boundaries between the historical stages of "traditional" development are barely distinguishable, there are no sharp shifts and radical shocks.

4. Transformation of traditional society

In ancient times, changes in traditional society occurred extremely slowly - over generations, almost imperceptibly for an individual. Periods of accelerated development also took place in traditional societies (a striking example is the changes in the territory of Eurasia in the 1st millennium BC), but even during such periods, changes were carried out slowly by modern standards, and upon their completion, the society returned to a relatively static state. with a predominance of cyclical dynamics.

During the period of transformation of a traditional society, authoritarianism may increase in it (either in order to preserve traditions, or in order to overcome resistance to change).

The transformation of traditional society ends with a demographic transition. The generation that grew up in small families has a psychology that differs from that of a traditional person.

Based on the work carried out, the following conclusions were drawn.

Traditional societies are characterized by the following features:

· Patronage system of distribution of the product of labor in the community (redistribution of land, mutual assistance in the form of gifts, marriage gifts, etc., regulation of consumption);

· Preservation in everyday life of combinations of polytheistic and monotheistic ideas, the role of ancestors, orientation to the past;

· The main regulator of public life is tradition, custom, adherence to the norms of life of previous generations. The huge role of ritual, etiquette. Of course, the "traditional society" significantly limits scientific and technological progress, has a pronounced tendency to stagnation, and does not consider the autonomous development of a free person as the most important value. But Western civilization, having achieved impressive successes, is currently facing a number of very difficult problems: ideas about the possibilities of unlimited industrial and scientific and technological growth turned out to be untenable; the balance of nature and society is disturbed; the pace of technological progress is unsustainable and threatens a global environmental catastrophe. Many scientists draw attention to the merits of traditional thinking with its emphasis on adaptation to nature, the perception of the human person as part of a natural and social whole.

Only the traditional way of life can be opposed to the aggressive influence of modern culture and the civilizational model exported from the West. For Russia, there is no other way out of the crisis in the spiritual and moral sphere, except for the revival of the original Russian civilization on the basis of the traditional values of national culture. And this is possible provided that the spiritual, moral and intellectual potential of the bearer of Russian culture, the Russian people, is restored.

LITERATURE.

1. Irkhin Yu.V. Textbook "Sociology of Culture" 2006.

2. Nazaretyan A.P. Demographic utopia of "sustainable development" Social sciences and modernity. 1996. No. 2.

3. Mathieu M.E. Selected Works on the Mythology and Ideology of Ancient Egypt. -M., 1996.

4. Levikova S. I. West and East. Traditions and modernity. - M., 1993.

in the worldview of humanity. At this stage of development, the society is heterogeneous, rich and poor, highly educated and uneducated individuals, believers and atheists coexist in it. Modern society needs individuals who are socially adapted, morally stable and have a desire for self-improvement. It is these qualities that are formed at an early age in the family. The traditional society most meets the criteria for cultivating acceptable qualities in a person.

The concept of traditional society

A traditional society is a predominantly rural, agrarian and pre-industrial association of large groups of people. In the leading sociological typology "tradition - modernity" it is the main opposite of the industrial one. According to the traditional type, societies developed in the ancient and medieval eras. At the present stage, examples of such societies have been clearly preserved in Africa and Asia.

Signs of a traditional society

The distinctive features of a traditional society are manifested in all spheres of life: spiritual, political, economic, economic.

The community is the basic social unit. It is a closed association of people united by a tribal or local principle. In the relationship "man-earth" it is the community that acts as an intermediary. Its typology is different: they distinguish feudal, peasant, urban. The type of community determines the position of a person in it.

A characteristic feature of a traditional society is agricultural cooperation, which is made up of clan (family) ties. Relations are based on collective labor activity, land use, systematic redistribution of land. Such a society is always characterized by weak dynamics.

A traditional society is, first of all, a closed association of people, which is self-sufficient and does not allow external influence. Traditions and laws determine its political life. In turn, society and the state suppress the individual.

Features of the economic structure

The traditional society is characterized by the predominance of extensive technologies and the use of hand tools, the dominance of corporate, communal, state ownership, while private property still remains inviolable. The standard of living of the majority of the population is low. In labor and production, a person is forced to adapt to external factors, thus, society and the characteristics of the organization of labor activity depend on natural conditions.

Traditional society is a confrontation between nature and man.

The economic structure becomes completely dependent on natural and climatic factors. The basis of such an economy is cattle breeding and agriculture, the results of collective labor are distributed taking into account the position of each member in the social hierarchy. In addition to agriculture, people in a traditional society are engaged in primitive crafts.

Social relations and hierarchy

The values of a traditional society are to honor the older generation, old people, observe the customs of the clan, unwritten and written norms and accepted rules of conduct. Conflicts that arise in teams are resolved with the intervention and participation of a senior (leader).

In a traditional society, the social structure implies class privileges and a rigid hierarchy. At the same time, social mobility is practically absent. For example, in India, transitions from one caste to another with an increase in status are strictly prohibited. The main social units of society were the community and the family. First of all, a person was a part of a collective that was part of a traditional society. Signs indicating the inappropriate behavior of each individual were discussed and regulated by a system of norms and principles. The concept of individuality and following the interests of an individual person are absent in such a structure.

Social relations in a traditional society are built on subordination. Everyone is included in it and feels like a part of the whole. The birth of a person, the creation of a family, death occur in one place and surrounded by people. Labor activity and life are built, transmitted from generation to generation. Leaving the community is always difficult and difficult, sometimes even tragic.

A traditional society is an association of a group of people on common grounds, in which individuality is not a value, the ideal scenario of fate is the fulfillment of social roles. Here it is forbidden not to match the role, otherwise the person becomes an outcast.

Social status affects the position of the individual, the degree of proximity to the leader of the community, the priest, the leader. The influence of the head of the family (senior) is indisputable, even if individual qualities are called into question.

Political structure

The main wealth of a traditional society is power, which was valued higher than law or law. The army and the church have a leading role. The form of government in the state in the era of traditional societies was predominantly a monarchy. In most countries, representative bodies of power did not have independent political significance.

Since power is the greatest value, it does not need justification, but passes to the next leader by inheritance, its source is God's will. Power in a traditional society is despotic and concentrated in the hands of one person.

Spiritual sphere of traditional society

Traditions are the spiritual basis of society. Sacred and religious-mythical representations have dominance both in the individual and in the public consciousness. Religion has a significant impact on the spiritual sphere of traditional society, the culture is homogeneous. The oral way of exchanging information prevails over the written one. Spreading rumors is part of the social norm. The number of people with education, as a rule, is always insignificant.

Customs and traditions also determine the spiritual life of people in a community that is characterized by deep religiosity. Religious dogmas are also reflected in culture.

Hierarchy of values

The totality of cultural values, revered unconditionally, also characterizes the traditional society. Signs of a value-oriented society can be general or class. Culture is determined by the mentality of society. Values have a strict hierarchy. The highest, no doubt, is God. The desire for God forms and determines the motives of human behavior. He is the ideal embodiment of good behavior, supreme justice and the source of virtue. Another value can be called asceticism, which implies the rejection of earthly blessings in the name of gaining heavenly ones.

Loyalty is the next principle of behavior expressed in the service of God.

In a traditional society, second-order values are also distinguished, for example, idleness - the rejection of physical labor in general or only on certain days.

It should be noted that they all have a sacred (sacred) character. Estate values can be idleness, militancy, honor, personal independence, which was acceptable for representatives of the noble strata of the traditional society.

Correlation between modern and traditional societies

Traditional and modern society are closely interconnected. It was as a result of the evolution of the first type of society that mankind entered the innovative path of development. Modern society is characterized by a fairly rapid change of technology, continuous modernization. Cultural reality is also subject to change, which leads to new life paths for future generations. Modern society is characterized by the transition from state to private ownership, as well as the neglect of individual interests. Some features of the traditional society are also inherent in the modern one. But, from the point of view of Eurocentrism, it is backward due to its closeness to external relations and innovations, the primitive, long-term nature of changes.

traditional society

traditional society- a society governed by tradition. The preservation of traditions is a higher value in it than development. The social structure in it is characterized by a rigid class hierarchy, the existence of stable social communities (especially in the countries of the East), a special way of regulating the life of society based on traditions and customs. This organization of society seeks to preserve the socio-cultural foundations of life unchanged. The traditional society is an agrarian society.

general characteristics

For a traditional society, as a rule, are characterized by:

the predominance of the agrarian way;
structure stability;
estate organization;
low mobility;
high mortality;
low life expectancy.

The traditional person perceives the world and the established order of life as something inseparably integral, holistic, sacred and not subject to change. A person's place in society and his status are determined by tradition and social origin.

In a traditional society, collectivist attitudes prevail, individualism is not welcome (since the freedom of individual actions can lead to a violation of the established order, time-tested). In general, traditional societies are characterized by the predominance of collective interests over private ones, including the primacy of the interests of existing hierarchical structures (the state, etc.). It is not so much individual capacity that is valued, but the place in the hierarchy (bureaucratic, class, clan, etc.) that a person occupies.

In a traditional society, as a rule, relations of redistribution rather than market exchange prevail, and elements of a market economy are tightly regulated. This is due to the fact that free market relations increase social mobility and change the social structure of society (in particular, they destroy estates); the system of redistribution can be regulated by tradition, but market prices are not; forced redistribution prevents "unauthorized" enrichment/impoverishment of both individuals and classes. The pursuit of economic gain in a traditional society is often morally condemned, opposed to selfless help.

The worldview (ideology) of a traditional society is conditioned by tradition and authority.

Transformation of traditional society

In ancient times, changes in traditional society occurred extremely slowly - over generations, almost imperceptibly for an individual. Periods of accelerated development also took place in traditional societies (a striking example is the changes in the territory of Eurasia in the 1st millennium BC), but even during such periods, changes were carried out slowly by modern standards, and after their completion, the society returned to a relatively static state with a predominance of cyclical dynamics.

The most painful transformation of a traditional society occurs when the dismantled traditions have a religious justification. In doing so, resistance to change can take the form of religious fundamentalism.

During the period of transformation of a traditional society, authoritarianism may increase in it (either in order to preserve traditions, or in order to overcome resistance to change).

The transformation of a traditional society ends with a demographic transition. The generation that grew up in small families has a psychology that differs from that of a traditional person.

Opinions on the need (and degree) of transformation of traditional society differ significantly. For example, the philosopher A. Dugin considers it necessary to abandon the principles of modern society and return to the "golden age" of traditionalism. Sociologist and demographer A. Vishnevsky argues that the traditional society "has no chance", although it "fiercely resists." According to the calculations of the academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Professor A. Nazaretyan, in order to completely abandon development and return society to a static state, the human population must be reduced by several hundred times.

Literature

Textbook "Sociology of Culture" (chapter "Historical Dynamics of Culture: Features of the Culture of Traditional and Modern Societies. Modernization")
The book by A. G. Vishnevsky “Sickle and ruble. Conservative Modernization in the USSR"
Nazaretyan A.P. Demographic utopia of “sustainable development” // Social sciences and modernity. 1996. No. 2. S. 145-152.

Features of a traditional society

Let us consider the features of the development of a traditional society by characterizing its main parameters. The features of the nature of the social structure in a traditional society are due to the appearance of surplus and surplus products, which in turn means the emergence of grounds for the formation of a new form of social structure - the state.

Forms of government in traditional states are basically authoritarian in nature - this is the power of one ruler or a narrow circle of the elite - a dictatorship, a monarchy or an oligarchy.

In accordance with the form of government, there was also a certain nature of the participation of members of the society in the management of its affairs. The very emergence of the institution of state and law necessitates the emergence of politics and the development of the political sphere of society. In this period of development of society, there is an increase in the activity of citizens in the process of their participation in the political life of the state.

Another parameter of the development of a traditional society is the dominant nature of economic relations. In connection with the appearance of a surplus product, private property and commodity exchange inevitably arise. Private property remained dominant throughout the entire period of development of traditional society, only its object changed in different periods of its development - slaves, land, capital.

Unlike a primitive society, in a traditional society, the structure of employment of its members has become much more complicated. Several sectors of employment appear - agriculture, crafts, trade, all professions associated with the accumulation and transfer of information. Thus, we can talk about the emergence of a greater variety of areas of employment for members of a traditional society.

The nature of settlements has also changed. A fundamentally new type of settlement arose - the city, which became the center of residence for members of society engaged in crafts and trade. It is in cities that the political, industrial and intellectual life of traditional society is concentrated.

The formation of a new attitude to education as a special social institution and the nature of the development of scientific knowledge dates back to the time of the functioning of the traditional era. The emergence of writing makes it possible to form scientific knowledge. It was at the time of the existence and development of traditional society that discoveries were made in various scientific fields and the foundation was laid in many branches of scientific knowledge.

Remark 1

An obvious disadvantage of the development of scientific knowledge in this period of the development of society was the independent development of science and technology from production. This fact was the reason for the rather slow accumulation of scientific knowledge and its subsequent dissemination. The process of increasing scientific knowledge was linear in nature and required a significant amount of time to accumulate a sufficient amount of knowledge. People engaged in science most often did it for their own pleasure, their scientific research was not supported by the needs of society.

Portal for the student. Self-training

What society is called traditional. What it is? Typologies of society during the formation of sociological science

Typology of societies in modern science.

General characteristics of traditional society

Development of traditional society

Transformation of traditional society

The concept of traditional society

Signs of a traditional society

Features of the economic structure

Social relations and hierarchy

Political structure

Spiritual sphere of traditional society

Hierarchy of values

Correlation between modern and traditional societies

Transformation of traditional society

Links

Literature

see also

See what "Traditional Society" is in other dictionaries:

Features of a traditional society

Portal for the student. Self-training

Typology of societies in modern science.

General characteristics of traditional society

Development of traditional society

Transformation of traditional society

The concept of traditional society

Signs of a traditional society

Features of the economic structure

Social relations and hierarchy

Political structure

Spiritual sphere of traditional society

Hierarchy of values

Correlation between modern and traditional societies

Transformation of traditional society

Links

Literature

see also

See what "Traditional Society" is in other dictionaries:

Features of a traditional society

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